1.  

It is counterintuitive that, women should have a say in rape laws about women, in the past present and future. But since the beginning of time, men were the only people allowed to make laws about statutory and forcible rape. That all changed January 2012 when the definition of ‘forcible rape’ was finally updated.

The article “Men Defining Rape – A History” by Erika Eichelberger, gives us a timeline of men and their laws about rape, both what it is and what it is not. From the beginning of time, until a little too recently, men had excuses for rape and why it was okay for women to go through this kind of mental and physical trauma.

            Times ranging from 1780 B.C – about the 1200’s, rape was considered a damage of property, not to the woman, but to the woman’s father. They soon later added on to that law, and stated that it was 1.) a damage to the father’s property and 2.) you had to give the father 50 shekels and take her to the alter. In later years, it soon then came down to if you conceived or not, the law stated “Without a woman’s consent, she could not conceive.” Later, rape then started to depend on if you were described as a “a virgin, a wife, a widow, a nun or a whore.” They also completely ignored cases of rape when it had to deal with a colored woman.

            A lot of the past (but more previous) laws had statements including: “You cannot thread a moving needle”, meaning if a woman did not squirm during intercourse, it was not rape. Also, “For without an excitation of lust, or the enjoyment of pleasure in the venereal act, no conception can probably take place. So that if an absolute rape were to be perpetrated, it is not likely she would become pregnant.” Meaning a woman could only get pregnant from rape if she enjoyed it. Us as the readers, know that all of these laws are inhumane and degrading to women, but in the past, men only saw women as objects rather than people, making all of this normal.

            In more previous years, women started to have to have more evidence for rape, like doing tests and finding 1.) physical damage 2.) DNA from the male on your skin or inside of your body. These laws still remain today. The definition of what rape is has changed, and there has been a lot more understanding and compassion to those raped. But, there is still a political battle to this day about whether or not men should be the ones making laws about a woman’s body, about both rape and abortion.

          

  2.)
            It seems counterintuitive that a lot of what goes on in the medical field deals with advanced technology. Especially prosthetics, and machines that allow doctors to see what is going on in the different parts of our bodies. But would you ever expect these same machines to be able to read what is on our minds?

            A technology called electrocorticography, has been being used since the 1950’s to help those who suffer from seizures. This form of technology allows doctors to see which part of the brain the seizure is stemming from. But what was just recently discovered is that this same technology can also be used to control robotic arms and other limbs. Another thing they discovered is that with a certain software, they are able to read patients minds.

            For example, they experimented this with one of their patients that suffered from severe epilepsy. When they told the patient to open and close his hand, the virtual hand on the screen closed, when they told him to open it, he opened it. He was able to control what the virtual hand was doing with his thoughts, when using the ECoG machine.

            Another thing scientists were able to discover with this machine was that we can soon be able to read one’s internal thoughts. When we want to verbalize something, the machine caught that there has to be two signals sent to the brain, one that allows us to use our muscles to speak, and another that sends signals to the brains auditory system. But, when someone simply thinks something, the only signal sent to the brain is the auditory signal, preparing the body to listen to something. In one small experiment, the machine tried to pick up on several dozen unspoken words that someone had thought, and it was right about half of them.

            Some fret that this technology will soon be too invasive, and not be used to benefit those in need. Other think that this type of technology can only educate us about the human body, not harm us.

       

     3.)

            It seems counterintuitive that Anne Frank’s diary is a pure historical piece of writing from a 13 year old girl. Everyone has this expectation that Anne Frank wrote this diary in times of her despair, and it was soon found and kept for safe keeping, then got published as it was. But in reality, Anne Frank made edits and updates to her journal, not making it as real and raw as we were taught to believe.

            When Anne Frank was 13 is when she began to write the diary. She then went back at the age of 15 and decided she wanted the diary to be published. She crossed things out and rewrote them, she made new pages and tore the old ones out, all to make it more enjoyable to the future public eye. So, in reality, was Anne Frank’s diary really a diary? We all know that diaries are the truth about what we are feeling or what is going on in our current lives. Leading us to think Anne did the same thing in her diary, but we were wrong.