Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, April 30, 1993                   TAG: 9304300424
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-14   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

THERE ARE NO DEGREES OF RAPE

He states that " . . . what would seem more applicable [than a rape charge] in many `date rape' cases where the woman has clearly been involved in arousing the man . . . is a charge of `understandable assault.' "

"Understandable assault," in this context particularly, is a contradiction in terms. What could a woman possibly do that would make a man's forcible entry into her understandable? Arouse him? I simply cannot accept the idea that arousal justifies rape or makes it understandable. Implications seem to be that, after a certain point, men lack the capacity for restraint. If a woman, however unintentionally, arouses a man beyond this point, "she asked for it." That is essentially what Askins is saying, however eloquently.

He goes on to say that to try a case of date rape in court is to " . . . use the legal system to degrade [our]selves and unfairly attack men." I challenge that it is far more degrading to suffer in silence; that, by quietly accepting and enduring in any and every circumstance the sexual advantage that is taken of us, we perpetuate the aggressive domination of women by men.

He makes the analogy, in his argument for "understandable assault," to the distinctions concerning murder and degrees of punishment. The difference between first-degree, second-degree murder and manslaughter lies in the nature of the crime committed, the latter being the least heinous of the three. The difference does not lie in the circumstances. A man's anger does not justify the murder he has committed. Arousal does not justify rape, nor are there degrees of rape. It is a sexual crime committed on a woman by force and should always be treated as such in the courts.

In an elaborate case of blaming the victim, Askins seeks to eradicate our only defense against sexual assault short of packing a gun in our purse, that small word "no," and to make women a party to the very crime that has silently stalked us for so many years. I know Askins as an educated, liberal-minded man and a professor at Radford University where I attend. If he espouses this position on rape, what can we expect from lesser minds? ERIKA JOHNSON WILLIS