Truly Sickening

WARNING: Nauseatingly offensive content below.

This morning, via Feministing, I read this story of an Australian physician jailed for raping his wife. Snippets from the story:

"An Adelaide doctor who repeatedly raped his wife while she was unconscious on sleeping pills has been jailed for 10 years. The pathologist, who can't be named, stored photographs of his crimes on his computer, the South Australian District Court was told. Some photographs were of him using foreign objects during anal and vaginal rapes, the court heard.
She testified she often woke up with bruises, which her husband blamed on "thrashing around" in her sleep. The woman said that in late 2003, she noticed her husband had left the computer on, with the monitor switched off. She turned the monitor on, and called police after finding a photograph of her asleep."

What's nearly as sickening as this story? The comments from Digg users (also found via Feministing). Normally I wouldn't want to publicize the words of these idiots (which is why I'm not linking to the offenders). However, I think it's worthwhile as an example of how not everything is fine and dandy in many people's perceptions of what is rape and a woman's rights. A few selections:

"Well I hope he at least force fed her dinner first."

"This guy is a douche for doing what he did, but she's an idiot for choosing to marry a douche." - - Nice blame-the-victim rhetoric there, jerk.

"PICS!! .. or it didn't happen."

"I need to ask, how was he doing the insertions? My wife is on sleeping pills and wish to do the same. Don't worry I'll post pics."

"Uhh, until she saw the pictures she wasn't humiliated.." - in response to another commenter who said that the wife had been humiliated by her husband's actions

"What an idiot... I would have definetly used my penis to rape her @ss and vagina."

"how can it be rape if they were married?"

"Keep in mind that he's a doctor; assuming they don't have a prenup, she could get a massive settlement in a divorce, in addition to sending the guy to jail. If she wanted to ruin his life, this is an ideal way to do it."

"I feel sorry for the guy. Clearly he made a bad decision in marrying her if she was too prudish to even discuss alternative sex, and he felt he had no other option but to do things while she slept to entertain himself."

"F**k that b***h, she probably wasn't putting out. I'd like to smell the corks of those bottles..."

"looks like i am not the only one that thinks "NO" means "ROOFIE""

"Looks like she didnt put out so he took drastic measures."

"They are married.. He owns her.. It could never be rape because he is entitled to anything he wants."

"Raped by your husband? Oh come on, this woman jus wanted half of the husband assets."

"How the hell can you rape your wife? I hate to be chauvinistic, but I thought when you get married, the womans vagina is pretty much the husbands plaything. I mean, he doesn't own the woman nor does he own her, but I just don't see how you can rape your wife."

A little reminder: rape is any non-consensual sex. If someone is asleep, they cannot consent.