Feminism and Rape Culture

Rape is obviously a very bad thing. It can destroy lives, it can destroy relationships, and forcible rape is certainly one of the worst crimes that a man can perpetrate on a woman (rape by fraud, that is, betrayal of a relationship/trust, is certainly in close running).

The thing is, feminists have created a sort of rape culture in which any number of things which are not rape become equated with rape. Now, many of these things are still bad in their own right (e.g. "taking advantage" of a girl who's had too much to drink), but they are not rape, and shouldn't be treated as rape. Drunken sex may or may not come with a consent, and the two parties involved may or may not remember when, how, in what form, or even if consent was given the night before. If no consent of any form was given, then this might count as a sort of "fraudulent" rape, I suppose. But more often than not, consent is given (albeit in a drunken state) and then taken back the next morning--and while a man who would take advantage of a woman in such a manner is surely a cad, he is not a criminal of the same type (let alone degree) as an actual rapist.

Unfortunately, many a feminist will treat him as if he is. And while he deserves scorn for caddishness, a life sentence (or the equivalent) or even simply a five-year sentence and being branded a felon and a rapist for life is a bit far. Moreover, it trivializes the pain of an actual rape victim.

And then there are the additional consequences, which might be called "unforeseeable" but which are certainly not "unavoidable" given a little foresight. Unfortunately, such foresight is often in short supply in these things. There are more than a few innocent men whose lives might be wrecked as "collateral" damage here, but they are summarily ignored: what's the fun with "up with womyn!" if we can't also do a little bit of "down with men!"

Case in point, the recent decision involving a woman who falsely accused eight different men of raping her. These mens' lives are potentially ruined, and certainly the experience would be harrowing even once they were actually found innocent. And this isn't exactly the first time something like this has happened. These are also victims of the feminist rape culture, but since they're men, they don't count. And now there's a judge who has established the precedent that this will be the case.