Bonnie Erbe: How to fight rape

I've always believed any woman who wants to make it in this (man's) world has to learn to fight like, or perhaps even better, than a man. Hence, the latest melee over the Globe's obvious pandering and self-promotional move is hardly worth the uproar.

According to the Associated Press, "Women's groups expressed outrage ... at a decision by Bonnie Fuller, the Canadian-born editorial director of America's leading supermarket tabloid chain, to publish a photograph of the alleged rape victim in the case against basketball superstar Kobe Bryant.

"The photograph, which appears on the cover of Globe, shows the woman lifting up her skirt to reveal her garter at her 2002 high school prom.

Next to it is a headline saying: Kobe's Accuser. Another headline asks: Did she really say no?"

Rather than give the Globe even more publicity (its sole purpose in executing this stunt, anyway) women's groups and others should treat the Globe as what it is, one big joke, and work instead to re-arrange the stigma of rape.

Men will get away with rape only so long as women allow them to.

Some leaders of women's groups say exploitative media coverage, such as the Globe's, discourages other women who've been raped from coming forward.

The AP quotes the president of the National Council of Women of Canada, "Exposing this woman to publicity is another form of violence against women....And because it is a salacious picture, there is imputed slander in printing that sort of a pose ... What they are saying is, 'Maybe she asked for it.' Of course, that's the oldest excuse in the world to get men off rape."

A better approach by far would be to act as a role model for women who get tough with, go after and prosecute into oblivion men who have the audacity to commit rape.

First and foremost, we should stop using the term, "rape victim" and substitute a term that removes the stigma women receive as the unwilling participant and place it instead on the male actors. We should redesignate "rape victims" as "rap-ees" (versus rap-ists) or "anti-rape crusaders" as more fitting descriptions.

Then, women's groups should rally 'round "rap-ees" and turn them into powerful political heroines. Place the stigma where it belongs: on convicted rapists. Ruin their lives with massive negative publicity and turn the women who prosecute them into stars.

Today's young women have a far different view toward both violence and sexuality than their feminist forebears. They are comfortable being sexy and career-oriented at the same time. They have grown up watching female action figures supervene and vanquish attackers.

Their childhood icons are the animated "Powerpuff Girls" who zoom around like rockets and save cities from destruction by evil male characters.

Today's young women devour movies such as "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider" as actress Angelina Jolie destroys demon after male demon, or the ABC series "Alias," in which Jennifer Garner plays a deadly secret agent in stretch fabrics.

Some women who enjoy the role of "the weaker" or "gentler" gender may oppose these cultural shifts. But I welcome them and believe they should be exploited to women's ultimate gain.

Women, as a group, will never be physically more powerful than men. Nor would most of us want to be. That doesn't mean we can't channel our immense psychological and political power to punish the wayward men among us (while never forgetting to praise the majority of men who support and love us). It's time to be brash. It's time to turn weakness into strength and failure into victory. Women who are raped are not victims. They are cultural icons leading a crusade to right an age-old wrong. The ones to be pitied, reviled and punished are the rapists.

Bonnie Erbe, TV host, writes this column for Scripps Howard News Service.