Evolution and feminism

[Monkeytrousers]

Following from WWW's feminist thread - a thread to discuss the complementory study of evolutionary theory and feminism, ie Darwinian feminism/gender studies.

A question to feminist academics on MN, is this idea still as unpopular within feminism as ever? If so why?

Rape is difficult to prosecute for a lot of reasons that have nothing to do with "power".

A big problem is who's word do you believe ?

One of the saddest and most stupid things I saw on TV recently was a feminist anti-rape group who said that women who maliciously cry rape shouldn't be banged up for long.
In my opninion, they should serve at least the same time as for rape. Not just for the suffering of the bloke, but for the way their activities undermine the ability of the courts to convict real rapists. The knowledge that such malicious false accusations occur mean that real rapists go free, and rape again.
But instead they get little more than a stiff talking to and 3 hours of community service.

I'm not saying that any acquittal shold automatically mean the woman was proven to be a liar, but when there is a clear case the key should be thrown away.

I'm not going to get into another emotive argument with you DC, I hope that?s not what your after . Rape is difficult to prosecute you?re right, but it does have something to do with making the crime one of power and violence and completely ignoring the sexual element; which some elements of feminism and social science do ? and this has influenced policy.

You are right a big problem is who do you believe, but an even bigger problem is misogyny and prejudice and the fact that many juries (as discussed in another thread re ?Consent? the other night) cannot discern between fact and opinion. There is no doubt that women are judged differently from men when it comes to sex, no matter how feminists wish that weren?t the case, that?s the way it is and feminism (at the moment) can do little but offer platitudes to women caught up in that chaos. Feminism via an evolutionary lens can at least begin to make sense of such inequality and prejudice, and perhaps affect policy too in future, who knows?

I don?t agree with your throw away the key attitude, primarily because I think there is a tiny minority who deserve it and even malicious girlfriends don?t fit into that bracket. But I?m guessing there?s a lot we won?t agree on in that area, so lets just not go there. From research (I did a paper on the ?consent? ad?s last year) the Home Office state that false accusation is no more prevalent in rape than it is in other crimes. It is statistically irrelevant (I hope you know what I mean there ? I know it isn?t irrelevant for the individuals involved). And I suppose like rape, it will be very hard to establish beyond doubt, so a ?clear case? will be very rare ? hence their popularity in the media when they are.

I never said it was statistically relevant, though I rather doubt any numbers that come out of the home office.

It doesn't take many malicious accusations to tip what is often a fine balance. Yes jurors bring prejudices to cases, but these prejuduices are made worse by these women. I want them to suffer more, and for their kicking to be made public.
As the law now stands, a woman who makes a malicious accusation of rape gets her "privacy" protected, which doesn't strike me as right.
I wouldn't want this to be the norm, but the
worst cases should be treated differently.
And before you ask, I'd leave convicted rapists to rot in jasil permanently.