This post is inspired by reading a good friend's blog entry of Friday.
As she writes,
What happened to Carrie [Prejean] is not, as at least one feminist blogger has argued , "sexual assault, " and it does not "perpetuate the rape culture," unless you're saying televised beauty pageants rape our culture, yeah they do. But as Media Matters just pointed out this week , the word "rape" is being used far too often in political discourse, and it denigrates the suffering of those who have actually experienced that crime, the exact same way tossing around "Hitler" denigrates holocaust victims. In future, I hope we can pull it back a notch, and only use the term rape to mean, well, rape.
Frequently we cite instances of actual rape i.e. sexual assault, frequently of women and place the blame squarely upon the attacker(s) and rape culture, where it deserves to be. Despite our best intentions, sometimes I feel a bit unintentionally desensitized to it all by the fact that, especially on this site, so much attention is devoted to one key topic. I'm not saying we should refrain from pointing out how common rape is to our culture and how society overlooks or rationalizes away its negative impact, but rather to note that in many ways we are swimming upstream and in so doing creating a greater propensity for the very word and concept "rape" to lose its power. The activist in us all believes that with repetition and constant attention needed changes can and will be made, but with them too comes the inevitable unforeseen consequences.
We've talked before about whether the word "Feminism" connotes more negative than positive meanings in the eyes and ears of the beholders and in that vein it might do us well to talk and brainstorm about whether this same phenomenon might someday soon apply to discussions of rape. Language evolves with us and evolves with time. We're not the only people who are fighting against sexual assault and rape culture, but when one finds instance after instance of rape, whether simulated or real, on television and on the internet, then the horror of it begins to fade and indeed, a cavalier attitude towards it may fuel, guess what, more instance of rape as a result.
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I disagree.
The negative connotations and/or lessened impact of certain words has more to do with the WAY they're used than it does the amount. You mentioned the many negative stereotypes associated with the word "feminism," but these hardly come from repetition of the concept in an authentic way which draws attention to the actual messages of feminism. It comes from people who choose to take the word out of context and actively remove (or at least rewrite) its meaning.
Frequent repetition of the word "rape" on feminist blogs will not serve to desensitize those who read it to the word. Rather, in reading these stories, anyone would actually become MORE aware of rape culture, and MORE sensitive to the way it manifests it their daily lives. These same people will be much more likely to be deeply offended by the overuse of the word "rape" in the media (in the "the government is raping our wallets" sense). Because we're not the ones who are causing the word to lose its impact. They are. Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh and everyone who uses the word "rape" to mean anything other than sexual assault. Also, anyone who writes a news article and refers to rape (actual rape) as "forced sex," "unwanted sex," or even just plain "sex."
We as feminists aren't hurting the impact of the word "rape" by using it frequently. Instead, we're fighting as hard as we can to help the word maintain its power. The media, however, is not making it easy.
Wow, I wrote that whole tangent and then realized I didn't even address the main complaint of your piece, about Carrie Prejean.
As for that, I think the technical definition of sexual assault varies from state to state (and I'm not in a research-y mood right now), but I think making sexual videos intended only for her boyfriend publicly available could very well fit the definition. Even if it doesn't technically qualify as sexual assault, it absolutely does perpetuate rape culture. It's yet another reminder that women's bodies do not belong to them, but rather to the public, to any man who wants to take advantage of them.
She made that tape for one specific man, whom she trusted at the time. His decision to sell it just shows that what she does with her body and her sexuality aren't her own decision. They don't belong to her. And that is rape culture at its best. (Worst?)
Sorry for the multiple posts. I just read the blog post you linked to.
This...:
"Prejean pressed "record" herself. What she did is akin to getting passed-out drunk at a frat party. She's responsible for the dangerous position she stupidly placed herself in, but not for any violation (and releasing the tapes is a violation) committed against her."
...is rape culture. This is victim-blaming. Period.