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From: ariels@orca.UUCP (Ariel Shattan)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: Anti-rape tactics - a conundrum
Message-ID: <1626@orca.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 20-Jul-85 11:10:47 EDT
Article-I.D.: orca.1626
Posted: Sat Jul 20 11:10:47 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 21-Jul-85 23:38:08 EDT
References: <392@mit-vax.UUCP>
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> > [Eric McColm's stuff about rapists' tactics]

> Oded Feingold:
> 
> I'd like to take partial exception to that.  Presumably, if some man
> is at a party, he's known to the hosts and others there.  If he offers
> to accompany someone home (and others know that's what he's doing,)
> he's identifiable in case of untoward consequences.  Also, if he
> misbehaves he's in deep shit with his peer group.  That may diminish
> the chance of trouble.  The same logic should apply to work and
> leisure activities, not just parties.

Actually, if anything untoward happens, the woman must have "asked
for it." After all, she let him walk her home, and that probably
meant that she asked him in, and we all *know* what that means.

Don't we? 

Especially if the woman was inebriated.  Then she is *really*
asking for it.  

Ok, maybe this is a little thick for this group, but I've seen it
happen and I've read about it happening (Dear Abby addressed just
this situation recently).  The point is that a woman can't possibly
know what any given man will do in this dangerous situation unless
she knows him extremely well.  

I remember feeling uncomfortable in my own home at the end of my own
party when I looked around and noticed that not only were there only
men left, but none of them were men I knew very well at all...and
there I was in my party clothes, a bit the worse for drink and not up 
to defending myself. *In my own home!*  And these were members of my social
group, with whom I'd chatted and flirted and otherwise *liked*, but
I didn't know them well enough to trust them.

> Someone who knows more than I about rapists' integration in society
> might comment whether such a selection criterion has any merit.  If
> integration in social organizations has no correlation with tendency
> to rape (especially a negative correlation,) then such a selection
> would have little to recommend it, except for later identification.

I'm afraid that I'm not comfortable with this selection criterion.
Women are raped by casual aquaintences and dates all the time; more
often, in fact, than by drooling crazies from the bushes.  And it's
a good deal more difficult to defend yourself from accusations of
"asking for it" after you put yourself in a position to trust
someone who later turns out to be untrustworthy (to say the least!).

Ariel Shattan
..!tektronix!orca!ariels