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From: sed408@ihlpg.UUCP (s. dugan)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: To the men who read net.women: About Rape
Message-ID: <583@ihlpg.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 10-Jun-85 22:44:09 EDT
Article-I.D.: ihlpg.583
Posted: Mon Jun 10 22:44:09 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 11-Jun-85 05:41:55 EDT
References: <2464@decwrl.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 73

> 
>                                                                   
>                                                                   
> SUMMARY: For more than a month now, there's been a heated 
> discussion on net.women about the nature and causes of rape.  
> Recently, the "Rape is violence" statement has come into 
> question, with at least one netter expressing the feeling that 
> rape isn't just violence.  I agree.
>                                                                   
>                                                                   
>                       RAPE: WHAT IT IS
>                                                                   
> Rape is running, incoherently screaming out of your fifth floor 
> apartment after a manhas broken in, raped your, and gone.  And having 
> all the men say -"what is she, crazy?". While every woman on the floor 
> dials 911 and asks for the Rape Squad.
>                                                                   
> Rape is being treated with sensitivity by the police on the night 
> of the attack.  And getting a phone call one month later from one 
> of them:  "we've caught your rapist", in the same tones that he 
> might announce, "we've found your pet poodle".
>                                                                   
> Rape is never relating the details of the rape to anyone, because 
> of the perverse one-downs-woman-ship you have been socialized to 
> all your life.  After all, you managed to get away before he got 
> it in.  Or you _were_ raped, but not beaten.  Or you were beaten, 
> but you healed quickly.  Or you needed three plastic surgery 
> operations to put your face back together, but at least you 
> weren't killed.
>                                                                   
> Rape is never talking about it again, after the first time you 
> try, to even your closest, most feminist male friend. For fear
> you'll glance down and see the bulge in his pants, too.
>                                                                   
> Rape is rising from your lover's embrace 6 or 8 or 12 years later 
> with an urgent need to take a scalding shower.  And realizing 
> only two months after you've broken up that your lover had 
> touched - or said something - in the same way _he_ had.
>                                                                   
> Rape is reading an "explanation" on the net "...after all, women 
> can arouse strong emotions, and some young men can't handle 
> it..."   And remembering your terror when a man you'd never seen 
> before in your life pulls his erect penis out of his pants and 
> says "look what you did to me, baby, now you're gonna do 
> something about it."
>                                                                   
> Rape is putting your emotions, feelings, and life back together 
> again; being cautious but not afraid, going where you want to go, 
> having rewarding relationships, even good sex.  And, after more 
> than a decade, getting so shaken up by the shit coming over this 
> net that finally, you can't do _anything_else_ until you sit down 
> and write this.
>                                                                   
> Rape is knowing that posting this to the net will only be a 
> temporary catharthis.  And that some smartass will send an 
> obscene flame.
>                                                                   
> Rape is something that recedes in time, memory and consciousness. 
> But it doesn't go away.
>                                                                    
> Not ever.                                                                  
>                                                                   
>                                                                   
> 
> 	Arlyn Fox
> 
> 	...decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-ozone!fox    

Beautiful article, Arlyn.  I couldn't have said it better myself.
-- 
Sarah E. Dugan
(a friend of Dr. Bob and Bill W.)
"One Day At A Time"