Letzte Runde für Vergewaltigungs-Krisen-Feminismus?

Um das Thema des letzten Eintrags aufzugreifen: In den USA geht die Diskussion um die Falschbeschuldigungen wegen Vergewaltigungen an der Duke-Universität weiter. Cathy Young, Autorin von „Ceasefire: Why Women and Men Must Join Forces to Achieve True Equality”, sieht die Vorverurteilungen der zu Unrecht Beschuldigten als einen Wendepunkt in der gesellschaftlichen Debatte – und möglicherweise eine schwere Niederlage für eine bestimmte Ausrichtung des Feminismus:

The feminist anti-rape movement emerged in the 1970s for very good reasons. At the time, the belief that women routinely "cry rape" out of vindictiveness or morning-after regrets often caused victims to be treated as if they were the criminals.

But "rape-crisis feminism" (as the writer Katie Roiphe dubbed it) replaced one set of prejudices with another, such as the notion that women virtually never lie about rape. As the radical feminist law professor Catharine MacKinnon wrote in her 1987 book, Feminism Unmodified, "Feminism is built on believing women's accounts of sexual use and abuse by men."

Making the credibility of women's accusations against men a cornerstone of your belief system is a sure prescription for bias. The Duke case amply illustrates this. (…) The Duke case also makes it clear that the feminist dogma on rape is far from benign. It is hostile both to men and to basic principles of justice. (…)

At the press conference after the charges were dismissed, one of the accused, Reade Seligman, said that the case had opened his eyes to "a tragic world of injustice that I had never imagined" and added, "We all need to take a step back from this case and learn from it." This has been happening already. By the time the case was over, many mainstream liberals and feminists, such as University of Southern California law professor Susan Estrich and New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristoff, had publicly said that the accused men were the true victims. A presumption of guilt against affluent white males, Kristoff wrote a few months ago, is no better than a presumption of guilt against poor black males—the Scottsboro boys—in the 1930s.

The past 30 years' progress in the treatment of rape victims needs to be balanced by better safeguards against unjust prosecutions. The Duke case, which has given a face to the plight of the falsely accused, may well turn out to be the start of such a change. If feminists want to retain their credibility as advocates for victims of rape, they need to drop the habit of knee-jerk support for every accuser—and to show decency and compassion toward the victims of false accusations.

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