There was Ol’ Affable Mike Huckabee insisting on the radio yesterday that there have been some awesome people who came about because of “forcible rape” — like Ethel Waters, for one. So look on the bright side, OK?
Dear Mike: We can argue your point right after you learn this: Rape is rape is rape is rape. And trying to define it by degrees of awful (forcible, statutory, legitimate, what have you) clouds the issue. Rape is rape. Rape is awful. Stop your nonsense.
(Meanwhile? Will Huckabee’s radio-show guest yesterday, Rep. Todd “Legitimate Rape” Akin, resign over his ig-nit remarks? The GOP certainly appears to want that.)
Dating Jesus 
I never read the entire body of Hebrew Scriptures–far from it–but I have a vague recollection that many important characters therein were conceived from rape or incest. So I can see–sort of–where Pastor Huckabee and others are coming from, and why they don’t understand why those of us in the reality-based community aren’t on board with the rape thing.
Then there’s the whole problem of whites becoming the minority in another generation or two. The forced-birthers are in a panic about that and will do anything in their power to keep it from happening.
This “any combo of sperm and egg, no matter the conditions, can produce a science-genius / a president / a fabulous artist / a brilliant teacher / a successful entrepreneur” is specious at BEST. Any combo can also produce a Charles Manson / a bin Ladin / a Karl Rove, or it might end in a spontaneous (gasp) abortion, otherwise known as a miscarriage.
And I know the life of the mother isn’t even to be considered, but what OF her life? I imagine some raped-pregnant women are able to accept and move ahead with their totally-changed lives, but what of the ones whose lives are shattered? Again I ask, what war on women?
But then men wouldn’t be able to blame women for getting raped.
And men in law enforcement wouldn’t be allowed to conveniently forget complaints.
And, as Nick Baumann points out at MoJo, use of the term “forcible rape” is dog-whistle rhetoric meant to identify the speaker with a certain anti-choice political ideology. Guess which one!
Not mine?
You? An anti-choice political ideology? (You’re just trying to get me to reach for the meds again, aren’t you?)
Even if it were true I would probably agree with “Not mine?”
No. I am the opposite of anti-choice. I’m all about choice, and I think asking women to justify an abortion is wrong and short-sighted.
It’s an old spin on an old argument but I wonder, what’s the definition of “legitimate” male rape? And just imagine if male victims could get pregnant. Oh never mind. That’s too icky to even think about. Let’s just stick to the women since this is just about them. Right? I mean, as long as us guys get to decide.
Sharon, I fear you’re right about the response to impending minority status although I’d extend many of the characteristics to men of all kinds around the world in relation to where women’s rights need to go. It’s like watching a dinosaur die a slow death in a “B” moive. I think there will be many spasms to come.
That’s too bad, because I think the spasms are every bit as damaging as the full-on dinosaur.
All the more reason for us to behave like future people. Especially when out in public.
Teapublicans are furious with liberals for redefining marriage, but they have no trouble with redefining rape. (Stole that off Facebook.)
Good steal.
Todd Akin. “I used the wrong words in the wrong way”.
Yup. Those wrong words can be tricky.
Akin is being encouraged to abandon his campaign today so Missouri Republicans can just appoint another opponent to run against Claire McCaskill, generally considered to be not the strongest of Democratic challengers.
So…everybody should send an email to Rep. Akin…HERE… encouraging him to stay in the race. Say something like…”Don’t let the liberal elitists dictate Republican agenda”…or use some Nazi imagery…anything that will embolden his efforts to remain true to his Tea Party fundamentalism.
Do it now.
Done. Did everyone hear Sen. McCaskill on the radio today encouraging him to stay in the election?
He still leads some polls, but “ObamaClaire” is closing the gap.
Quick! Somebody ask him about Medicare!
WTF is “forcible rape”? Does that mean there is “consensual rape”? These teabaggers are so out of touch with reality that it borders on insanity.
Maybe Huckabee will take up the cause of custody rights for the rapist. After all, two parents are better than one, unless they’re the same sex of course.
OMG, these guys should lose their licenses to operate a microphone!
Vanessa Heggie of The H Word at The Guardian traces the origins of the notion of “legitimate rape” back to the 13th century.
That’s positively medieval. That’s around 300 years before Edmund Burke so it can’t be “conservative,” can it?
Maybe this is what House Speaker John Boehner meant by “knuckledragger.”
As one of my friends posted today on Facebook, “Todd Akins stays in Senate race after withdrawing from human race.”
“Does that mean there is “consensual rape”? ”
Why sure, you know, where the woman regrets having sex and cries rape, we do it all the time. Or those times when the woman feels pressured but isn’t actually beaten up like in legitimate rape. I mean forcible rape. Or the times when she has two drinks and then she deserves it. Y’know, like that.
I just realized that Pastors Huckabee, Akin, Romney, et. al., are in fact hewing to the definition of ‘rape’ that they learned in Sunday School. According to the Hebrew Scriptures, a woman who accuses a man of rape must have 2 witnesses if it took place in “the city,” under the presumption that in a high-density population, someone will hear her cries for help. No cries for help, no witnesses, no rape. Now if the incident takes place in the countryside, there rules are a little different. If the woman was betrothed to another man, then the offender faces an automatic death penalty. But if the woman is a virgin, the man must give her father 50 shekels and marry her, and he can never divorce her.
Wouldn’t you just love it if an interviewer actually grilled Akin about this topic and his knowledge of marriage and reproductive law as found in a 3000 year old text?
“But if the woman is a virgin, the man must give her father 50 shekels and marry her, and he can never divorce her.”
LUCKY woman!
I’ve just sent this to some of you, but here’s Eve Ensler writing about rape:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eve-ensler/todd-akin-rape_b_1812930.html