Post: #1

Quote:During a March 11 interview on "The Howard Stern Show," Madonna summed up exactly why so many people don't report their sexual assaults.

The 56-year-old pop star spoke with Stern about her new album, "Rebel Heart," and about her experience of moving to New York City in the late '70s. During that period of time, she says she was sexually assaulted by a male stranger at knifepoint. "I was raped. The first year I lived in New York was crazy," Madonna told Stern.

The singer first spoke out about the violent crime in an October 2013 essay in Harper's Bazaar. "New York wasn't everything I thought it would be. It did not welcome me with open arms," she wrote. "The first year, I was held up at gunpoint. Raped on the roof of a building I was dragged up to with a knife in my back, and had my apartment broken into three times."

She also explained to Stern why she never reported the incident to the cops or attempted to press charges. "You've already been violated," she said. "It's just not worth it. It's too much humiliation."

In one sentence, Madonna got to the heart of why rape is one of the most grossly underreported crimes in the United States. According to RAINN, about 68 percent of rapes are never reported. Likely, part of this tendency to underreport is because of the stigma, negative attention and re-traumatization that many victims of sexual assault face during the reporting process. And at the end of the day, just two of every 100 people who commit rape will ever receive jail time.

It's not hard to imagine why so many survivors of sexual assault wait years -- and even decades -- to come forward with their stories. Once a victim reports sexual assault, he or she must undergo an invasive medical exam to gather physical evidence if the assault happened during the previous five days, divulge traumatic details about the incident and his or her personal life, retell the details of the assault during a trial (if one ever happens), and face the possibility of being maligned by the media, his or her peers and/or institution of higher learning.

Men and women who have been sexually assaulted also face the pressure to be the "perfect victim," and to have their narratives fit into a box of what is conventionally considered an "acceptable" rape story. This picking apart of one's experience of assault can also contribute to the "humiliation" Madonna mentioned.


"If you didn't immediately dial 911, it doesn't mean you weren't raped," activist Emma Sulkowicz told Mic in February. "Everyone deals with trauma differently, depending on how we were raised, the way we see ourselves and the different ways we each handle crises."

Unfortunately, looking at the way that women like Sulkowicz and many of Bill Cosby's alleged victims have been picked apart by the public over the last year, not nearly enough has changed since Madonna chose not to report her rape decades ago.

It's time to do better.

Need help? In the U.S., visit the National Sexual Assault Online Hotline operated by RAINN. For more resources, visit the National Sexual Violence Resource Center's website.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/12...56196.html

Post: #2

(03-25-2015 06:28 PM)Brian Shima Wrote:  

Quote:During a March 11 interview on "The Howard Stern Show," Madonna summed up exactly why so many people don't report their sexual assaults.

The 56-year-old pop star spoke with Stern about her new album, "Rebel Heart," and about her experience of moving to New York City in the late '70s. During that period of time, she says she was sexually assaulted by a male stranger at knifepoint. "I was raped. The first year I lived in New York was crazy," Madonna told Stern.

The singer first spoke out about the violent crime in an October 2013 essay in Harper's Bazaar. "New York wasn't everything I thought it would be. It did not welcome me with open arms," she wrote. "The first year, I was held up at gunpoint. Raped on the roof of a building I was dragged up to with a knife in my back, and had my apartment broken into three times."

She also explained to Stern why she never reported the incident to the cops or attempted to press charges. "You've already been violated," she said. "It's just not worth it. It's too much humiliation."

Which implies that this knife-wielding attacker is still out there, free to run around attacking other women in a similar manner, because she decided it was "just not worth it" to report it to the authorities.

Post: #3

(03-25-2015 07:11 PM)Renzy Wrote:  

(03-25-2015 06:28 PM)Brian Shima Wrote:  

Quote:During a March 11 interview on "The Howard Stern Show," Madonna summed up exactly why so many people don't report their sexual assaults.

