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Path: utzoo!linus!security!genrad!decvax!tektronix!tekgds!teklds!azure!roberta
From: roberta@azure.UUCP (Roberta Taussig)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Rape
Message-ID: <2402@azure.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 6-Dec-83 16:13:14 EST
Article-I.D.: azure.2402
Posted: Tue Dec  6 16:13:14 1983
Date-Received: Fri, 9-Dec-83 03:47:22 EST
Organization: Tektronix, Beaverton OR
Lines: 30

Laura Creighton said she would want to see "... some bruises or the marks
where the ropes were" before she would allow a woman to bring charges of
rape.

That is so remarkably uncompassionate and unimaginative that it surprises
me she said it. How much of a mark does a knife an eighth of an inch from
the jugular or a pistol three feet from the head leave?  I, too, am a short
woman. How about the marks left by a 6 foot tall, 200 lb. man backing me
into a dark alley and convincing me I face rape either with or without
additional damage, and he doesn't much care which? Do you suppose the woman
gang-raped on the pool table in New Bedford to the cheers of the onlookers
had any visible bruises?

I tend to agree with her that rape should be assault, but its nature may
require it to be treated separately since its essence is the consent or lack
thereof of the recipient. No matter how you cut it, somebody can be victimized.
The law is supposed to protect the weak from the strong. Women, as she noted,
tend to be weaker than men. We are, moreover, so constructed that we can not
prevent intercourse if a sufficiently strong, agile male decides
to inflict it. I think, therefore, that a woman should get the benefit
of the doubt under the law. Note that I
am not advocating she be believed without reservation, just that her testimony
be considered valid evidence even in the absence of visible damage or
corroborating witnesses.

Roberta Taussig
Tektronix
Beaverton, Oregon
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