I have become increasingly frustrated with the use of the term
"sexual assault". It seems like people just want to shy away from the
uncomfortable term "rape"--as in, "she was a victim of sexual assault", instead of saying, "she was raped".
Yesterday
I heard about the 14 people taken hostage in a Nordstrom store near L.A It was reported that one of the hostages was 'sexually
assaulted'. One radio station even reported that the victim was
'sexually abused'. Sexually abused? Was her uncle the perp? Give me a break.
But
I did some poking around this morning, and it turns out the terms 'rape'
and 'sexual assault' are actually different. I always thought they were
interchangeable, the latter being preferred because folks were squeamish (or worse, they were downplaying the incident).
But, no. Rape, by definition, means "vaginal penetration without consent".
Sexual assault, however, is broad in scope, and "includes oral and anal
penetration without consent and is
not limited to body parts such as a penis or fingers doing the
penetration". (taken from Answers.com)
So, while I truly believe there is a war on women, apparently the use of the word 'rape' is not a part of it.
2 comments:
Thank you for clarifying that - I've always wondered about the difference between the use of those two terms!
I'm going to be very blunt here. As a survivor of both, I understand all too well the difference between "rape" and "sexual assault." I also must emphasize that being sexually assaulted was no less traumatic than being raped. The phrase, sexual assault, is by no means a sugar coat of anything.
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