Diana E. H. Russell

So everything was kind of up for grabs and also Watergate and things that people were learning about the CIA.

So in the midst of all this tumult, why not pursue these larger goals of reforming rape laws? Because in the early 70s, activists like Diana Russell would describe going to rape trials as, And just seeing how victims were treated as if they were perpetrators, as if their lives should be under the microscope, that they were kind of automatically disbelieved, that when rapists were...

When their crimes were presented to the jury, that the judge would instruct them to take extra care because women should not automatically be believed.

And, you know, to just be mindful of this, like, who would do this for robbery or a misdemeanor? But somehow for rape and sexual assault, it's important to cast dispersions on the victim.

Sorry.

No, no, no.

But just that it meant that people like Laura X and Diana Russell, who wrote the book Rape and Marriage originally in 82 and then revised again in the early 90s, you know, they were doing things like going on The Donahue Show, because even though they had to battle men's rights activists like Sidney Siller on television, you know, they were doing things like going on The Donahue Show.

They knew that they were going to be seen by millions of viewers and this would be the first time they had ever heard about spousal rape and that it was still not a crime in most of the country.