A Nicaraguan baseball player participating in the IBAF International Cup was accused of raping his fan. Looking at the picture of the team leader apologizing to the public, people would naturally feel it was the man’s fault. This news caught my attention because it was today’s headline. I was interested to find that this incident was almost the same as another news event which was reported a few months ago. It was about how a visiting student from US Military Academy at West Point on a study tour in Taiwan raped a Taiwanese college woman. These two incidents had something in common. Both victims went to the offender’s hotel room at their own will, but they accused the men of raping them later. The difference between the previous incident and the current one is that the representative from West Point academy claimed that the school was not responsible for the student’s private life outside the school.

Raping is definitely a crime. However, the word ‘rape’ has been abusively used. The victims in these two incidents were grown-ups. They encountered the men on the street, went to the hotel with them, and stayed in the room alone with the men until midnight. Were they raped or were the men seduced? Only they know. It is like someone playing with fire and getting burned, and then blaming the fire for the injury.

These two incidents involve foreign men. The news gave people the wrong impression that foreign men were dangerous or they always took advantage of Taiwanese women. However, would the incidents be reported if the men were Taiwanese?

Our society has changed a lot; many people have become very liberal in terms of sexual behavior. The problem in all the sexual scandals is that many, if not most, men are blamed for the wrong doings. No matter they are guilty or not, they have to face a dirty lawsuit, spend time to prove they are innocent, and find evidence to defend themselves. Many men were finished in terms of their reputation before the court could clear their name. Who is the victim? the woman or the man? Who knows? Women abuse their right to gain sympathy from the society actually mislead the public and it is not good for the society.

Bih-Hua Chen
October 28, 2010