Julian Assange And Rape: Or, Why I'm not sleeping tonight

I can't sleep because I'm thinking about the charges against Julian Assange. And the trolling. And Sady Doyle and her ladybusiness.Yeah, I know. Specifically, what I'm thinking about is what people say about this specific part:

 Later the same week, according to the police report, Ms. W got in touch with Ms. A to try to seek out Mr. Assange, after he had failed to keep a promise she said he had made to call her. In the conversation, the report said, the two women discovered that both had had sex with Mr. Assange without a condom. A friend of Ms. A’s said in an interview this summer that the two women then decided to insist that Mr. Assange have a test for sexually transmitted diseases.

Women be bitches, amiright? I mean, Jesus, all this guy wanted to do was have sex without a condom! These two ladies were just mad that he was sleeping with the both of them at the same time! Hell hath no fury like two bitches scorned, AMIRIGHT??

Hey, but don't believe me! Let's just look at the top rated comment from a news article on MSNBC.com:

If someone has wronged you the best way to get back at them is to convince everybody around you that the person that wronged you is a rapist or a pedophile. Then watch the world make him a villain and want his head on a stick.

Yeah. Because rape is such an easy charge when people are famous.

But there's another interpretation of the fact that those two met with each other.  And dude, since interpretation is all ANYONE has been doing about this, lets go ahead:

You meet this guy that you idolize. He's kind of a rock star hero, in a political sense. He's exposing corruption, which is something that you happen to really believe in. You love that he's making information free. Your knees get weak around him and, yeah, you are sexually interested in this hero of yours. And he's at your apartment!

Oh My God, you think, things are going so well! He's stroking your leg! He's interested! Only. He gets a little rough, and you say no. He gets rough and breaks your things. He won't wear a condom. You say no. He doesn't take no for an answer. You feel weird about this. Your hero, this guy that you freaking idolize, that you respect, isn't respecting you back. But most of all, you said no.

But maybe you caught him on a bad night? You're confused. This guy is supposed to be good. Good guys don't rape.

Then you meet someone else, someone else who had the same thing happen to them. She said no. It happened anyway. While she was asleep. ("In the report, she described waking up to find him having sex with her again, without a condom.") You can't consent if you're asleep.

You feel sick to your stomach. What happened to you was not an isolated event. This is a guy that didn't take no for an answer. This girl you just met has never had sex without a condom and is now scared that she might be HIV positive, because apparently the only way this guy will have sex is without a condom. This is a guy that will do this again. And again. And again. Unless he is stopped. So you and the other person band together, and it is your mission: not to let this happen to anyone else.

Is that what happened? I have no idea, but its certainly plausible from the police report that was leaked.

Now, I have no doubt that he's being targeted because of Wikileaks. Would he be extradited on this charge were he not the founder of Wikileaks? Probably not. But does this mean that he didn't rape those women? Is there some kind of natural law that I don't know about, that says that progressive guys don't commit rape?

Anyway. I've been kind of in awe of Sady Freakin' Doyle the last couple of days, with her twitter campaign calling out American "Progressives" who insist that Assange must be innocent at the hashtag #Mooreandme, so named because Michael Moore posted part of the bail money, and then went onto Keith Olberman to spew a bunch of nonsense:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I'm sorry, but its not just a broken condom according to the police report. Its the allegation of non-consensual sex while sleeping WITHOUT A CONDOM that gets me. And, honestly? If you say that you won't have sex without a condom, then the person you are having sex with does something to render the condom null and void without telling you...that's wrong. You consented to sex WITH A CONDOM for a reason. Not continuing to wear one is rape, because permission for unprotected sex was NOT GRANTED.

Anyway. Much love to the Sady Doyle, who has taken the world onto her shoulders. And just my two cents. I've been sitting with this all weekend.

[Edited to include this awesome picture:

I added Sady's twitter to my RSS and she has not disappointed!

What can I say, proof this woman has taken twitter by storm]