links for 2009-09-27

Modern misogyny at its best.

Lying about rape does not make you a “whore.” It makes you a liar. And yet, critics have continually chosen to employ terms which shame the accuser not for lying, but for having sex in the first place. Some of the name-calling is a product of misguided outrage at a woman who committed a serious offense. The remainder is pure misogynistic release. They found an opportunity to scream “whore!” with impunity, and they seized it. When bystanders call a false accuser a “slut,” they tell her that her reasoning for lying was on-point; when they call a false accuser a “whore,” they tell her that her real crime was having sex, not lying.

In most cases, we will never know. What we do know, all the time, is that rape is a problem, and false rape accusations are a problem. The meaningless squabbles between the two camps tend to overlook the fact that people concerned about rape and people concerned about fake rape accusations are both fighting against the same thing: rape culture.

Rape culture does not just encourage men to proceed after she says “no.” Rape culture does not simply teach men that a lack of physical resistance is an invitation. Rape culture does not only tell men to assert ownership over whichever female body they desire. Rape culture also tells women not to claim ownership over their own bodies. Rape culture also informs women that they should not desire sex. Rape culture also tells women that saying yes makes them bad women.

"One of the most famous gang-rape cases of the ‘80s, the case of the Central Park jogger, ended with five black teenagers serving twelve years for allegedly raping a white investment banker, until they were exonerated in 2002, after new DNA evidence suggested that all five had been intimidated into making false confessions."

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