Way back when in 1815, when the Napoleonic wars ended, Percy Bysshe Shelley and his mistress, Mary Shelley took their friend Claire Claremont (A name she chose for herself) on a trip around Europe. Percy was still married to his first wife, with whom he had a child, but this didn't stop him from taking his girlfriend and his girlfriend's stepsister around a sexy tour of all the mainland's hotels.
See, Percy Shelley was a huge proponent of a new school of thought called 'Free love'. Students of this school of thought believed that sex as a practise was meant to be shared among many people, perhaps even many at a time, and that it was a physical expression of love. These romantics also believed that to love only one person was a great tragedy and a waste of what has been given to us.
Percy talks about this in his poem Epipsychidion: "True Love in this differs from gold and clay, That to divide is not to take away. Love is like understanding, that grows bright, Gazing on many truths; ’tis like thy light." In this quote we can see that love, to Percy, only gets more intense and more valuable the more people you share it with.
He shared these beliefs with Mary Shelley and Claire Claremont, as he had individual relationships with the two of them. The three of them eventually arrived in Geneva early in 1816, and stayed in a hotel with acclaimed poet, Lord George Byron. Percy and Byron then went on a 6 week long boat tour around Lake Geneva, where they connected emotionally (and most likely physically, if the suggestiveness of Percy's diary during that period depicts.) Percy shared his 'free love' beliefs with Lord Byron, who took to them quickly and fondly. They decided to rent a house together for the remainder of the summer, where John Polidori, Lord Byron's doctor tagged along and provided with many prescription and recreational drugs.
The rest of the summer followed with the Regency period equivalent of a 'key party', where partners were exchanged in every combination, unrequited loves came to light, and the house where they stayed inspired them to write some of the greatest works of literature to this day. The idea of free love blossomed in the Villa. John Polidori developed feelings for young Mary Shelley and Percy Shelley, as their writing styles and Romantic demeanors drew his interest. Claire had already met and slept with Lord Byron previously, and was carrying his child at the time, but it still took her a considerable amount of work to get him into bed again. He dubbed her "irritating and cumbersome, but when a young girl throws herself at a man like me, I cannot be held responsible for my actions." He writes in a letter to an old college friend of his.
Percy and Mary were the only couple that stayed together after that summer, and went on to have 4 children together, only one of which surviving. Percy divorced his first wife, married Mary, but still had a mistress on the side. He died believing wholeheartedly in Free Love, but the idea disappeared and never really entered the public eye.
I don't have an invitation to post on my own so a post in the comments box will have to do. So ladies and gentlemen hold onto your hats, because things are about to go down a dark road. Unfortunately, rape culture, a term coined by feminists in the 1970's, is still prevalent in today's society. Not only is its very existence disturbing, but what may be more disturbing is how people react to it. According to an article by TheNation.com, rape culture exists because society believes that it doesn't. However, when we have a United States President who previously said "you can do whatever you want. You can grab them by the pussy", that shows how evident rape culture still is.
ReplyDeleteRape culture is typically also tied in with victim blaming.
Victim blaming is much easier to see, which is also very disturbing. Phrases such as, "she was asking for it" or "she was dressed like a slut" or "she shouldn't have been that drunk" are common ways to blame the victim. Honestly, it's complete and utter bullshit. Victim blaming exists because we unfortunately live in a society where people regularly refuse to take responsibility for the actions that they commit. It's bad enough that victim blaming and rape culture exist in the first place, but some states such as California have taken it a step further.
I believe it was during this last election, that in the state of California, a law was placed on the ballot to be voted upon. This law was whether or not to remove rape from the list of violent crimes. If rape, a very violent and traumatic act for those who have suffered its consequences, is removed from the list of violent crimes, it will only serve to further perpetuate rape culture. While it would not be totally decriminalized, removing it from the violent crimes list would lessen the harshness of the punishment for the perpetrator in the courtroom. This would only serve to further normalize rape and increase victim blaming.
Rape unfortunately is a very prevalent issue in our society. On the low end according to the Department of Justice, 300,000 women are raped every year, and on the high end, the CDC puts the number at around 1.3 million. Those numbers are way to high to go unnoticed. Unfortunately, most of these cases go unpunished. according to an article in the Huffington Post, 97% of rapists are never incarcerated. Something needs to be done about this.
Chances are that more than one person is being raped while I type out this blog post. The statistics listed above show clear evidence of the severity of rape culture in the United States today. The people suffering from this heinous crime should not have to be doing so. Something needs to be done to delegitimize the prevalence of this culture. As individuals, a nation, and the next generation, we must stand together on this issue and show that rape will not only no longer be tolerated, but severely punished. We need to be the change that we want to see in this world. We need to be the change that this world needs.
http://www.wavaw.ca/what-is-rape-culture/https://www.thenation.com/article/ten-things-end-rape-culture/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/soraya-chemaly/50-facts-rape_b_2019338.html