1 in 5 women get raped?

I don't know many women who view catcalls or comments on the street about their appearance or bodies as "sincere compliments" or "merely an aesthetic appreciation". Those things do make most women feel uncomfortable most of the time--based on my own experience, as well as the reactions of all the other women I've known. Yes, if you feel you do look good, and you've taken pains to look attractive, a single wolfwhistle might not bother you, and you might regard that as flattery, but most of the time, unsolicited remarks or reactions from total strangers on the street make women feel acutely self conscious and somewhat anxious about the fact their bodies are being viewed and commented on in that objectified way, and it does make them feel more vulnerable.

There should be some sort of penalty for men who compliment women on the street. Because even if it's just saying "Hope you have a nice evening sweetheart.", that's an invasion of a woman's personal space, and it's in the same realm of violation as rape is.

If that's the sort of body commentary and behavior exhibited by our most venerable law makers, toward their female colleagues, and those females working around them, can you imagine what women in other walks of life, and college women, are forced to put up with all the time? Is it any wonder that it has taken so long to get this old boys network on Capital Hill so long to address issues of sexual assault and sexual harrassment in the military and on campuses at all? And that that fight is still spearheaded by female members of the Senate--like Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, and Senator Claire McCaskill--who understand the importance of this issue from a woman's perspective, because it's mainly women who get sexually assaulted.

I generally agree with you on all issues, firefly. I think you know that. I think you also know that I am hardly a sexist. But this soundsighted character's posts are so off-the-wall I can't let them pass unchallenged.

I don't know many women who view catcalls or comments on the street about their appearance or bodies as "sincere compliments"

I am sure that we can expect the EU to write a right to be ignored law

As far as I know the EU nations on the whole are not nearly as uptight as the US have become over such interactions between the sexes.

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Not much is being done though. Sometimes when a woman says that's she's been raped after a night of drinking, the man is not prosecuted. Then he walks away scott free.


OK. First true and acceptable thing you've posted. I agree that that's too often true. Blaming the victim is wrong.

Politically, I call it rape whenever a woman has sex and feels violated.

soundsighted wrote:

Society tells men that it's oK to think sexually about women, and that is a condonation of rape.


That is precisely the kind of thinking I was talking about when I said that your posts are a crock of ****. Of course men think sexually about women. And normal women frequently think sexually about men. That is the normal human condition. Unless you have an agenda against the procreation of the human race, that is how it should be, It has absolutely nothing to do with rape or even a fantasy of rape. It is normal human behavior for both men and women.

Are you suggesting that the women in movies and ads are not getting paid lots of money? These are professional actresses who welcome the opportunity to ply their trade.

From my own admittedly non-scientific observation, there are far more support groups for women than men.

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Masculinity is a tool for violence. That's why shootings happen. Women don't commit violence hardly much at all.


Are you serious? That is one of the most hilarious statements I have ever heard. I have been threatened with knives by women, women in whom I had no sexual interest whatever. There was a story in the news not long ago about the woman who had emasculated her boy-friend with a knife, not because he had tried to rape her but because he was suspected of having been unfaithful to her.

"I claim that rape exists any time sexual intercourse occurs when it has not been initiated by the woman, out of her own genuine affection and desire."

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Masculinity is a tool for violence. That's why shootings happen. Women don't commit violence hardly much at all.

Are you serious?

In recent years, researchers have begun to extend this body of research to examine female perpetration of violence in intimate relationships. There is increasing evidence to suggest that women commit as much or more IPV as men (Archer, 2000; Melton & Belknap, 2003). Among adolescents, research consistently shows that females perpetrate more acts of violence in intimate relationships than males (Arriaga & Foshee, 2004; Foshee et al., 1996; Hickman, Jaycox, & Aronoff, 2004; Lichter & McCloskey, 2004; Munoz-Rivas, Grana, O'Leary, & Gonzalez, 2007; Schwartz, O'Leary, & Kendziora, 1997; Spencer & Bryant, 2000; Wolfe et al., 2001). In addition, data also suggest that females who perpetrate IPV may experience more violent or frequent IPV victimization (Bennett & Fineran, 1998; Capaldi & Owen, 2001; Kernsmith, 2005; Luthra & Gidycz, 2006; Milan, Lewis, Ethier, Kershaw, & Ickovics, 2005).