Everyone has a right to my opinions Main menu Post navigation Two Essential Testimonies on Date Rape Occasionally, this website forgets it is a blog and descends into sheer self-promotion. Not so today, when we share a couple of pieces posted elsewhere on the sensitive issue of so-called 'Date Rape' (the qualifying prefix to which is actually superfluous). Two things have sparked another collective conversation over this issue. The first is the ill-advised, point-missing defences of Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks, who is wanted for questioning in Sweden on sexual assault charges. The second is the wilfully ignorant remark by US Congressman Todd Akin (R-MO), that a victim of 'legitimate rape' rarely gets pregnant. In response, two women have bravely written personal testimonies about how they were forced to have sex without their consent, and the feelings of confusion and shame that followed the ordeal. Both articles are accompanied by the phrase ' Trigger Warning ' (which I confess I had not encountered before). First Eliza James writes at Liberal Conspiracy how she was raped at university by men she liked and fancied: So I lay there and waited for it to be over. I thought: "Nobody will ever believe me. It will look as though I said yes all along if he uses a condom. There will be no semen." He finished after a bit and got off me. I was shocked. I cried endlessly. Put my clothes on, but couldn't look him in the eye. And he was