Why the "My bad sex wasn't rape" editorial is so utterly, utterly vile.

[patrice]

283. Isn't that what everyone in this thread is doing? And if they aren't doing that, then why is it

assumed she necessarily is saying we should all think as she does.

I think March accounts for variations pretty well. And her story, just like everyone else's, is HER story. We aren't children; we know other people have different experiences. But the point of telling a story, like this one and like those we see in this thread, is to learn about the differences and ALSO the similarities. There are stories that are widely different from one another and yet, since there are not absolutes, there can also be a few, perhaps even significant, similarities. Then there are stories that are almost completely similar and, yet again, because there are no absolutes, those stories might have a few, perhaps even significant, differences. And then there are all kind of other stories which have mixes of differences and similarities in different proportions to one another, from 50:50 to 10: 90 to 14:86 and everything in between, if we could actually count the differences and similarities.

My point is that any mature mind knows these things and that's WHY we tell each other our stories, so that the differences can be respected and the similarities shared and all of that makes each of us a bigger person than we are just by ourselves.

I admired March for telling her story, even if she did it somewhat imperfectly, because she tried to talk about something that IS a forbidden and TABOO subject, just look at the reaction she got, and that's the fact that it is possible for and some women do in fact either make a mistake or lie about rape. It would be a near statistical impossibility for that not to be true and I don't think one bit of what she said negates rape in any way whatsoever. I think it elevates rape to something that is so very deeply and profoundly important that we as women would never even risk being wrong about it.