Date Rape Epidemic????

[Cloud]

Seeing as we're on the subject, has anyone seen the film Irrversible? If you have no fears about rape and don't feel it is that bad a problem, watch this film, the rape scene will change the way you look at the world.

A lot of rape scenes in movies tend to gloss over the attack itself or, even worse, make it seem erotic. Irreversible does neither of these and what is does show you is impossible to describe

[Cain]

[s]Cloud wrote on 17:13, 20th Oct 2003:
Seeing as we're on the subject, has anyone seen the film Irrversible? If you have no fears about rape and don't feel it is that bad a problem, watch this film, the rape scene will change the way you look at the world.


maybe you should add in a disclaimer: not for the weak of heart.

The newsnight review team were, to a (wo)man sickened by the scene, and to a certain extent, sickened by its inclusion in the film. Brutal? Disturbing? Stomach churning? Gratuitous? all of the above.

it might be a better idea for people to have a decent sense of their own safety than present to them an extreme view of a vicious crime and saying: "this is what rape like. This is what life is like."

If people use some common sense, and take care to take care of themselves, then with luck they can avoid any of the problems that Student Support were talking to us about. You shouldn't downplay the problem and say "it couldn't happen here." it could. Equally, it's not very helpful to paint a picture of the worst case scenario for people.

[s]Edited to sort out some formatting[/s]

[Guest]

don't ask me to cite this because i was browsing a bunch of pages on the subject this morning and without looking through them all again i can't say which page it was on. But apparently there is fairly reliable independent research that says that the number of rape crimes reported falsely are no higher than false reporting of other crime, an average of about 2%.

So this theory that women just go about accusing men of rape either to get back at them, or because they decided later that they didn't want sex is just nonsense.

[Pussycat]

[s]Cain wrote on 17:23, 20th Oct 2003:
You shouldn't downplay the problem and say "it couldn't happen here." it could. Equally, it's not very helpful to paint a picture of the worst case scenario for people.

Hence why the student support people were very sure to get across the message that while nowhere is safe, St Andrews is not the Bronx.

This is a university town and as such attacks and drugs including GBH are around. It is true though that this is still one of the safest uni towns in Scotland if not the UK. Use common sense, don't walk alone at night, and choose your friends carefully.

I used to live in a wee village in Fife and it was/is one of the safest places in the world. I also found out later that it's one of the places in Fife most well known for getting a hold of ecstasy. Nowhere is safe but if your sensible then you may never find out about the darker side of towns.

[Gatty Scumbelina]

There's a lot to be said for confidence. A woman walking alone who's walking confidently, determinedly and unhesitantly is an awful lot less likely to be attacked than one who's looking around in a frightened way.

I do walk home alone at night here. Some people will probably say that this is a pointless risk, but I refuse to be intimidated into taking taxis. I put it into perspective, in that the only people I've ever been aquainted with who have been sexually assaulted by strangers (one rape, one molestation) it happened to them in broad daylight; one off the school bus, the other on a train. If you act to avoid that kind of risk you can't live your life.

However, I do cringe when I think of what I did when I was younger - I used to regularily walk alone from the pub to catch the last bus from Wakefield bus station (motto: more working flashers than working lights). In retrospect this was a stupid risk, and I wouldn't think of doing that now.

[hr]It is so difficult to make a neat job of killing people with whom one is not on friendly terms.