Roman Polanski defenders ‘try to define’ what rape is (corrected)

The defenders of noted film director Roman Polanski, who has been charged with raping a 13-year-old girl in 1977 and then fleeing the country, have been trying to redefine what rape is.

Comedian and talk-show host Whoopi Goldberg had on The View on September 29 tried to defend his actions.

“It wasn’t rape-rape,” she had said.

The next day, Debra Tate, sister of Polanski’s murdered wife, Sharon, argued on the Today show that it was consensual sex even though the victim was 13.

“There’s rape, and then there’s rape,” she said.

Shannon Gilreath, Wake Forest University Law Professor for Interdisciplinary Study and a nationally recognized scholar on issues of equality, sexual minorities, and constitutional interpretation, believes there are really two perspectives involved in the case.

“One is the perspective of people who look for any reason imaginable to excuse the victimization of women and girls that is rampant: it happened long ago, she was mature for her age-she wanted it,” he explained.

“On the other side of this are those of us who are saying that every victim matters, even those victimized by people rich enough to evade jurisdiction for many years,” he stated.

But Gilreath says that statutory rape is a clear offence under the law, and at the age of 13, the girl was underage.

Many in the entertainment industry have flocked to Polanski’s defence, questioning whether the act was strictly rape or not and pointing to the amount of time that has passed since the case, possible judicial misconduct, and the fact that the girl, now in her forties, would prefer that the case simply go away.

But where is the outrage in the media and entertainment industry for the victim, asks Gilreath.

“Maybe the missing piece of this discussion is that what is being turned into a major media event, full of talking-head outrage because it involves Roman Polanski, is real life as it is experienced by millions of women every day,” he said.

“And, like it or not, it could happen to every woman. Until we face up to the pervasiveness of a culture of violence that sexualizes dominance, that turns male dominance over women into sex, then we won’t be able to face it down.

“And women and girls will continue to be raped and worse unnoticed. Where is the outrage, where is the media blitz about that?” he added.

Polanski, now 76, fled the country in 1978 right before his sentencing after he admitted to having sex with the girl.

As part of a 1977 plea deal, he pled guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor while prosecutors promised to drop rape, sodomy and other charges after sentencing.

A judge was to determine his sentence. He was arrested in Switzerland September 26, and the extradition is being handled there. (ANI)

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