I feel so angry to read this...

[NotTakenUsername]

...and I can’t vent properly on Facebook because I just don’t have the words required to compete with comments like, “well why didn't She scream...?” and “it’s atrocious how those boys have been treated...”

I’m so ANGRY. What on Earth are very middle class girls...? What does that even mean? What does that encompass?
Parental income? As presumably all underage if they are girls, no? Personal income? ‘Nice’ girls...?

Talk me down.

Why the fuck is it the girls fault for not screaming.

Drs

Ffs that should read.

ANd do lower class girls just let it happen or something?

Oh, because she might have been terrified, in shock, ashamed, lots of reasons, fgs.

I'm not sure I can talk you down, tbh. If I ran the world I think I'd strike off (disbar? ?) defence barristers who rely on and use rape myths to defend their clients.

I know it's their job but seriously, you can conduct a rape trial while giving the complainant some dignity. The entire thing has been disgusting from beginning to end. That brave, brave woman has stood her ground, defied those misogynistic pricks defending those men. I hope she gets some justice.

I was reading on twitter that we urgently need more research into 'freezing'. It is a totally normal defence mechanism, often more normal (and more sensible) than screaming. Yet people choose to believe that a 'real' victim would kick and scream. I wonder if it's because shouting and screaming is often a male reaction whereas females are more likely to freeze in order to stop violence escalating. Whatever it is, it needs more research.

Right.

Why didn't he refrain from raping - you know the ACTUAL crime here. Why didn't he do that?

Arsefeckery.

My throat is now sore. My DH has just come home and I’ve offloaded in a big way. I’m so angry. I can’t even put it in reasonable words.

Why did he rape?

There are thousands of middle class (and low class and top class) men who don't rape, so why did he rape?

Is it because he knew he would get turned down?

I was sexually assaulted when I was young. I remember how I froze with shock and fear and self-preservation. Because your reaction is "how do I survive this?" There's a fear that resisting will mean you"ll be harmed even more. This is very common.

I'm also finding that trial hard to read about. Middle class girls, what the fuck, like working class girls would happily let another girl get raped.

soubriquet I think those guys were so drunk (and possibly coked up) that they didn't notice or care whether the girl consented. Not that it's a defence but I believe that's what happened.

How on earth can a barrister blame a bunch of people who weren't even in the bloody room over the boy who actually raped?

Is this seriously a defence now?

And we wonder why no one reports them and/or screams

Awful, awful case

I have no idea what the point was in mentioning that the women downstairs were middle class, if not to imply that they were more likely than another class to offer protection. That their class made them more likely to intervene...

Why didn’t she scream?
Fear?
Humiliation?
Froze?
Had numbed herself to the reality of what was happening to preserve herself mentally and physically?

Do you know I went to school in Northern Ireland, where a teacher informed us that rape and abortion were two completely separate issues because “the body cannot fall pregnant unless you are enjoying it.”

I screamed. No one helped anyways,not even the ones that were actually in the room but not involved.

This. The crime is the rape, not her silence.

I have actually had enough of this shit now.

My eyes were opened to our judicial system when I was assaulted by my previous partner, I had photos and an audible witness but because he claimed self defence he walked away with no further action, except he didn't have any defence (because he was lying) yet I did. Police said it was my word against his.

I agree that they shouldn’t be allowed to exploit rape myths. I hope the jury will remember that a defence expert witness confirmed that sexual assault is overwhelmingly allowed to happen rather than resisted.
I don’t know why prosecutors don’t routinely call experts in rape and trauma to dispel some of these myths.

It has literally been explained to him in court by the defence’s own medical expert that most victims of rape do not fight or resist or scream. Their own expert told them this!

I was raped 19 years ago. I repeatedly said no, pulled up my trousers (tracksuit bottoms with elastic waist), crossed my legs, tried to push him off, tried to squirm away, I covered myself to stop him entering me but I never thought to scream. Even when he was holding my wrists above my head & forcing my legs open I never screamed. I gave up & just let him get on with it. The flat was full of people & I could have been saved in seconds, all I had to do was scream.

I hate rape trials. Not everyone has defence wounds & screams for help. I even continued to mix in the same social group as my rapist. He would never have been charged based on my actions.

'It can't have been rape because the alleged victim behaved in a way that we know is absolutely characteristic of people who are being raped'

I won't say what I think about this because it would get my post deleted

He would never have been charged based on my actions.

The sad/infuriating thing is, he would have been unlikely to even have been charged based on his own actions (rape).

I have never understood why our responses are always assumed to be fight of flee. We and all other mammals almost always freeze first.
Both predator and prey animals freeze in place. Under maximum stress or pain the first thing we lose is our ability to speak. Next we either go weak in the knees or bolt like a bunny from the jolt of adrenaline.
It amazes me that they dole out what passes for justice on the basis of zombie lies men have been telling for a hundred years, all evidence to the contrary.

The first thing the instructor in my Krav Maga class said was that our natural reaction to attack is to freeze because we are shocked.

I didn't scream. I couldn't. There is something in me that struggles to stand up to a man. It might be in my socialization, or it might be self preservation, I don't know. All I know is that I couldn't scream.

The first thing the instructor in my Krav Maga class said was that our natural reaction to attack is to freeze because we are shocked.
And the barrister knows that. Of course he does.
I don’t know how people like that can live with themselves.

Nuff - yes

It’s so obviously playing on the Madonna/Whore trope... nice girls wouldn’t let their little Madonna friend get raped. Other girls, well, they and their friends have no virtue to protect anyway, as they’re all whores. Wrong on so many levels....