Raped At Knifepoint And Knocked Up: Awww, How Sweet!
Lou Colagiovanni writes at Examiner.com about another hoof in mouth from another Missouri Republican -- this time, a "high-ranking state Republican," Sharon Barnes (with a bunch of Republican party titles/associations at the link). Barnes, most charmingly, told the New York Times that god sometimes chooses to "bless" a rape victim with a pregnancy.
She obviously stole that from an episode of Reno 911.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYZ9D4L2wZc
Meloni at August 22, 2012 8:29 AM
A lot of people do feel that way. I look at my amazing kids, and know there is no way that anything that came before them could make me wish they didn't exist. I can not fathom the mentality of someone who could look at an amazing little human being and think only that the amazing little human being was specially sent to remind them of a rape.
It's in no way saying rape is a good thing. It's saying something good can come out of it. Looking for the good in things isn't stupid or cruel.
momof4 at August 22, 2012 9:58 AM
"It would not be long before I would learn firsthand that in the vast majority of states -- 31 -- men who father through rape are able to assert the same custody and visitation rights to their children that other fathers enjoy. When no law prohibits a rapist from exercising these rights, a woman may feel forced to bargain away her legal rights to a criminal trial in exchange for the rapist dropping the bid to have access to her child."
http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/22/opinion/prewitt-rapist-visitation-rights/index.html
Haven't been able to read in it's entirety yet, but seems interesting and related to this whole situation.
Meloni at August 22, 2012 10:50 AM
As someone whose first sexual experience was being raped at fourteen, I have "issues" with rape. I have never had either a baby or an abortion. If I had gotten pregnant, I don't know what I would have done at the time.
I did realize years later that I have no inclination to allow the genetic line of a rapist to continue through me.
That being said, I also think that if Akin holds certain principles, for instance that abortion is never acceptable, period, then he should just say so. I wouldn't vote for him, but I wouldn't feel the contempt that this "I misspoke" bullshit and equivocation always brings.
Pricklypear at August 22, 2012 11:34 AM
It's a Red State Rootin'-Tootin' Rapin' Rampage!
ANYTHING to take the heat off Mittens and his refusal to deliver his tax returns.
Quick, somebody blame Obama.
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at August 22, 2012 12:50 PM
I heard from some guy on the internet that if it was legitimate rape you couldn't get pregnant.
NicoleK at August 22, 2012 1:00 PM
Oh, and was this ever discussed here?
http://www.motherjones.com/mixed-media/2011/05/venn-diagram-rape-vs-flat-tire
Namely, when Kansas Republican Pete DeGraaf said that women should "plan ahead" for being raped and possibly impregnated against their will. (He compared being raped to getting a flat tire.)
lenona at August 22, 2012 3:25 PM
Namely, when Kansas Republican Pete DeGraaf said that women should "plan ahead" for being raped and possibly impregnated against their will.
Changing a tire requires a tool. So, maybe for rape, this is something a woman should have. You know, for the eventuality.
http://preview.tinyurl.com/3ga4cew
Steve Daniels at August 22, 2012 3:50 PM
"I look at my amazing kids, and know there is no way that anything that came before them could make me wish they didn't exist. I can not fathom the mentality of someone who could look at an amazing little human being and think only that the amazing little human being was specially sent to remind them of a rape."
Yes but how much of that feeling comes from the fact that you a) your children were planned and wanted b) the father is your husband who you love and c) you're an adult who is mentally, emotionally, and financially able to care for a child?
I very much doubt that if you were raped and impregnated tomorrow, you'd be just as thrilled and excited for that baby as you were for the first four. Or that your husband would be equally happy to raise a rapist's child as he was his own.
What if having that baby meant that your husband would divorce you? Or put you in a financial situation where you couldn't pay your kids' medical bills or keep a roof over their heads or put food on the table? And what if this all happened when you were 13 or 14 and completely unprepared in every way to birth or raise a child? Still a blessing? Still worth it?
Shannon at August 22, 2012 3:57 PM
#4 wasn't planned. Wanted, yes, but not planned. And having been raped at 14 by a 21 year old-I was a virgin-I have the right to talk about this. Nice try though.
I know my hubby would raise any kid of rape as his own. I assume you are suggesting that babies should be killed because some men are neanderthals? Pretty enlightened of you.
