From Mark Tindall:

Visit http://www.mencanstoprape.org/

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From http://www.cambridgedocumentaryfilms.org/rapeis.html

"Rape is.," a new half-hour documentary video, explores the meaning and consequences of rape. This documentary looks at rape from a global and historical perspective, but focuses mainly on the domestic cultural conditions that make this human rights violation the most underreported crime in America. Many types of sexual assault are not considered a serious crime by the legal system and our society refuses to see the true cost of this brutal denial of basic rights. "Rape is..." expands the narrow ways we think of sexual violence, and demonstrates that it is not a sporadic and rare occurrence, but a cultural and criminal outrage that affects millions of women, children and men all over the world.

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BRIEF BIOS OF PARTICIPANTS AND UPDATES:

Eve Ensler: Playwright ("The Vagina Monologues"),activist and founder of V-Day, an international organization dedicated to stopping rape worldwide.

Diane Rosenfeld: Teaches women's studies and legal issues at Harvard University. She was a Senior Counsel at the Department of Justice in Washington.

Kathy Girod: Heads a research project at a leading cancer hospital.

Vednita Carter: Co-founder and Director of "Breaking Free" an organization that helps prostitutes. Vednita experienced firsthand the coercion, trauma and violence of the sex industry when she became involved in stripping after answering an ad for dancers in her local paper.

Richard Ridlon: Currently out of prison and working full time.

Salamishah Tillet: Poet whose work "Do you know what rape feels like?" provides the moving opening to the film. She co-produced a performance piece on rape with her sister entitled "A Long Walk Home" and is finishing her PhD in African American Studies.

Bok-dong Kim: Her testimony at the Vienna tribunal relates the horrors of being enslaved as a Korean "Comfort Woman" to be raped by Japanese soldiers in World War II.

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It is a major trap in a discussion to get hung up on the myth that women, for any number of reasons, often "cry rape". Dealing with the notion of false accusations is fairly straightforward because, according to the FBI, there are no more false accusations of rape than there are false accusations of any other crime. The actual figure is somewhere between 2 and 3%. When they do occur, false accusations hurt all of us, especially the real victims of this crime who have to face disbelief. The vast majority of rapes are not reported and the tendency of the media is to draw focus to the exceptions, to the rare instances of false accusations, and with a focus on the "devastating effect" on the accused.

From a feminist perspective, the reason people are focused on the woman's responsibility is because it lets sexual coercers off the hook for their predatory behavior. If you can blame the victim, you don't have to take responsibility for your own actions. It is best to steer conversations away from this pitfall. Instead, ask, "How does this fit into the larger picture?" Part of the effort of this film is to look at the larger picture of rape, outside of the "he said, she said" debate. What does it mean that we try to hold the victim responsible for her rape? Does this mean we believe that women can't wear tank tops and short skirts? Does this mean we are saying women can't go out at night? Are we saying that anyone who goes to a bar and meets someone gets what he or she deserves? Are we saying that we don't have the right to drink and be safe from sexual assault and rape? Are we saying that being drunk is a form of consent?

CONSENT is another huge area of controversy. What does "consent" mean? Remember Salamishah's story from the film. At a certain point she stopped saying "no." Why would some people interpret this as consent? What does that attitude suggest/indicate?

People project a great deal of fear into the consent debate. If you don't blame the victim it leaves men vulnerable to the criminal justice system and other sanction -- the alternative to blaming the victim is making a criminal out of the man. How does blaming the victim maintain the balance of power in social relations?

Antioch College developed a very thorough consent protocol to stop date rape. It requires that the person initiating sexual contact receive affirmative verbal consent at each level of intimacy:

http://www.antioch-college.edu/survival/html/sopp.html

This policy generated significant media ridicule. Why do you think there was so much negative reaction to this policy? Would you participate in a similar dialogue? Why or why not? What are important components of a campus sexual assault policy?

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Dating Violence

In the film, Salamishah describes a date rape experience in which she agrees to spend the night at a hotel because she cannot get home. Do you think this changes her ability to refuse to have sex? There are increasing reports of women students being raped when they study abroad. What factors do you think contribute to this?

Can consent be implied from prior physical contact? Why/why not? Why do people often assume consent?

What are the responsibilities of the person initiating physical contact?

At what point can a person refuse sex?

Do people give up their right to say no when they drink?

What actions/dialogue could ensure mutually acceptable levels of intimacy? What prevents this sort of interaction?