The case of the sleeping rapist

Evidently, for this dude, getting a Get out of Jail Free card for rape is amusing Ok, after getting this this from a commenter and seeing this same article over at I blame the Patriarchy I've decided to chime in with my two cents. Here's the deal. Jan Luedecke was acquitted of rape charges in Canada because of a condition called "sexsomnia". Apparently this dude fell asleep on a couch with a woman after drinking himself into a drunken stupor. According to him he awoke later that evening when the woman who was sleeping on the couch next to him pushed him off of her. According to the defendant, while in the throes of 'sexsomnia', he fished a condom out of wherever it was, opened it, and slid it onto his penis before then sticking said penis into the body of the woman next to him and 'having sex' with her. All of this while asleep. The courts agreed with him and he was acquitted of all charges. Now, I have to say that from my experiences getting a condom out of a package, making sure it's facing the right way and then trying to get it on can be hard under the best of circumstances. There has been more than one time when the first condom has been a bust and my partner had to try again with a back up condom. This fella manages to do it in his sleep. And here's another kick in the ass, he admits to having done this to 4 other victims. Only in a patriarchy can a man claim his past rapes as a defense for his current rape. This case is outrageous and I can't help but wonder how many other rapists are going to be using this line? I can see it now, "I'm sorry judge but see, I have a disorder I couldn't stop myself from raping her!" Strange that this fuckhead only managed to sexually assault WOMEN. Nowhere in this dudes nighttime "sexsomnia" episodes has he raped a man or a dog or you know, a kitchen knife (now THAT'S one headline I'd like to see, "Man suffering sexsomnia rapes kitchen knife to ill effect) no, apparently his condition is only dangerous to women. I wonder if he feels them up in his 'sleep' to determine that they're women and thus, less likely to wake up and bludgeon him to death with a blunt object? This, my friend, is the patriarchy in action. To add insult to injury the judge says that he has a mental disorder, but it's not the same as a mental disease, therefore, he faces absolutely NOTHING. No charges, no jail time, no forced counseling, absolutely nothing. Funny how this disorder only cropped up when men began needing another excuse to rape us. Funny how men aren't raping other men when they're under the influence of 'sexsomnia'. Funny how the family pet isn't being raped. Funny how this same defense has been attempted when a man claimed he murdered his wife in his sleep but it was denied as being unreasonable. Apparently men are just so ingrained to rape that they do so in their sleep now. Funny how the ‘disorder’ is termed ”sexsomnia” which, as we can see, calls rape, sex. Here’s the problem, if he’s ‘asleep’ he can’t get consent, ever, which means that his “sex” is our “rape”, but notice the word “rape” is missing in the definition. Notice that rape is called sex, a much less offensive and innocuous phrase than rape. Notice that the entire condition, which is based entirely around actual rape, is called ‘sex’. Apparently the two are damn near indistinguishable by the patriarchy…why else would we call this ‘disorder’ “sexsomnia” rather than, say, “rapesomnia”? That, my friends, is the power of language. The assumption, from the outset, from the very definition of the word, is that rape can be sex. You know, even if I give this fuckhead the benefit of the doubt and say, 'Sure, you have 'sexsomnia' which makes you RAPE people while you're asleep' I have to also wonder why, when the court was given proof that he has done this 4 other times, they didn't pursue anything on the grounds of gross negligence? Did this man, even if what he says is true, owe nothing to the people around him? Apparently not. But of course, lest I forget, women aren't actual people therefore he doesn't owe us shit. Even the name of the ‘disorder’ is termed inaptly and framed in such a way as to call what is, 100% of the time, rape, sex. And since Jan only apparently assaults women while in the throes on 'sexsomnia' it's not a big deal. So there you go, the latest, greatest offense of our rape culture. We're letting them off for claiming that they were 'asleep'. The local women's groups are outraged (hmmm, imagine that?) and Suzanne Jay, of the Canadian Association of Sexual Assault Centers has this to say. "This is infuriating. It's another case of the courts not taking a woman seriously, adding yet another list to the list of excuses which men use for sexual assault," Gee, you think? Go get em' Suzanne. I'm starting to think more and more that the only way we, as women, will ever be able to make it stop is to start chopping the dicks off of these asswipes and wearing them around our necks much like the India goddess Kali wears a necklace of skulls. Of course, had the victim actually chopped off his penis it would most likely have been termed as 'excessive force' and SHE would be in jail. How in the hell do women fight this sort of thing? How can we fight against rape when the judicial system(s) seem bound and fucking determined to give men every excuse they can to rape women? The entire thing is ridiculous, but added to the list of crimes that men get away with when it’s perpetrated against women it’s just more fuel to the fire. My heart goes out to this victim. She watched a man tell her that her rape wasn’t a crime because the poor guy was asleep. How horrified must she be? How enraged? ~BB