General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Just ripped a co-worker. Now I feel terrible. [View all]patrice
(47,992 posts)of view is the extent to which "plausible deniability"/dishonesty ((overt or covert/manifest or latent)) is more powerful, more universally effective, for one position than it is for another. This is the cultural context that you mention. That is, if it's easier to lie or be mistaken and get away with it for one position than it is for another, that weighting should be held to a higher analytic standard.
The reason that is important is because, failing any other form of determinacy, that is, a rape question is, for one reason or another, unavoidably indeterminate, we should risk error ONLY on behalf of justice, so ((maybe not in a court of law, but at least between people in their own lives)) any relevant power positions should be recognized honestly for what they are and handicapped accordingly.
There could still be mistakes ((under somekind of unusual circumstances some <100 pd female could rape, and otherwise take advantage of, some muscle bound guy twice her size because he was "confused" or didn't know how to stop her)), but at least the probability of mistakes is being addressed by trying to talk about how context, especially old, very and powerful, cultural contexts, make certain interpretations/understandings much more likely than others.
People are still going to resist that, even lie to avoid it, but at minimum we can claim the necessity of TRYING to honestly recognize what could be happening.