Our Blood: Prophecies and Discourses on Sexual Politics

conviction; (2) eliminate the need for a rape victim to be physically injured to prove rape; (3) eliminate the need to prove lack of consent;

(4) redefine consent to denote “meaningful and knowledgeable assent, not mere acquiescence”; (5) lower the unrealistic age of consent; (6) eliminate as admissible evidence the victim’s prior sexual activity or previous consensual sex with the defendant; (7) assure that marital relationship between parties is no defense or bar to prosecution; (8) define rape in terms of degrees of serious injury. 39 These changes in the

rape law were proposed by the New York University Law

Clinical Program in Women’s Legal Rights, and you can find

their whole proposed model rape law in a book called Rape:

The First Sourcebook for Women, by the New York Radical

Feminists. I recommend to you that you investigate this proposal and then work for its implementation.

Also, we must, in order to protect ourselves, refuse to participate in the dating system which sets up every woman as a potential rape victim. In the dating system, women are defined

as the passive pleasers of any and every man. The worth of

any woman is measured by her ability to attract and please

men. The object of the dating game for the man is “to score. ”

In playing this game, as women we put ourselves and our wellbeing in the hands of virtual or actual strangers. As women, we must analyze this dating system to determine its explicit

and implicit definitions and values. In analyzing it, we will see

how we are coerced into becoming sex-commodities.

Also, we must actively seek to publicize unprosecuted cases

of rape, and we must make the identities of rapists known to

other women.

There is also work here for men who do not endorse the

right of men to rape. In Philadelphia, men have formed a

group called Men Organized Against Rape. They deal with

male relatives and friends of rape victims in order to dispel

belief in the myth of female culpability. Sometimes rapists who

are troubled by their continued aggression against women will

call and ask for help. There are vast educative and counseling

possibilities here. Also, in Lorton, Virginia, convicted sex

offenders have organized a group called Prisoners Against

Rape. They work with feminist task forces and individuals to

delineate rape as a political crime against women and to find

strategies for combating it. It is very important that men who

want to work against rape do not, through ignorance, carelessness, or malice, reinforce sexist attitudes. Statements such as “Rape is a crime against men too” or “Men are also victims

of rape” do more harm than good. It is a bitter truth that rape

becomes a visible crime only when a man is forcibly sodomized. It is a bitter truth that men’s sympathy can be roused when rape is viewed as “a crime against men too. ” These

truths are too bitter for us to bear. Men who want to work

against rape will have to cultivate a rigorous antisexist consciousness and discipline so that they will not, in fact, make us invisible victims once again.

It is the belief of many men that their sexism is manifested

only in relation to women—that is, that if they refrain from

blatantly chauvinistic behavior in the presence of women, then

they are not implicated in crimes against women. That is not

so. It is in male bonding that men most often jeopardize the

lives of women. It is among men that men do the most to

contribute to crimes against women. For instance, it is the

habit and custom of men to discuss with each other their sexual intimacies with particular women in vivid and graphic terms. This kind of bonding sets up a particular woman as the