1. Men Defining Rape

It seems counterintuitive that despite a concept being around for nearly 4,000 years, rape still does not have an agreed upon definition, and that there are still people to this day that are so narrowminded to the subject. Over time, the definition of rape mainly revolved around the status of woman during the time. In the earliest examples of laws around rape, it was merely seen as property damage towards the woman’s father, since that was whom the woman was property to. Other examples such as Rome identified that the crime of rape was primarily offense towards the man that had will over the woman’s life, not against the woman herself. As societal norms began to be more accepting of women, the definition of rape was taken more seriously, but still ignored sexual women or women of different races. Different laws marked that it didn’t count if the woman was “impure”, or in some cases, if the woman was black or brown, most notably the United States post abolishment. Unfortunately, even though governments were becoming less primal in their laws, the same flaw was present where men were providing the definition to something that was predominantly offended against women. Feminism in America began to broaden and describe all the different instances of rape, including different genders, races, and ages. While the concept of rape had seemed to be agreed upon for a good bit, the American Republican Party decided to set the concept back. Relying on the intent to bring America backwards in time towards its religious routes, they began determining that there were things such as a “legitimate rape”. In the face of many social progressions that are more accepting, rape is still something that men like to hold power over and dictate what it is and isn’t. Could this just be ignorance, or do men truly not value women on the same level as themselves.

2. White Folks Get Prozac

It seems counterintuitive that subconscious racial bias can rear its head within the mental health and pharmaceutical world. However it would appear that Prozac, as well as other newer generational prescription medications find themselves in the hands of white people as opposed to those in minority groups. While there are no accusations of pharmacists giving patients worse medication solely on race, undiscovered biases can influence the decision to do so. Say you were a doctor about to prescribe antidepressants. If your patient was a white man who had private insurance, you could likely assume he is well off and can afford this higher end medication. The more expensive of medication, the more profit you can get out of it. Now the same situation may occur with a P.O.C. who gets their insurance through Medicare. While you as the hypothetical doctor might not have a racist bone in your body, you may naturally be inclined to believe this patient does not have as much money, so you resort to prescribing medication that is cheaper, so you can still sell drugs and make a profit. Racial biases: both conscious and unconscious are present everywhere in modern day society, but it is upsetting that these biases can be the factor between a patient receiving proper treatment of their mental health or not. 

3. Free Heroin to Combat Addiction

It seems counterintuitive that the main method to fight against the drug crime rate is to provide people with the same drug that are leading to these crimes. This is the case with Vancouver, in response to the growing drug problem. The location, called Insite, provides addicts with heroin, as well as sterilized needles and a nurse overlooking them. It is important to note that this is taken as a last resort, where the government seeks to reduce harm for the worst of the heroin addicts that could not shake their addictions. This theoretically cuts down on theft, prostitution, drug related deaths, and any other tragedy that stems from misuse of drugs. However, there are mass amounts of skepticism around the morality of giving drug addicts more drugs, but my heart lies in the former consensus. If these addicts are doomed to be addicts, reducing their likeliness to steal, exploit, or kill for these drugs can cut down on a lot of drug related crime, at the sacrifice of the perpetuation of addiction. While it is counterintuitive to keep addiction going in order to save others, it may just have to be a necessary evil in society.