Watch Raw Deal: A Question Of Consent For Free

Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

one of my absolute favorites!

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Firstly, I feel wrong adding a commentary to what is a depiction f someone's real life misfortune. It's not like this doco was some Hollywood production - it was real life. Grading something like this feels inappropriate. I'd also like to say that I find the thought very troubling that anyone could sit through the entire documentary and not feel as though they were witnessing something so deeply, deeply wrong. It is so clearly evident that you are witnessing a rape. I do wonder how others who can't see that in this movie would go about defining the act of engaging in sex.. I didn't know that it required the male to over-power and actually pin down the female. I didn't know that slapping and gouging at eyes was an acceptable part of having sex. I feel that the footage depicted in this documentary is disturbingly graphic. My assumption is that this documentary would have been a last ditch attempt available to the victim so as to seek some form of justice. I was left feeling such incredible sympathy for Lisa and a feeling of violently despising Tony Marzullo and his fello fratmates. Really, they should have a 300lb bloke do the same thing to them!

On Saturday February 27th 1999 Lisa Gier King ran from the Delta Chi fraternity house nearly naked and crying to Theta Chi, a fraternity house nearby. She was given clothes and a phone to call her mother and grandmother who were on the scene in minutes. Lisa's mother called the police and after reporting rape, Lisa was carried away from the University of Florida Police Department on a stretcher with a neck brace.Within hours of the report, UP officers made up their mind about Lisa's report. As with many rape cases, we believe UP never even began an investigation of a sexual assault and were against the alleged victim from the start. They yelled at Lisa's mother when she came to get her car, saying her daughter a waste of their time. On Monday, March 1st 1999, Lisa was arrested by UP for "falsifying a police report" and taken away in handcuffs to the county jail.Like many women who report rape, Lisa Gier King has been on trial and punished for coming forward from day one. Women have to prove ourselves to everyone, while men who call it rape and even appear to be planning it on the tape, have some sort of credibility Lisa does not. This is sexist. Her "actions" and "behavior" have been the focus point, while few questioned Mike Yahraus, Tony Marzullo, Leo Yuque and the other men of Delta Chi's actions. They have not even been questioned alone by the State Attorney; many witnesses have not ever been interrogated, by anyone.And this week, Judge Chance has released the tape to the press and decided after a viewing of it by himself that "nothing on the tape would deem her a victim." We disagree. We are tired of the good old' boys being the ones to make the decisions in this case and we are tired of our "justice" system punishing women who come forward to report rape. We are tired of men in power ignoring women and our rights. We believe Judge Chance's actions are an insult and a complete violation of Lisa's rights as a victim. The officers at UP, Rod Smith and Bill Cervone of the State Attorney's and Judge Chance have done a disservice to all women by punishing Lisa King and ignoring the report of rape.If the police had demanded a test for date rape drugs and searched the house for evidence, they might have gotten closer to the truth of what happened that night. We believe Lisa was drugged with a drug common on UF campus. Her behavior on the tape and the black outs she says she experienced concur with the affects of "roofies," a common date rape drug.We believe that a closer examination of the tape during the alleged rape shows a defenseless, intoxicated woman fighting with what she has and men encouraging rape: she is pushing him, moving his hands, slapping him, crossing her legs, diverting the men from her vagina, using her sarcasm as a weapon. The Campus National Organization for Women believes victims use many tactics to try to get offenders to stop hurting them. Women should be believed and supported when we come forward, not punished. We would like the men of Delta Chi to answer to their behavior on the tape for once.At one point, we hear Lisa repeat the word "stop. stop. stop. stop" while Mike Yahraus is penetrating her and holding her legs back. We do not think that is "clearly consensual" as UP claims. At one point, we believe Lisa is being choked, you can hear her gagging and then gives up fighting for fear of her life and Mike says "What do you want, your circulation back?" Later he says, "you are submitted." She asks him while we believe he is forcing his penis into her, "Does that make you feel like a man?" "Is that what you gotta do, pin me down?" as she pushes his hands away from her vagina and tries to cross her legs. At one point she says, "I guess there is nothing I can do." And it sounds like he says "You're right, there isn't." When she fights, he pushes her down.In addition to all of this, the men call it exactly what we think it is "RAPE." They call their tape "the raping of a white trash crack-head bitch" and they clearly see her resistance and comment on it "notice the struggle of the hands" and "get away from her hole, man" At one point the men say "Power, Power, Power," while Mike Yahraus chants "man at work."

I was attending UF when the event happened and I read about it in the newspapers. I didnt realize it was that big of a deal at the time though. It is really obvious that she was raped, and anyone who doesnt think so really needs help. It is also obvious that she was tired, kinda drugged up, but she somewhat knew what was going on and it wasnt what she wanted. I do feel sorry for the stripper, and Mike Yahraus is obviously guilty as sin. But although I dont want to say she got what she deserved, in life, if you put yourself in certain situations there is a higher probability that bad things will occur than other situations. A drunk female stripper with a bunch of frat boys is one of these situations where something bad can easily happen, and it did. Miss King is not the smartest person in the world, and to pick the profession of a stripper when she was married with kids indicates that she needed some counseling or some kind of help. But you have to feel somewhat bad for her. The frat boys in their interviews came across as the silly spoiled little boys that they are. I hope that the people involved really do feel the repercussions of the event, especially the Tony Marzullo character, who comes across as pure scum.

This is a very thought provoking film. It disturbs the idea that the justice system can simply discover the truth of what happened and shows clearly how instead the system constructs the truth of what happened. By juxtaposing video footage of a rape with extracts from interviews with the survivor and a friend of the attacker a complex picture emerges that forced me to rethink 'consent'.I think it is important to see this film but it is very hard to watch. You are literally seeing someone being raped.