Finally Moving On From 1929…

It’s a modern age right? People are all down with the modern lingo and updating things to be politically correct and gender neutral right? Think again. The year is 1929, and whoever it is that sits down in the FBI office and decides what words get written in definitions and whatnot decides that an appropriate definition of rape is “Carnal knowledge of a woman against her will.”

Fast forward to 2011… the definition is the same. Individuals and groups have been protesting this definition for years but there has been little change, until 3 days ago. The FBI is officially changing the definition of rape. It’s an exciting occurrence that’s been too long in the making but finally, positive change is happening.

Besides the fact that police stations across the country use definitions that are more encompassing and gender neutral, leading to discrepancies amongst law enforcement, the definition obviously has issues in terms of gender equality. The assumption that rape happens to a woman is exclusionary to men and transgendered individuals who experience rape. It is also a highly normative assumption that only women would experience sexual violence. I googled the definition of “carnal knowledge” and according to Princeton’s web dictionary, it is “the act of sexual penetration between a man and a woman.” Yet what about rape that occurs between homosexual individuals? Does this simply not happen?

The victimization of women also seems to me to be an integral part of this definition, primarily in the wording that focuses on women and women alone as being raped and needing protection within the law. Additionally, attacks involving oral sex, anal sex and penetration with foreign objects did not fall under the definition of rape. The implication was that a large number of attacks went unreported. Women and other individuals did not report rapes and other acts of sexual violence because of a belief in the inaction that would be taken by the FBI.

So what’s changing? Supposedly the new definition will include sexual attacks by relatives and additional forms of non-traditional penetration; the proposed official wording is to be “penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.” This is an amazing reformation of the definition and it largely addresses the problems that I outlined above. However, the backlash against this definition has also been experienced.

Depending on which side of the debate youre on, the new definition can have implications for the TSA and how they are allowed to conduct searches in airports. Is the new definition is now penetration “no matter how slight” then searching someone just got super awkward and… illegal. While I’m sure this will be sorted out without an insane amount of difficulty, the interesting thing to note is not that this makes TAS officer’s jobs a lot harder, it’s that the focus immediately shifted from the impact this will have on rape victims to whether or not strip searching people just got harder. While I understand that this can be a difficult subject for people to discuss, it’s necessary that this discussion happen. But the media’s immediate shift away from the victory of this rewriting is to focus the debate and reporting on the new difficulties that TSA officers will experience is an interesting thing to note. As a small challenge, google “new FBI rape definition” and see what the top news stories are.

So what do I hope to leave readers with? An awareness that such outdated laws exist. That these laws  are harmful and should be challenged. Additionally, I hope that the recognition of sexual violence occurring in a multiplicity of ways to a wide range of people allows myself, and others, to widen our gazes and to begin to be more aware of legislation, definitions, etc that narrow things in a way that is harmful and, oftentimes, nonsensical. I was shocked when I learned that the FBI had such an archaic definition of rape and I realized that it’s time I opened my eyes and began to take a closer look outside of the JMU bubble within which I usually reside.