“Gray rape”: a term popularized by conservative writer Laura Sessions Stepp and passionately contested and dissected by feminists everywhere. It’s the idea that, since women have been able to claim their own sexuality and have casual sex with fewer consequences, the lines of rape get blurrier and blurrier. Now, there were many good rebuttals to this theory, including that “gray rape” doesn’t even exist (see above), but the questions remain: How are you supposed to feel when you’ve had a far-from-cut-and-dry experience? What can you do about it if police and lawyers shrug their shoulders? Above all: How can you tell if it’s really rape?

Enter sex-positive young feminist Nancy Schwartzman, who, in her movie, “The Line,” attempts to answer these questions and more. The short documentary unravels a harrowing story which climaxes when she actually confronts her rapist (something that’s never part of the story, at least as far as I’ve seen). It tackles the idea of not being a “perfect victim”–in other words, not a white, sober virgin who is raped in a dark alley, but a woman who is sexually active, seeks out sexual experiences and even, in Nancy’s case, consents to intercourse (watch the movie: it’s all explained). It illuminates some very difficult questions women have when they’ve been date raped: Do I remember it wrong? Was it something I did? And so on. Below is the trailer:

The movie is available for purchase through the Media Education Foundation. But “The Line” is more than a film–it’s a movement. Nancy runs a site called Where is Your Line, a campaign and group blog focusing on personal lines of consent and issues of sex and pleasure. Part of it is showcasing people’s stories and thoughts about the line of consent (such as the one below). It’s a really great site, and now on my list of my new favorite blogs. Check it out.