Can You Rape a Prostitute? Mary Mitchell Doesn't Think So
You cannot rape a prostitute. You can steal sex from her, but you can't rape her.
Everyone knows that the above statements are wrong. Everyone except for Mary Mitchell, that is. If you haven't heard of Mary Mitchell, or even if you have, let me tell you.
Mary Mitchell, a columnist for Chicago's Sun Times, recently wrote about the gunpoint rape of a woman who happened to be a prostitute. That's right. The rape of a woman at gunpoint. In this article, Mary concludes that the gunpoint rape wasn't. It wasn't rape. Because the woman was a prostitute, it was theft.
Let that sink in, ladies and gents… Mary Mitchell believes that once you enter the sex industry, you relinquish your right NOT to be raped.
Let's look at the rape. The rape took place when a woman, who prefers to stay anonymous, met a man on backpage.com. The man's name was Roy Atkins. Don't forget that name. Roy Atkins – the man who pulled a gun on a woman and raped her because he was broke. Roy Atkins.
Before I go on, let's pause. You don't need to know the woman's name, and she doesn't want you to know it. Mary Mitchell faults her for that fact, citing another rape case where the woman publicized her name. She says that this unnamed woman is doing rape victims a disservice by wanting her privacy. Mary doesn't think a rape victim should care about her personal privacy, apparently.
She Met Her Rapist On Backpage
Moving on, the woman met the Roy Atkins from backpage.com in his home. The man leads her to his bedroom, where he is supposed to pay her before they have sex, and then… Roy pulls a gun on her. She cries, she begs to leave, he says no and that he won't be paying her. Roy then forces her to have sex with him. Sound like rape? Man pulls gun, woman cries, woman begs to leave, man has sex with her under the threat of death. Yep, that's rape, folks.
After Roy raped the woman, he discards her, throwing her out on the street like trash. Instead of “running straight to her pimp” (a quote from Mary's delightful article about what she thinks a prostitute should do), the woman went to the police. The police proceeded to arrest Roy for aggravated sexual assault and he is now being held on a $750,000 bail.
When Is Rape Just Theft?
The greatest part about Mary's article is her response to Roy being jailed. She's happy they're not charging him with raping an innocent woman. She's glad they're calling this rape aggravated sexual assault, as though the victim aggravated Roy, taunted him into pulling out his gun.
Mary then goes on to say that the charges pressed against Roy make a “mockery” (her word, not mine) of rape victims. How in the world is charging a man for rape making a mockery of rape victims? It's standing up for them to the rest of the world, but to Mary, apparently you shouldn't charge a man for rape. Mary even says that she doesn't see the raped woman as a victim.
If you manage to get past Mary complaining about the charge of a rapist, you'll find that she thinks this charge gives validity to the sex industry. The sex industry that is very valid and even legal in some countries or states. Protecting a woman in the sex industry DOES make it valid, and it's a good thing.
The worst part of Mary's flawed opinion comes later. It comes when she states that perhaps Roy should be charged with “theft of services.” That's not how prostitution works. A prostitute doesn't give free services to her boyfriend, she has sex with him. A John like Roy doesn't steal services when he rapes a prostitute, he rapes her.
Is Backpage A Dangerous Site?
I think it's people like Mitchell who drive prostitutes like the victim in question to get onto awful sites like backpage.com. Backpage is known to be dangerous, women are raped, murdered and kidnapped because of Backpage deals all the time. If the sex industry was seen as more legitimate, instead of less, they could advertise somewhere safer.
In my opinion, it sounds like Mary has forgotten the meaning of the word rape. On Wiki, it says that rape usually involves sexual intercourse against a person's consent. Over at HealthyPlace, a resource for victims, it says that rape is forced sexual intercourse involving penetration. GirlsHealth, a government website, says that rape is any sex the victim didn't agree to. I could go on, but I think this makes it pretty clear that the woman was raped. She cried and begged to leave. That's as against her consent as it gets.
To wrap things up, I just want to make one thing clear. Despite her claimed sympathy for rape victims, Mary might as well have beaten the woman that Roy raped by writing this article. Imagine being raped. Then, imagine reading some article visible to millions denying that rape. Imagine reading someone's article saying they feel bad for the rapist, and that you (a rape victim) were not raped. That's what Mary did to this rape victim. Mary Mitchell (proverbially) kicked a rape victim in the face.
Article Sources and References
Title of Article: Rape
Author: Wikipedia Public Collective
Published: Ongoing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape
Title of article: What is Rape? Was I Raped?
Author: Natasha Tracy
Published: July 28, 2012
http://www.healthyplace.com/abuse/rape/what-is-rape-was-i-raped/
Title of article: What is rape and date rape?
Author: GirlsHealth.gov
Published: March 25, 2015
http://www.girlshealth.gov/safety/saferelationships/daterape.html