General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRepublicans Seek to Decriminalize Rape and Other Crimes Against Women
America is home to a misogynistic sect that holds women in such low esteem that, despite making up over half the population, women are systematically treated as second-class citizens and complicit in their maltreatment are Republicans and evangelical Christians. Although women are subjected to institutionalized discrimination in the labor force, teaching, healthcare, and insurance industry, it is the nations love affair with the culture of rape that defines Americas hostility toward women. Rape culture is a concept which links rape and sexual violence to the ethos of a society in which prevalent attitudes and practices normalize, excuse, tolerate, or even condone rape in all its forms. Since teabaggers helped Republicans take control of the House and several state legislatures, they have established themselves as the primary progenitors of Americas rape culture with their words and deeds.
For two-and-a-half years Republicans sought to assuage the crime of rape whether it was redefining it to prevent women from abortion services, claiming it is a blessing from a malevolent deity, or legislating medical instrument rape to teach women their place and dissuade them from choosing their own reproductive health. This week another form of rape was exposed and it is little surprise it occurred in Texas where Republicans have made it their business to insert themselves into womens vaginas against their will and deny them the right to choose when they give birth.
There are multiple reports of Texas highway patrol officers captured by dashboard cameras performing unconstitutional cavity searches on womens genitals during traffic stops that lawyers and civil rights advocates claim are all too common. In two separate cases hundreds of miles and six weeks apart, women reported, and video-tapes confirm, that Texas state troopers pulled women over for questionable traffic violations and summoned female troopers to perform anal and vaginal cavity searches hunting for marijuana. To make matters worse, the trooper-rapes were committed on camera on public highways, and are deemed illegal by Texas law and any civilized human being outside conservative misogyny circles. According to the Texas Penal Code Section 22.011, Sexual Assualt; (a) A person commits an offense if the person: (1) intentionally or knowingly: (A) causes the penetration of the anus or sexual organ of another person by any means, without that persons consent. In the Penal Code it specifically cites the illegality of a public servant who coerces the other person to submit or participate, and it makes both the physical rapist and the trooper directing the rape guilty of what Texas Penal Code labels sexual assault that is legalese for forcible rape.
http://www.politicususa.com/2013/08/06/republicans-seek-decriminalize-rape-crimes-women.html
niyad
(113,205 posts)justiceischeap
(14,040 posts)is that the female troopers went along with this.
Posteritatis
(18,807 posts)niyad
(113,205 posts)Besides Republicans in Congress attempting to redefine rape as either legitimate or spurious, several Republican-controlled states have mandated medical professionals conduct rape by medical instrument or face the prospect of losing their license to practice as well as face possible jail time. In fact, Republicans have made inserting themselves into womens vaginas their primary responsibility at the urging of the religious right, and it is all predicated on their belief that women are commanded by their deity to subject themselves to a mans will. The deeply-held belief that women must subjugate themselves to men is part and parcel of the culture of rape a frightening number of men subscribe to, and is perpetuated by Republicans who could barely be bothered to pass the Violence Against Women Act while they promoted the vile concept of legitimate rape.
What is astonishing, and incomprehensible, is the number of women who vote for and support Republicans convinced their authority as men justifies mandating intrusion into a womans body as if it is their dog-given duty. One is hard-pressed to understand why any woman would support Republicans who regard women as livestock to be manipulated and abused, and it may be that they are so entrenched in the women are subservient mindset that they fail to see the atrocity of men violating women. It is also a mystery why any man would support and condone Republicans legislating that their wives, sisters, daughters, and mothers are free-game to other men, but it is possible they too are mesmerized by the thought that women exist as mere objects for men to abuse.
eggplant
(3,911 posts)Women can commit all of the same crimes as men. I wouldn't assume anything about their motives. After all, we're (rightly) bashing cops here, and they're cops, right?
justiceischeap
(14,040 posts)but to have at least two separate instances, with I'm assuming, different female officers each time, you'd think at least one of them would not be happy to oblige their male officers. If these women win their cases, and I hope they do, I'm just curious how the female officers are going to explain their actions. I guess I'm working from the assumption (again) that no woman wants to be raped so a woman wouldn't rape another woman, no matter her job.
davidn3600
(6,342 posts)Rape and sexual assault is about having power over someone, regardless of the gender of the persons involved.
Female officers are just as capable of this as men. They are in a position of authority and power and just as capable of abusing it.
And you think women wouldnt want to hurt each other? What gives you that idea? Women can be quite cruel to each other.
lumberjack_jeff
(33,224 posts)They did it because they are assholes too.
CBGLuthier
(12,723 posts)Early reports made it clear that it was a GAME she played along with quite willingly.
Women can be asshole monsters too.
MADem
(135,425 posts)and
It DOESN'T MATTER who you vote for....they're all the same!!!!
I've read this kind of bullshit right here on DU...so it must be true!
Seriously, anyone who thinks there's no difference between D and R needs to read your OP.
What screws over one of us screws over all of us, is how I see it...
dbackjon
(6,578 posts)Those posts make me sick
historylovr
(1,557 posts)JRLeft
(7,010 posts)B Calm
(28,762 posts)JRLeft
(7,010 posts)But mostly repukes.
ChairmanAgnostic
(28,017 posts)I honestly do not know what that is supposed to mean.
LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)Easy-peasy, fresh 'n breezy...
Rape culture is a concept which links rape and sexual violence to the culture of a society, and in which prevalent attitudes and practices normalize, excuse, tolerate, or even condone rape. Rape culture has been observed to correlate with other social factors and behaviors. Research identifies correlation between rape myths, victim blaming and trivialization of rape with increased incidence of racism, homophobia, ageism, classism, religious intolerance and other forms of discrimination.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_culture
ChairmanAgnostic
(28,017 posts)Where I live, work, play, I don't see that, or at least not in an obvious fashion.
Our local police are extremely courteous and polite, well trained, and ready to lend a hand where needed. Unlike a few suburbs where cop wannabees end up, they aren't cowboys. The general population does not take kindly to attacks on women. We have had two reported attacks. In one, the town banded together, and eventually found the culprit.
In the other, the police gently questioned the vic, who kept changing her story. Eventually, she admitted that she and her boyfriend went off, (she was supposed to close down, clean and lock up a local sandwich shop) leaving the shop unattended. She apologized for the false accusations, apparently she would have kept her job, and there was a good deal of support for her to help her avoid future false allegations, but the shop went BK and closed.
Skittles
(153,138 posts)lark
(23,078 posts)Let me count (some of) the ways.
Trans-vaginal rape mandated
Rapists have rights to visit "their" children -
Raped women don't get pregnant
Defunding Planned Parenthood
Owners of companies wanting to decide if the women that work at their company can have coverd birth control.
Pharmacies can decide not to fill perscriptions for women on a whim
Women aren't allowed to make their own reproductive decisions
Pregnancy not being a covered medical service
and on and on and on and on.
Doing away with public education
Exorbitant rates for student loans
Gutting clean air and clean water regulations
All of these anti-women and anti-family rules/regulations have been promoted by Repugs - the truly heinous hit men of the 1%ers.