[net.women] Prisons, for lack of better subject

mazur@inmet.UUCP (01/26/84)

#N:inmet:10900033:000:3140
inmet!mazur    Jan 24 18:06:00 1984



***** inmet:net.women / ccieng5!jbf / 11:31 pm  Dec  8, 1983

    > I would rather go through several rapes that left me unscarred but 
    > frightened than spend much of my life in prison, where rape may be
    > the routine.  Most women do not find the false accusal frightening 
    > at all, since they will never be in such a position.

I think that most people would wish that their rape left them just "unscarred 
but frightened".  I agree that most women aren't afraid of false accusal.
I think false accusal is a risk men take when they are into casual sex, just
as women and a minority of men risk rape.

    > I have always avoided the risk of being falsely accused of rape by
    > a very simple method: the first time I have sex with a girl, I choose
    > a conspicuous location.  Since many people will notice that she is 
    > perfectly willing, any subsequent accusals of rape will have low 
    > credibility.

In his third posting, jbf claims that this posting was in a "less serious
vein" and that he doesn't like to "confuse a serious discussion with an
obliquely related satire".  I was under the impression that comments that
were intended as satire were to be marked with a ":-)".  Apparantly, both
the first respondent and I missed the satire.


***** inmet:net.women / ccieng5!jbf /  9:24 pm  Jan  6, 1984

    > As a matter of fact, I have been mugged.  I have been sexually 
    > assaulted.  In both cases I suffered some physical damage (not 
    > serious, but considerably more serious than the damage a minimal 
    > rape implies).  Big deal.

    > If a person reacts to a rape, assault, bad joke, or a gift of 
    > flowers with a mental breakdown, that is the weakness
    > of the victim, not the sole fault of the assailant.  Only in 
    > the first case has the assailant actually committed an immoral 
    > act: he has rubbed a portion of his skin against the skin of the 
    > victim without the victim's permission, and has detained the victim 
    > for awhile.  If the rape was vaginal, risk of pregnancy is also involved.

The fact that you have the attitude displayed above is the weakness of you.



***** inmet:net.women / ccieng5!jbf / 10:46 am  Jan 20, 1984

    > We can not control the behavior of every degenerate outside the 
    > law (without totally destroying everyone's privacy), but WE CAN 
    > try to insure a just legal system.  I would rather worry about 
    > the criminals that might try to victimize me than the society that 
    > might randomly pick me as a scapegoat.

Randomly?  Open the phone book and point?  I think it's a hell of a lot
easier to avoid being picked as a scapegoat than it is to avoid being
picked as a rape victim.

    > ... the original was a separate posting, in a less serious vein. 
    > I don't like to confuse a serious discussion with an obliquely 
    > related satire.

Some people have mentioned that they missed the original posting.  I have
them and all responses.  This summary posted to give anybody who missed
it some of the "finer :-)" points of jbf's "serious discussion".

Beth Mazur
{harpo,ima,esquire}!inmet!mazur