After watching weeks of dialogue in the letter pages about rape, some Sisters (including myself) weighed in on the topic this week to add more female voices to the matter at hand. I always think it so very egotistical when men discuss issues concerning women without the input of women in the process; much like when men make laws about what women can do with their bodies or how they should dress without so much as a word from a woman on the matter.
And then, of course, when women do insist on adding their input (almost always without invitation), there is the typical response equivalent to a patriarchal patronising pat on the back because women simply cannot possess the “analytical sophistication” necessary to take on these big bad problems that trouble the world.
(Oh, big strong male, would you please open that door for me since I am too small, weak and insignificant to open it myself?)
Instead, according to a male responder in the letter pages, the Sisters are to believe sophisticated analysis is actually playing games like “let’s push the blame,” which should be considered more relevant to a discussion on rape than for women to “trot out a statistic and elevate rape to a special category.” I beg to differ with that writer’s response.
The analysis of the statistics presented in the letter by the S4 Sisters concerning rape is as relevant as one man’s examination of a rape culture. In fact, the consideration
