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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 19, 1972)
Along the primrose path to rape By JILL TWEEDIE LONDON—If I.E. Lawrence had been a lady would experts have spent quite so much obsessive time tracing his sub sequent behavior back to a possible Turkish rape? As far as I am concerned, rape is quite simply definable as any coercion, par ticularly the use or threatened use of physical strength, that makes a woman submit to intercourse against her will. That woman may be a vestal virgin or Salome of the Seven Veils—raped she is if she didn’t want it. But, of course, it is deeply ingrained in us that only a virgin can truly be raped: as the old saw puts it so endearingly, a slice from a cut cake is never missed. And this adage, whether official or not, lies at the root of the workings of our rape laws. In fact, the way British law and British prejudice stands at the moment, a woman’s only redress in the law courts is rape by a perfect stranger. A survey of sex offenders in England shows that most are unmarried and most had left school at 14. Only 11 per cent were known to have had any form of higher education. lTie largest single group were laborers, many had been drinking when they committed of fenses, and there was a higher percentage of men with deformities or disfigurements in the group. From these figures one writer recently and predictably concluded that “without being facetious they could be said to have been the men who by their violence gave rape a bad name.” In other words, rape between acquaintances cannot happen, just as rape in marriage has no legal existence. We know, of course, that it does. In cest, for example, is often a synonym for rape and a high percentage of all our grandmothers, at least, were raped on their wedding night and from then on through endless nights of marital struggle apparently because few men ever thought it possible (because of the masculine moral edict imposed on women) that their wives could actually accept sex willingly. There must be thousands of households across the country where rape will be committed tonight, carefully camouflaged in the sacraments of marriage. Men drunk; men obstinate; men indignant will have intercourse with reluctant wives because they want to, because it is their right, because they have such overriding needs, because they are stronger. A girl (how many girls?) was raped last month by more than 80 Pakistani soldiers and went out of her mind. How many men can truly say they see no connection, however small, between this extreme event and their own occasional behavior? , And this belief allied to the myth of uncontrollable male sexuality and the convention that a woman’s body is there not for herself but for men, leads straight along the primrose path to rape. “Straw dogs,” Sam Pechinpah’s latest and bloodiest filmed contribution to sadism, illustrates all these points to sickening perfection. A young wife is raped by two village louts and Mr. Peckinpah obviously believes she deserves everything she gets. After all, the shameless hissy has A) slept with one of the men before her marriage, B) wears no bra, C) pulls up her skirt to examine a run in her tights and worst of all, D) appears to be keener, if anything, on sex than her husband. Heavens to Betsy, the girl’s begging for it. On cue, in come the village rapists, she struggles, she gets belted, threatened with a gun and down she goes in the familiar foggy foggy dew. Ah, but wait now for the coup de grace, ladies and gentlemen. All is not lost. Our heroine is a woman like other women, despite her aching jaw and dislodged teeth. Soon, sweetly soon, her little arms steal round her rapist’s neck and boom ta-ra boom, she’s loving every minute of it. At this point in the film a long sigh escapes the men in the audience and they lean back, triumphant. Didn’t they always say? Didn’t they always know in their bones? TTie ladies, God bless ’em, like nothing so much as a clout across the earholes and a couple of cauliflower ears to add spice to the act of love. Mild mannered men (till now) curse their own gentleness and vow to be different in the future. Later in the film a teenage girl walks the village idiot out on a moonlit night, seduces him into kissing her and, by her accidental death, triggers off the last 20 minutes of mayhem and bloody murder. The message comes over crystal clear: flaunt yourself, however unconsciously, and you’ll get your come uppance, if you'll excuse the language, because rape is always the woman’s fault. As the middle aged manager of the cinema commented to me afterwards: “If a gentleman makes a personal approach of this sort to a woman, most of the time she likes it.’’ And of course, women think so too— none more than the respectable middle aged housewife. “Straw dogs” and, in particular, that rape scene, was discussed last week on a Granada television program by a panel of Gallup Poll-picked men and women and all of them blamed the rape unanimously on the girl. One apple-cheeked lady, smiling brightly, pointed out that, after all, the girl had slept with one of the men before her marriage so what else but rape could she expect? Unsurprisingly, given these feelings, the incidence of rape goes up in this country every year. In Washington, D.C. the capital of rape (one woman every 15 minutes) official advice to females is to submit, advice echoed by a male friend of mine last week who pointed out with some asperity that there would be no violence in rape if women didn’t struggle. Unfortunately for such optimist violence, in many cases, appears to be the sine quo non of the act; many women are beaten up, mutilated and killed after being raped. L. A. Times-Washington Post News Service N.W. music conference to be held Jan. 21-22 j About five hundred students and teachers from throughout the l Northwest are expected to attend the annual Conference on Music j Kducation at the University on Jan. 21 and 22, sponsored by the University School of Music and the Division of Continuing Education. j TTiis will be the twentieth year for the conference which has I blossomed into a full conference with five sections for different types j of music instruction choral, band-wind, orchestra-string, general music and elementary music. j The public is invited to attend the conference. Pre-registration is { encouraged at the School of Music or at the Office of Continuing J Education at the University campus. Information can be obtained from either place. Fees for the weekend meeting are $5.00, and $1.00 for students. ( | Briefs ] There will be an organua'ional mealing of Yd! at 7 JO p m Thursday In the EMU Urinljm end prospective mtmotfi ere invited lo el lend Campus Gold will meet at «p m Sunday at •he Co Op Christian Ministry Officers will be installed and plans will be made lor the term the test Asian Society will meet a» IJ JO P m today in the EMU Future programs will be disc ussed The ASUO Senate Faculty Liaison Committee will meet at 7 p m In JtO EMU the ASUO lash Force will hold a public hearing on Senate reappor lionment at J JO p m today in lot EMU The ASUO Senate legal Affairs Com mittee will meet at J JO P m today in JtO EMU the ASUO Senate Governing Committee will meet at S JO p m Thursday in JIS EMU The ASUO Senate will meet a* J p m Thursday in 101 EMU State Sen Don Winner chairman of the Senate Environmental Committee during the l»>I legislative session will speeh on Environment and Politics in Oregon - at M) JO a m Thursday m la Science ESCAPE Tutors attention please ESCAPE I Seminar meeting place* and tunes are listed betow tor this wee* P E tutors contact ESCAPE office ent CIS I Special area Tutors Peart Ouch Thurs f 00 a' Jaf Condon Cel voung Tutors Wed 4 00 at »T EMU ESCAPE office Illahe Tutors Thurs f JO at JOSS Chambers ASUO Child Care Confer Wed A J a' J0*4 Ony. t JO J l t X at 11*1 Ctah coohmg Glass Tutors Wed f JO at loosing Glass Center Poosevell Tutors Wed * JO at JJJ t SCAPE Office Questions’ Call the ESCAPE office ect 4JSI or <ome up to JJJ EMU Page 4 Oregon resident can study out ot state at such places as Illinois State University. Normal. Ill . Towton State College. Baltimore. Md . West Chester state. West Chester Pa . end pay no out ot state tuition Go to room JIS EMU or call JtJI tor further information on National Student Exchange application deadline is February to a colloouim entitled "Pulsars" will be Ottered by Thomas Gotd ot Cornell Unlver sity at )» pm Thursday in l« Science Cottee and doughnuts will be served at 3: IS m the John Burney Lounge The International Program Committee will present a debate between Arab and isi aeti students an "The Nature ot Zionism" at 13 30p m Thursday m the EMU Anyone interested m working on future programs should contact the ASUO Executive Office or •he International Center in the EMU The ASUO IS taking applications tor live student positions on the Campus Recreation Cooromatmg Committee This committee will coordinate use ot facilities tor physical recreahon lor the entire campus Ap plications are available from the ASUO secrete* v in JO* A EMU Deadline lor ap plication is Tuesdov. Jan » "Cultural Shock Hour." an informal panel discussion ot cross cultural experience by •revellers horn deferent perts ot the world thursdev m me EMU Time end room to be posted The cosmopolitan club mviSee ad students to attend There will be an Introductory Lecture on Tienscendenlai Meditation 13 30 Wednesday as the EMU The Alternatives as Education Office has announced mat Feb a will be me last day to turn m Spring term course proposals tor search courses For apphcehan farms and morinat-on go to 30S EMU or cell ext Ijn Nead some exercise? SJimneshcs -every Wednesday n-ghl l|pm Gerlinger gym B Sa E >er yone welcome to come t*m me tun IN PERSON: HONEY CONE Slow aid Dance Friday Kite Jan. 21st Eifew* Nialioial Guard Armory Doors Open 9:30 pm $150 before 10pm $3.00 after
