The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #146525   Message #3393200
Posted By: Uncle_DaveO
21-Aug-12 - 10:48 AM
Thread Name: BS: 'Legitimate Rape'???
Subject: RE: BS: 'Legitimate Rape'???
His comments raise two issues:

First, "Legitimate" rape. I think he was speaking not
about the legitimacy (if there is such a thing) of rape,
but the legitimacy or truthfulness of the report. This
distinction doesn't get Akin out of trouble, though. Because
the comment, however you phrase it, reveals more than a
casual belief that many rape reports are untrue. I don't
doubt that there are SOME false rape reports, but to assume
that a significant portion of them are false sounds to me
like misogyny.

The other, or "medical", half of the statement reveals either abysmal
ignorance or conscious falsehood, again based on misogyny.

He says "doctors have told him". What kind of "doctors"?
Doctors of podiatry? Doctors of Theology? Doctors of
Veterinary Medicine? Doctors of Mechanical Engineering? Witch doctors?

Even if his alleged informants are doctors of medicine,
the plural term "doctors" may mean that somewhere in the United States (or maybe in the world) there are as many as two of them
who are so ignorant or careless or malevolent as to tell him that.

All of the above possibilities assume that Akin himself isn't just
issuing a rape report without legitimacy.

Dave Oesterreich