Rape 101: The blame game

A column by Rachel Cavanaugh
News Editor

     Earlier this month, two men in The Dalles were sentenced to 100 months in prison for their involvement in the gang rape of a woman in an orchard in June 2007. (That sentence, by the way, is about eight years.)
     Let me describe the scene: A woman was found naked near an orchard after eight men allegedly held her head and legs while taking turns violently raping and sodomizing her.
     In closing arguments, the district attorney used an image of the rodeo sport “team roping,” and one witness described the incident as “lions on meat,” according to The Dalles Chronicle.
     Now, let me describe a different scene: In 1992, an Indiana man was jailed after playing the role of a middleman in a large-scale marijuana sale. He had introduced people who wanted to buy drugs to the people trying to sell them.
     Due to a series of legal technicalities he received a life sentence with no possibility of parole. He is still serving it in a Leavenworth prison today.
     Although the latter is an extreme and less common case, it serves to illustrate an appalling and frankly abhorrent inconsistency within our judicial system. Non-violent crimes like theft and drugs quite often get serious time while rapists continually get light sentences, if any at all.
     This is because, unfortunately, rape is just not considered a big deal in our society. In fact, many people don’t believe it happens much at all.
     Convincing a jury a woman has been raped is a bit like persuading the neighbors a UFO landed in the backyard: the natural inclination is simply to disbelieve. (The difference, of course, is that rape is a real occurrence that happens every day.)
     Rape trials are not full of supportive sympathizers like, say, a child murder trial, where picketers stand out front to “boo” and toss tomatoes at the defendant. At a rape trial, if any tomatoes are thrown, it is generally towards the woman.
     At some point someone invariably asks, “Are you sure you were actually raped?” As if it were a fine line. As if women were so daft and infantile they might not know if they’d agreed to have sex with someone or not.
     Are you serious?
     No wonder only 16 percent of rapes are ever reported. Who would subject themselves to that kind of branding and Scarlet Lettering? I certainly wouldn’t.
     Any psychologist will tell you, without any shadow of a doubt, rape is not about sexual desire, but power. Men who rape women are not looking for sexual pleasure, but a sense of strength, dominance, and control.
     This is why “unattractive,” obese, elderly, and disabled women are raped every day. According to Psychology of Women Quarterly, in fact, 66 percent of rape cases occur in a woman’s home. (Only 7.2 percent are at parties, 3.6 percent outdoors, and 2.2 percent in bars.)
     Yet girls are consistently taught self-defense and told to stay out of parks and watch what they wear if they don’t want to get raped.
     In my opinion, teaching a woman how to prevent her own rape is like teaching her how to avoid a landslide. This is not to say women’s self-defense it not important, but to base an entire rape-prevention philosophy around it misses the point. On the contrary, men play an enormous role in rape prevention.
     Men prevent rape from happening by not raping. It’s that simple.
     Let me say it one more time: Men prevent rape by not raping.
     So why don’t we start teaching men about rape issues instead of relegating it to a dark corner of the “women’s studies” classroom? I am not saying to begin attacking men - it is unfair to make decent guys feel guilty for crimes they didn’t commit. But it is time they are included in the dialogue.
Right now, there are 1.3 forcible rapes of adult women every single minute in the United States. There are 78 every hour; 1,871 every day; 56,916 every month.
     In Goldendale specifically, only five cases were reported in the last three years. Of those, only two were convicted.
     These numbers do not add up. I have no doubt there have been many more rapes here in our own town and it saddens me no justice will ever be served.
     But perhaps it is no surprise, when you have cases like the one in White Salmon in 2003 where a girl was almost killed after a brutal forest rape, and the defense attorney had the audacity to try submitting her sexual history before the trial began. (Despite rape shield laws.)
     As far as I’m concerned, that attorney ought to be sentenced along with her tormentors. How do you sleep at night, sir?
     Do you know at least 25 percent of all girls raped will try to kill themselves? That the rest will live in pain, fear, and shame for the rest of their lives?
     On a more positive note, I actually believe we are heading towards a point where common rape will become obsolete. We’ll look back and say, “Back then, society didn’t punish rapists very severely and it happened every day.”
     But, for that to happen, a dramatic change of mentality must take place. There are several things we can do.
     First, write your lawmakers and tell them you want to see legislation that punishes rapists more severely and then, write your judges and tell them you want to see those laws enforced. Tell them the average convicted rapist serves 5.41 years, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, and you don’t think that’s enough. Tell them you’re tired of seeing prisons clogged with pot-smokers and stereo thieves - you want rapists and other violent criminals in there.
     Write your movie producers in Hollywood and tell them you’d rather not pay $8 to see a woman (that could easily be you) raped in a lacy black bra. Rape is not sexy, thank you very much.
Write to your teachers, professors and superintendents.
     And next time you hear someone say afterwards, “Well, what was she thinking doing such and such...” speak up. Find that little voice of yours and tell them you are offended and then tell them exactly why.
     Only then will we see rape taken seriously and things like what happened in that orchard last June, become a thing of the past.

Op/Ed

Catalogs might be great for lining a bird cage

A column by Karen Henslee

     How does a person’s name get on a company’s catalog mailing list?
     Or more importantly, how do you get off?
     More than 20 years ago, when my oldest daughter was finishing first grade, I contemplated home schooling. I did some research at the local library, and sent for some information... through the mail, as there was no Internet then. I received many newsletters and began receiving catalogs from companies I’d never heard of before, let alone, requested anything.
     Although I did not elect to homeschool my kids, nor did I ever order a single thing, I still receive an occasional catalog.
     How do I get my name off their list? If I send them any correspondence, they might see it as interest in their products and begin the deluge again.
     I know companies share mailing lists. But what about the idea of sharing the lists of those wanting their names removed?
     I also shopped at a pool/spa supply store in the area and apparently, because I shopped there, I got on yet another list. I started receiving pool supply catalogs.
     We haven’t had our swimming pool up for at least five years, but still we receive their monthly sale flyer.
     And of course, there’s the weekly (or sometimes twice-weekly) JCPenney sale catalog, not to be outdone by Cabela’s, JC Whitney, and if you’ve ever received a spiral sliced ham as a gift, you’re on their mailing list as well.
     With the cost of postage going up, as well as fuel, when does it become not so cost-effective to produce and mail these catalogs?
     It seems to me, it just makes sense for them to evaluate their mailing lists, at least once a year.      And in the interest of not filling the landfills with catalogs or having to recycle them, they could just produce less. (If I had caged birds, I’m sure I could think of something productive to do with them.)
Then everyone would save money and I wouldn’t buy things I don’t really want or need.