The 56-year-old pop star spoke with Stern about her new album, "Rebel Heart," and about her experience of moving to New York City in the late '70s. During that period of time, she says she was sexually assaulted by a male stranger at knifepoint. "I was raped. The first year I lived in New York was crazy," Madonna told Stern.

The singer first spoke out about the violent crime in an October 2013 essay in Harper's Bazaar. "New York wasn't everything I thought it would be. It did not welcome me with open arms," she wrote. "The first year, I was held up at gunpoint. Raped on the roof of a building I was dragged up to with a knife in my back, and had my apartment broken into three times."

She also explained to Stern why she never reported the incident to the cops or attempted to press charges. "You've already been violated," she said. "It's just not worth it. It's too much humiliation."

Which implies that this knife-wielding attacker is still out there, free to run around attacking other women in a similar manner, because she decided it was "just not worth it" to report it to the authorities.

Narcissism bordering on solipsism. She was already raped so what's the point of stopping the attacker now? Other potential flesh-and-blood victims are not even hypothetical persons?

Post: #4

Helping other women never occurred to her. She came to New York City seeking fame and fortune. She wasn't going to let a little thing like rape derail her from her mission. I wonder how many guys she slept with on the way up. I'm sure that was rape too.

I'm really tired of this rape narrative. I'm tired of being expected to feel sorry for alleged victims. I didn't break them and it's not my job to fix them. I'm tired of playing with broken toys.

Post: #5

[quote='Brian Shima' pid='987251' dateline='1427326091']

Quote:In one sentence, Madonna got to the heart of why rape is one of the most grossly underreported crimes in the United States. According to RAINN, about 68 percent of rapes are never reported. Likely, part of this tendency to underreport is because of the stigma, negative attention and re-traumatization that many victims of sexual assault face during the reporting process. And at the end of the day, just two of every 100 people who commit rape will ever receive jail time.

Maybe 30 years ago this was the case. Now shes on Howard Stern bragging about it.

Post: #6

To be fair, New York was a different place back then. The police were overwhelmed with crime everywhere. If you reported something then the cops might not even look into it.

It doesn't seem like that was her main motivation but it was probably an undercurrent in not reporting.

Post: #7

The statistic that only 2 percent of rapists face jail time is absurd on its face. I'd like to see how the numbers are calculated to get that number.

Post: #8

(03-25-2015 07:47 PM)tarquin Wrote:  The statistic that only 2 percent of rapists face jail time is absurd on its face. I'd like to see how the numbers are calculated to get that number.

Haven Monahan will never see the inside of a jail cell, and somewhere an SJW is mad about it.

Post: #9

LOL is there any female who was not raped? Maybe they are the ones who should start coming out, apparently there are very few of them so it would save everyone time.

As a previous poster mentioned, NYC in the 70s was a very intense and scary (and unspeakably glorious) place, one of the places and times in US history when violent crime of all kinds was not at all uncommon. So it is just possible that her story is true, although it's of course always more likely that she is lying.

But there is an interesting conclusion to draw from that. We are supposed to accept on faith the idea that rape is the most uniquely heinous and terrible crime of all -- worse somehow than murder, worse than anything one could possibly imagine. Yet in all these stories, the women who experienced this crime just shake it off, never report it to anyone, and go on to have perfectly normal and indeed in this case very successful lives.

Beside the fact that actual rape is extremely rare, indeed one of the rarest of all violent crimes, and that women lie about it all the time -- it is time to break the taboo and stop accepting the idea that rape is a uniquely terrible and indeed the most unspeakable of all crimes. It is not. It can be a serious crime, and very traumatic to a woman, for sure -- but in many many cases, it is not, especially if no one knows about it and hence there is no shame involved for the woman. In many such cases, they can shake it off very rapidly and move on with their lives as if nothing much happened.

Women are very rarely truly broken or traumatized by a purely physical experience, unless it is truly frightening or violent, and sometimes not even then. They do not experience anything like the sense of violation and a stain on their honor as a man would if raped -- and a man would feel that way even if he is the only one who knows, because it is his inner sense of honor and integrity that is violated. Whereas for a woman it is often only serious if others know; the same goes for all sorts of voluntary sexual antics -- there is no shame and no problem as long as no one knows.

