{"id":305,"date":"2003-07-30T21:12:40","date_gmt":"2003-07-31T05:12:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/archives\/2003\/07\/30\/foxnews-wendy-mcelroy-whitewashes-a-rape\/"},"modified":"2003-07-30T21:12:40","modified_gmt":"2003-07-31T05:12:40","slug":"foxnews-wendy-mcelroy-whitewashes-a-rape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=305","title":{"rendered":"FoxNews' Wendy McElroy whitewashes a rape"},"content":{"rendered":"

Regarding Illinois’ new rape law (see the post before this one for details on that), several folks, like Don of Anger Management<\/a>, seem to be objecting based on a serious misunderstanding of the California case that inspired this law. The problem is that instead of reading real news, Don is relying on Foxnew’s report:<\/p>\n

The law was inspired by a California case involving two 17-year-olds who had sex at a party. The girl changed her mind about having sex, but the boy did not stop immediately.<\/div>\n

But the facts of the case (pdf file) <\/a>are nothing like what Don (or Fox) describes. (Note: what follows is the court’s description of the rape victim’s testimony; please don’t read on unless you’re prepared to read a description of rape.)
\n<\/p>\n

Juan and the minor began kissing Laura and removing her clothes, although she kept telling them not to. At some point, the boys removed Laura’s pants and underwear and began “fingering” her, “playing with [her] boobs” and continued to kiss her. Laura enjoyed this activity in the beginning, but objected when Juan removed his pants and told the minor to keep fingering her while he put on a condom.<\/p>\n

Once the condom was in place, the minor left the room and Juan got on top of Laura. She tried to resist and told him she did not want to have intercourse, but he was too strong and forced his penis in her vagina. The rape terminated when, due to Laura’s struggling, the condom fell off. Laura told Juan that “maybe it’s a sign we shouldn’t be doing this,” and he said “fine” and left the room.<\/p>\n

Laura rolled over on the bed and began trying to find her clothes; however, because the room was dark she was unable to do so. The minor, who had removed his clothing, then entered the bedroom and walked to where Laura was sitting on the bed and “he like rolled over [her] so [she] was pushed back down to the bed.” Laura did not say anything and the minor began kissing her and telling her that she had “a really beautiful body.” The minor got on top of Laura, put his penis in her vagina “and rolled [her] over so [she] was sitting on top of him.”<\/p>\n

Laura testified she “kept . . . pulling up, trying to sit up to get it out . . . [a]nd he grabbed my hips and pushed me back down and then he rolled me back over so I was on my back . . . and . . . kept saying, `will you be my girlfriend.'” Laura “kept like trying to pull away” and told him that “if he really did care about me, he wouldn’t be doing this to me and if he did want a relationship, he should wait and respect that I don’t want to do this.” After about 10 minutes, the minor got off of Laura, helped her dress and find her keys.<\/p>\n

[And then, from the version of events brought up by cross-examination:]<\/em><\/p>\n

[…]He asked her to lie down and she did. He began kissing her and she kissed him back. He rolled on top of her, inserted his penis in her and, although she resisted, he rolled her back over pulling her on top of him. She was on top of him for four or five minutes, during which time she tried to get off
\nbut he grabbed her waist and pulled her back down. He rolled her over and continued the sexual intercourse. Laura told him that she needed to go home but he would not stop. He said, “[J]ust give me a minute,” and she said, “[N]o, I need to get home.” He replied, “[G]ive me some time” and she repeated, “[N]o, I have to go home.” The minor did not stop, “[h]e just stayed inside of me and kept like basically forcing it on me.”<\/p>\n

After about a “minute, minute and [a] half,”\u009d the minor got off of Laura.<\/p><\/div>\n

Don described the above incident like this: “…in this particular case there was no indication that the boy was forcing himself on the girl nor that he had any intention of raping her. He simply took too long to stop.” How did Don mis-remember the case so badly? I don’t know, but my theory is that he read Wendy McElroy’s Foxnews account <\/a>of the case:<\/p>\n

What are the facts of the case? Seventeen-year-old Laura T. attended an otherwise all-male party at which she did not drink. After allowing two teenaged boys to undress and fondle her in a bedroom — acts she admitted enjoying — she had sex with each. Laura did not say the word “no” nor did she resist. Instead, she said, “I have to go home.”<\/p>\n

Because John Z. continued for approximately four minutes after she first expressed what might have been reluctance, he was convicted of rape.<\/p><\/div>\n

Compare McElroy’s account to what I quoted from the court’s summation of the testimony. Note how McElroy leaves out the fact that the vicitim struggled with her attackers physically; how she quotes one thing the victim said (“I have to go home” – the complete quote is “No, I have to go home,” but if McElroy had quoted it correctly she couldn’t have claimed that Laura never said the word “no”) but leaves out others (“if he did want a relationship, he should wait and respect that I don’t want to do this”).<\/p>\n

So let’s consider the context. She’s saying “no, I have to go home.” She’s struggling to get up and to push the man off. She’s saying “you should respect that I don’t want to do this.”<\/p>\n

According to right-wingers like Wendy McElroy, men are such stupid morons that we cannot be expected to understand that all this together adds up to nonconsent (as Trish Wilson <\/a>once pointed out, such anti-male arguments are commonplace among anti-feminists). And if the woman can’t find a way to more clearly express herself than struggling against her rapists and asking them to stop, then she deserves whatever happens to her.<\/p>\n

And the disgusting thing is, I’ve never once <\/i>seen a fellow right-winger criticize McElroy for her deception, or for the horribly bigoted views of men underlying her arguments. For too many right-wingers, any lie – no matter how disgusting, and no matter that it lets rapists off the hook – is acceptable, so long as the liar criticizes feminism..<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Regarding Illinois’ new rape law (see the post before this one for details on that), several folks, like Don of Anger Management, seem to be objecting based on a serious misunderstanding of the California case that inspired this law. The … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[95,96,99],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anti-feminists-and-their-pals","category-rape-intimate-violence-related-issues","category-wendy-mcelroy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}