I would love to write posts about butterflies and tulips, I really would, especially during these bitterly freezing temperatures. But good god, I cannot remain silent on this one.
Many of you have heard about the proposed HR3 bill.
The GOP wants to limit federal funding for abortions. The bill provides an exemption from the abortion ban "if the pregnancy occurred because the pregnant female was the subject of an act of forcible rape".
This post is not about abortion. Nor is it questioning where you want or do not want your tax dollars to go. I am simply wondering: who the hell gets to sit and judge what rape is?
'No', apparently, does not mean 'No'. I guess this bill is to say congress doesn’t think we know what rape is. Drugged, underage or mentally challenged women are not included. Inebriated women or those who wore a skirt 2” above their knees, were at their own peril. There were no busies on her face. A gun wasn't used. He didn't really hold her shoulders down; a nail in the floorboard must have caught the back of her sweater. Slipped a roofy? She wasn't awake for it anyway.
Really? Have we not come very far? Let's take a very brief trip through history:
During the middle ages, it was believed a woman could only get pregnant if she had an orgasm. In the case of rape, if she did conceive, then she must have enjoyed it.
The history of art has shown us that rapists were heroic, their female victims eroticized.
Jacopo Tintoretto’s Rape of Helen (1578/79), at the
Helen is knocked over like a candlestick in the midst of chaos, yet she gratuitously gives us a booby shot.
Giovanni da Bologna's Rape of a Sabine (1581/83) in the Loggia dei Lanzi on Florence's Piazza della Signoria. Theatrical, as if we are watching dancers on stage dressed in our finest.
Peter Paul Rubens's Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus (1615 to 1618) Alte Pinakothek,
Very dramatic, twisting contorted naked women, you can almost hear the opera music turned up full blast in the background.
And... I can go on and on, really I can, but I am running late for work... my favorite: Susanna and the Elders.
Few artistic themes have offered such an opportunity to blur the lines of rape. Much like this bill. While Susanna is bathing, two old judges spy on her. They approach her with blackmail and when she declines accuse her of adultery.
Some artists put their own spin on the subject. Tintoretto (good lord, examples of this subject matter he depicted are endless) perhaps seems to blame Susanna (1555/56) with her vanity? After all, she was naked and admiring her own beauty in the mirror?
again by Tintoretto (1552?)
Susanna gives the old man a break and leans in.
Alessandro Allori (1535–1607) version at the Musée Magnin
Note the affectionate touch Susanna gives to the man above and the freak-leech below whose hand disappears between her legs. We, the viewer, shouldn't worry, her little toy dog isn't too concerned.
Even Rembrandt's Susanna (1647) looks to us to keep quiet as she makes sure the coast is clear. Staatliche Museum in Berlin.