These are not very popular truths but they are truths nonetheless. Men too often imagine that women share their sense of honor and integrity and that leads to them to have very wrong ideas about women's vulnerability. A woman can much more easily be broken and traumatized for life if a man she loves dumps her unceremoniously for another, than if a stranger fucks her for 10 minutes at knife point and lets her go. Again, this is not to say the latter is not a serious violent crime that should be punished -- but it is to say that it should not be sacralized and held up to be an unspeakable and irreparable violation that exceeds all others.

Post: #10

The male equivilent of rape would be buying a woman dinner or drinks and not getting laid at the end of the night. That's pretty traumatic.

Post: #11

I think that as a community we get so caught up in being angry about false rape allegations that we sometimes lose sympathy for those who have truly been raped. While I have transported women that I am absolutely sure were completely full of shit, I've also run women who were violently gang raped and true rape victims have my sincerest sympathy.

In judging their actions I think it is important to understand that they have been severely traumatized and frequently suffer from PTSD. Blaming her for not reporting it is similar to blaming the war veteran with PTSD for coming back home and drinking himself into oblivion until his family and friends desert him before he finally off's himself to make the pain stop. Neither deserves to be shamed, they deserve to be helped. It is real easy to sit behind a computer screen and say what you would do in her situation but, judging from how few male prisoners report being raped I suspect there would be some reticence among at least a few of you out there.

Post: #12

(03-25-2015 08:41 PM)Medic42 Wrote:  I think that as a community we get so caught up in being angry about false rape allegations that we sometimes lose sympathy for those who have truly been raped. While I have transported women that I am absolutely sure were completely full of shit, I've also run women who were violently gang raped and true rape victims have my sincerest sympathy.

Were no emotionless sociopaths. Well most of us arent. The issue is the plethora of false rape claims cheapens the real ones. False rape is rape biggest enemy.

Post: #13

Medic, those who have been raped deserve our sympathy but it can also be taken too far. Rape has been sacralized and fetishized as the most grievous and unspeakable of all crimes, and that is simply not true. And for every female that has been strongly traumatized by it, I believe there are many who shake it off very readily.

I'm going to quote in full a superb post by Days of Broken Arrows on the same subject from another thread:

/thread-43614-...#pid913457

(my reply seconding and amplifying DoBA's post is downthread)

(12-23-2014 04:30 PM)Days of Broken Arrows Wrote:  

(12-23-2014 01:44 PM)kmhour Wrote:  Why have we narrowed our collective understanding of what happened to Jackie, or to other survivors of rape, to the confines of legal doctrine or verifiable facts? Since when did we become so staunchly wed to the notion of provable wrongs that we've forgotten our humanity in the face of nightmarish horror? Why do we revert to the reductionist logic of the justice system, or the tired media trope of "he said/she said," when we are confronted with suffering we can't fathom?

"Why have we narrowed our understanding... to verifiable facts"

Gee. Let's think about that one for a second.

"...confronted with suffering we can't fathom?"

It's time someone said the unspeakable. Rape is not "suffering we can't fathom."

It's a horrific act, for sure. But this writer has a lot of audacity making like she knows what we can and can't "fathom" when it comes to suffering.

The idea that rape is the worst human act in history needs to be dismantled. I'd like to start that process here.

Let's not pretend for a second rape is not worse than:

* Torture
* Child abuse
* Child neglect
* Starving an elderly person to death
* Wrongful imprisonment in solitary
* Getting your limbs blown off in war
* Watching a loved one get murdered
* Any other evil act that has a sustained effect on a victim

If most of us had the choice to deal with a violent sexual assault or permanently getting one arm blown off, we'd choose the sexual assault -- and I bet that would be true for most all women too.

Having to deal with the after-effects of trauma day-to-day AND the memory of that trauma is far worse than simply living with a memory of it.

