Naomi Wolf: Assange Case corrupt; video interview

Jeremy Paxman talks to Naomi Wolf about rape. It is surely a good thing that this issue is being discussed throughout society. It is complicated.  George Galloway says once a woman (or man I assume) agrees to enter in to consensual sex and then the next morning her lover attempts again to have intercourse, she can't expect to have permission verbally asked for first.  I sort of agree with that agreeing more with how Wolf puts it that there has to be an understanding in some form that it is OK and that "no" would normally arise and should be respected no matter what has preceeded.

But then consent is a t this later as I was just hanging laundry and couldn't stop thinking about this.  ricky subject in itself.  In society it has been that a woman's obligation was to satisfy a mans sexual needs, it still is in some societies. That she can't say no.  This appears to be consent by state decree and is not consent at all.  I remember when Mike Tyson was accused of rape and a woman I knew had an argument with me taking his side.  "What did she expect going up to his room at three in the morning?" she told me. All I could say was that I don't care if she said "yes" 50 times, but when she said "no" you have to stop.

I know that the statistics regarding rape are astonishing including the lack of prosecution of cases and as we saw with the Strauss Kahn case, a working class woman against one of the most powerful men in the world, they get dragged through the coals. 

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I am adding this as I was hanging laundry and couldn't stop thinking about this issue.  It is pretty obvious to anyone in most cases that when someone wants you to cease doing something you stop doing it.  But look at the movies, especially the older one but the trend continues in today's media.  The woman is always pursued and resists initially like she should, maybe a kiss or an attempt to embrace her or touch.  But gradually, the man's persistence wins out, she concedes and goes from pulling back to that initial kiss.  How many times have we seen that in the movies?

But this is mental and physical coercion although it's treated as normal behavior, it is the way we are "supposed" to behave.  This has a profound affect on how men, especially young men approaching adulthood are supposed to behave, are supposed to approach courtship and/or act out their sexual feelings. I knew someone once who lied to women and told them he was an Iraq veteran in order to gain their sympathy and make the conquest a little easier.  That's rape.  Isn't it?