Cason Honea

4/21/12

Communication of Gender and Sexuality

This week in Gender class, we were assigned some supplemental readings that dealt with the subject of rape. One article discussed on how the definition of rape has now been expanded. "Now, any kind of nonconsensual penetration, no matter the gender of the attacker or victim, will constitute rape-- meaning that attacks on men will be counted" (Basu p.1). When I first read this, I was really caught off guard, because I thought that this was always what was constituted as rape, but apparently, it has only been nonconsensual vaginal penetration by a penis that has been considered as rape up until now. I really find it rather disturbing, to be honest, because it almost seems as if the law was initially made with some intentional loopholes. I just don't understand how those running our county could not constitute these other acts as rape up until now. In a sense, it seems as if the law that was originally established in 1927 was almost an intentional decision to allow men to get away with forcible sexual advances as long as it was not nonconsensual vaginal penetration. “It’s about more than a definition,” Lynn Rosenthal, the White House adviser on violence against women, said in a conference call with reporters to discuss the change. “It’s a change of our understanding of rape and how seriously we take it as a country.” (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/07/us/politics/federal-crime-statistics-to-expand-rape-definition.html).  Hopefully this new expansion of the definition of rape will help prevent future acts that were once not considered as rape from happening, and bring some sense of residual justice to those women out there who have unfortunatley had to experience one or more of these forms of forcible sexual advances in the past. For it to take decades for the definition of rape to be expanded really makes me question even more the overall moral integrity and decision making of those running our country.

Sources

Basu, M., U.S. Broadens Archaic Definition of Rape, CNN

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/07/us/politics/federal-crime-statistics-to-expand-rape-definition.html