Women's Reactions to Rape

I've flagged this message as a reply to Crashfrog, but I am really targetting quite a few people.Where to start? Well, Crash's comment seems as good a place as any. The fact that you can't imagine this situation demonstrates that you don't realise just how common it is, or why. Look back at Lam's comments about women being more careful about who they hang out with. Doesn't that look suspiciously like suggesting the woman was partly to blame by being friends with someone who then rapes her? Now, maybe that wasn't exactly what Lam was trying to say, but it sure comes across as that.Or how about your ideas of women doing more self defence? Does that mean that its the woman's fault for not learning self defence? Is it a case of "Well, if she'd bothered to learn karate it wouldn't have happened"?How do you think the police would react to a woman who has killed someone by shooting them and says "It was self defence - he tried to rape me". Consider this, even when a rape has taken place, its damned difficult to prove and get a conviction. How easy will it be to prove attempted rape? OK, the guy is lying dead at her feet, but you're missing any forensic evidence of rape because it didn't happen. It was prevented. So, instead of being raped, the woman could find herself on a murder charge and be facing life in prison. Gee, that's a step forward.Some of you have commented on how women react to rape and that they don't fight back hard enough. Would it surprise you to know that the harder you fight back, the more serious your injuries are likely to be and you still end up raped? I can't give you a reference for this, but I'll have a web hunt later. Women do struggle and try to fight off their attacker, but there comes a point where they realise that its futile and if they want to get out of the situation alive they do as they're told. You're forgetting thatwhen a woman is attacked like this, the overriding thought isn't "I don't want to be raped". Rape hardly comes into their thoughts. Its more like "Oh God, I don't want to die". That's where women are at when they're raped. They think they're going to be KILLED, MURDERED. With that in mind, are you surprised that they stop fighting? They're trying to survive. They will do whatever it takes to come out of this alive. Only later do the consequences of the rape hit home, then some smart arse says "You should choose your friends more carefully"!!! Strewth.Many of you here are pontificating about how a woman should react when threatened with rape without even realising that, in a situation like that, women think they are being threatened with murder. You think its different from serious violence. Not only that, but you have never had to face the threat of death, imminent death, with no-one there to help you. How dare you make sweeping statements about how a woman should behave in that situation when you have no idea what the situation is like when you're in it and you're on your own?Women are all too aware that, with few exceptions, men are much physically stronger than women. They are also aware that if they unsuccessfully try to use some half-remembered and rusty self defence they'll only make matters worse. If doing as they're told instead of fighting gives them a slight chance of survival, then they'll do what they're told.Before anyone has a go at me and says I'm pontificating as well, let me assure you I'm not. I'm telling you how it was for ME!!! So you can take your suggestions of choosing friends more carefully, or using self defence to make a bad situation worse and you can shove them where you seem to be keeping your brains! You see, I may not have stopped the rape, but I came out of it ALIVE and I came out of it without being disfigured or mutilated, something I would have had to look at EVERY day of the remainder of my life.I'm really quite angry about some of the comments on this thread, but I don't tend to bear a grudge and I do understand that some of you don't realise just what is involved in a situation like this. I'm not out to blast anyone out of the water - I just want to make some of you think a bit before you make sweeping generalisations again.'Nuff said