Article in Amandala newspaper stirring outrage
There is an uproar tonight among various organizations, including the National Women’s Commission and the Special Envoy for Women and Children, following the publication of an article entitled “Bake It Again” in Friday’s edition of the Amandala Newspaper. The article is written by columnist Colin Hyde and it expresses his views on the amendment to the Criminal Code. The newspaper’s assistant editor, Adele Ramos has also condemned the article. The contentious literature in which Hyde opines on the issue of rape goes on to state that, “the rape of a male by a male is more heinous than the rape of a female by a male. Consider that one, the female might one day fall in love with the male; two, the female provoked the immature/crazy male to commit this act; three, it is a natural act; and four, the female might be entirely whorish, so the act is of little confidence.” Well, that excerpt has raised the ire of Kim Simplis Barrow, who issued a release earlier today condemning the statements made in the article. According to the Special Envoy, the assertions made by the author advance a culture of rape and sexual violence against women and girls which seek to blame the victim while providing excuses for the perpetrator. As for Ramos, she says, “this post will probably get me in trouble with my newspaper’s management, but I want to put on record that I, Adele Ramos, in no way support the deplorable statements made by columnist Colin BH, Colin Hyde, in his column in the Amandala last week.” Furthermore, the statements are viewed as an open insult to all women and girls because Hyde completely downplays the trauma that victims of sexual violence are forced to endure.
Yes, and rapists and murderers always have friends and neighbours who say how lovely they were too.
Let me get an early-morning jump on the zealotry that is sure to follow below during the course of today. Colin’s referred-to comments are indeed deplorable if you take them at face value. But if you’ve read Colin before, you know he has a conscience and therefore you might be behooved to put his statements into context.
“the rape of a male by a male is more heinous than the rape of a female by a male.” THIS IS TRUE in an overwhelming majority of sodomy-type rape cases if you consider the physical trauma visited upon sphincteric tissue. Colin is wrong for not considering the horrendous trauma caused to virgins during forced entry as well as upon females when there’s a mismatch in size of sex organs.
Next, “Consider that one, the female might one day fall in love with the male;” THIS IS A LAUGHABLE REACH, COLIN, but i think there’s an element of sardonicism therein. Well, it’s not funny in these parts with sensitive subjects. Belize people don’t do sardonic. Trust me.
“two, the female provoked the immature/crazy male to commit this act;” Again, yes, in a great many cases IT IS TRUE that the victim was provocatively clad and being a flaming coquette, but you can’t tell a woman how to dress and behave, and you can’t jump on her as soon as no one’s looking. That’s illegal, Colin.
“three, it is a natural act;” Colin, you surely mean this type of sexual relation is orthodox. You’re expressing your disdain for male-male sex and for emphasis, sanctioning its opposite. Colin had a case of tunnel vision here, folks. He miswrote.
“and four, the female might be entirely whorish, so the act is of little confidence.” Colin’s brand of derisive mocking. There’s more humor here than harm. Like the oft-said “She was begging for it.” IT’S HUMOR, FOLKS, but it’s bad humor, especially if you’ve been personally affected by rape.
I think CBH will ‘grow up’ after this.
Much ado about nothing.
This is a well-thought out and provocative opinion piece by a writer that is held in high esteem by most Belizeans.
The “shock” professed by the the Prime Minister’s wife surely smacks of reverse zealotry and may be better addressed at the continuing UDP corruption saga we are seeing unfold day by day.
Mr. Hyde’s comments are the sentiments of a lot of males in Belize!!!! And even surprisingly some women. So no big shocker to me…..Belize is one of the most sexist places…..we need to open our eyes and make a change!!!!
natty dread – it’s not well-thought out at all. How do you measure the impact of rape? what happens if a female is raped anally, is that still “less heinous” than a male raped? It’s a completely stupid, repulsive and factually incorrect piece, resurrecting ideas that have been proved wrong over and over again. There is no humour here at all. I welcome Adele’s comments, but the Amandala is responsible for everything it publishes, whether it agrees or not, and for it to publish such comments shows a complete lack of management and/or responsibility.
