Back around 1975, I did a student internship as PR person for an outfit called Pittsburgh Action Against Rape (PAAR). I was relatively young and cute and the media then was far more locally-oriented and open to discussion of diverse ideas -- and they found me an engaging personality.
I got tons of radio and TV bites and managed to engage the media -- and the public -- into an open-minded discussion of the issue. A number of prominent persons changed their minds and their perceptions on rape. A number did not and remained stupid but those sorts were on their way out of the media industry.
In the same era I also managed to get myself booted out of a courtroom when a judge opined that a woman riding a bicycle was asking for rape and I loudly protested. I don't believe he lasted very long in the judiciary after that ugly disclosure of his stupidity and ignorance.
I thought the war against women had been won to some extent and I moved on to other issues.
Alas, it was not to be so. About ten years later a scholar at the University of Pennsylvania named Ilsa Lokke Lotte did a paper: PREDICTORS OF ATTITUDES TOWARD RAPE IN A COLLEGE POPULATION (GENDER ROLES, SEXUAL IDEOLOGY, UNITED STATES), published January 1, 1986.
I was completely unaware that this was going on because I thought the issue was settled.
According to Lotte's abstract:
The specific attitudes considered--referred to as "victim-callous" rape attitudes--were (a) Women enjoy sexual violence, (b) Sex rather than power is the primary motivation for rape, (c) Women are responsible for rape prevention, (d) Rape happens only to certain kinds of women, (e) Women falsely report many rape claims, (f) A woman is less desirable after she has been raped, and (g) Rape is justified in some situations.
Had I been awake and aware, I would have been utterly shocked by the possibility of
"victim-callous" rape attitudes seeming to be in existence on the campuses of United States universities.
Lotte's paper looked at:
Variables assessing sexual experience, egalitarian gender role beliefs, adversarial sexual beliefs, macho personality, and attitudes toward female sexuality, homosexuality, extramarital sex, and premarital sex...
Now, this is the year 2013, nearly 20 years after Lotte's paper and we are still at the God-damned same old same old.
What the hell is wrong with our miserable and violent culture? When are we going to grow up and have mature attitudes?
Oh, and we are now saddled with a so-called "fair and balanced" media that insists that every issue has two sides that must be treated as absolutely equal.
Blaming the victim is wrong!
"Victim callous" attitudes about rape are wrong!
There are no two ways about it, end of story!