Melissa Harris-Perry’s Panel looks at Elizabeth Smart’s recent comments on abstinence-only sex education and whether the policy is effective.
"Crying Rape" On Innocent Men Doesn't Happen As Often As You Might Think
How often do women falsely accuse men of rape? Often? Sometimes? Almost never? And, how often do women falsely accuse men of domestic violence? The actual numbers might surprise you.
In a recent report published by the United Kingdom’s Crown Prosecution Service, it was found that a mere 35 out of 5,651 or .6% women falsely accused men of rape, and only 6 women out of 111,891 or .005% falsely accused a man of domestic violence during the 17-month-long study.
In the early stages of pregnancy, there are two lives in the balance, but one of them is a potential life; it can only become viable over time and at the expense of the other.
Only that mother knows what the cost to her will be and whether she can afford it or not.I defy anyone, male or female, to look my 17-year-old self in the eye and tell her that they feel personally entitled to deny her the right to regain control of her own body, that they will force her to endure an extension of that rape for the sake of their world view.
But that’s what it means to pass laws that frame the kinds of restrictions our legislature are discussing right now.
— TW: I Was Raped When I Was 17. Where Were the Abortion Experts and Commentators? (via forthecatholicgirls)(via antiprolife)
UConn Student Receives Rape Threats After Suggesting School Address 'Frightening' Atmosphere for Women
The student argued that the school should focus less resources on developing a new mascot, and more on addressing the potentially frightening culture within the school’s athletic program. UConn’s athletics aren’t alone in that regard.
Nothing proves that someone is wrong about a misogynist culture on campus like sending rape threats.
You’re smart, empowered women!” one of my guy friends said when I expressed our fear of sexual assault in college. But a “smart” and “empowered” person is no match to a college that fails to offer women the support needed to seek justice in cases of sexual misconduct. Even if I know self-defense techniques, situations to avoid, and whom to surround myself with, I cannot keep safe on my own. I need support from the institutions around me.
— Hannah Weintraub, Dear Colleges, Please Take Sexual Assault Seriously
Michigan High School Protects Student Athlete at Expense of Rape Victim
Last week the National Women’s Law Center, along with a local law firm in Michigan filed a complaint in federal district court on behalf a high school student who was sexually assaulted at school by a fellow student and star basketball player
Rather than open an investigation into the allegations, the principal discouraged the student and her parents from filing charges, telling them that doing so could ruin the assailant’s prospects at being recruited to play basketball for a Division 1 school.
Despite repeated efforts by the victim’s parents and other students to alert the principal and the school’s Title IX Coordinator about the viciousness of the harassment by the attacker and other students, school administrators took no action.
Thankfully law enforcement did. Five weeks after the sexual assault, the Kent County Prosecutor’s office authorized two felony counts of criminal sexual conduct against the attacker for his assaults on NWLC’s client and the second female victim at the school. The attacker later pled guilty to a single count of misdemeanor assault and battery. He was sentenced to attend Kent County’s Adolescent Sexual Offender Treatment Program for a second time. The only sanction the school imposed upon the student assailant was to temporarily bench him on the basketball court.
What kind of world do we live in when young men are so proud of violating unconscious girls that they pass proof around to their friends? It’s the same kind of world in which being labeled a slut comes with such torturous social repercussions that suicide is preferable to enduring them. As a woman named Sara Erdmann so aptly tweeted to me, “I will never understand why it is more shameful to be raped than to be a rapist.
— Jessica Valenti, In Rape Tragedies, the Shame Is Ours
Kansas Republicans Mock Rape Exceptions For Abortion Restrictions As ‘Little Gotcha Amendments’
Your daily reminder that Republicans just don’t get two things: abortion rights and rape.
The Kansas legislature is advancing anomnibus abortion billthat would, among other things, define life as beginning at conception in the state constitution and place unnecessary restrictions on abortion providers in the state.HB 2253has already passed the House, and looks poised to gain enough support to sail through the Senate— but only after Republicans rejected several key amendments to soften the measure, including a provision to add exceptions for rape and incest to the state’s existing abortion restrictions. Top Republicans decried those provisions as “little gotcha amendments.”
Senators discussed the bill for more than two hours on Monday. There were several proposed amendments up for debate — a rape and incest exception, a provision ensuring that women won’t be prosecuted for using birth control even if the state officially redefines life with a “personhood” amendment, and a measure to remove HB 2253′s requirement that doctors tell women about ascientifically disputed linkbetween abortion and breast cancer. All of them were rejected.
“These amendments are little gotcha amendments,” Senate Majority Leader Terry Bruce (R)said during the floor debate. “I’m getting a little irritated at it.”
If you’re getting irritated at keeping rape survivors in mind, imagine how the people who actually got raped feel.
wearing “no means no” on her chest
(via fabfatfemme)
Anthony Talaverga: https://www.facebook.com/anthony.talavera
This guy commented on an article my friend liked, and that’s me responding below.
Usually blaming a victim of rape is done covertly through subtext and insinuation, but this dude just comes right out and says it.
(via feminisminapapercup)
