My mornings to work are rather entertaining, consisting of Mike filling me on who's who on the Howard Stern show. I remember listening to him back in high school and kind of found him offensive. Though now, I kind of see him as an intelligent individual and some of the show pieces are definitely laughable.
This morning Howard was talking about he happened to catch what Whoopi Goldberg was saying (in defense) about the case about Roman Polanski - him having sex with a 13-yr-old girl; though the case happened in 1977. I'm not sure if they're reopening the case or what not over here in the states, since I was thinking that the statute of limitations would prevent the case from moving forward because of how long ago it happened. It turns out that he was already charged in 78 but fled to France - so he has an active outstanding warrant for his arrest because of his failure to appear in court. I don't know since I'm not well versed in the details of the situation. Any way, he was charged with having unlawful sex with a minor which leads me to my point on Whoopi's comment.
The piece that I heard from Stern's show just seemed like a big joke all the way around the table. What is "rape-rape"? Is that the same expression children use when they are differentiating how they feel about people? You know: you either like a person or you like-like them. The terminology relating to rape is just ridiculous. It's either rape or its consensual sex, there is no gray area especially in the eyes of the law. So Whoopi is going on about how they have to be sensitive in how they use the terminology of raping and allegations toward Polanski. In the background one of the other ladies ask what exactly is the definition of rape. How can you not know? Now Whoopi has a good point in kind of way they should be talking about it, but she is clearly steadfast in her point that he didn't rape her because the girl was drugged.
The term rape is considered a sensitive subject in our society and its definition has been revised through the years and can differ across state lines. But agreed upon in most states is rape is a criminal offense and is a forcible sexual relation(s) with a person against that person's will. Now historically, spousal rape (back in the day) wasn't considered rape as it was a wife's duty to fulfill the needs of her husband be it sexual or other. Now we have defined a number of different sexual acts that would be considered as rape.
"The criminal offense of statutory rape is committed when an adult sexually penetrates a person who, under the law, is incapable of consenting to sex." It has been said that the girl (at the time) knew what was going on. Regardless if she knew what was going or consented, it would still be considered rape because a young teenager, who still is practically a child, does not have the mental capacity to fully comprehend what is taking place. Their brains aren't fully developed. Even if she had started with saying yes, in the end she did verbally protest what he did while it was taking place and he didn't respect her enough to stop. As an older person he had the capability to over-power her because of his age and physique. And it doesn't matter if her mother was in the building -- take that back. It does matter that her mother was in the building at the time. Where was she while this was going on??
I'm not trying to down Whoopi, because I love her as a person. But I just feel what she was saying seemed ignorant and also sounded like she wasn't getting what she wanted to say out in the right way. But even still, I don't think people should be defending Polanski just because he's won an Academy Award or because of his prestigious work in the past. Chris Rock, I think says it best (from his appearance on Leno): "People are defending Roman Polanski because he made good movies 30 years ago?" he said. "Are you kidding me? Even Johnny Cochran didn't have the nerve to go, 'Well did you see OJ play against New England?'" - Here's the clip, which is a little under 10mins about the piece from The View among other things:
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