Do men understand rape?

[SheilaT]

18. I'm guessing you've never been raped, so you have no idea

what it takes to report it. It's bad enough in the first place, but if the perpetrator is someone well-known and "beloved", such as Bill Cosby, it's infinitely more difficult. Yes, I agree that a false accusation is despicable, but just because those occur is no reason to start with the assumption that any accusation is probably false.

To say that women need to take responsibility and report rapes is easy, but the reality is that they mostly need to report to male cops, who are very likely to assume they're lying, and a court system that puts them on trial. When a woman's entire sexual past is considered fair game, why should any woman who wasn't a virgin in the first place, even bother?

And then there are the lawmakers who apparently believe that pregnancy can never possibly occur from rape. Or that the only reason for an abortion is if you've been raped and you'd better have reported it as soon as it happened.

Recently, in my city (Santa Fe), there was an article in the local newspaper about a man who'd been picked up on rape charges, and in the text of the article information about an old rape was reported, including the name of the woman who'd been a minor at the time. I happen to know someone who is related to that woman, and my friend was spitting nails at the printing of the victim's name. She was being forced to relive a very traumatic incident from some years ago.

Rape is not something most women get over easily.