Was Bristol Palin raped?

[darleneoconnor]

according to this bristol palin was so drunk when she conceived her son that she doesn't remember having sex.

Sounds like rape to me.

Then she was basically 'forced' to marry her rapist? WTF! Sometimes America sounds more like the middle east!

Quite a few forums are discussing this, with some

disgusting rape myths on this forum

dittany, I'm not assuming she said yes when drunk, sorry if I wasn't clear. What I am certain of is that she would have said no when sober.

I don't understand

Because I think this one individual may have lied, may have, then I shouldn't be posting in Feminism?

In this namechange after so many others, dittany you have put me off this board. There are plenty of decent feminist spaces on the net which don't treat posters with such disdain as you.

SGM, that doesn't sit well with the fact that she admits that they later had a sexual relationship before marriage, after the initial period of abstinence. Why would she be willing to admit to the later sexual activity if she is keen to keep the virgin image and avoid being labelled a "whore"?

I know all that SGM, but why say she doesn't remember losing her virginity if she does? She could have said they had sex, she later regretted it and changed her mind for a bit, but gave in to temptation again later, if that was the truth. It wouldn't have had a different effect on her image than the story she does tell.

Maybe she said yes while drunk? Who knows. None of us were there.

macroona- I really dont think it's appropriate to come into this space and suggest that she is lying. There is nothing to suggest she is.

I think there are a lot of women who have had experiences which at the time they put down as 'unfortunate or regretful' sex. Then sometime later, maybe years or decades, they discover some feminist theory and re-label their experience rape. That is not saying that these weren't rapes in the first place. My educated guess on theis Bristol Palin case is that she is making this journey. She hasn't used the word rape yet but may do so in the future.

Legally it also depends on the jurisdiction.eg before 2002, in Scotland, having sex with someone drunk and unconscious was legally 'clandestine injury' not rape. Thankfully the law has since changed but in some jurisdictions a charge of rape still requires evidence of the use of force, which doesn't apply in these type of cases.

As an aside, I am left wondering why this 'angle' wasn't taken up at the time of the 'scandal'/election? Surely it would have sounded better for SP's campaign to have a daughter who was a rape victim, rather than have her labelled as a 'slut'?

Darlene, Dittany, anyone else who keeps accusing me of disbelieving Bristol's story - I don't !

I have to defend myself here - I thought I was taking part in a really interesting discussion about whether what happened was rape!

Here is the only comment of mine which could be construed as being unbelieving (and about a detail of her life, not the events of the night)

"I would hazard a (totally uninformed) guess that she is being pressurised to claim virginity in the same way she was pressurised to get engaged - to protect mummy's reputation as a good catholic girl."

I sympathise with her fgs. Stop inferring I'm anti-feminist!

I haven't read the article is it her actual words or second hand reporting ?

I always feel very uncomfortable about these types of threads topics etc this whole storm could come back to smack her in the face when perhaps she hasn't even said it.

The way this is being discussed on other forums is shameful.
I've read one person saying that if she cant remember it then maybe she raped him!
Also lots of other people saying Levi should contact his lawyer and sue her!
I despair!

Poor thing its awful

darlene, surely the attitudes shown on other forums answer your question about why SP didn't use it during her campaign. There's not a lot of sympathy for rape victims out there.

macaroona- you said "she quite possibly has lied...it wouldn't be surprising"
I dont think this comment was in any way justified. Especially not in a feminist forum. People who say they have been raped, as with all other victims of all crimes should be believed until there is substantial evidence to the contrary. There is no evidence at all here that she is lying.

I think using her daughters personal issues in a campaign may have been very horrible for her , correct me if im wrong

I gonna stop posting on here Imagine if Bristol doesnt share this view and wakes up one day to ma media storm that apparently thousands of people have been discussing on the web?

not good at all, how would you feel if it was any of you?

I give up. I never implied Bristol lied about the events of the night, never.

I speculated along with other posters about the situation surrounding her.

Seriously, every time I venture on to the feminist board on MN I find myself having to defend my feminist credentials

No one here knows or can know what did or didn't happen.

Since when did being a feminist mean you had to believe anything that any woman said about anything at any time becasue of her gender? Never in my 40 odd years of feminism. Singularly unhelpful.

REcently there was a thread on here..somewhere, the OP said she was pissed and alone in her flat with a date, she called him a cab for him to bugger off and went upstairs and passed out, he then went upstairs and had sex with her, well raped her, she did not consent. She did not accuse or accept he raped her, just that she couldn't remember and would have been too pissed to consent. So these rape myths, of what even constitutes rape, are widespread.

This is a disturbing thread. A lot of the comments on here are disturbing, but the questionable OP title, 'Was Bristol Palin raped?' clearly invites argument so it is to be expected. To discuss a living, breathing human being (a woman) in this way, picking over her account of an experience is pretty negative. Analysing her account in order to put forward one view or another just marginalises Palin and her experience. She has chosen to speak about it but does everyone really need to pile in to debate it in this way? Surely posters here have enough knowledge and RL experience to draw on without entering into debates about what is going on in Bristol Palin's head? Bristol Palin is disrespected enough in the male media already.