Blog rethinking…

I’m thinking I’ll change the idea of this blog a little, since I no longer have my Feministing readers. In Australia, plowing through a zine library, I found some wonderful resources on feminist issues that I found myself wishing were discussed more in Japan, so I think I’ll translate some of this stuff here. I’ll be starting with these two lists of “Questions on Consent” and “Myths about Rape” that I found in zines and was able to locate on the internet after getting back.

Rape is kind of my soapbox I guess; I can’t believe how many people, both men and women, both Americans, Japanese, and many other kinds of people, still think that rape is the fault of the victim (many people don’t say it that way, but they still seem to think that a low-cut shirt or alcohol consumption on the part of the victim are mitigating circumstances), or that rape is sex.

sex is something two people do, folks.

I’m a bit shaken up because recently I’ve found myself defending the statement “rape is always wrong” to two of my best friends.

friend #1, Japanese male: “But your high rape rate in the U.S. is because of how loosely you define rape. The way American people think, just because the woman says no it’s rape. In Japan we have a more severe image of rape…[blah blah blah dramatic nonrepresentative image of rape]“

And when the woman says no and you keep on, you would call that exactly what please!?

For what it’s worth, while I have spent some time on this blog ranting about how bad women’s place in Japan is, this is about the worst I’ve encountered. This is not a mainstream view, I am pretty sure, but rather my unsually chauvinist friend making half-baked and unfair assumptions about his countrymen to justify his own attitude.

I’ve seen “culture” used to justify rape and other (quite culturally un-unique) forms of female oppression way too often. Learn to separate issues of culture from issues of human rights, world. The same myths about women saying no when they mean yes, and about men not being able to control their sexual appetite, exist everywhere. (Not to say that myths can’t become self-fulfilling if repeated often enough, just that there’s no underlying human truth to these ideas, only social conditioning.)

friend #2, American female: “I’m saying I think the fault is on BOTH sides. These women are trying to manipulate men anyway…I know people like this. Anyway, I would never get MYself raped.”

Said despite me and two college-aged males chorusing together to tell her how wrong she is. Then a 60s-or-so dude sitting near our party, who has not spoken to us until now, butts in and tells her she is saying what the rapists say at their trials. I’m still not sure if she listened… Conversation occurred in Sydney; points for the one Irish and two Australian males who were pushing how wrong victim-blaming is.

Maybe these destructive ideas ARE more mainstream than I would like to think, or does my radar somehow perversely seek out friends who will drive me mad on this topic?

Be watching for the “Questions on Consent” coming soon, 84 questions which I will translate in increments of 12.

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