The views that women like this have about rape aren't really about rape itself. They're about seeing women as super-special beings who are above men's station: their trauma is worse simply because they're women and we can never know their suffering, just as we never knew Christ's suffering.

I'm willing to concede women are different than men and some of that might be true. But if I concede that, don't tell me these same women should be in any position of power in this society. Anyone capable of "suffering we can't fathom" should be accorded special protection away from society, not placed in the belly of the beast.

Post: #14

I've known two girls that got seriously raped. One permanently disabled the attacker, although she had PTSD about the whole situation.
The other got the dumbass piece of shit's name (he gave it out during the act) and got his ass thrown in jail.
The second one was upset when I suggested she learn how to defend herself in the future, unfortunately.

I've heard other stories, like, "I snuck into a garage away from my boyfriend and this other guy fingered me" or something like that, and a few others, but my BS meter was...triggered.

Post: #15

"For The Same Reason So Many Victims Stay Silent"...uh, would that be that no rape occurred? That's the reason I'm most familiar with...

Post: #16

(03-25-2015 07:44 PM)RIslander Wrote:  Maybe 30 years ago this was the case. Now shes on Howard Stern bragging about it.

You're listening to a Master of Media Manipulation in the dying days of her career trying desperately to stay relevant to a younger generation.

With the rise of Sex-Negative, Socially-Awkward Millennials, Being A Rape Survivor has more Social Status than having an Alpha Boyfriend.

Interestingly, most of the stories from this date from October of 2013, so she's savvy enough to read the cultural climate to bring it up again, and, as such, this is being promoted by all the usual Propaganda Outlets for obvious reasons.

As such, I don't fully buy it, and it's odd she didn't mention it during the early 90's PC craze when female celebrities like Oprah and Roseanne Barr were opening up about their sexual abuse for Survivor Status.

This is a woman who is incapable of being shamed enough to release a sexually-explicit art book, then release a single telling everyone who criticised her to, basically, fuck off and work through their own sexual issues.

This is one of the few Feminist women alive to be honest about her Electra Complex, (with accompanying single 'Oh Father'):

Quote:That rebellious attitude really came, I think, when my father remarried. Because for the three years before he married, I clung to him. It was like, OK, now you're mine, and you're not going anywhere. Like all young girls, I was in love with my father and I didn't want to lose him. I lost my mother, but then I was the mother, my father was mine. Then he got taken away from me when he married my stepmother. It was then that I said, OK I don’t need anybody. No one's going to break my heart again. I'm not going to need anybody. I can stand on my own and be my own person and not belong to anyone.

Yeah, rape is too 'humiliating' to talk about. Don't worry Grandma! This will get 'The Kidz' talking about you!

As an aside:

Girls usually work through their Penis Envy stage in a healthy manner, displacing the forbidden desire of sexually-possessing their father's penis to the socially-acceptable penes of other men.

One of Freud's students - forgotten which one - posited there were two types of women who don't successfully resolve Penis Envy, who tend to be neurotic and tend towards homosexuality. I forget the name of the first type, but they are consumed with fantasies of castrating men.

The second type is the Wish-Fulfilling. These are female performers whose acts conjure up repeated fantasies of possessing a penis. Madonna is textbook - her girl power was simply desperate imitation of male behaviour - which is why I found her a boring artist, particularly her habit or recycling whatever movie or art book or classic celebrity photo she viewed that week and laying claim to creative invention because of it.

I think we wouldn't have half the obnoxiousness from modern women we do now if Madonna had just banged her Dad back in the day.

Post: #17

Actually, let me quote in full my reply to DoBA as well, because I made the points with more elaboration and emphasis there than I did above. The Post of The Day smilie refers to DoBA's post quoted above.

/thread-43614-...#pid913714

(12-23-2014 09:49 PM)The Lizard of Oz Wrote:  

This is an extremely important point to make. It must be made again and again.

A solemn, and solemnly fraudulent, sacred terror surrounds rape (and other sex crimes). We are supposed to accept without question the idea that these crimes must be regarded as extremely special, beyond compare to any other; and their victims, or so called "survivors", must be accorded a special status, distinct from that of the victims of any other crime; their suffering must be considered "unfathomable", something normal human beings cannot even contemplate.

