Subject: Re: Dear Mr. Akin, I Want You to Imagine...
My thought is that Todd Akin had so thoroughly internalized the so called theory that women subjected to "Legitimate rape" could not become pregnant, that his statement on the subject would be accepted as a matter of course.
He must have been knocked for a loop when the roar of angry protests rained down on his befuddled head.
I can only hope that his wife and two daughters are now instructing him in subjects unfamiliar to him. Like, what happens when a Penis is forcibly jammed into a Vagina and Sperm is Ejaculated. Perhaps they can demonstrate that what happens below the belt is not controlled by the brain. Of course Akins sexual equipment excludes a direct demonstration, but...
Carl Jarvis
----- Original Message -----From: Miriam VieniSent: Tuesday, August 21, 2012 6:28 PMSubject: Dear Mr. Akin, I Want You to Imagine...
Excerpt: "Clarification. You didn't make some glib throw away remark. You
made a very specific ignorant statement clearly indicating you have no
awareness of what it means to be raped. And not a casual statement, but one
made with the intention of legislating the experience of women who have been
raped. Perhaps more terrifying: it was a window into the psyche of the GOP."
Senate candidate Todd Akin uses victim blaming tactics to craft the
definition 'legitimate' rape for his political agenda. (photo: George Doyle)
Dear Mr. Akin, I Want You to Imagine...
By Eve Ensler, Reader Supported News
21 August 12
ear Todd Akin,
I am writing to you tonight about rape. It is 2 AM and I am unable to sleep
here in the Democratic Republic of Congo. I am in Bukavu at the City of Joy
to serve and support and work with hundreds, thousands of women who have
been raped and violated and tortured from this ceaseless war for minerals
fought on their bodies.
I am in Congo but I could be writing this from anywhere in the United
States, South Africa, Britain, Egypt, India, Philippines, most college
campuses in America. I could be writing from any city or town or village
where over half a billion women on the planet are raped in their lifetime.
Mr. Akin, your words have kept me awake.
As a rape survivor, I am reeling from your recent statement where you said
you misspoke when you said that women do not get pregnant from legitimate
rape, and that you were speaking "off the cuff."
Clarification. You didn't make some glib throw away remark. You made a very
specific ignorant statement clearly indicating you have no awareness of what
it means to be raped. And not a casual statement, but one made with the
intention of legislating the experience of women who have been raped.
Perhaps more terrifying: it was a window into the psyche of the GOP.
You used the expression "legitimate" rape as if to imply there were such a
thing as "illegitimate" rape. Let me try to explain to you what that does to
the minds, hearts and souls of the millions of women on this planet who
experience rape. It is a form of re-rape. The underlying assumption of your
statement is that women and their experiences are not to be trusted. That
their understanding of rape must be qualified by some higher, wiser
authority. It delegitimizes and undermines and belittles the horror,
invasion, desecration they experienced. It makes them feel as alone and
powerless as they did at the moment of rape.
When you, Paul Ryan and 225 of your fellow co-sponsors play with words
around rape suggesting only "forcible" rape be treated seriously as if all
rapes weren't forcible, it brings back a flood of memories of the way the
rapists played with us in the act of being raped -- intimidating us,
threatening us,muting us. Your playing with words like "forcible" and
"legitimate" is playing with our souls which have been shattered by unwanted
penises shoving into us, ripping our flesh, our vaginas, our consciousness,
our confidence, our pride, our futures.
Now you want to say that you misspoke when you said that a legitimate rape
couldn't get us pregnant. Did you honestly believe that rape sperm is
different than love sperm, that some mysterious religious process occurs and
rape sperm self-destructs due to its evilcontent? Or, were you implying that
women and their bodies are somehow responsible for rejecting legitimate rape
sperm, once again putting the onus on us? It would seem you were saying that
getting pregnant after a rape would indicate it was not a "legitimate" rape.
Here's what I want you to do. I want you to close your eyes and imagine that
you are on your bed or up against a wall or locked in a small suffocating
space. Imagine being tied up there and imagine some aggressive, indifferent,
insane stranger friend or relative ripping off your clothes and entering
your body -- the most personal, sacred, private part of your body -- and
violently, hatefully forcing themself into you so that you are ripped apart.
Then imagine that stranger's sperm shooting into you and filling you and you
can't get it out. It is growing something in you. Imagine you have no idea
what that life will even consist of, spiritually made in hate, not knowing
the mental or health background of the rapist.
