Finding out that what I had been told – “rape is about violence, not about sex” – was only partially true last week in class really fucked up my head.
Ends up that, yes, it is about violence – for the victim.
For the perpetrator it’s about sex.
…and somehow that makes it seem even more wrong.
Was I naive to think that the first statement was true?
Learning new things isn’t always fun and games, but it sure does make you think.
my brain hurts.
I’ve always heard that it’s about control…
IMO, Control and power. Only marginally about sex. Now, why it is that males are mainly the perps vs. the low rate of female perps is a debate for some time when I’m not quite so exhausted.
I’d bet anatomy makes up about 80% of that difference.
Aggression is somewhat difficult when your naughty bits are mostly internal.
No, you’re not naive, and I’m not convinced that the first statement is incorrect. By my understanding, violence (and the desire to subjugate another) is the driving motivation, and sex is the weapon.
What argument was given that convinced you that you were wrong?
lots of stats..
There was a study done of 114 convicted rapists by someone with the last name of Scully.
I can find the study on JSTOR if you’d like… it makes me nauseous.
I’m pretty sure that every generalization meant to describe every case of a broad class of human activity falls down in the marginal cases. (Probably including this one.) The only thing common to absolutely every case of rape is, well, rapiness.
Nice guy image… that’s new to me. I can’t imagine the guy who’s like “Yeah, everyone thinks I’m this swell guy… I think I’m going to forcibly dick someone. That will learn them all. And treat me like a normal human being. *weep*
Bullshit. The perpetrator only thinks it’s about sex.
It’s actually about violence for everyone. Abuse is
abuse is abuse, regardless of what the perpetrator
thinks.
If I started engaging in sexual activity with another
person, that person says stop, and I continue, it’s
abuse. It’s me abusing the other person to gratify
myself.
I mean, it’s a matter of calling a spade a spade. If I
paint a house and call it art, it doesn’t change the
fact that I’m painting a house. Intent and the truth
are not always aligned.
If I paint a house and my intention is that it is art,
that doesn’t change the fact that I have to paint the
house in order to make that happen.
If I rape a woman and my intention is to have sex with
her, that doesn’t change the fact that I’m raping her
to do it. Rape is abuse/violence. A spade is a spade.
The only time intentions come into play is if the
rapist is mentally incapable of knowing the difference
between sex and rape, but even then the individual is
removed from society.
The act of rape is obtaining sexual gratification
through force, coersion, or otherwise against the will
of the victim. It’s all about violence because the
rapist is either unable or unwilling to obtain sex
through the socially acceptable (or at least
non-violent, say going to a prostitute) means.
And that makes it more wrong, because if it were truly
about sex for the rapist, he’d find another way.
C.