All of this is complete and utter nonsense -- indeed, malicious nonsense -- and it's important to say so openly.

Actual violent rape -- an extremely rare crime, but it does happen -- is a serious crime. But it is not uniquely and incomparably serious. It is not worse than many other violent crimes, and in many circumstances its true effects and consequences are milder that those of other violent crimes. And of course sex crimes lesser than rape are proportionally less serious (while still quite infrequent).

The vagina is not a sacred zone. Its forcible violation -- while a violent crime -- is akin to other violent crimes. It it is not a tear in the fabric of the universe.

The very word "survivor" is so distasteful, so fraudulent, not only for the reason that the great majority of females who lay claim to that status are simply lying; but also because those who have in fact been victim of a sex assault or even rape have not thereby "survived" some unspeakable and unfathomable event whose horror is incomprehensible to ordinary humans. Is anyone ever called a "survivor" of a mugging or a violent assault that results in injury? Why not?

The monsters who are running the whole scam want us to believe two different outrageous lies at once (and never mind the obvious contradiction between them):

1. "Rape" and "sexual assault" are very common, they happen all the time even (or especially) in places like college campuses, between people who know each other, etc.

2. "Rape" and "sexual assault" are uniquely and incomprehensibly horrible crimes, and their "survivors" have gone through something none of us can even begin to imagine.

We have been hammering -- correctly -- at lie #1. It is time to dismantle lie #2, as well. This quasi-religious taboo must be broken.

Rape is not a special, unique and unfathomable crime, and its victims -- even its actual victims -- are not "survivors" who have borne witness to something none of us can fathom or comprehend.

Post: #18

(03-25-2015 09:02 PM)AnonymousBosch Wrote:  

(03-25-2015 07:44 PM)RIslander Wrote:  Maybe 30 years ago this was the case. Now shes on Howard Stern bragging about it.

You're listening to a Master of Media Manipulation in the dying days of her career trying desperately to stay relevant to a younger generation.

With the rise of Sex-Negative, Socially-Awkward Millennials, Being A Rape Survivor has more Social Status than having an Alpha Boyfriend.

Interestingly, most of the stories from this date from October of 2013, so she's savvy enough to read the cultural climate to bring it up again, and, as such, this is being promoted by all the usual Propaganda Outlets for obvious reasons.

As such, I don't fully buy it, and it's odd she didn't mention it during the early 90's PC craze when female celebrities like Oprah and Roseanne Barr were opening up about their sexual abuse for Survivor Status.

This is a woman who is incapable of being shamed enough to release a sexually-explicit art book, then release a single telling everyone who criticised her to, basically, fuck off and work through their own sexual issues.

This is one of the few Feminist women alive to be honest about her Electra Complex, (with accompanying single 'Oh Father'):

Quote:That rebellious attitude really came, I think, when my father remarried. Because for the three years before he married, I clung to him. It was like, OK, now you're mine, and you're not going anywhere. Like all young girls, I was in love with my father and I didn't want to lose him. I lost my mother, but then I was the mother, my father was mine. Then he got taken away from me when he married my stepmother. It was then that I said, OK I don’t need anybody. No one's going to break my heart again. I'm not going to need anybody. I can stand on my own and be my own person and not belong to anyone.

Yeah, rape is too 'humiliating' to talk about. Don't worry Grandma! This will get 'The Kidz' talking about you!

As an aside:

Girls usually work through their Penis Envy stage in a healthy manner, displacing the forbidden desire of sexually-possessing their father's penis to the socially-acceptable penes of other men.

One of Freud's students - forgotten which one - posited there were two types of women who don't successfully resolve Penis Envy, who tend to be neurotic and tend towards homosexuality. I forget the name of the first type, but they are consumed with fantasies of castrating men.

