It Wasn’t Rape-Rape

When someone is raped, or sexually molested, or indeed sexually threatened, the first and arguably the most difficult hurdle to leap, is reporting it. Many, in fact, most victims don’t. It’s shameful, or they believe the blame rests with them or they are terrified no one will believe them, or they just want to forget it ever happened because that is so often the most dependable coping mechanism when a human being experiences trauma.

Comments like the one Whoopi Goldberg made on The View, in regards to the Roman Polanski furor, are unbelievably irresponsible. Unbelievably.

“I know it wasn’t rape-rape. It was something else but I don’t believe it was rape-rape.”

So, what are we talking here? That victims of sexual assault should have to qualify the degree of rape they endured before it is taken seriously – and how seriously it will be taken depends on just how rape-y the rape was? That there should be a scale, ranging from ‘rape-rape’ to ‘sort of rape’ to ‘not really rape’ and ‘stop being so dramatic rape’? Because that’s a wonderful notion; we really need victims of sexual assault to feel even less inclined to report their ordeals. We really need them to feel even more pressured to justify why their experience was so dreadful. We really need to give them one more reason not to come forward, one more reason to try and forget it ever happened. One more reason to blame themselves.

Why, in cases of sexual harassment, when public figures are involved, do people do the exact opposite of what they should? They excuse the perpetrator, blame the victim. These high profile cases become examples of how not just the justice system handles rape, but how society handles it. Need I hark back to the Rugby League fallout earlier this year, in which this country all but called for the blood of the girl at the centre of the storm? Victims of sexual assault, watching how these stories unfold, see the mud and the vitriol slung at those who have dared come forward against a public figure (or in the case of Polanski, watch as respected, educated, famous individuals rush to his aid) and they watch the character assassination take place – not of the rapist, but of the victim. They watch the doubt creep in, not of the rapist’s story, but of the victim’s. They watch the explanations and defense begin, not for the victim, but for the rapist. They see someone who suffered a traumatic ordeal, someone they identity with, be blamed, questioned, hated, and they see the perpetrator pitied, excused, defended. 

Not an ideal social template for future victims of sexual assault to refer to, is it?

Public reactions, assertions and treatment of the issue of sexual assault are so influential, the effects so far reaching. People like Whoopi Goldberg have the potential to instill conviction into a scared victim of sexual assault; instead, all she has done with one thoughtless comment, is reaffirm several dangerous public ideas about rape and make the battle for victims to be taken seriously, that much harder.

Image of Whoopi Goldberg by Archman8 on Flickr

Image credit for Roman Polanski