Then imagine a person comes along, a person who has never had that
experience of rape, and that person tells you, you have no choice but to
keep that product of rape growing in you against your will and when it is
born it has the face of your rapist, the face of the person who has
essentially destroyed your being and you will have to look at the face every
day of your life and you will be judged harshly if you cannot love that
face.
I don't know if you can imagine any of this (leadership actually requires
this kind of compassion), but if you are willing to go to the depth of this
darkness, you will quickly understand that there is NO ONE WHO CAN MAKE THAT
CHOICE to have or not have the baby, but the person carrying that baby
herself.
I have spent much time with mothers who have given birth to children who are
the product of rape. I have watched how tortured they are wrestling with
their hate and anger, trying not to project that onto their child.
I am asking you and the GOP to get out of my body, out of my vagina, my
womb, to get out of all of our bodies. These are not your decisions to make.
These are not your words to define.
Why don't you spend your time ending rape rather than redefining it? Spend
your energy going after those perpetrators who so easily destroy women
rather than parsing out manipulative language that minimizes their
destruction.
And by the way you've just given millions of women a very good reason to
make sure you never get elected again, and an insanely good reason to rise.
#ReasonToRise
Eve Ensler
Bukavu, Congo
________________________________________
EVE ENSLER is a Tony award winning playwright, performer and activist. She
is the award-winning author of The Vagina Monologues, which has been
published in 48 languages and performed in over 140 countries. Eve's newest
work, I Am An Emotional Creature: The Secret Life Of Girls Around The World,
was released February 2010 in book form by Random House and made The New
York Times Best Seller list. The book was workshopped in July, 2010 at New
York Stage and Film and Vassar College, moving towards an Off-Broadway
production. She is also the founder of V-Day, the global movement to end
violence against women and girls, which has raised over 80 million dollars.
In the summer of 2010, Eve's newest play Here was filmed live by Sky
Television in London, UK. Eve's other plays include Necessary Targets, The
Treatment and The Good Body, which she performed on Broadway, followed by a
national tour. In 2006, Eve released her book, Insecure At Last: A Political
Memoir, and co-edited A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and a Prayer. Eve's film
credits include an HBO film version of The Vagina Monologues. She also
produced the film What I Want My Words to Do To You, which won the Freedom
of Expression Award at Sundance and was shown on PBS. She is currently
working on a film adaptation of her play Necessary Targets with National
Geographic, Independent Features which she will direct. Eve has written
numerous articles for Glamour Magazine, Huffington Post, and O Magazine. She
has won many awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship in Playwriting and an
Obie Award.
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission
to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader
Supported News.
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Senate candidate Todd Akin uses victim blaming tactics to craft the
definition 'legitimate' rape for his political agenda. (photo: George Doyle)
/opinion2/273-40/13039-dear-mr-akin-i-want-you-to-imagine/opinion2/273-40/13
039-dear-mr-akin-i-want-you-to-imagine
Dear Mr. Akin, I Want You to Imagine...
By Eve Ensler, Reader Supported News
21 August 12
ear Todd Akin,
I am writing to you tonight about rape. It is 2 AM and I am unable to sleep
here in the Democratic Republic of Congo. I am in Bukavu at the City of Joy
to serve and support and work with hundreds, thousands of women who have
been raped and violated and tortured from this ceaseless war for minerals
fought on their bodies.
I am in Congo but I could be writing this from anywhere in the United
States, South Africa, Britain, Egypt, India, Philippines, most college
campuses in America. I could be writing from any city or town or village
where over half a billion women on the planet are raped in their lifetime.
Mr. Akin, your words have kept me awake.
As a rape survivor, I am reeling from your recent statement where you said
you misspoke when you said that women do not get pregnant from legitimate
rape, and that you were speaking "off the cuff."
Clarification. You didn't make some glib throw away remark. You made a very
specific ignorant statement clearly indicating you have no awareness of what
it means to be raped. And not a casual statement, but one made with the
intention of legislating the experience of women who have been raped.
Perhaps more terrifying: it was a window into the psyche of the GOP.
