Will It Really Take a Man's Word for People to Believe Rape Victims?

By Jessica Valenti, Guardian UK

27 April 15

Jon Krakauer writes in his new book, Missoula, that rape ‘occurs with appalling frequency’. Yes, it does – and women have been saying that for years

hen it comes to rape, a woman’s word has never been enough. So it doesn’t surprise me that with all that’s been written on rape, it’s a book written by a man that’s captured the attention of the nation. But it does depress me.

My depression wasn’t assuaged when Jon Krakauer, the author of Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town, told NPR recently that he “didn’t know much about” rape and that he “had never taken it seriously” before he wrote his book. He was embarrassed to admit as much, but said that, when a college girlfriend told him about being raped, “I thought, ‘What’s the big deal? Get over it.’”

It’s great (for everyone but that traumatized, long-ago girlfriend, perhaps) that he apparently learned better in the interceding years. But it’s not as if there’s been a dearth of coverage and information on college or acquaintance rape that necessitated the great author’s unique, deft touch to bring attention to the epidemic. The research Krakauer on which depends – mostly David Lisak’s – has been cited and written about at length. The stories in his book have been told before by female reporters – even ones in Missoula. The broader message of his book –that women are raped and then not believed, that the men who do it often face few consequences – is one that women and feminists have been ringing the alarm bell about for decades.

This leaves me wondering if we’re really only willing to trust that women are raped when it’s a man telling us.

Krakauer’s well-researched book looks at a handful of sexual assaults in Missoula, Montana, laying out a horrifying but frank view of how poorly rape cases are typically handled by our legal system. His lack of experience can be glaring, through: for instance, Krakauer seems perpetually surprised at the prevalence and reality of rape and assumes a similar level of disbelief in his audience. He writes that “rape is a much more common crime than most people realize” and that “gang rape is an especially heinous crime”.

He is also quite fond of the phrase “it turns out”, which gives the rhetorical impression that the awfulness of rape is something newly discovered.

Rape, it turns out, occurs with appalling frequency throughout the United States.

For those of us who have been writing about rape for years, it’s like reading the mansplainer’s guide to rape-is-bad. Is this really news for most people?

It’s news, I suppose, for those who don’t tend to believe women – those that think, as one Missoula police chief told a rape victim, that half of rape allegations are false; those who think the college rape statistics are inflated; those who like Krakauer, didn’t previously care much about the impact of sexual assault.

Despite his knowledge – and prior empathy – gap, the book is still getting fantastic press, and, if it helps create a space for men for talk about how rape is terrifyingly bad, to realize their ignorance of its prevalence, then I’m glad there’s a book that relays the horror of rape in a way that will convince skeptical men. And, as Nina Burleigh wrote in Newsweek, Krakauer’s is a book that will bring “more mainstream attention to a dire and important topic normally relegated to feminists and victims preaching to the choir about rape culture.”

It’s important for as many people as possible to know that most rapists are repeat offenders, that many are happy to brag about their crimes, and that victims overwhelmingly tell the truth about rape.

It’s just too bad we need a man to make people believe that those things are true.