Call it anything but rape

Yesterday there was a story in the Omaha World Herald titled Omahan accused of sexual trickery. Because the World Herald doesn't keep their stories online for more than a few days, I'm going to reproduce it here in its entirety:

A 21-year-old Omaha man was arrested Tuesday after being accused of tricking a woman into having sex with another man.

The investigation began after 1 a.m. at Bergan Mercy Medical Center, where the 31-year-old woman sought treatment.

She told officers that she was in the dark basement of a northwest Omaha home having sex with a man whom she knew, said Omaha Police Sgt. Teresa Negron.

The 21-year-old man left the room and told a different man to return to the woman and pretend to be him, Negron said.

The woman had sex with the second man, not knowing that he wasn't her original partner, Negron said.

The woman came to realize that she was having sex with a different man, said something to him about it, and he ran away, Negron said.

The first man was arrested on suspicion of being an accessory to a sexual assault. The other man fled before police arrived.

Who the hell do these men think they are? This makes me so angry that I can't even write a coherent sentence. When a woman gives you permission to sleep with her, you don’t become the owner of her pussy. She doesn't become your property, some sort of fucktoy to share with your friends.

And since we're talking about it, what the hell, Omaha World Herald? "Sexual trickery?" No, these men are accused of rape. I'm beside myself with rage that you could write an entire article about two men who plot to sleep with a woman without her consent and fail to call it rape. If you want to know why rape is so common, look no further than this yourselves. You portray rape as some kind of practical joke, as though the two men should be patting each other on the back. "We sure pulled a good trick on her, didn't we? Too bad the old bitch doesn't have a sense of humor."

I'm tired of it. I'm so tired of feeling shocked and stunned every time I find out that one of the women close to me has been raped. I've lost track of the number of times it has happened, and every single time it is emotionally exhausting. Not a week goes by that I don't learn another friend was raped. I'm sick of everyone who enables it. I'm fed up with anyone who promotes this rape culture and then pretends that they aren't part of the problem. I'm tired of supposedly respectable organizations like the Omaha World Herald refusing to call rape what it is.

Rape is an ugly word. But it's an even uglier act. These men don't deserve to be branded with anything less.