You used the expression "legitimate" rape as if to imply there were such a
thing as "illegitimate" rape. Let me try to explain to you what that does to
the minds, hearts and souls of the millions of women on this planet who
experience rape. It is a form of re-rape. The underlying assumption of your
statement is that women and their experiences are not to be trusted. That
their understanding of rape must be qualified by some higher, wiser
authority. It delegitimizes and undermines and belittles the horror,
invasion, desecration they experienced. It makes them feel as alone and
powerless as they did at the moment of rape.
When you, Paul Ryan and 225 of your fellow co-sponsors play with words
around rape suggesting only "forcible" rape be treated seriously as if all
rapes weren't forcible, it brings back a flood of memories of the way the
rapists played with us in the act of being raped -- intimidating us,
threatening us,muting us. Your playing with words like "forcible" and
"legitimate" is playing with our souls which have been shattered by unwanted
penises shoving into us, ripping our flesh, our vaginas, our consciousness,
our confidence, our pride, our futures.
Now you want to say that you misspoke when you said that a legitimate rape
couldn't get us pregnant. Did you honestly believe that rape sperm is
different than love sperm, that some mysterious religious process occurs and
rape sperm self-destructs due to its evilcontent? Or, were you implying that
women and their bodies are somehow responsible for rejecting legitimate rape
sperm, once again putting the onus on us? It would seem you were saying that
getting pregnant after a rape would indicate it was not a "legitimate" rape.
Here's what I want you to do. I want you to close your eyes and imagine that
you are on your bed or up against a wall or locked in a small suffocating
space. Imagine being tied up there and imagine some aggressive, indifferent,
insane stranger friend or relative ripping off your clothes and entering
your body -- the most personal, sacred, private part of your body -- and
violently, hatefully forcing themself into you so that you are ripped apart.
Then imagine that stranger's sperm shooting into you and filling you and you
can't get it out. It is growing something in you. Imagine you have no idea
what that life will even consist of, spiritually made in hate, not knowing
the mental or health background of the rapist.
Then imagine a person comes along, a person who has never had that
experience of rape, and that person tells you, you have no choice but to
keep that product of rape growing in you against your will and when it is
born it has the face of your rapist, the face of the person who has
essentially destroyed your being and you will have to look at the face every
day of your life and you will be judged harshly if you cannot love that
face.
I don't know if you can imagine any of this (leadership actually requires
this kind of compassion), but if you are willing to go to the depth of this
darkness, you will quickly understand that there is NO ONE WHO CAN MAKE THAT
CHOICE to have or not have the baby, but the person carrying that baby
herself.
I have spent much time with mothers who have given birth to children who are
the product of rape. I have watched how tortured they are wrestling with
their hate and anger, trying not to project that onto their child.
I am asking you and the GOP to get out of my body, out of my vagina, my
womb, to get out of all of our bodies. These are not your decisions to make.
These are not your words to define.
Why don't you spend your time ending rape rather than redefining it? Spend
your energy going after those perpetrators who so easily destroy women
rather than parsing out manipulative language that minimizes their
destruction.
And by the way you've just given millions of women a very good reason to
make sure you never get elected again, and an insanely good reason to rise.
#ReasonToRise
Eve Ensler
Bukavu, Congo
EVE ENSLER is a Tony award winning playwright, performer and activist. She
is the award-winning author of The Vagina Monologues, which has been
published in 48 languages and performed in over 140 countries. Eve's newest
work, I Am An Emotional Creature: The Secret Life Of Girls Around The World,
was released February 2010 in book form by Random House and made The New
York Times Best Seller list. The book was workshopped in July, 2010 at New
York Stage and Film and Vassar College, moving towards an Off-Broadway
production. She is also the founder of V-Day, the global movement to end
violence against women and girls, which has raised over 80 million dollars.
In the summer of 2010, Eve's newest play Here was filmed live by Sky
Television in London, UK. Eve's other plays include Necessary Targets, The
Treatment and The Good Body, which she performed on Broadway, followed by a
national tour. In 2006, Eve released her book, Insecure At Last: A Political
Memoir, and co-edited A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and a Prayer. Eve's film
credits include an HBO film version of The Vagina Monologues. She also
produced the film What I Want My Words to Do To You, which won the Freedom
of Expression Award at Sundance and was shown on PBS. She is currently
working on a film adaptation of her play Necessary Targets with National
Geographic, Independent Features which she will direct. Eve has written
numerous articles for Glamour Magazine, Huffington Post, and O Magazine. She
has won many awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship in Playwriting and an
Obie Award.
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission
to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader
Supported News.
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