Nope. This is completely shocking, and to see it coming from the one newspaper I held of high esteem, the only one I read actually, is a big disappointment to me. And from Colin? Yes, i also held his commentaries in high regard, but this Colin? This is a completely hideous article. Damn. Thanks to Adele to give me reason to continue buying. if these really are the sentiments of lots of males in Belize, then $%&**. We haven’t gone to hell. We are hell.
The things that make it in the news surprises me more and more
We are becoming a nation of “COMPLAINERS” everything we seem to have a problem with
Colin says something – a big deal
The PM says something else – a big deal
Someone farts – a big deal
Lets start to work together as a community and stop complaining about everything – when we do that people will tend to stop listening bacause we have a problem with every single thing that happens.
Food for thought!
Any form of rape is a deplorable act, however this is the problem with many of the feminist group, they don’t want to hear the truth as long as its female who is accusing the male, they believe by their action that as long as a man is accused of rape or some other offense again t a woman automatically it is true. Being accused wrongfully of rape by a woman is also as deplorable, and is as heinous as a person being rape. The women commission or any other women group do not care how this wrongful accusation affects the male who have being accused.
In fact many of these women organization dont even care about the women or young girls who are not in their class or bracket, I cant remember hearing these women organization advocating on behalf of the Thousands of single mothers who cannot afford to send their Daughters to school, or provide adequate food , clothing and shelter for them. The real problem is that organization who advocate for more right to one group than the other based on gender is bias in there judgement and cant be seen as an organ fro equality.
Equality should be a cry for all humans, not just female or male, young or old, rich or poor. When justice is to be served it should not be based on any of the above criteria. I would ask these women from these organizations and group take into consideration that you too may have sons, husbands, brothers and fathers and, how would you feel if that person is wrongfully accused of rape or any other wrong acts upon a female. In some way the logic of Mr. Hyde article can be seen and it open a conversation that needs to be have.
If you believe that discussions of Colin’s reprehensible column are ‘complaining’ then you are probably male… you don’t have to live with the very real possibility of rape and sexual harassment… if you feel that Belize’s male-privileged culture is no big deal then you just might be a macho man… if you ‘stop listening’ when women want to CHANGE a culture that values men over women, dismisses rape as ‘of little consequence’ and BLAMES the VICTIM by judging that she somehow deserved to be assaulted, you’re probably male… chances of man being raped, including prison stats, one in 25… chances of a female being raped, ONE in FIVE! that includes your WIFE, your SISTERS, your DAUGHTERS, your MOTHER, and even your GRANDMOTHER… if you excuse men who rape by describing the victim of sexual assault as ‘whorish’ you are probably male… notice, nobody EVER says such things about the victims of theft, robbery, or home invasion? that they ‘provoked’ the crime, asked for it, deserved it, are to blame for it, because of what they were wearing, or their HOUSE looked ‘sexy’ or their CAR had a ‘sexy behind’ so the thief just couldn’t STOP his hand from reaching out to GRAB it.
To report a sexual assault, and see the case all the way through the judicial system is extraordinarily exhausting… false reports of rape are VERY rare… Only about 2% of all rape and related sex charges are determined to be false, the same percentage as for other serious crimes. So while they do happen, and they are very problematic when they do, people claim that allegations are false far more frequently than they are and far more frequently than for other crimes. Put another way, we are much more likely to disbelieve a woman if she says she was raped than if she says she was robbed, but for no good reason.
On a related note, only about 40% of rapes are ever reported to the police, and this is partly because victims know that if their claim becomes public, their every behavior will be scrutinized, they will be shamed for their sexual history, and they will be labeled as lunatic, psychotic, paranoid, and manipulative. Just because someone does not report their crime does not mean it did not happen. Furthermore, only one in two claims lead to prosecution, so if the DA decides not to prosecute, that says nothing about whether or not it happened. – http://www.stanford.edu/group/maan/cgi-bin/?page_id=297
This fucking hilarious… Man who rape man should get the death penalty…. Hang him by his balls and cut his fucking throat… Now on the other hand, man who rapes women should get life in prison due to the act…. but jury should consider if the girl was dressed “whorish” and provoked the act…Face it! girls are like that… They like provoke man and when they get the cock… OHHH It’s RAPE…. Girls should be careful also….