Men Are Using The Narrative Of Women's Sexual Enjoyment To Get Away With Murder, Literally (HuffPostUK)

Read the full article by  Harriet Harman & Mark Garnier at HuffingtonPost.co.UK

For years, men claimed that 'she asked for it'. And now, a modern version has reared its ugly head with the rough sex defence, Harriet Harman MP and Mark Garnier MP write.

With no majority and with Brexit hanging over parliament, the Government’s legislative agenda has lacked both volume and substance.

An exception to this has been the Domestic Abuse Bill, which, creates important new powers for the courts to protect victims of domestic abuse, and imposes for the first time a duty on councils to provide support and protection to victims.

This is another giant step away from the attitude that what happened between a man and his wife was a private issue and if he was violent it was probably because she brought it on herself.

But at the same time as we’ve been making progress, another version of “she was asking for it” has reared its ugly head. Men are now getting away with murder, literally, by using the “rough sex” defence.

Though he might admit he caused injuries which led to her death, he claims it was not his fault as it was part of a “sex game gone wrong”. She, of course, is not there to say otherwise. So, he gets into the witness box and gives lurid, unchallengeable accounts of her addiction to violent sex and explains that the bruises that cover her body were what she wanted. The grieving relatives see him charged not with murder but only manslaughter. And they not only have to listen to him traducing her reputation in court, they have to see his description of her sexual proclivities splashed all over social media and in the newspapers. She’s dead so he gets to tell the story of how he was only doing what she wanted.