Slashdot Mirror
The Mathematics of 'Legitimate Rape' and Pregnancy
Hugh Pickens writes "James Hamblin, MD writes in the Atlantic that it's unclear how common the misconception that women rarely become pregnant after rape may be, but remarks by Missouri Senatorial nominee Todd Akin that 'if it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try and shut that whole thing down' (video) may provide some benefit as a learning opportunity. 'From a holistic perspective, one might hypothesize that a woman's body could respond to the extreme stress and trauma of enduring rape in such a way that she would be physiologically more likely to miscarry (or not to conceive at all),' writes Hamblin. After all there is a multi-million dollar alternative reproductive health market aimed at optimizing an environment for conception so there could be something to a theory that the other, much darker end of that spectrum functions analogously. But that hypothesis doesn't hold, to any relevant degree. A widely-cited 1996 study from the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology sampled over 4,000 women and found that the rape-related pregnancy rate was 5.0 percent and studies from other countries have reported the percentage to be even greater."
>>>It's not punishment. It is a medical procedure. Furthermore, it is a medical procedure being performed on someone who is not you, therefore you have no say in the matter.
By that logic an American living in 1800 should be able to kill her slave.
After all it's just a "medical procedure" and since it's "not you" therefore you have no say in the matter. And yes I do consider the killing of human fetuses roughly equivalent to the killing of human slaves (it's the termination of a human organism, regardless of his or her age).
My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
What would be good for everyone would be to stop being pussies. Hype-generating journalist hook: the solution is violence.
Back in the day, circa pre-Jesus, rape was ALWAYS the woman's fault. Woman gets brutally beaten and raped, the town ties her up and stones her for adultery. You're a whore, bitch. Even as near as medieval times, once a woman was raped, she had no honor as a woman because she'd lost her virginity--no decent man would marry such a ruined tramp. Rape destroys a woman--not by being harmful, but by making her a worthless whorebag.
Today we like to ignore that an often repeated falsehood becomes true, especially in emotional matters. The more we talk about pit bulls, the more people are afraid of vicious pit bulls; they used to be America's favorite dog, kept to take care of and protect young children, best temperament of any animal you've ever seen. We tell rape victims they've been through a horrible ordeal until they believe it--several "victims" have gone decades facing a hard social life only to wake up one day and think, "You know... it wasn't THAT bad at the time... it really sunk in when the therapists started telling me how terrible it was and how much they'd help me..." and realize that they just swallowed it hook-line-and-sinker and BECAME the victim because that's what they were told. Magically, their emotional issues all evaporate.
And that's what rape is.
Rape is an imaginary construct we create in society to give us a collective sense of self-worth. We convince people it's so horrible so that when they get raped it DESTROYS them; then after WE harm them in this way, we attack the rapist to make ourselves feel good. The rapist is obviously evil; but by making him even MORE evil, we can show that we're really, REALLY doing something. In short: Society needs its demons.
The truth is rape is a bunch of groping and poking, a major annoyance. It's a form of assault. It can be less violent than a fist to the head, or it can be brutal and painful and in some cases fatal. In the end, though, it's just another annoying asshole or another severe beating. If women had that perspective drilled into their head instead of the whole "oh how horrible it will ruin your life" thing, they wouldn't wake up thinking "oh no my life is ruined it's so terrible!" and--again, AGAIN!!--blaming and punishing themselves. That this is still the victim's fault is a sign of a barbaric society, one that fancies itself "civilized" because it can hide its belief that the victim is responsible for the crime.
The solution is more violence. Rapists, like everyone else that harasses or assaults you, essentially need to be punched in the head. That's the solution. A woman shouldn't be breaking down crying thinking her life is being destroyed while she's being raped; she should be thrashing or patiently waiting for an opening, burning with fury looking for her chance to beat the senses from the asshole forcing himself upon her. She should feel a sense of relief or triumph when she escapes in tact, not a sense of shame and loss. What shameful thing has she done? What has she lost? She has been through an unfair ordeal and has survived it; especially if she's forced her assailant off her, then she should feel a great sense of victory and of justice. She should not bear responsibility for the terrible actions of others.
Support my political activism on Patreon.