motherjones:

Here’s your morning must-read:

The allegations were explosive when they first hit in 2007: A 20-year-old woman named Jamie Leigh Jones alleged that four days after going to work in Iraq for contracting giant KBR in July 2005, she was drugged and gang-raped by fellow contractors. She accused…

Between this and the IMF case things are looking particularly grim for rape survivors. I worry these high profile cases with make people think rape allegations are frivolous and not serious. But she was clearly too drunk to give consent even if it was otherwise consensual. She was taken advantage of unless she only had sex with that one guy and he was just as drunk as her and they both agreed…and even then it’s still rape because she was too drunk to give consent, it’s just the guy can’t really be blamed if they’re equally as drunk and both drunkly consented. And then people have drunken sex all the time and hook up… so should that be illegal and considered rape all the time? How do you know the other party is consenting? Should we just not have drunken hookups? I mean, I find the whole drunken hookup thing really icky, but should my idea of what’s ikcy for me dictate other people’s choices and what’s icky for them? Absolutely not. Some people like drunken hookups. More power to them. BUT YOU CAN’T GIVE CONSENT WHEN YOU’RE DRUNK SO THE WHOLE THING JUST CONFUSES ME AND I TRY TO STAY OUT OF IT. WE SHOULD ALL BE ABLE TO READ MINDS AND IF YOUR DRUNK THE MIND READING SHOULD EXTEND TO THE SOBER YOU AND THAT WOULD MAKE EVERYTHING BETTER. Oh, and also, drunk rape happens and you can be taken advantage of when you’re drunk even if the other person is equally drunk and everyone consents—I’m just also saying that’s confusing and murky because how do you know at the time and how do they know at the time and what do you do after. And if you’re too drunk to remember then you don’t remember saying yes or no and clearly you were too drunk to consent, but that’s confusing too. Sounds like the guy in this case remembers though, so LKJSFKLJDSLKFJSLDKJFLDKSJFLKSJFLJLSDKJFLSJDF<M. And do I sound like a total ignorant prat right now? You can tell me if I do. This is something I don’t fully grasp because yes, you can give too drunk to give consent, but some people like drunk sex and why should anyone dictate what they do? I guess I have two views that are contradictory and I don’t know how I bridge that. OH HEY, I SHOULD ASK THE CONSENSUAL TUMBLR BECAUSE CARMYN RIOS IS A BAMF. The whole thing just confuses me, and I’m just glad I don’t drink because I don’t have to worry about it. And wow, have I managed to get off topic.

Unfortunately, if you’re going to pursue rape charges you better be a saint because they’ll take your background apart and it’s often your word against theirs. While it’s good our justice system works in a way that errs on the side of caution and doesn’t throw you in jail if there’s doubt you’re innocent… at least in theory (which really means, if you’re white). Anyway, what do we do? Only the people involved know what transpired (well… not really). And yeah, victims have a low reporting rate and there are hardly ever false reports, but what if it’s that one case? And what if it takes that one case, or those two cases to discredit rape victims and put them under even more scrutiny and trauma? What do we do with this broken, inherently-flawed system?

I think Snape just needs to whip up some vertiserum. 

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   Seems like she was clearly raped, but had a bad lawyer initially who confused some things and had her go forward with a...

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