nixsight

… sorry, I meant Rape by Deception, of course…

A Syrian-born airline pilot tricked a woman into having sex with him by saying intercourse could cure an infection, a court has heard.

I am uncertain how to feel about this… my oft-subtle humanitarian streak says that if there is any truth in the allegations, this man should definitely face charges of fraud and general sneaky shitheadness.

But “rape”? I honestly think that the only way the man could be accused of that is if the prosecution proves that the woman was mentally (and to an observer, totally obviously) incapable of taking any personal responsibility for her actions… as opposed to being smart enough to be a teacher.

He coerced her into having sex with him by telling her that he had stomach cancer, so, you know, shitheel, obviously. And then when she developed an infection, he told her that a gynaecologist friend recommended a cream that could be “applied through intercourse”. So, again, the dude was pushing his luck, and the bounds of decency, certainly…

But… BUT…

The “treatment” allegedly occurred for nine months before the woman told her doctor.

And:

(The Prosecution) said the woman found the sessions “clinical,” not at all erotic. She consented only because she believed it was a proper treatment.

“It began to dawn on her that he had devised this treatment in order to have sex with her on his terms,” he said.

The cynic in me says that under normal circumstances, left to her own devices, this woman would be bound for a Darwin award, and I would find it perfectly reasonable that she be removed from the gene pool for her stupidity. And the paranoid in me that distrusts authority in all it’s incompetencies thinks that you’d have to stretch the definition of “rape” a pretty long way to attach that label to this situation. And once you do, where do you stop? How many people (male and female) have used deceit and exaggeration to get laid? Does every guy who ever claimed to be a pilot suddenly find himself on the stand? Or every woman who pretended to be single? (Or all those guys who pretended to be girls?)

There are certain words that, when they are mentioned, we don’t like to ask questions or probe too deeply, or come down sympathetically on the side of the accused. “Paedophile” is one, “rape” is another. I personally believe that that’s a flawed character trait that we as a society have developed… it’s based on the idea that the crime is too horrific for any discussion of innocence to even be considered… but quite aside from the fact that this idea goes against the traditional sentiment of “innocent until proven guilty”, I feel it’s our duty as right thinking, uh… whatevers to properly assert rational process to cases such as this one, if for no other reason than that validating spurious claims of such heinous acts completely cheapens the experiences of the genuine victims of them.

I suspect that the prosecution will find it hard to make a concrete case that relies on this “victim” being seen as reliable, but I’ll be interested to see how this pans out…

And by interested, of course, I mean morbidly curious and amused…