The second type is the Wish-Fulfilling. These are female performers whose acts conjure up repeated fantasies of possessing a penis. Madonna is textbook - her girl power was simply desperate imitation of male behaviour - which is why I found her a boring artist, particularly her habit or recycling whatever movie or art book or classic celebrity photo she viewed that week and laying claim to creative invention because of it.

I think we wouldn't have half the obnoxiousness from modern women we do now if Madonna had just banged her Dad back in the day.

I disagree. I think her slutty attitude and pop culture power got a lot of us laid in the 80s and 90s, and for that I forgive a lot...memories!

Post: #19

So they can bring it up 40 years later for twitter solidarity when it's impossible to disprove?

Post: #20

(03-25-2015 08:13 PM)The Lizard of Oz Wrote:  LOL is there any female who was not raped? Maybe they are the ones who should start coming out, apparently there are very few of them so it would save everyone time.

With two virgin notches, yes there are some. Fortunately I met them before crying "rape" became fashionable.

That said I used to have a female friend (some sexual tension, but I never acted on it beyond a kiss) who actually was raped at knife point by a smalltown, hillbilly psycho who had just decided that he wanted to impregnate someone....they didn't go to the police, her brothers caught the guy leaving the place he worked with baseball bats and beat him within an inch of his life.


Needless to say she wasn't too fond of the chicks who cry "rape" every time they get pissed that they gave it up so easily.

Post: #21

(03-25-2015 09:48 PM)Easy_C Wrote:  

(03-25-2015 08:13 PM)The Lizard of Oz Wrote:  LOL is there any female who was not raped? Maybe they are the ones who should start coming out, apparently there are very few of them so it would save everyone time.

With two virgin notches, yes there are some. Fortunately I met them before crying "rape" became fashionable.

That said I used to have a female friend (some sexual tension, but I never acted on it beyond a kiss) who actually was raped at knife point by a smalltown, hillbilly psycho who had just decided that he wanted to impregnate someone....they didn't go to the police, her brothers caught the guy leaving the place he worked with baseball bats and beat him within an inch of his life.


Needless to say she wasn't too fond of the chicks who cry "rape" every time they get pissed that they gave it up so easily.

This got me thinking about something and I don't remember this ever having been discussed on the forum. I would say that about nine out of ten times that sex happens after a night of drinking and the girl spends the night with me, we end up having sex again sober the next morning or day or whatever. Good luck trying to claim rape or that you only consented because of alcohol at that point. I don't know if that is unique to me or if the same thing happens with some or most of the other guys here.

Post: #22

(03-25-2015 08:48 PM)The Lizard of Oz Wrote:  Medic, those who have been raped deserve our sympathy but it can also be taken too far. Rape has been sacralized and fetishized as the most grievous and unspeakable of all crimes, and that is simply not true. And for every female that has been strongly traumatized by it, I believe there are many who shake it off very readily.

Out of curiosity how many rape victims have you had direct interaction with? How readily do you think you would shake it off if 3 dudes tag teamed you by the railroad tracks? If I'm not mistaken most here would consider a woman who had been raped to be damaged goods and not worth an LTR. You can't have it both ways, either they're damaged or not. If you've met a woman that just "shook it off" she's probably a psychopath.

Post: #23

She sounds pretty damn alpha. I'm a bit shocked by how casual she is.

Post: #24

Lizard of Oz puts things so much better than I ever could.

But again, after the UVA thing came up false Roosh said that all public rape accusations (ones where they go to the media instead of the authorities) are false. With the current climate, this is the only prudent way to go about acting because of the amount of liars out there.

When you hear a rape accusation you should say

"Did you go to the police?"

If no: it didn't happen

If legitimate rape victims (not survivors, fuck off with that nonsense) are suffering because of that, they should only blame all their sisters who have spent so long crying wolf to attain status, sympathy, and attention.

Look at it this way, say I was robbed of all my possessions by someone that broke into my house, but I didn't go to the police. 40 years later on some TV special I say that it happened and how traumatic it was. No one's going to give me any sympathy when they hear "it just wasn't worth it" to go to the cops. They're rightly going to say I was stupid and be upset that this dangerous criminal is still on the loose.

