The victim said in the trial that she froze, and the judges who saw the videos described her attitude as “passive or neutral”.

Once again, this is a well documented neurological response to trauma. Just because it doesn’t make sense to those who don’t know that or who have never been attacked in this way, doesn’t make it any less valid. Thanks for linking that article. Here’s another one.

We really, really need to keep having these kinds of conversations because there are so many misconceptions, so many wrong ideas (e.g, as in the article you linked, it’s only rape if they held a gun to her head or beat her up). People, in this country at least, used to actually say, “What happens behind closed doors isn’t our business.” There was and still is a lot of shame and silence around this subject, and I believe it’s only by bringing it out into the light that progress can be made.

Thanks again for the chat!