Difference between Rape and Sex
As simple as it may appear, sex is defined as sexual action between two people that brings them together. Without going into detail, sex is a mutual act of consent, delight, and, to coin a word, togetherness. The word rape, on the other hand, has a whole different connotation. Rape is an act of violence and a violation of human rights. It's all about power, and it's about exploiting the most personal relationship two people can have as a means of degradation. Rape is a coercive, non-consenting act. It imposes the attacker's will on the victim.
The only genuine similarity between sex and rape is that they both entail sexual action, but not for the same reason or with the same aim. As Friedman points out, equating the two is perilous. Sex is about a healthy expression of love and caring, as well as mutual desire and trust. Rape is about one person's will over another; it's ultimately about power, expressed by previously intimate acts that demean and shame the victim.
Words have a lot of power, and when crimes like rape are misnamed, it's a second violation. It's a "unnaming" of the atrocity, which detracts from the survivors' testimony since word choice influences how the public views their tale. It's critical to refer to a crime as rape (or, as modified in this case, sexual assault), rather than as a "sex charge," which just adds to the misunderstanding and creates a deadly link between rape and sex.
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