Now before you rush to dash off an angry e-mail to us (Ava and C.I.), take a breath and grasp we're not making that argument, NPR did.
We firmly believe that rape and rape victims exist. We know they exist. We know women and men who have been raped. We also know that rape isn't "sex."
So we were appalled to learn that rape really doesn't exist as we listened to Morning Edition on NPR Friday -- specifically to this segment (link has audio and transcript).
The story was about what punishment film director Roman Polanski might or might not face for criminal actions in the seventies while in the United States. Criminal actions?
Renee Montagne introduced the segment explaining "a ruling [. . .] may put an end to the long-running sex case." Karen Grigsby Bates did a little better (not much) by explaining in her report that Polanski is "guilty to having had sex with an underage girl" over thirty-three years ago.
Grigsby Bates then brought on Loyola Law School professor Laurie Levenson. If Levenson said rape during her interview, it was edited out before broadcast. Grigsby Bates then noted that Polanski's attorneys portray "him as a victim." Robin Sax was then brought on as a legal expert but she also wasn't broadcast using the term "rape."
For over three minutes and thirty seconds, NPR repeatedly took a rape and turned it into "sex."
At Women's Web, Linda Lin explains the basics:
Rape has nothing to do with sex. Rape is purely an act of violence and control. Plain and simple, violence and control are the key goals of most rapists. The criminal wishes to control the victim and, most times, the criminal exerts that control through violence or threats or both at once. Only once one realizes that rape has nothing to do with sex can one finally come to understand what rape really is. Rape has never been about sex. When you hear a rapist claim that the act of rape was sex or consensual sex, right off the bat, you can pretty much guess that the criminal is fabricating a story. Rape is not about sex. Rape is not sex. There is nothing sexy at all about rape, and anyone can fall victim to it. Rape does not discriminate on the basis of physical appearance, clothing, nationality, age, religion, ability, status, class, or nationality. Rapists are criminals and they will rape anyone that they want to rape. However, there are things that you can do to lessen your chances of being that next victim. There are no guarantees -- just preparations and warnings.
Those are the basics but the basics repeatedly prove to be beyond the media. Over two years ago, Jennifer L. Pozner (Huffington Post) was decrying the media's refusal to grasp the difference between rape and sex:
On Thursday, in response to an unfortunately-headlined crime story, I wrote a blog post at WIMN's Voices titled, "Seriously, editors, how have you not gotten this yet? "Rape" is not "sex":
I am seriously tired of writing articles, op-eds and blog posts -- and arguing with reporters, editors, and cable news hosts -- about the journalistic responsibility to not describe non-consensual, criminal sexual assault as "rape" or "sexual assault," not simply "having sex."
And now it's our turn to point it out. Now we're not following the Polanski coverage, we skip it in the paper. If this hadn't aired on NPR, we'd probably be unfamiliar with it. But there it was Friday on NPR: Rape is sex.
After three hours and thirty seconds -- which included making the time to play a movie clip, Grigsby Bates finally ended her report with this, "A public outrage that a man who plied a 13-year-old girl with alcohol and drugs and then raped her might get off with only a few days served. It could all be decided today. Karen Grigsby Bates, NPR News."
It is rape. If you don't get that it's about power and not about sex, grasp that a young girl was given both booze and other drugs. Grasp that even after being drugged, she still said "no" -- repeatedly. It was rape.
And people will continue to confuse rape with sex until the news media makes real efforts to stop minimizing one (rape) by pretending it was the other.