Cara's question: why don't we call rape what it is?

A basic Libertarian tenet: property rights are fundamental, and the most fundamental of all is the right to control your own body.

At The Curvature, Cara angrily asks the incredible important but uncomfortable question:

Why the fuck do people still keep referring to the practice of selling a child’s body to men as “forced prostitution” instead of what it is: holding a child hostage and allowing men to rape her for a set fee?

Selling rape is not “forced prostitution.” It’s selling rape. The rape of a child is not sex. You cannot “have sex” with a child.” Rape is not sex. It is violence.

I don't think this is an issue of political correctness; I think its one of accuracy and intellectual honesty.

But, hey, that's just an insensitive Libertarian perspective.

Comments

Anonymous said…

Legally speaking, it is called rape: statutory rape. The purveyor of the rape (the child's pimp) can be charged with accessory to statutory rape (although I'm not sure on this point), but will most likely be charged with child endangerment, among a host of other offenses against the child (kidnapping, etc.).

In short, I think that Cara's wish has already come true.

February 1, 2008 at 9:10 AM

Steven H. Newton said…

Michael
I think Cara is talking about media references rather than legal charges. You read a lot about "forced child prostitution" in Thailand, for example.

She's arguing that we should be calling it something like "the business of child rape" in Thailand instead.

February 1, 2008 at 9:26 AM

Anonymous said…

Got it. Probably should have clicked through, huh?

February 1, 2008 at 3:46 PM

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