In order to understand why US rape reforms have but little affect on rape trials and to remedy this situation, K. proposes to examine various questions relating to rape via the study of the role of language in rape trials and to explain the complex relationship between social action and social structure. It is argued that rape trials are primarily concerned with winning or losing and that male sexual violence and the schemes through which this gets defined as consensual sex are rooted in the same ideology of male hegemony.