Rape: the crime of forcing someone to have sex by using violence.

MAINLY JOURNALISM: the harm or destruction caused by using a place, especially an area of land, in an unsuitable way.

a plant with bright yellow flowers that is used for feeding animals or making oil

You rape the soil. You rape conquests of war. You rape women. You sew rape. You snog-rape. You rape with your eyes. You date rape. The press rape you. Simulated rape-fucks. S&M porn stars accusing each other of rape. You Frape.

Does ‘rape’ really have the impact it used to have?

Rape is a word that women use a lot. Men don’t use the word as much outside of jocular jest, extreme insult and agriculture/logging. When women tend to use the word rape, it seldom refers to the definition of rape. Few women know what rape actually feels like. Yet women repeatedly refer to any annoyance or intrusion in their life as the feeling of being raped.

Charlize Theron reported feeling raped by the press. This was surprising, since having played the role of a rape victim in a film and won an Oscar for the role, Charlize still did not comprehend the difference between an actual violent sexual assault and a story in the press about her.

Maria Schneider felt ‘a little raped’ both by Marlon Brando and by Italian director Bertolucci after being convinced to perform a scene in the The Last Tango In Paris. How can a woman ever feel ‘a little raped’ by two men over the manner in which she was asked to perform her job?

A drunk rape activist gets into the shower with a stranger in South Africa and is shocked that sex occurs. And this person is supposed to be giving advice to rape victims and helping to put a stop to rape permanently? Would you listen to her? Did she not consider her own personal safety before getting into a shower with someone who she knew wanted sex with her? The man is obviously criminally responsible for his actions, but it is definitely the stupid woman’s fault for having gotten herself in the situation from the start.

Rebecca Traister says consensual sex can still be bad if the element of initiation and role control are taken by the male. In other words, for Rebecca, only sex initiated by and controlled by the female should be considered legal consensual sex.

Emma Watson voluntarily appeared in a film where the men were joking about raping her. It’s incredulous that a large pay packet managed to sway her opinion and appear in such a film being a UN ambassador for women.

Another woman writes after a mutual anger fuck while arguing with her partner. He ejaculates in her without her consent and claims to have been ‘sort-of-raped.’ she states ‘Now that I’ve taken a small sip at the cup of rape, I understand just how terrible it is to have another human being rob me of agency, and mark my body as their domain. It has taught me to look beyond troubled legal definitions of “rape” and instead focus on how victims feel. (http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/mar/05/my-boyfriend-sort-of-raped-me-and-i-didnt-even-break-up-with-him)

It is for these reasons that it is important that we do not focus on how the victims of rape feel. One must assume that any person being a victim of rape will feel pretty much the same. Is it right the redefine the meaning of an established word because it doesn’t feel inclusive enough? Are words not supposed to convey specific ideas and not general moods? Does the person in question who wants to use the word ‘rape’ really appreciate the severity that the word ‘Rape’ is supposed to carry?

Recently a UK radio presenter was taken to court over a historic ‘Snog-rape’ perpetration on a 15 year old girl who asked for a kiss. Her main issue was not the kiss, but that once the kiss was completed, the famous dj walked away from her without another though. She testified in court that she felt bad about herself as if she had done something wrong.

A man should never have to be accused of sexual assault because a woman was not left emotionally fulfilled after a sexual encounter. As the judge in this case concluded ‘I don’t doubt the reliability of the witnesses claims. I just don’t think an actual crime was committed.’

As of late, I’ve taken to asking men I encounter through work and socially what their reaction to rape is. I have not encountered any men who have strong feeling toward rape. It appears that women crying rape or sexual assault over the smallest of indiscretions has left it’s mark on the male psyche.

When figures such as 850,000 reports to the police of sexual assault with regards to an adult male population in the UK of 25,000,000 over the age of 16, we can see why most males today don’t really have much reaction to the word ‘rape’. When a word is used too often, it loses its meaning and it’s impact. When women accuse all men of being sexual abusers, males assume that sexual abuse is the norm.

Now that ‘rape’ becomes the norm and even gay man have been unjustly accused of some type of sexual assault against a woman, no wonder men no longer react with revulsion at the term. When women can accuse men of rape and ruin their careers without even reporting the alleged crime to the police and universities are expected to handle cases of sexual assault and ban accused males from studies without a charge being laid by police, we approach dangerous territory.

‘Rape’ has lost its impact. This is what happens when we cry wolf.

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