Summary Of Bill Cosby Rapee Me By Barbara Bowman

While the legal definition of rape has changed over time, the occurrence of this act has remained constant. Rape stories are a permanent fixture on every evening news broadcast; the latest perpetrator being comedian Bill Cosby. One of Cosby’s accusers is left questioning why it took 30 years for people to listen. There is often skepticism around women who accuse men of such acts. Rape culture allows us to discredit these accusations by blinding us via a perpetrator’s economic and social status. Men are often given a free pass due to the assumption that a valid relationship with an individual conveys consent for sexual relations. These relationships are what give them an opportunity to perform the rape in the first place. Women are left to blame

Why did it take 30 years for people to believe my story?”, Bowman struggles with people accepting her story as the truth. In both cases, multiple parties had knowledge of what was going on, yet didn’t do a thing. In administering Bowman pregnancy tests after returning from trips with Cosby, Bowman’s agent expressed that she had knowledge of the sexual relations. Bowman claims that talent agents, hotel staff, and personal assistants “knowingly made arrangements for Cosby’s criminal acts or overlooked them” (Bowman). We can go back to 1764 to see this type of witness ignorance. Sharon Block’s essay, “Rape and Sexual Power in Early America”, discusses a woman being raped. While multiple people were aware of the situation, none of them took action. “Although several men were aware…they chose not to intervene or to allow other young women to do so” (Reis p.

While the laws that govern rape have changed dramatically since the 19th century, the general premise of rape hasn’t. Men are still using the same 200 year old tactics to rape and dominate women. They are exploiting close relationships for an easier rape. Men continue to belittle women by convincing them that they are dependent upon men in order to survive. High ranking individuals still use their economic and social power against women of lower status to discredit their accusations. And most of all, women are still seen as inferior to men. When Barbara Bowman accused Bill Cosby of rape, people laughed and told her that she was lying. When male comedian Hannibal Buress called Cosby a rapist, public outcry commenced. The discrepancies between men and women are very clear: women still earn substantially less than men, unborn Chinese babies are being aborted simply because they are female, and in some countries women still lack basic civil rights. We have come a long way in 200 years, but it hasn’t been enough. While racial and sexual orientation equality have improved considerably, gender equality has been left