The Political Memoir of a Feminist Militant

the larger part of my adult life listening to stories of rape. At

first I listened naively, surprised that a woman walking down

the street on a bright and sunny day, someone I real y did not

know, could, after a greeting, launch into a sickening, detailed

story of a rape that had happened to her. The element of surprise never entirely went away, but later I would be certain to steel myself, balance my body, try to calm my mind. I couldn’t

move, I could barely breathe - I was afraid of hurting her, the

one woman, by a gesture that seemed dismissive or by a look

on my face that might be mistaken for incredulity.

Most of the rapes were unreported; some were inside families; each rape was in some sense a secret; one woman and then one woman and then one woman did not think she would be

believed. The political ground in society as a whole was not

welcoming. The genius of the New York Radical Feminists

was that they organized a speak-out on rape in the early 1970s

before anyone was prepared to listen. They paved the way.

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One Woman

The genius of Susan Brownmil er’s book Against Our Will:

Men, Women and Rape was that it gave rape a history. The

genius of the women’s movement was in demanding that rape

be addressed as a social policy issue. A consequence of that

demand was legal reform, some but not enough. The rules of

evidence shamelessly favor the accused rapist(s) and destroy the

dignity of the rape victim. The rape victim is stil suspect - this

is a prejudice against women as deep as any antiblack prejudice. She lied, she lied, she lied: women lie. The bite marks on her back show that she liked rough sex, not that a sexual predator had chewed up her back. That she went with her school chum to Central Park and her death - she was strangled with

her bra - proved that she liked rough sex. One woman was

tortured and raped by her husband; he was so arrogant that

he videotaped a half hour, including his use of a knife on her

breasts. The jury, which had eight women on it, acquit ed -

they thought that he needed help. He. Needed. Help.

In the old days - or, to use the beautiful black expression,

“back in the day” - it was presumed that the woman was

sexually provocative or was trying to destroy the man with a

phony charge of rape. Now in the United States the question

is repeated ad nauseam: is she credible? For this question to

have any meaning, one would have to believe that rapists

pick their victims based on the victims' credibility. “Oh, she’s

credible; I'l rape her. ” Or, “No, she’s not credible; I’l wait

until a credible one comes by. ”

115

Heartbreak

The raped woman stil stands accused in the media, especial y if she has named the rapist. For one woman to say 'I was raped' is easier than for one woman, Juanita Broderick,

to say “I was raped by William Jefferson Clinton. ' Ms.

Broderick told us that she was raped and by whom; no one

has held him accountable in any way that matters.