Roger Rivard, rape apologist
The Wisconsin legislator's remarks are further proof that the right needs a lesson on the true meaning of "rape"
Topics: Legitimate rape, Todd Akin, Steve King, Rape, Elections 2012, Roger Rivard, Elections News, News, Politics News
If you were hoping to wake up one morning and not have to unlock some new, yet unplumbed level of disgust within the core of your being for our conservative friends, sorry, but today’s not looking so good. Ladies and gentlemen, grab your antiemetics, position your face in your palm, and say hello to Roger Rivard.
Back in December, the Wisconsin state representative had a few thoughts about a controversial high school sexual assault case and the questions about whether the 14-year-old girl at the center of it had in fact consented to sex. At the time, he dryly observed to the Chetek Alert that “If it’s rape, it’s rape. If it’s not, it’s not,” adding that his father long ago warned him: “Some girls rape easy.” Because apparently the Rivard men are as enlightened about sexual assault as they are about grammar.
Rivard’s remarks went relatively unremarked upon at the time, but with the election mere weeks away now, the poor misunderstood 60-year-old white male has felt the need to clarify. Speaking to the Journal Sentinel Wednesday, he insisted his quote was misunderstood and explained that his father “told me one thing, ‘If you do [have premarital sex], just remember, consensual sex can turn into rape in an awful hurry. Because all of a sudden a young lady gets pregnant and the parents are madder than a wet hen and she’s not going to say, “Oh, yeah, I was part of the program.” All that she has to say or the parents have to say is it was rape because she’s underage.’ And he just said, ‘Remember, Roger, if you go down that road, some girls,’ he said, ‘they rape so easy.’ What the whole genesis of it was, it was advice to me, telling me, ‘If you’re going to go down that road, you may have consensual sex that night and then the next morning it may be rape.’ So the way he said it was, ‘Just remember, Roger, some girls, they rape so easy. It may be rape the next morning.’ So it’s been kind of taken out of context.”
OK. Wow. Thanks for clearing that up. Now we can all agree that Roger Rivard is not just a massive troll but a pretty rambling, repetitive one to boot? Can we recruit Todd Akin to give this guy some sensitivity training?
Mary Elizabeth Williams is a staff writer for Salon and the author of "Gimme Shelter: My Three Years Searching for the American Dream." Follow her on Twitter: @embeedub. More Mary Elizabeth Williams.





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