sneed (not chuck)
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I would like to discuss the common feminist myth that "rape is about power".
Let's begin with a paper written by Katharine Baker and published in the Harvard Law Review. In it, she investigates the motivations of rapists and their rationalizations for why they commit their crimes. Strangely, what she uncovers is that the old adage that “rape is about power, not sex” is actually fundamentally flawed. What she finds is that in a culture that commodifies sex as something that can be purchased, rapists see rape as a crime akin to shoplifting. In other words, they commit the crime because they want something and are not willing to pay for it. And while power is, sometimes, a factor, many rapists are in fact simply looking for sexual gratification. Thus, Katharine writes that “For some, sex is a commodity, and if sex is a commodity, then taking it is theft.”
As evidence for this, she points to the fact that “thirty-nine percent of convicted rapists were caught in the course of a robbery. As many of these men conceded, they raped because she was there. They were already breaking the laws of trespass and ownership-why not take one more thing?” In other words, the commodification of sex leads to sex being part of the loot that can be grabbed alongside jewelry and other valuables. The desire here isn’t power, but sex itself.
This is further corroborated by research done by Richard Felson who is a professor of sociology and criminology at Pennsylvania State. His research reveals that in cases of robbery that end in rape, the elderly and children are not victimized at the same rates that young women are, leading him to conclude that “a power motive can’t explain why both male and female offenders prefer young victims. Only a sexual motive can do the job”. He goes on to write that “the evidence is substantial and it leads to a simple conclusion: most rapists force victims to have sex because they want sex”. Not to hammer the point too much, but another study by Smithyson where 200 rapists were interviewed revealed that “84% of the rapists cited sexual motivation ‘solely or in part’ as the cause of their acts”.
Consequently, although, undoubtedly, some cases of rape are solely based on power, a considerable amount is motivated by sexual gratification. It is important to make this link because it reveals that conceptions of sex in popular culture and society do affect the kinds of rape myths which propagate and, as we find, the commodification of sex has the effect of mitigating rape to theft in the minds of rapists, reducing it to a mere property crime. This situation is not solely caused by the existence of prostitution and I believe that capitalism is mostly to blame for this phenomenon. It is for this reason that I believe that feminism is deeply flawed - without an anti-capitalist slant, it tends to miss some of the most deep-seated sources of societal inequality.
Let's begin with a paper written by Katharine Baker and published in the Harvard Law Review. In it, she investigates the motivations of rapists and their rationalizations for why they commit their crimes. Strangely, what she uncovers is that the old adage that “rape is about power, not sex” is actually fundamentally flawed. What she finds is that in a culture that commodifies sex as something that can be purchased, rapists see rape as a crime akin to shoplifting. In other words, they commit the crime because they want something and are not willing to pay for it. And while power is, sometimes, a factor, many rapists are in fact simply looking for sexual gratification. Thus, Katharine writes that “For some, sex is a commodity, and if sex is a commodity, then taking it is theft.”
As evidence for this, she points to the fact that “thirty-nine percent of convicted rapists were caught in the course of a robbery. As many of these men conceded, they raped because she was there. They were already breaking the laws of trespass and ownership-why not take one more thing?” In other words, the commodification of sex leads to sex being part of the loot that can be grabbed alongside jewelry and other valuables. The desire here isn’t power, but sex itself.
Baker, Katharine. “Once A Rapist? Motivational Evidence and Relevancy in Rape Law”: https://scholarship.kentlaw.iit.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1056&context=fac_scho
This is further corroborated by research done by Richard Felson who is a professor of sociology and criminology at Pennsylvania State. His research reveals that in cases of robbery that end in rape, the elderly and children are not victimized at the same rates that young women are, leading him to conclude that “a power motive can’t explain why both male and female offenders prefer young victims. Only a sexual motive can do the job”. He goes on to write that “the evidence is substantial and it leads to a simple conclusion: most rapists force victims to have sex because they want sex”. Not to hammer the point too much, but another study by Smithyson where 200 rapists were interviewed revealed that “84% of the rapists cited sexual motivation ‘solely or in part’ as the cause of their acts”.
Consequently, although, undoubtedly, some cases of rape are solely based on power, a considerable amount is motivated by sexual gratification. It is important to make this link because it reveals that conceptions of sex in popular culture and society do affect the kinds of rape myths which propagate and, as we find, the commodification of sex has the effect of mitigating rape to theft in the minds of rapists, reducing it to a mere property crime. This situation is not solely caused by the existence of prostitution and I believe that capitalism is mostly to blame for this phenomenon. It is for this reason that I believe that feminism is deeply flawed - without an anti-capitalist slant, it tends to miss some of the most deep-seated sources of societal inequality.
Palmer, Craig. “Twelve Reasons Why Rape Is Not Sexually Motivated: A Sceptical Examination”