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Geckoman
Joined: 07 Jun 2007
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 Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 7:09 pm Post subject: Korea Court Rules Woman Wasn�t Raped Because She Wore Jeans! |
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Korean Court Rules Woman Wasn�t Raped Because She Wore Jeans!
A Korean court has ruled that a woman could not of been raped because she worn jeans, reasoning that jeans are too difficult for anyone besides the wearer to take off. Thus, goes their thinking, the jeans had to of been taken off by the woman, and thus it was consensual.
This conclusion despite the fact that the woman was so physically damaged that she required 20 weeks of medical care. What type of consensual sex results in needing 20 weeks of medical care?!
TOTALLY OUTRAGEOUS! 
Read about the case below or go to http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/04/117_23019.html
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Rape Charge Called Into Question Over Jeans
April 23rd, 2008
By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter
Is a woman whose jeans were found neatly folded by a bed likely to have been the victim of an attempted rape? A dispute is rising over a court ruling saying she could not have been since it is difficult for denims to be taken off by someone other than the wearer.
Outraged women's rights groups criticized the sentence as reflecting the prevalent chauvinism in society and that rape or sexual assault should never be taken lightly or glossed over.
The Seoul High Court Tuesday overturned a lower court's ruling to put a seven-year-jail term on a 35-year-old man on charges of attempted rape and assault that caused injuries requiring 20 weeks of medical care.
The incident took place in 2006 when the victim waited for a friend in a motel reception area while the friend checked-in with a man she'd met at a nightclub. After her friend turned the man down, he grabbed the other instead and allegedly tried to rape her. She then jumped from the sixth-floor-room window to escape his attempts to rape her.
In his defense the man claimed the woman was drunk, undressed herself and lured him in but ran away at the last minute.
The judge said in the ruling: ``Lots of things point to the accused attempting the rape. But a pair of skinny jeans and underwear found by the bedside neatly folded and the fact that such denims are hard for another person to take off beg clearer evidence to prove him guilty.'' He also said the woman having a medical record of depression should be taken into account.
According to the lower court ruling, the victim made coherent statements about her experience and left no grounds for doubt.
A judge at the court said on condition of anonymity that the higher court's ruling is difficult to accept. ``This is a typical sexual assault case. Regardless of past medical records, what comes first is the victim's coherent statement,'' he said.
Lee San of the Korea Sexual violence Relief Center said the ruling is quite irrational. ``Depression may make one dramatize their impression of an incident but it never distorts facts,'' she said. ``Also, skinny jeans may not be easy to take off, but that doesn't mean a man cannot take them off by force,'' she added.
The Online world was also abuzz over the ruling. A male internet user (ID: Kang Jeonggil) said the woman could easily have been forced to take off her jeans. ``In such a violent situation, she may have had to do it by herself. Jumping from such a height shows she was desperate and the court must have misread or ignored that,'' he said.
``Now women cannot wear jeans?'' an angry netizen (ID:antechinus) said.
[email protected]
Source: The Korea Times; April 23rd, 2008; http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/04/117_23019.html |
I remember when the exact same thing happened in Italy in 1999. An Italian court that year made the exact same ruling based on the exact same twisted logic. However, that was almost 10 years ago. And I also don�t think the woman in the Italian case was as physically damaged as the Korean women who required 20 weeks of medical care.
Also, in the Italian case, while the conviction was thrown out because the victim wore jeans, a new trial was ordered. I don�t know the result of the new trial. No new trial was ordered in the Korean case. The Korean ruling is the final say on the matter.
And, very importantly, there was great public outrage within Italy by the ruling. The Italian president came out publicly against the ruling and a group of female lawmakers went on a ''jeans strike,� wearing jeans to Parliament to protest the ruling. I doubt we will be seeing anything like that in Korea. Public outrage in Korea equivalent or more than in Italy? I don�t think so. I doubt it will even get much media coverage in Korea at all, at least not as much as a case like this should get.
To read about the Italian case go to:
�Ruling on Tight Jeans and Rape Sets Off Anger in Italy�
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9406E0D7133AF935A25751C0A96F958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all |
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Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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| Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 7:15 pm Post subject: |
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I remember the jeans incident in Italy. That was what immediately came to mind when I saw the title of this thread.
Hopefully there will be a huge stink about it, and a bit of progress will come from it. But I doubt it. |
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djsmnc
Joined: 20 Jan 2003
Location: Dave's ESL Cafe
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| Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 7:59 pm Post subject: |
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| Jeans would be kinda hard to pull off |
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ernie
Joined: 05 Aug 2006
Location: asdfghjk
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| Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 8:02 pm Post subject: |
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| so was the '20 weeks of medical care' caused by the attempted rape or the 6-story nose dive? |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 8:03 pm Post subject: |
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Ha ha, this is why American judges love juries. Someone to blame poor rulings on. The arbiter-at-law should not be the same person as the finder-of-fact.
Still, this stupidity is too much to blame on the German-style civil law system alone. |
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Khenan
Joined: 25 Dec 2007
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| Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 8:05 pm Post subject: |
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The judges must not have very interesting sex lives. I for one know that, once unbottoned, they can be pulled off in one quick motion (with a little practice)...  |
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djsmnc
Joined: 20 Jan 2003
Location: Dave's ESL Cafe
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| Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 8:09 pm Post subject: |
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| Khenan wrote: |
| The judges must not have very interesting sex lives. I for one know that, once unbottoned, they can be pulled off in one quick motion (with a little practice)... |
So you're a rapist? Sicko! |
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yawarakaijin
Joined: 08 Aug 2006
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| Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 8:30 pm Post subject: |
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While I can kinda, kinda, kinda see where the judge is coming from there can be no way that her jeans simply being folded near the bed was the lynch pin can there?
Were there no other factors involved? In a sad twist of fate, her jumping from 6 stories up would probably make it pretty hard to prove any direct physical assault as having come directly from him.
It sounds to me that the judge is simply trying to come up with a feasible judgement, offering up the jeans and panties folded neatly by the bed explanation. It has been my experience that in most asian countries, a woman simply walking into a man's house excludes the possibility of rape in the minds of quite a few asian men.. and WOMEN. 
The judge was actually probably quite aware of this thinking, could have even believed it himself, and merely offered up said evidence as a way to make aqquitting this man more palatable. |
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Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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| Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 9:19 pm Post subject: |
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How do you know she walked into his room with him?
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| After her friend turned the man down, he grabbed the other instead and allegedly tried to rape her. |
I've had a man grab me a few times in my life. It's very frightening and I'm grateful that I managed to get away each time - thanks to a degree of luck more than my ability to fight them off. One situation was in a busy street. People looked on and nobody helped. It was only when another girl I knew walked up the street and said "<Big_Bird's real name> - what's going on?" that he let me go. More out of his own surprise than anything.
I think (non-raping) men underestimate how much physical power a man has over a woman. |
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kabrams
Joined: 15 Mar 2008
Location: your Dad's house
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| Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 9:21 pm Post subject: |
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| djsmnc wrote: |
| Jeans would be kinda hard to pull off |
Er, not really. Have you ever tried to take your own jeans off? And believe me, a little extra wrist movements aren't enough to deter a rapist. |
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