By To hear :some people tell it, there exists a culture where rape is socially acceptable. Not under some foreign “Islamo-fascist” regime in a land far, far away but right here in America. All over the world, really. It’s something of a conspiracy, perpetrated by the elusive patriarchy. A large and growing number of radical ideologues are promoting this concept of “rape culture” and demanding something be done to stop it.
Now, this is pretty clever on their part. Starting a political movement that claims to be opposed to rape sounds good, right? I mean, who doesn’t oppose rape?
Wait a second, there’s a problem here. On the one hand, rape is socially acceptable; hence the concept of rape culture to begin with. On the other hand, we have a population who dives right in without thinking as soon as you say you oppose rape. How can these two things exist in the same universe?
Look at the case of Bill Cosby presently in the news. Rape accusations, some more than two decades old, are coming back to haunt him just as he’s about to do a comedy special and a miniseries, both of which have been postponed or cancelled as a result. When a rape accusation is this old, it’s impossible to prove. There is no possible way his accusers could ever make a case against him today, even though they quite easily could have had they reported the incidents in a timely manner. Instead, they waited until now, until he had some big money on the line. Why?
Surprisingly enough, this culture that finds rape so socially acceptable takes a baseless allegation against a well-known comedian who has been in front of our faces for decades and ruins his career over it.
Now, this is pretty clever on their part. Starting a political movement that claims to be opposed to rape sounds good, right? I mean, who doesn’t oppose rape?
Wait a second, there’s a problem here. On the one hand, rape is socially acceptable; hence the concept of rape culture to begin with. On the other hand, we have a population who dives right in without thinking as soon as you say you oppose rape. How can these two things exist in the same universe?
Look at the case of Bill Cosby presently in the news. Rape accusations, some more than two decades old, are coming back to haunt him just as he’s about to do a comedy special and a miniseries, both of which have been postponed or cancelled as a result. When a rape accusation is this old, it’s impossible to prove. There is no possible way his accusers could ever make a case against him today, even though they quite easily could have had they reported the incidents in a timely manner. Instead, they waited until now, until he had some big money on the line. Why?
Surprisingly enough, this culture that finds rape so socially acceptable takes a baseless allegation against a well-known comedian who has been in front of our faces for decades and ruins his career over it.