May 7
Foggen commented on
Remember the Good Old Days, When "Rape Used to Mean Rape"?.
It's impossible to prove and impossible to disprove, with an accusation carrying a brutal stigma. When people are castigated for having doubts about rape allegations, any change to the legal meaning of rape should be approached with utmost care.
Dan maintains that people in long term relationships live in a state of "implied consent" where it is permissible to initiate sex without prior verbal consent, and continue unless consent is withdrawn. The statute says that sex is rape if "lack of consent is clearly expressed in words or conduct", which does describe that moment. However, the details of what constitutes "clearly expressed in words or conduct" are murky, and subject to the intricacy of the sexual politics of a given relationship. What if a guy is trying to have sex with his wife and she moves away from him a few times or says something like "you disgust me", but relents and does not resist further? Is that rape? Is language (body or otherwise) that seems crystal clear to the person producing it but ambiguous to an observer enough to make up the difference between a fraught sexual relationship and criminal rape? When it's a matter of strangers a maximalist definition of rape may be appropriate, but between married people things are bound to be a bit more nuanced and complicated.
None of this is to say that the bill should not have passed, just that it's a thornier question than the post and most comments would imply.
More...
...Less
Apr 30
Foggen commented on
Gun-Crazy Alaska: Boy Brother Kills Girl Sister.
I'm pretty sure I had a mind and will by 8, and an understanding that weapons are dangerous. I reckon this kid had something similar. Did you not have your own will at 8, Mudede? Do you have it now?