My girlfriend and I watch Law & Order a lot. For some reason, certain channels air it almost non-stop, and the show has an odd, addicting quality. I really enjoy the original L&O, partially enjoy L&O:SVU, and don’t really like L&O:CI.
Lately, I’ve been getting angry at certain episodes of SVU. Last night was one of them, which prompted me to write up this blog entry.
I’m sure many of you have read my rants on Men’s Rights. It’s a fairly unknown concept, as Men have been mostly dominant for thousands of years. However, I’ve really been getting into this lately… and this show strikes a nerve with me.
In last night’s episode, a sorority girl was “date raped”. She was drugged with some chemical at a party, and had sex with a frat boy that she had known previously. Here’s the twist… the frat boy did not drug her, nor did he even know she was drugged. Her sorority sisters drugged her to get back at her for something. All the guy knew was that a girl who had flirted with him previously was now at a party and flirting with him. Therefore, he pursued and had sex with her. Thus, he was charged with rape.
The Prosecutor stated that she intended to aggressively go after the guy, even though everyone acknowledged that he didn’t know she was drugged and was basically innocent. While on the stand, she line of questioning was something like the following…
Attorney: “Did she actually say yes to you having sex with her?”
Frat Boy: “Well, no. But she kissed me first, and she never said anything against it!”
Attorney: “So she never actually gave you permission for sex?”
Frat Boy: “No, but she was all over me!”
Attorney: “So you had sex with her without her permission?”
Frat Boy: “Uhhh… ?”
(I don’t know about you guys, but I never thought to obtain a written contract stating their willingness before I’ve had sex with any of my past partners. I’ll be more dilligent in the future)
Let’s go back to another episode I saw. A man had been convicted of raping this 16 year old girl and was in jail while the investigation continued. The only evidence up to this point was that she claimed it was rape. He admits that they had sex, but says that it was consentual. He kept pleading his innocence to the uncaring and unbelieving police, as he was being beaten and raped every day in prison as a child molester. Eventually, the plot showed that the “16 year old victim” was really a 20 year old con artist, trying to sue a hotel for her rape. The police began the process of freeing the suspect… but Oops! Too late! He had already been beaten to death in prison! Oh well, good thing we threw that man in jail! He’s just a man, better that he be raped and killed than risk that some day he may rape someone!
While this is just a fictional television show, the situation it portrays more or less exists in our day, and it completely pisses me off and terrifies me. There exists such an “anti-male” bias in court systems that it terrifies me that some day I ever have to go to court against a woman in any sort of situation.
It also pisses me off to no end that rape is such an evil action, but only against a woman. In fact, raping a man is comical and even accepted by our society and government. Want proof? Just watch some TV or Movies. The best example I can think of is a recent movie I saw, School for Scoundrels. In it, a bunch of men attended a school where they were taught to act more aggressively to obtain what they want. The teachers assistant was a very large man named Lescher, and a running joke throughout the movie was that he was raping the students and they didn’t want to talk about it. This was a joke in the movie! If it was a woman that was raped, would this be at all humorous? Of course not, because rape is ok as long as the victim is a man!
Another example is the thought of rape in the prison system. Rapist are pretty much universally despised. Although there are official efforts to prevent prison rape, many people working for the legal system accept prison rape as an accepted part of the punishment. We are endorsing rape as an official punishment, in addition to the sentenced punishment. Why bother sending them to prison? Just send them in a room with a large police officer to have at it for a couple hours and then send them home? Maybe we should make it pay-per-view or sell it on the internet? L&O:SVU is a good example of this too, as the police officers continually make comments to the criminals they catch about how they’re going to be beaten and raped in prison.
This show in particular is really driving me nuts. I enjoy most episodes, but every once in a while they air one like the above. It saddens me greatly that this show (and parts of society as a whole) simply view men as future-rapists and criminals and women are nothing more than victims-waiting-to-be.
