I mostly took the weekend off so I didn’t really see the Todd Akin “legitimate rape” controversy unfold. I was actually confused because people seem to be treating this as an outrageous gaffe. It is not. This is what Akin, and the far right pro-”life” movement, actually believe. They believe this, not because it is true or they have evidence for it, but because it gives them an excuse to ban all abortion with a clear conscience.
Here is the conundrum radical pro-”lifers” face: They want women to suffer for having sex. This is not in question. But women who are raped obviously were not voluntarily having sex. While some extremists will say it is “God’s plan” or that women impregnated should “turn lemons into lemonade,” they come off as cruel and callous. Remember, these are the people who spent 40 years opposing abortion when their real target was contraception. They’re used to hiding their true belief that pregnant women are whores behind “compassion” for the innocent.
What to do with rape victims then?
Make them active participants instead of victims, of course. This is where the move to redefine rape comes from. If it’s not rape then there’s no reason to give whores sluts women an exemption from abortion bans. The unspoken contention of “a woman’s biology does not allow for pregnancy during rape” is “If they got pregnant, then obviously they must have enjoyed it enough for their bodies to allow the pregnancy.” Therefor, they deserve what they got. Like so many other deeply buried right wing beliefs, this idea of “legitimate rape” has been percolating for years and now that the GOP has been hijacked by extremists, it’s bubbling up to the surface for all to see.
According to Todd Akin, Paul Ryan and right wing extremists, if she’d gotten pregnant, it wasn’t really rape.
Someone needs to take that picture (with the woman’s permission, of course) and make it a meme, send it viral. That image conveys condenses this entire controversy into one irrefutable point.
It only conveys the point to those with at least some degree of common sense or compassion. Take in real good what their point is here, it doesn’t matter how badly beaten and injured the woman is, if she becomes pregnant then she enjoyed it to some extent so by those standards she is no longer a victim of rape rather than a participant in non consensual sex. Its all about double talk with these people.
So, if I understand this thinking correctly, a woman who is artificially inseminated with a turkey baster, must have “enjoyed” the act if she does in fact become pregnant? That it has nothing to do with the proximity of the swimming sperm, the cervix and the ripe egg? And everything to do with her feelings about the baster?
Poppycock! These guys need to be made to take a basic biology course before they start shooting off their mouths.
So what if the lingering sperm somehow comes into contact with an egg that she produces after the fact? Isn´t there a possibility that there could be fertilization up to 3 days after the act? Surely she didn´t enjoy it.
Like the old witch trials by water – if the woman drowns, then she is not a witch. She is, however, still drowned. This was no gaffe, this was a inadvert admission of their truth – how they feel. And Paul Ryan still feels this way…where is the call for HIM to step down by the GOP?
I don’t agree with having this picture as a clear message about rape, and here is why…. This incredibly sad, horrific picture implies that rape is extremely violent, and it is, however, not everyone bleeds, not everyone is held against their will with a weapon other than sheer fear and control, not everyone who is raped suffers the external extent of violence that this picture suggests, BUT IT IS STILL RAPE! This is where the confusion comes in for so many women!! We find ourselves (not PUT ourselves) in situations of rape, but still blame ourselves because “I’m not bleeding, so I must have done something wrong” or “There was no gun or knife (I was still scared out of my mind), but who would believe me without “serious” injury?” See what I am saying? Date rape,marital rape, violent rape – is ALL STILL RAPE!!! And it’s all still WRONG!
Thank you for all that you do – Your page is my absolute favorite!
Horrific notion that as long as a woman doesn’t enjoy it, she won’t get pregnant. That would explain so much…
I think Todd’s assumption is a pretty common piece of ignorance garnishing a partial truth. The dumb idea is that if a woman doesn’t experience an orgasm, she won’t get pregnant. It is true that cervical contraction against the pelvic wall after sperm deposit, improves chances in just the way you would think. If wishes were zygotes, that might have been extrapolated all the way to the notion that a raped woman’s body biologically nullifies fertilization.
Think they got it from The Secret? Wish harder, baby.