I've never looked at my kids and thought "look at my husbands' genetic line-ain't it grand!". I see MY kids. The ones grown in MY body and delivered and nourished by ME. Honestly the male component is pretty abstract. They are all my hubby's, and I love him, but I'd love them no matter what. I'd kill for my kids. I would not kill for my man. That's a really selfish thought process for me, genetically speaking, but it's true. I can't fathom any other way to be. I would never starve or let my kids not have food on their table. Failure simply isn't in my vocabulary. If I have to walk the street corners, that's what I'd do. I'd clean public toilets with my tongue to feed MY kids, to quote my mom.
If I were 13, and had a kid (and remember, I spent some weeks at 14 thinking I might) then that baby sure as hell would have been a blessing to a couple wanting a baby. Life is always worth it IMO. Because I simply can't look at one baby from another (any baby) and think "You, baby B, should not exist".
momof4 at August 22, 2012 9:01 PM
I would not kill for my man.
What does this mean? 'Cause I sure as hell would kill for my woman.
Steve Daniels at August 22, 2012 9:27 PM
It means he's a capable adult and I would not commit murder for him. Simple.
momof4 at August 23, 2012 5:52 AM
IMO, it doesn't matter to me whether a rape victim with resulting pregnancy carries to term or not. What matters to me is that society shouldn't get to decide for her.
Meloni at August 23, 2012 9:28 AM
I have heard someone say that women are pretty good at figuring out what they can and cannot handle. Some people have a combination of physical and mental health, support from family or friends, and economic wherewithal to carry or raise a child. Others do not.
When I was younger, I did not have it in my to carry or raise a child. I had physical and mental health issues. I had an abusive family and no friends to support me. I was poor.
I also would not have wanted to explain the "gray" way that I got pregnant. Was it a "legitimate" rape? Surely not. I had broken up with my boyfriend. He stopped to visit and talk. He hoped that we could be friends, but he kept trying to kiss me. I told him to leave. He did, but when I said, "Don't be mad." he run back at me. I couldn't get the door locked in time. He forced it open. He looked wild. He even smelled wierd. Was he on steroids? Was it roid rage? I don't know. I tried to appease him. He was a bodybuilder. No one was at my home. I doubted that anyone was even in the neighborhood. I refused to kiss him, but he kept grabbing me. Finally, I jacked him off hoping that it would be the fastest way to just get him out of the house. I was frightened. Afterwards, he scooped up his cum and laughed as he inserted it in me. Yup. I got pregnant. I had an abortion and have never regreted my decision.
Now my life is fairly stable. I feel like i could handle just about anything. At the time though, I believe a pregnancy would have broken me. As it was I developed rhuematic fever andI ended up sleeping in my car and going hungry when I lost my job the following month.
Maybe this is the solution to "legitimate" rape. http://articles.cnn.com/2010-06-20/world/south.africa.female.condom_1_female-condoms-ehlers-south-africa?_s=PM:WORLD
Jen at August 23, 2012 9:20 PM
I just stumbled on this comment from Youtube - it's from yesterday or so. I sort of hate to quote it, given that it comes from a group of hotheaded fans of a hotheaded MRA psychologist, but then, "you have to beat them to the punch."
http://www.youtube.com/all_comments?v=NoVxq47GmxM
"Legitimate" Rape?
Commentator:
''Rape is rape'' is such an unbelievably stupid phrase. Even for the worst crime possible, murder, we have a plethora of laws and punishments based on a variety of factors. But we're supposed to just want to kill or castrate anyone who is even accused of rape, because rape is the worst thing that can happen to anyone.......right. It boggles the mind. They'll say ''rape is rape'', but when a woman murders her children they don't say ''murder is murder'', they say she needs help.
DerReisendeGaijin 1 day ago
lenona at August 24, 2012 11:38 AM
I can not fathom the mentality of someone who could look at an amazing little human being and think only that the amazing little human being was specially sent to remind them of a rape.
I can.
First off if a woman is impregnated by her rapist then that means that all the complications that she may go through (and even if there are no complications pregnancy is a pretty serious experience on a woman's body) are directly the result of her rapist. Unlike a woman that plans on a child and knows that she is doing it because she wants it, a rape victim quite literally is in a situation of "he did this to me".
Once that child is born genetically speaking and experience wise speaking that child is going to be a reminder of being raped just as a child born of consensual sex would be a reminder of the consensual experiences she had with her guy.
And as someone said above I'm not a woman but I can totally understand a woman saying that she would not want to face a rapist continuing his genetic line through her (and in cases of women being raped by men that would quite literally be "through her").
Danny at August 26, 2012 4:38 PM
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