What’s in a Name?

(I know I am going to be vilified for this post ... my wife has already expressed her strong disapproval. But I have decided to go with the excuse that the devil made me do it.)

Still smell as sweet?

Two scenarios:

1)     A female jogger is passing some bushes on her early morning constitutional. Out from behind this copse steps a burly male miscreant with a sharp knife, who quickly grabs this woman by the hair and, putting the knife to her throat, tells her not to scream or he will kill her. He then proceeds to pull her behind the bushes and slices off her jogging shorts and sports bra, severely cutting her in the process. Then, forcing her arms behind her back, for the next half hour, he fornicates with her … leaving her bloody and terrified. This attacker is later identified by the victim in a police line-up.

2)     A female college student asks a history-class male colleague out for coffee. They have a great mind-melding conversation which lasts well into the evening. Coffee leads to cocktails and some Buffalo wings. Then the male suggests that he has some great Pinot Noir back in his dorm room which is enthusiastically agreed on. After two bottles of same, this male retrieves some porn on his computer which they both find quite compelling. After some heavy petting and kissing, they both groggily undress and climb into bed … and, without getting her explicit permission; the male has his way with his classmate … after which they both fall asleep. But in the morning the female member of this tryst, not remembering all the details of the night before, has a bad case of remorse. Two weeks later she files charges against this classmate.

The legal charges in both instances are the same … rape … and the legal punishment and social ostracizing for each male, if found guilty in a court of law, can also be essentially the same. Unfortunately when society uses words to embrace broader circumstances … they are then corrupted and their true meaning can disappear.

To my mind this new notion of “rape” is a false and prejudicial equivalence … driven by the militant feminists. Are we all nuts? Can we as a society not differentiate between these two circumstances? To paraphrase Mark Twain when he commented about how to describe things … choosing the right word is like the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.

Afterward: Life imitates art ... see: Roanoke News.