This Whole Roger Rivard ‘Some Girls Rape Easy’ Thingy Makes Me Madder Than A Wet Hen

Have ya’ll heard the one about the Republican state representative from Wisconsin who passed down some old-timey wisdom his pappy taught him about wimmins?

“Some girls rape easy.”

This is not a rejected title for the 1988 movie “Earth Girls Are Easy” starring Geena Davis nor is it a really bad idea for a pithy expression that you would find cross-stitched on a pillow in your grandma’s sitting room.This actually happened.

About ten months ago, state representative Roger Rivard made the comment when discussing the case of a student in Door county who was charged with sexual assault after having sex with his underage girlfriend. The democrat running against him, Steven Smith, must have felt like it was an early Christmas when these comments resurfaced.

From the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel:

“He also told me one thing, ‘If you do (have premarital sex), just remember, consensual sex can turn into rape in an awful hurry,’ ” Rivard said. “Because all of a sudden a young lady gets pregnant and the parents are madder than a wet hen and she’s not going to say, ‘Oh, yeah, I was part of the program.’ All that she has to say or the parents have to say is it was rape because she’s underage. And he just said, ‘Remember, Roger, if you go down that road, some girls,’ he said, ‘they rape so easy.’

“What the whole genesis of it was, it was advice to me, telling me, ‘If you’re going to go down that road, you may have consensual sex that night and then the next morning it may be rape.’ So the way he said it was, ‘Just remember, Roger, some girls, they rape so easy. It may be rape the next morning.’

“So it’s been kind of taken out of context.”

Ya’ll, tell your boys out there not to go down that rape-y road because some girls, they rape so easy. And if ya’lls go git our daughters pregnant, we are gonna be madder than wet hens.

I sorta wish that Rivard senior was still around because I bet he had other amazingly  hilarious sad comments that he made about women and girls and rape and all sorts of wisdom he could impart on us. Probably things along the lines of “If a girl is wearin’ herself a short skirt, she is just askin’ for it.”

I suppose it’s nice and all that Rivard’s daddy was talking to him about consensual sex and all, but he wasn’t really telling him not to go around raping girls. He was telling him that if he has sex with a girl, she may later say it was rape. Because us girls love yelling rape if we get pregnant out of wedlock. This sort of victim blame-y logic was not lost on Nichole Kathol, president of the Barron County Domestic Abuse Project, who stated:

“It portrays women as the perpetrator of the violence being perpetrated against them,” she said. “He’s blaming the victim and implying the definition of rape is all too encompassing.”

About three hours after speaking to the Journal Sentinel, Rivards may have felt his words didn’t come across correctly so he issued another statement further clarifying his original statement:

“Sexual assault is a crime that unfortunately is misunderstood and my comments have the potential to be misunderstood as well,” his statement said. “Rape is a horrible act of violence. Sexual assault unfortunately often goes unreported to police. I have four daughters and three granddaughters and I understand the importance of making sure that awareness of this crime is taken very seriously.”

Which he sorta coulda said in the first place. Parents don’t always say the smartest things. If I went around imparting all the weird statements my parents made to me throughout my childhood if I were running for office it wouldn’t be the best idea either. Roger Rivard telling what his daddy told him about raping girls was a really stupid idea. If my daughter ever runs for office and quotes me about how I once told her that Santa never visits children who hide their carrots in their jean pockets at least it won’t be about how she shouldn’t be a girl that “rapes easy.”

(photo:  Kim D. French/Shutterstock)

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