Mirren

[ewx]

Does anyone agree with Helen Mirren? Or Anne Widdecombe (do the Conservatives reject the label “the party of law and order” now then?)

What's she asking for? A cup of tea?

...well, why not? Hasn't she heard the REM song?

Comments

[j4.livejournal.com]

Would anybody dare say so if they did agree with her?

[ewx.livejournal.com]

A number of people I know do seem to be quite willing to publicly espouse controversial viewpoints when they genuinely agree with them (or for that matter just feel they've not been adequately convinced to disagree with them).

[j4.livejournal.com]

There's controversial viewpoints, and then there's anything related to the r-word.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

True. We shall see or, er, not.

[sonicdrift.livejournal.com]

If there was anybody who honestly thought that a woman going into a man's room is automatically consenting to sex I kind of hope they would say so, and I think the reaction they got would be deserved. I really hope there isn't much controversy there and it's just Anne Widdecombe being Anne Widdecombe.

[(Anonymous)]

Just in case silence would be taken as assent: no, of course I don't think going into someone's room is automatically consenting to sex with them.

[j4.livejournal.com]

Gnnghhh, that was me, LJ FAIL.

[sonicdrift.livejournal.com]

Ah, but obviously if you don't respond to this post you like stomping on kittens :-)

[ewx.livejournal.com]

pls post more "meow meow SPLAT" MP3s. kthxbai.

[lnr]

Considering it there are probably quite a few different scenarios where you could be getting naked and interested together, one of you says "no", and then sex takes place anyway. I'm not sure I would necessarily consider all of them to be rape if they happened to me, and I think in many of them I too wouldn't get the police or the courts involved even if I did feel violated, and not just because it would be a case of one person's word against another's.

So despite my immediate gut reaction that she's wrong I think I actually agree with her more than I first realised.

[beckyc.livejournal.com]

Is that just how you would/may feel in that circumstance though, or how you would expect/hope/similar other people would/should/may feel in similar circumstance?

[I suspect that interviews of someone saying the former could easily be twisted to appear to be saying the latter, which could be unfortunate. I have been wondering if that is what has happened here.]

[lnr]

Oh I absolutely recognise that there are situations which I might not feel violated in but which someone else would, and would support their claim to have been raped. And if they wanted to press charges I'd support them even if I'd not do the same for myself, yes.

I think there are probably some *very* hard (and rare) edge cases where someone feels raped even though the perpetrator couldn't have been expected to realise it would have that affect. In which case I'd feel pretty sorry for both parties.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

I don't think anyone's suggesting that people be forced to prosecute - Helen Mirren's remarks are being interpreted (fairly or otherwise!) as suggesting that in some instances they shouldn't be able to invoke the law.

Anne Widdecombe appears (in the second link) to be agreeing with the remarks as interpreted this way. Though of course caution is sensible here too, it's critical to know what exactly she though she was responding to.

[pjc50.livejournal.com]

That was what I was thinking.

[arnhem.livejournal.com]

Having been on the receiving end of strongly coerced and unwanted sex, I don't see what I experienced as something meriting a court case. Doesn't stop me regarding the other person involved with contempt, though.

These days, I'd hope to not get myself into that situation.