Thursday, October 26

let's talk about rape

so before i get my ass kicked for the title, let me just say that i know rape is a very serious topic and very serious crime and being a woman it is a serious concern. but this is a legal discussion about the crime, not a social discussion.

so for my Criminal class today we had to discuss the crime of rape. due to the touchy subject i imagined a very heated discussion, and i guess my professor did too b/c before commencing the class she advised us that we should be mature about our discussion, relate it only to legal concepts, and refrain from calling anyone a "neanderthal" (she said previous classes had ended w/such).

so we discussed various cases, all in that gray area of rape, where there's no physical force/injury and very conflicting perspectives from the victim and the defendant, which obviously results in various discussions. and b/c it is a class the professor would often push us to try and create thresholds that we believed would legally constitute rape. of course, still being people w/in the range of 21-28 years of age, we would all giggle when someone discussed "genitalia" and "hooking up". someone even used the word "pump" (my eyes bugged out when the guy said that). when discussing sexual assault terms like "S&M" and "tying up" and "some ppl like rought sex". it seemed so out of place in the classroom.

there was one moment of serious levity tho. a very attractive boy in the class had come up w/a hard fast rule that an affirmative yes must be given in order for any act to not be rape (which is a little ridiculous in real-life scenarios). another boy in the class wanted to counter that argument. while he was doing that he mentioned, "for those of us not fortunate enough to be as goodlooking as Mr. _____, an affirmative yes may be difficult to obtain". i can't really remember the rest of his argument b/c the whole class, including the professor, erupted in laugther for a good minute.

one of the most interesting and funny classes for Criminal so far.

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