Hilary Moore- Drawing the line: Changing attitudes toward rape

If you picked up 34th Street magazine last week, you were in for a treat. But just in case you missed it, I'll summarize here.

Running along the bottom of page four is the "Street ratings guide." "Murder" is given five stars, "Rape" four, "Molestation" three.

The film section, prophetically titled "Ah, Fuckin' Shit...," is described as an "acknowledgement of Valentine's Day" -- it's top recommendation being the French film Baise-Moi, which translates to "rape me."

A quote involving a father raping someone else's sister takes pride of place on page three.

And an interviewee's contention that "Pedophilia is better than necrophilia" since "alive is better than dead" graces page 15.

I should not have to note the abhorrent and unforgivable nature of these pathetic attempts at humor. To be honest, the fact it needs pointing out sticks in my throat.

But this literary scum -- unavoidably received by everyone who picks up The Daily Pennsylvanian on Thursdays -- was written and printed on our own campus by our own students. Hundreds of copies probably made their way around Philadelphia's streets in the following days -- picked up by adults and children looking for an insight or a clue into the Penn student mentality.

Unfortunately, the fact that virtually everyone here is just as disgusted by the magazine as they are will not be as clear.

Even more important, how will this publication have been received on our own campus - by the woman who was raped at gun point last week, or the many others who have suffered such violent trauma in their lives? What of the men and women who are survivors of pedophilia?

Their life-long scars have been offered up as fodder for cheap laughs. And an insult to them is an insult to all of us.

By the time you finish reading this column two more women in America will have been raped -- over 300,000 every year. That means that those who have suffered or are suffering from sexual violence likely make up a large proportion of our own community. If you think you don't know anyone, then you are almost certainly mistaken.

The fact that these people are often silent about their experiences doesn't mean they are not there. It means that American society, and the Penn community, makes it very hard for them to speak out.

The DP's error in describing last week's rape victim as "uninjured" was a worrisome prelude to this far more malicious representation of sexual violence. Both instances, to varying degrees, indicate deep-set misconceptions about sex crimes.

When victims escape conventional, physical injury, the violence of the crime is often underestimated. There is a lack of understanding that some of the most inexorable expressions of force can be insidious and invisible.

Contrary to common perception, almost 70 percent of rape victims know their attacker. This means that no number of "safety measures" can completely protect a woman. It is instead the "safety" of her social and family environment that betrays her.

Rape is seen as a female problem, when in reality many victims are male -- particularly as children.

Rape is not about love or sex. It's about domination and force. But since it involves bodily actions normally associated with lovemaking, some people don't think it is that serious.

Let's set the record straight.

Our bodies are the site of our most intimate sensations and poignant memories. They are the site of pleasure, of safety and control.

Rape violates us. It is among the most deeply tragic and traumatic experiences that one can encounter. By trivializing it, society imposes shame and silence -- a shame and silence that will never help the individual to recover. It's shame and silence that will never help us reduce those terrible statistics either.

Those who survive -- who conquer and move on -- should be role models for our community. They are people of strength and resilience. They should not have to bear the insults of our prejudice and insensitivity.

Rape is terror. Rape is violence. Rape is muscle-tearing, mind-wrenching trauma.

Rape is real.

And it is never funny. It has nothing to do with love. It certainly has nothing to do with Valentine's Day.

Yesterday, 34th Street issued an apology, but to be perfectly frank, it's not sufficient. Such statements -- easy to make -- tend to be more about saving editors' jobs, and maintaining the publications' funding and readership than any true realization of wrong doing.

34th Street needs to change its attitude and approach on a long term basis. Anything else wont begin to compensate for last week's idiocy.

Hilary Moore is a third-year Ethnomusicology graduate student from Perth, Scotland.

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