Wisconsin Lawmaker Tries to Explain What He Meant by ‘Some Girls Rape Easy’ Comment, Fails Miserably

Almost a year ago, a freshman state representative in Wisconsin named Roger Rivard (a Republican, if you can bring yourself to believe it), told the Chetek Alert newspaper something that raised a not insignificant number of eyebrows across the state. In discussing the case of 17-year-old high school senior charged with sexual assault for having sex with an underage girl, Rivard related a little piece of wisdom his dear father imparted to him: “some girls rape easy.” Now, locked in a tight race with Democratic challenger Stephen Smith, Rivard has found himself having to defend that shitastic comment, a task it seems he is not up to at all.

Trying really, really hard to clarify the “some girls rape easy” paternal axiom, Rivard offered the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel a long, rambling explanation that somehow manages to make him seem like even more of a creep. Brace yourself for the very latest in GOP rape real-talk:

He also told me one thing, ‘If you do (have premarital sex), just remember, consensual sex can turn into rape in an awful hurry.’ 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.

Rivard’s father sounds very much like the patriarch of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre family, a fact the state rep. probably realized pretty quickly, since he sent the Journal Sentinel a written follow-up statement three hours after this first explanation, you know, to re-clarify everything he’d just clarified. It reads:

Sexual assault is a crime that unfortunately is misunderstood and my comments have the potential to be misunderstood as well. 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.

Smith, meanwhile, has had plenty of time to call Rivard’s words offensive, but Nichole Kathol, president of the Barron County Domestic Abuse Project, had the choicest words for the sort of victim-blaming mentality Rivard seems to have. She said that Rivard’s statement, “portrays women as the perpetrator of the violence being perpetrated against them. He’s blaming the victim and implying the definition of rape is all too encompassing.” Nichole Kathol certainly sums this ugly outburst up nicely, but she’s overlooked the plight of Rivard’s poor, distraught press handler, who’s surely doubled-over in a highway motel bathroom, watching his dreams of a political management firm disappear down a flushing toilet while thinking that a career selling used furniture might not be so bad after all.

Rep. Roger Rivard criticized for ‘some girls rape easy’ remark [Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel]