Book Reflections | Sex and Punishment: On Blaming The Rape Victim

Hello, curious folk. In this video, I read for you and we think about it. So this book is what I'm currently reading, and it's called Sex and Punishment: 4,000 Years of Judging Desire, and it's by Eric Berkowitz, if that's how it's pronounced. And I'm gonna be making these very brief snapshots from the book and basically asking the questions of how has history affected us to this day, and what does it mean for us in 21st century. So what I'm gonna read to you right now is about rape and how people dealt with rape in history. So, the rape of a married woman incurred the death penalty only when it took place on the open road. And only if the woman had vigorously fought back. The fact that the sex occurred outdoors and that she did her best to stop it helped show that she was taken by surprise and was not looking to have an affair. If she was at home when the sex occurred, the suspicion of bad intentions on her part was almost impossible to shake. The Hittites in fact resolved cases of home rape against the wife even before they occurred. If a man seizes a woman in the mountains and rapes her, it is the man's offense. But if he seizes her at her home, it is the woman's offense. The woman shall die. If the woman's husband discovers them in the act, he He may kill them without committing a crime. So when you think about it, that means that women were not even safe at home. So if you have a guest who comes to your home and rapes you, it's kind of difficult to prove that you didn't invite them and you didn't have consensual sex with them. And if you were on the road and you had to defend yourself and fight back against the rapist, you actually had to prove that you have fought back. And if you think about it, a lot of restrictions on women come from this mentality that, again, it will be a woman's fault if she's out late at night. Or alone and she gets raped. It is why a lot of women do not report rape, um, because if it happened in their house, they may be accused of asking for it and lying about it. And this is why, if you think about it, a lot of Teenage girls and even grown-ass women will be more restricted or even restricting themselves in terms of going out, staying out late, going undisturbed to events or something. They are always having to think about safety, who they're getting home with, how, if there's transport, if their car is parked at a lit place, etc. Because we still blame women. For what men do to them. And this is how history is reflected in today's world and still remains. We still victim blame, and we still ask women, why were you out on the street at that time? Why were you alone? Why were you wearing this dress? Because the blame falls onto the women way more than the men. And this is something that dates back thousands of years. And that's why it's so, so, so difficult to challenge the stigma and to challenge the way people think because we have the history. That basically makes us feel the way we do about victims of rape. And in the next video, I'm gonna share something about women and slaves and prostitutes and how they were treated in terms of, uh, the court system and obviously how they could or could not defend themselves Through legal means. That's from this video today. Hope you enjoyed it, and please let me know what you think. It's a great book. I am one of those really geeky people that do leave notes, and I will be sharing some insights from this book in the next videos. Bye! Bye!