when people, particularly men, try to say that some kinds of rape aren't rape, or aren't real rape, or whatever. It upsets me to the point where I have to take a break. This is what has been bothering me with the Assange stuff. I think it's very possible he's being set up for political reasons, so I am skeptical of the charges against him, but it drives me crazy to hear the reasons people give for dismissing rape accusations. If it's true that she consented to sex, but then fell asleep and he penetrated her again while she was asleep, that just plain is rape. She might choose not to press charges, and maybe she's being pressured to for political reasons, I don't know, but that just plain is rape regardless. Our bodies belong to us. If we give permission for access once, that does not mean we relinquish control of our bodies from that point forward.

Aaaargh! I'm still very upset!

don't let it get you down. It's a unique and bizarre case, and I think people are having trouble reconciling the idea of Assange being persecuted with the idea that it means they're calling potential victims liars. It's easier on the brain to just say "it wasn't rape" and be done with it.

For what it's worth, I had trouble with the idea myself when the charges first made the press, because I couldn't fathom who would sleep naked with a guy they didn't know and weren't interested in having sex with. (as a matter of fact, I think I hollered "Are you kidding me? THIS is the best they could come up with??" at the computer) Later reports described the girl as young, inexperienced and somewhat of a naif. Then it made sense- of course, that's the kind of person who does that- one that isn't experienced enough to know better. Sometimes it helps to put things in a perspective that a person can grasp.

They literally have no idea how the female body works.

You have to invite them, or they can't get in.

Or, how far they are willing to go to control us, one or the other.

If women don't get pregnant during rapes, then rape as a weapon of war is completely ineffective. I should send those idiots the studies of life in the Sudan, Somalia, the Balkans (among several thousand other historical events) after rape was used to subjugate the population and divide communities.

How do they think that all the Highlanders in Scotland came to look like the invading Vikings? Maybe the Celtic women were just "asking for it"?