“ They just don’t feel safe disclosing that to you.”
Are you a member of the Church of the Presumptuous Assumption? Because that assertion certainly qualifies as one. What makes you think women don’t feel safe around me? The women I am close with got a good laugh out of that one.
You’d be surprised by the deep, dark secrets people are willing to share with me. I don’t know why. Part of it I suppose, is that I am good at keeping their confidence. That can’t be the whole story, however; the rest is a mystery.
The first time my wife and I met, she invited me into her apartment, alone. We had only had one prior phone conversation. Later, she told me that she had never done that before. She always chose a public place when meeting men for the first time. She said that she somehow knew from my voice on the phone that I could be trusted.
Women feel safe around me. I don’t know why; they just do.
The rest of your response is the same feminist narrative that I have read umpteen godzillion times on Medium and elsewhere. I have it memorized. I am also aware of the dissenting narratives that non-feminists have advanced. I have drawn my conclusions as you have drawn yours.
“ I can smell your next rhetorical question (“what does rape culture even mean??”). ”
First a presumptuous assumption and now phantom odors? No, I have no reason to ask what the term “rape culture” means. It is part of the narrative mentioned above that I have memorized and can repeat in my sleep. I would never engage in some pointless argument about whether there is or isn’t a “rape culture.” It would only descend into a Monty Python Argument Clinic.
The term itself — “rape culture”- strikes me as ideological jargon.
My initial response was to your request for evidence — not proof, just evidence — that rape is taken seriously. I maintain that a state law that regards rape as a serious violent felony constitutes evidence. I am not interested in convincing you to believe that rape is “taken seriously.” It is your prerogative to use your own judgment and draw your own conclusion. I intended to fulfill your request; nothing more.
My last post was an answer to the genuine question that you posed:
“Another genuine question — what’s your assessment of why that is?”
I offered my thoughts and identified them as speculative because they are. You asked me for my thoughts and that is what I gave you. I had no interest in convincing you of anything.
I don’t know whether rape is taken seriously or not. As I said before, in an ideal world every rapist would be convicted and sentenced to a substantial prison term. The same fate would befall every criminal, in an ideal world. If you believe you can bring that world about, I wish you luck in that endeavor.
I am aware that the criminal justice system has its flaws. I wrote a comment on that issue recently:
One reason law enforcement officers may challenge the veracity of rape accusations might be to weed out situations like this one:
I still wonder how so many rapists end up serving time in prison if district attorneys are neglecting to prosecute them.
