Sky News reports:
Scottish Greens MSP Q Manivannan criticised over rape 'spectrum' comments
The Scottish Rape Crisis Alliance has rebuked Q Manivannan in an open letter, saying there is "no hierarchy of rape" following comments made on a podcast last year.
Some non-binary person has been yammering on about rape being on a 'spectrum' when it is a clearly defined crime in legal terms.
Special needs children are often referred to as on a 'spectrum' which is appropriate because it is a condition that impacts different children in different ways and requires a range of solutions to deal with it.
But it is simply not appropriate to refer to legally defined crimes like rape to be on a spectrum.
Rape is rape whether it is done by a man, a woman or a dog.
The problem here is that refeerring to a crime being on a spectrum makes the whole concept of the crime 'fluid' rather like the whole concept of identity has become today.
By making something fluid your intention is to blur the lines, which is exactly what has happened to the concept of male and female genders which are now considered to be on an 'identity spectrum'.
Spectrums of this sort undermine traditional concepts by introducing different versions of things that used to be 'fixed' so having seen it applied to identity we are now seeing certain people apply it to other things, like rape, to start undermining our perception of rape as a crime.
It this kind of fluidity that crept in with the referrring to rape gangs as grooming gangs, as if the spectrum begins with grooming and ends up with rape.
No. Grooming is grooming and rape is rape. When a grooming gang commits rape, it is not a grooming gnag any longer but a rape gang.
Grooming may lead to rape but this does not mean that the crime of rape is "a spectrum of things that constitute that one homogenised word, rape."
Sorry Captain Scarlet. But is this case Spectrum is not good.