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Maine Senate Candidate Graham Platner Outed as an Actual Rapist.
Platner officially denies the allegations, but you can tell from his statement that deep down he knows it's true. He can't admit to it because he would go to actual jail, but everyone knows his campaign is over.
The haters said he would crash and burn, and they were correct. Honestly great call by the haters.
The Maine Democratic Party has one week until the ballot deadline to pick a candidate while stepping on as few toes as possible. Let the games begin.
I hate Platner and would not be surprised if he really did, but Democrats somehow manage to drum up convenient rape allegations against just about everyone the moment they become inconvenient. The allegation itself is just yet another he-said-she-said, and as far as I can see, the "she-said"-part is not even incompatible with both getting drunk and not communicating well.
The story is patchy. Front door unlocked? Hears someone coming up the stairs but doesn't even get off the couch? Doesn't mention trying to push him off or fight him off? Gets away from him into the bedroom but doesn't lock that door? Doesn't call anyone to come over and help her? Sticks around while he's passed out/asleep until the next morning, then tells him go home and don't call her again? Doesn't wake him up because she doesn't want him driving drunk but, y'know, doesn't call the cops after he forced himself on her?
It's not impossible, but that sounds less like rape and more like "hook-up I regret".
I would call it a non-consensual hookup. Less bad than an average rape, but still kind of rape. If you've had sex with someone several times and like them, and aren't opposed to having sex with them in general but just don't want to at the moment, you're way less likely to get violent with them than if a stranger attacks and tries to rape you.
I don't know what your marriage/SO situation is, but consider a time when you weren't in the mood for sex (maybe you're trying to get to sleep because you have to get up early the next morning, maybe you literally just had sex, maybe you're over at someone's house going to the bathroom). If your SO corners you, drunk, and tries to have sex with you despite it not being the right time or place, you're not going to stab them with sewing needles to get them to stop. I expect you'd use significantly less violence to make them stop and be much less likely to call the police on them afterwards when they're sober even if you do give them a stern talking to.
Now, in terms of the reasons rape is bad, in particular the physical and psychological trauma, this is way way less bad than a normal rape. But it's still bad, and not the same as a "hookup I regret". The hookup I regret is when the man did nothing wrong and the woman retroactively tries to change the morality of the action. If it wasn't wrong when he did it because he followed all of the rules, then it's not wrong. But if he's not following the rules, if he is forcing himself on someone who does not want it and unambiguously makes it clear that they do not want it, then he is doing something wrong. He is a bad person. Less bad than a central example of a rapist, but somewhere in the same ballpark, regardless of what word you use to describe it.
To my understanding @HereAndGone2's knowledge of the dynamics of intimate relationships is entirely secondhand, but I'm open to correction.
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It's hard to call it a hookup after they've been dating for a while. There's also really complicated feelings when it comes to people you know and trusted up to the point where they did something terrible. Women stay in abusive relationships all the time, and people regularly allow themselves to be taken advantage of by family members. If she knew the guy for two years and he hadn't done anything similar prior to that time, it's probably easier for her to view him as a decent guy who had a bad night as opposed to someone who should go to jail. It's not that different than having a brother who stole $10,000 from you to feed his gambling habit. You may disown him and never want to talk to him again, but that doesn't mean you're going to report him to the police and participate in a criminal investigation.
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I don't think it's patchy. From the article, they were in an on-again off-again relationship, so sexual encounters were normal, and maybe even showing up unannounced could have been normal. It's not difficult to imagine the "no" not being a particularly strongly felt "no", more like a "dude you just barged in here and immediately tried to have sex with me, get off" and then a realization "oh he's not taking 'no' for an answer...". Not taking 'no' for an answer is the dictionary definition of rape, but this case seems closer to marital rape than an actual tried-to-fight-him-off-and-cried-for-help type of rape. If that happened, it's very possible to not feel particularly unsafe while he drunkenly sleeps next to you satiated but get bad vibes that your boundaries were ignored and decide to cut him off the next day.
If anything, those details make the story more plausible. It isn't being played up, just plainly stated as basically a "consent accident", which she apparently sees it as, too. As for me, Graham Platner doesn't seem like the subdue-her-and-rape-her type, despite his rough personality. Well, unless he mistook her for a home intruder.
"Consent accident" is kind of brilliant actually although I'm struggling to imagine many other use cases in which it would carry the same meaning you've given it here.
It's been a meme in certain circles for years.
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