Post: #25

(03-25-2015 06:28 PM)Brian Shima Wrote:  In one sentence, Madonna got to the heart of why rape is one of the most grossly underreported crimes in the United States. According to RAINN, about 68 percent of rapes are never reported.

This is what is called the Inappropriate Generalisation fallacy. It's impossible to project with any sort of accuracy how many rapes haven't been reported from the numbers of those that have. It's a similar logical fallacy and intellectually dishonest statement to the assertion that "rape conviction rates are not high enough because X number of men were not convicted." In order to make any sort of accurate statement along these lines, you must have a control group where 100% of rapes are reported and demonstrated as actual rapes. This does not happen. RAINN's numbers have never accounted for the possibility of the rape victim misremembering consent or flat-out lying; the very statement "X percent of rapes are unreported" presumes the accuracy of those events as rape and not lies.

Quote:Likely, part of this tendency to underreport is because of the stigma, negative attention and re-traumatization that many victims of sexual assault face during the reporting process.

This is gutless reporting because it doesn't actually provide anything you can pin on the author as an assertion of fact. The prefix "likely" gives the author a defence to anyone saying "You're asserting underreporting is due to stigma, etc." It does not attribute cause. But happily, the statement can therefore be dismissed as speculation for the same reasons.

Quote:And at the end of the day, just two of every 100 people who commit rape will ever receive jail time.

See above about Inappropriate Generalisation fallacy, because this 2 in every 100 invariably includes the 32 or so who claim they were raped but never reported it. It again presumes the correctness of every single rape allegation, reported or not.

Quote:It's not hard to imagine why so many survivors of sexual assault wait years -- and even decades -- to come forward with their stories. Once a victim reports sexual assault, he or she must undergo an invasive medical exam to gather physical evidence if the assault happened during the previous five days, divulge traumatic details about the incident and his or her personal life, retell the details of the assault during a trial (if one ever happens), and face the possibility of being maligned by the media, his or her peers and/or institution of higher learning.

Interestingly they ignore the possibility of the falsely accused male being maligned by the media, his or her peers, and/or institution of higher learning. Never mind the phrase "maligned" is not defined: would anyone like to specify a case where a rape victim was "maligned" by their university, unless said "maligning" is concluding that the rape didn't happen at all?

And what's good for the goose is good for the gander: invariably, the accused has to often spend months if not years behind bars awaiting trial, has his personal life upended by the legal process, and generally has to spend many thousands of dollars defending himself. Again: it's the accusation that's put on trial, not the defendant. That's the way our legal system works.

Quote:Men and women who have been sexually assaulted also face the pressure to be the "perfect victim," and to have their narratives fit into a box of what is conventionally considered an "acceptable" rape story. This picking apart of one's experience of assault can also contribute to the "humiliation" Madonna mentioned.

"Picking apart" is an interesting term. The correct term is "critical analysis", which is what all courts do in all cases of an allegation of a crime being committed. The myth of the "acceptable" rape story is interesting -- that's code for a woman saying "I didn't actually refuse sex or fail to consent to sex, but I still call it rape, and I demand society calls it the same."

Quote:"If you didn't immediately dial 911, it doesn't mean you weren't raped," activist Emma Sulkowicz told Mic in February. "Everyone deals with trauma differently, depending on how we were raised, the way we see ourselves and the different ways we each handle crises."

Unfortunately, looking at the way that women like Sulkowicz and many of Bill Cosby's alleged victims have been picked apart by the public over the last year, not nearly enough has changed since Madonna chose not to report her rape decades ago.

It doesn't mean you were raped, either, Miss Sulkowicz. At the end of the day, this is an assault on the presumption of innocence, a demand that women and rape accusations be dealt with in a manner separate from the rest of the criminal justice system.

And many of Bill Cosby's alleged victims have not been "picked apart", they've been discredited -- which is legitimate grounds on which to disbelieve a person in a court, as any lawyer or judge will tell you, and which any woman will demand when it's a case of her word against his.