Politics, Rape, and June Cleaver

Roe Vs. Wade
 

I've been mulling over this rape issue in the media.  There have been some amazing, surprising, not-surprising, reprehensible and thoughtless things that have fallen out of the mouths of men we pay to make our laws.  It all began as a shock value statement in regard to abortion.  That's a subject that will never be settled, period.  Every person, male and female has an opinion about it, some are religious based, some are science based, some are simply what they feel in their gut to be right or wrong.  With the media culture running wild and free these days, we are focusing more and more on the extremes in people. 

The GOP is trying very hard to combat a very left wing President and Congress right now, both sides are fighting for control so they're both going balls out to make a point.  No one is filtering, on one is thinking, and they are all trying to shock the people into doing what they want.  The simple fact remains the same, no matter who is in what office, he/she can still be bought and they will be.  It won't matter the lobbyist, it just matters how deep their pockets are.  Pretty much everyone who knows me, knows by now how much I look down on politicians as a whole. 

That being said...the meat of the matter... "he said what?! about rape???"  Lesse, we had a couple of them mention that a woman's body shuts down during the act so pregnancy isn't likely, others made reference to the legitimacy of the act itself.  Now, these are supposed to be college educated men, most of them having some type of higher degree, be it a juris doctor or a masters in various field of study.  How many of them were fraternity members?  Humour me for a moment on this one...
I'm not dissing fraternity's...I dated a frat boy for a while and had sorority friends when I was in school.  I'm all about "brotherhood" and the games that go along with it, I was in the Corps after all.

Look on this though, how many of those young men are/were encouraged to objectify, humiliate or target a woman?  Be it a hazing joke, a rite of passage or simply because they are brainwashed to believe women are beneath them.  The idea that rape is ever about sex is wrong, it is about control and superiority.  In some cases it's a person who is mentally unstable enough to not know that what they are doing is against nature, those people need a padded room and a B52 shot.  For the rest?  They need to be reminded who and what their mother, sister, grandmother, aunt, godmother, are to them. 
This article came up on facebook a while back.  I still can't read the whole thing because it turns my stomach and utterly terrifies me. 

It dissects an email that was generated by a fraternity member from an East Coast college, he makes a guideline on how to sleep with as many girls as possible.  He says giving them names is irrelevant and they are rated according to looks and loosely on personality (as it's not important to scoring).  Let's assume that the article is only true for...lets say 5 men out of a group of 20.  That's a pretty high percentage of men who believe that women are objects, not people.  They are walking the streets, working a 9-5, having lunch at Checkers, paying taxes, dating someones daughter.  Now we are facing these men in power positions in our country, why?  Because they had the right amount of money to buy their way to the top of the political food chain.  Are we headed for dark times?  Yes, no matter how we slice it. 

I'm willing to bet that if one of the politicians had a daughter that was attacked, forced and impregnated, the whole issue would be different for them.  See, the problem with this whole issue is, until you've lived it, been the attacker or the attacked, you can't honestly say what you Would do.  All you can say is what you think you might do or what you feel is correct in that situation.  And every. single. situation. is different.  I know many women who have been targeted, molested and raped, in all of it's various forms:  date rape, aggravated, drunken....and I know some who've been impregnated because of said act.  Each woman made her decisions based on her life at that moment and that's all anyone can do.  Sadly I have also known women who have lied about being raped or molested.  Here's where it gets really cloudy and ugly and damn hard to legislate. 

What do you do with the ones who lie?  The ones who use that word as a tool to get what they want?  Most know that it's going to be her word against his if there are no witnesses to the contrary.  There is also no statute of limitations on it, so if she said he raped me 5 years ago in a convertible on a dirt road...guess what, he's going to get a little something for her trouble.  The bad apples screw it up for the ones who have had to fight to keep their rights and keep themselves safe.  So, where does the law take over and  how?  How do you lay down legislation that protects the innocent and punishes the guilty?  Unfortunately there is no pretty way to do it, someone is gonna get their feelings hurt.  There will always be someone sitting there saying, "well what about me?". 

All we can do is try to cover as many bases as possible, keep things as moral as we can, and protect who we can protect.  Now I believe the government is trying to do that?  Hell no.  Not any of them, liberal or conservative.  I have yet to see a candidate truly care about All the people in the nation.  They care about one group or the other, but not everyone as a whole. 

Think anyone was brave enough to mess with June?

I don't want to see this country regress to a time in history when things were good on the surface. Yeah the 50's look all pretty now, with the pastel kitchens and Mrs. Cleaver in her pearls and heels cooking, cleaning and tending to her wifely duties.  I do not want my daughter to ever feel that she is less than a man in any way, shape or form.  If she chooses to be a stay at home mom, that's fine, as long as she remembers that she's as valid as he is and her choices are her own, not his to be made for her. 

I want her to have choices and know she is at least safe within the legal system.  Lord knows, if anything should ever happen to her, the poor sap who puts his hands on her won't have to worry too much about the law coming...won't be much left of him to worry with. 

You wanna get biblical and technical for a minute?  Grissom from CSI opened my eyes to this one and I appreciate it:

Life begins in the blood, babies hearts begin to beat with their own blood at 22 weeks.  So biblically and technically both sides are wrong.  Life begins neither upon conception or birth, but at 22 weeks.