by Dina Meltzer

Created on: March 12, 2010

                                                                The Definition of Rape

 What is the definition of Rape?  There is the written definition I found in the dictionary and encyclopedia, a bunch of concise words with vague applications.  There's my own opinion drawn from personal experience, and the widely debated popular opinion.  Lastly the affects of rape, the actual emotion and pain behind this small four letter word.

 "An act of sexual intercourse with an individual without his or her consent, through force or the threat of force."  This is the definition I found in the dictionary. So where does it say how one gives or doesn't give consent?   The encyclopedia read, "Though traditionally limited to attacks on women by men, the definition of rape has been broadened to cover same-sex attacks and attacks against those who, because of mental illness, intoxication, or other reasons, are incapable of valid consent. Statutory rape, or intercourse with a person younger than a certain age (generally from 12 to 18 years), has long been a serious crime in most jurisdictions. Rape is widely considered an expression of anger or aggression and a pathological assertion of power by the rapist."  The way its written sounds so parochial like something that only happens on paper. 

here's a scenario:  a girl goes out drinking with a friend,  after one too many drinks she starts to get sick then looses functional coordination of her body.  Friend steps in, takes her back to his place, undresses her and continues to have sex with a motionless body.  She manages to say stop a few times but is powerless to stop it.  Is that rape?  It sure felt like it when it was happening to me.  There are a lot of people out there that would say it isn't, because I wasn't physically harmed or threatened with such harm. What about the thousand other girls out there with similar stories?  Were they not raped?  Was I not raped? 

What is the effect of rape?  If it's a physical act, what harm can it do after the fact?  Written in the encyclopedia, "The psychological responses of victims vary but usually include feelings of shame, humiliation, confusion, fear, and rage. Many rape victims fail to report the crime, deterred by the prospect of a distressing cross-examination in court and the difficulty of proving a crime for which there usually are no witnesses." although all true, it fails to broach upon the personal response of victims, such as night mares, panic attacks, intimacy issues with future partners.  This four letter word is more than an attack on a person; it's an attack on their life.

If asked I would say that rape is the presence of unlawful and unwanted act of sexual congress, but in summation, it's not my definition or the written definition in the dictionary or encyclopedia.  It's not something you heard of in the news or saw in some movie drama.  It's a past, present, and future epidemic of occurrences.  It already happened to me.  What will happen to the next person?   When it's no longer a vocabulary word they learned in high school but an actual experience?

Learn more about this author, Dina Meltzer.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.