While the Federal Bureau of Investigation is busy trying to apprehend criminals, the Feminist Majority Foundation is busy hectoring FBI Director Robert Mueller over the meaning of words:
No More Excuses: Change the Definition of Rape
Tell the FBI and Department of Justice:
It’s high time for the FBI to modernize their archaic definition of rape (“The carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will”) to reflect the reality of rape in the United States. Please update the Uniform Crime Report so that the definition of rape includes all victims. Every rape should be counted.
Because you see the problem isn’t criminals who commit rape. The problem is an “archaic definition” that doesn’t conform to what feminists are teaching in Women’s Studies programs.
Vanessa Valenti at Feministing whines that the FBI’s definition “hasn’t been updated since 1929” — i.e., during the Dark Ages of Patriarchal Oppression, when the FBI was more concerned with apprehending criminals than placating Women’s Studies majors. So now the Feminist Majority Foundation has set up a site that lets disgruntled harridans hector the FBI director with a single click that sends him this form letter:
Dear FBI Director Robert Mueller,
I was shocked to learn that the FBI uses an archaic definition of rape (“The carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will”) to gather statistics for the Uniform Crime Report. This definition, drafted more than 80 years ago, is problematic for many reasons, chief among them that it excludes victims of forced anal or oral sex, rape with an object, statutory rape, and male rape. Moreover, this definition is often used by law enforcement to exclude rapes of women whose ability to give consent has been diminished by drugs or alcohol.
This poses several problems:
1. This archaic definition of what constitutes “real rape” affects perception of the crime by law enforcement, and likely impacts the treatment of rape victims
2. With such an incomplete description, the FBI has undercounted rapes by hundreds of thousands of cases, resulting in an inaccurate understanding of the scope of the problem.
3. Without accurate rape statistics, allocation of funding to (and within) local law enforcement to combat and investigate crime will be misdirected away from this terrible crime.
It’s high time for the FBI to recognize this error and modernize the definition to reflect the reality of rape in the United States. Please update the Uniform Crime Report so that the definition of rape includes all victims. Every rape should be counted.
I look forward to your reply.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
You see that their major grievance is that the current definition of rape doesn’t generate enough statistical victims. In other words: Forget about preventing or punishing crime, let’s argue over a “perception” which needs to be “modernized.”
We find this same message repeated at Ms. magazine, by a student writer for the University of Arizona Daily Wildcat, and at Mother Jones magazine (which throws in some gratuitous GOP-bashing for good measure). This is straight out of the Alinsky playbook: Locate a grievance, rally a “movement” to protest the grievance, demonize all opposition, and then — after officials knuckle under to the protests — claim victory on behalf of the aggrieved victims:
“See? Our movement is powerful, necessary and relevant. If it weren’t for our collective activism, the FBI would still be using an ‘archaic’ definition of rape. Sign up now and send us your tax-deductible contributions!”
Feminists are seldom called out and criticized for their tactics because people are afraid of being called “sexist” or — even worse — accused of being “pro-rape.”
This isn’t about rape, nor about law enforcement, but rather it’s about politicizing crime. Never mind the limitations of the 1929 definition (does anyone use the phrase “carnal knowledge” nowadays?), this is an opportunity for feminists to flaunt themselves as the Vanguard of Progress, to remind their cohorts that there is “still important work to be done” on the road to the Utopia of Equality and Social Justice.
“National Offend a Feminist Week” starts Monday — and obviously, these feminists have been begging for it.
In dealing with people who seem committed to Not Getting It, arguing on their turf and offering prescriptive answers buys little. Who likes to hear the ideologue that sounds more intent on convincing himself than anything else? Go at them with questions and a bit of humor, and let them lead themselves to water. Perhaps they’ll drink. Porn? I can’t lay any claim to sainthood, but I haven’t had the attention span for that or video games in many years.
