It’s not “sex,” it’s rape

A reader sent in this story, about how this 18 year-old man was given only 6 months in jail for raping two women. (Oh, and he gets work and school release privileges.)
Michael Philbin, son of a Green Bay Packers coach, said he was “ashamed” and “embarrassed.” Well, that’s lovely, but I wish he was feeling ashamed from prison for more than 6 frigging months. The short jail sentence aside, what really bugged me about this article was the language it used to describe the attacks:

Philbin had sex with one girl after she passed out and was placed on his parent’s bed. He then joined another 17-year-old boy in the basement and forced a second girl to perform oral sex, according to the criminal complaint filed last month.

Excuse me, but you don’t “have sex” with an unconscious girl. That’s called rape.

Brown County Circuit Court Judge Sue Bischel, in accepting a joint sentencing recommendation, said by all accounts Philbin was a good person who made a horrible decision.

Making a “horrible decision” to rape someone doesn’t make you a good person who fucked up - it makes you a rapist.

Reading from a pre-sentence report, Bischel said Philbin acknowledged that he took advantage of the girls knowing they had too much to drink.

Took advantage of? Again, rape. Judge Bischel also ruled that Philbin didn’t have to register as a sex offender because it was “excessive” (and raping two women isn’t?) and that after completing probation he could petition to have the convictions removed from his record.
I am so tired of the rape apologism – in the media, in the courts, in the culture. How much more can we really take?

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