This essay will examine Susan Estrich and Lois Pineau's discussion of rape. Both shed light on our society's neglect of protection and justice for women. Estrich provides an overview of the legal system on how it determines rape. We will see that the law is shaped in a way that continues to oppress women and leave them unprotected. Pineau continues the discussion on the need to place the responsibility of proving the crime on the victim. It focuses on rape and raises an objection to the consent model that shapes the attitude of our culture and the law of our country. Pineau offers a communicative model of sex. Based on this proposition, I will conclude my essay with an objection to his model and finally defend his model against such an objection. As Estrich demonstrates, the rape law has major flaws. The law exposes the traditions and attitudes surrounding women and sex. This supports the idea that sex contains male aggression and female passivity. The law uses three different criteria to classify a sexual act as rape: mens rea, force and consent. Estrich believes these characteristics demonstrate sexist attitudes within the law. Our legal system abandons mens rea, which in Latin means “guilty state of mind”. It is the author's ability to understand force and non-consent. A woman must show resistance. The man can escape by stating that he did not realize that the woman was not consenting. Thus, the court looks to the woman to see if she has provided appropriate proof that she did not consent to the sex. Turning away from the accused and examining the actions of the victim makes the legal system seem rather sexist. Apart from the obvious it makes the woman dwell on the terrible details of...... middle of paper...... ground that protects men and expects too much of women. This is the only type of case where the victim must prove that they have done enough. When someone climbs through the window and steals your TV, the victim does not have to meticulously prove that they actually locked and closed all the windows and doors. The justice system assumes that they are honest citizens and that their testimonies, the absence of television and their fingerprints are sufficient proof. Our attitudes toward women suggest more than just the lack of reform in our legal system, but also our overall problem with how we view women and their bodies. Our society simply does not view a woman's body as private property. Women have lost their bodily autonomy, if they ever had it. It's a very sad world where people can sue companies for a hair in their food, but a woman can't get justice when she's raped..