1975 is the Year of the Woman. This supposedly means that women are finally taking steps to be free from male domination — free to be themselves, not just “Joe’s wife” or “Johnny’s mother.” Women are now following in the footsteps of blacks and other minorities in asserting their rights in a white, male-oriented society.
Women, especially the taken-for-granted housewife, have long been in search for a sense of identity and importance in life. Now that so many obstacles have been overcome, women are finding the greatest and most difficult peak ahead in a legal form of sexual discrimination through unfair rape laws.
In the past the subject of rape was not discussed in mixed company, and when it was mentioned the victim was portrayed as a criminal. In many ways this still holds true; the victim must suffer the physical, legal, and social abuse of an act over which she has no control. Physically, she must endure a sexual act violently forced upon her at the threat of her life, but worst of all she must live with herself afterwards. Psychologically, she will never be the same again with repressed feelings of guilt, shame, and fear of men. Legally, if she presses charges, she has to give evidence that proves she was truly assaulted including a traumatic cross-examination of the details of the act itself. Finally, the rape victim must face a skeptical society that will suspect her of a false accusation.
In many states reform legislation has been passed, but it is essential that every state enact vast changes. Elementary to reform is a turnabout in the attitudes of people toward both the rapist and the victim. Both should receive the proper psychiatric treatment and sympathy — the rapist because he is a sick person in need of help, and the victim because she is an innocent vehicle for a perverted crime. If women are to retain the independence that they are fighting to achieve, then rape reform should be among their first considerations.