Responding Post

This week's readings the authors Brownmiller and Crenshaw through analyzing rape vitcims and women of color who have been abuse/rape both suggest that these issues should be taken into a greater content-- whether political or intersectionality--rather than on an individual level. They both see these issues to not only having to do with females but in a larger connection to social structures such masculinity, race/gender, and patriarchy. Brownmiller analyzed how the threat of rape has functioned to support/affirm males' masculinity and dominance by keeping women in fear. Crenshaw examined the   violence towards women of color in three categories: structural, political, and implication intersectionality; she also illustrated the interaction between race, gender, and socioeconomic class with violence against women of color (explaining the multiple burdens women of color have to uphold because of their race, gender, and class) . 

From this week's readings, I was especailly interested in Brownmiller's piece because it reminded me of a documentary I seen during my sophomore year in high school. I do not remember the name of the documentary but it was about several men who have been wrongly convicted for crimes that they did not do and how DNA testing has helped prove their innocence, although they have already severed many years in jail.

This clip above that was part of 60 minutes was one of the cases the documentary focus on. This segment of 60 minutes challenges the reliability of eyewitness evidence oppose to more tangible evidence. The story covers the journey of a black man who was falsely accused and convicted for allegedly raping a white women who identified him as her raper. Brownmiller acknowledge how the threat of rape and other ways have skewed the power towards men; however, it is interesting to see how in a rape case, the women can also have the power, especially since the a raped victim's words are more powerful than the guys sincere denial of the crime.

The two rationals that float around the air "women are trained to be rape victims...girls get raped. Not boys" and "women want to be raped" act together as a justification and normalizes why females get raped (more often then males). Society teaches the threat of rape and males (and some females) internalize the idea that the female is asking for it. The argument that the woman is asking for it blows my mind. What kind of society do we live in to think that there are people asking to be raped? If someone asks to be raped, then is it still called raped?