Anna's dilemma

One of my Christmas presents was a Downton Abbey desk calendar. What a wonderful series that was! The entry in this calendar for the weekend of April 30 is on Social Mores, Customs, and Practices, and notes that in the 1920s "a damaging theory reared its head among psychoanalysts and "sexologists," which argued that men were innately aggressive and women were innately masochistic." This theory was supported by Havelock Ellis, who was progressive enough to recognize homosexuality as a condition, rather than a disease or a crime, and who first identified the condition that later came to be known as transgender. But in supporting this theory of innate aggression and masochism, he and others of his day contributed "to a blame-the-victim mentality that kept many women from speaking up against their attackers." (Downton Abbey Color Page-A-Day Calendar 2016. New York: Workman Publishing Co.)
I am sure that fans of the series remember the terrible scene in episode three of season four where Mr. Green, Lord Gillingham's valet, rapes Anna Bates (played by Joanne Froggatt). Anna chooses not to tell her husband, for fear that he will hunt down Green and kill him, placing him once more in danger of the gallows. But this is unrealistic, because given the mindset of the day, it is far more likely that what would have held Anna back from telling Mr. Bates is that he would be likely to blame her for having been raped.
And the practice of blaming the victim is alive and well today. Several women from Brigham Young University have recently come forward claiming that, in response to their reporting having been raped or sexually assaulted, they were themselves punished for violating the BYU honor code (which stipulates. inter alia, that students live a "chaste and virtuous life").
It is for this reason that, despite many other topics I want to write about (such as understanding the scientific method, and the war on political correctness), I feel we must consider the topic of sexual assault, and rape. Just yesterday, we learned of yet another case, this time in France, of a politician who appears to view women as sex objects.
And this is a topic I feel qualified to write about.
For I have been sexually assaulted.
And raped.