Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Feminism: chat

Original poster

Rape of elderly lady in the news *potential trigger warning* title edited by MNHQ

61 replies

ifyourehoppyandyouknowit · 26/06/2014 09:03

Not sure if you have seen, but an elderly woman was raped in Rochdale earlier this week and I'm just really Hmm about the way it is being described and represented on the news.

Lots of interviews with local residents describing how 'abhorrent' and 'vile' it is that an old woman was raped. As if her age makes the crime worse? It seems to imply that if she wasn't 90 years old they wouldn't be so disgusted by it; the implication being that rape is more understandable when it happens to young women? And then something else is bothering me too, some sort of implication that older women are somehow asexual or sexually off limits so sex crimes are infinitely worse when they happen to them? (The fact that rape = power rather than sex seems missing from all the reports I've seen).

It was on the radio this morning and I was muttering darkly to myself in the car and wanted to write it out.

Have I got a point?

OP posts:
Quangle · 26/06/2014 09:44

"what I feel uncomfortable with, although it's hard to describe, is the way this is portrayed as the work of a sick pervert, while rapes on teenagers/women are not usually." Yes. That.

Totally agree with this. Although she must be physically incredibly vulnerable and fragile at that age and that is a fair reason to view this slightly differently. It doesn't make the crime any worse - they are all bad. But I do understand people's reaction to this.

Original poster
ifyourehoppyandyouknowit · 26/06/2014 09:41

My point was that this kind of reporting of rape perhaps just contributes to long standing rape myths that make it harder for all rape victims, and allow people to carry on thinking that there are shades of rape.

OP posts:
JustTheRightBullets · 26/06/2014 09:40

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster
ifyourehoppyandyouknowit · 26/06/2014 09:40

Because 'rape in the news' was not enough of a warning of the content?

OP posts:
JustTheRightBullets · 26/06/2014 09:39

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

almondcakes · 26/06/2014 09:37

This thread is utterly disgusting.

I honestly do not believe people posting this kind of stuff care about any rape victim at all. It is just designed to cause other posters distress.

I am not in the habit of reporting threads, but I think the OP should report her own thread and get a trigger warning put on it about rape and violence towards elderly women.

scallopsrgreat · 26/06/2014 09:36

"what I feel uncomfortable with, although it's hard to describe, is the way this is portrayed as the work of a sick pervert, while rapes on teenagers/women are not usually." Yes. That.

And rape is always a feminist issue.

JustTheRightBullets · 26/06/2014 09:27

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

ArgyMargy · 26/06/2014 09:16

I think any crimes of violence against old people, particularly women, are regarded as abhorrent. Essentially old people are much less able to defend themselves and therefore it is seen as unacceptable - like kicking a child or a cat. I think you are distorting this somewhat to make it into a feminist issue.

almondcakes · 26/06/2014 09:15

Any violent crime against a ninety year old is worse than violent crime against younger people. I do think this is particularly awful because of the age of the woman.

scallopsrgreat · 26/06/2014 09:09

Yes. Sorry I haven't got time at the moment to discuss. But I too am very uncomfortable about the 'othering' of this particular crime. As if it were separate from other rapes and not on the continuum of male violence against women (not that the media ever recognise rape as being symptomatic of MVAW or a hate crime).