In a message dated 2/12/2004 7:06:46 PM Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: So what does cause rape? Or, put another way, if we can agree that we >live in a "rape culture" (defined as "a culture in which rape is >prevalent and is maintained through fundamental attitudes and beliefs >about gender, sexuality, and violence"), then what are those fundamental >attitudes about gender, sexuality, and violence?
Read Thornhill and Palmer's controversial "The Natural History of Rape" or a summary of their work in Steven Pinker's "The Blank Slate". The urge to rape comes from the desire of young men to father children in an environment where they cannot convince women to do so without physical coercion. The notion of rape as a political tool to keep women down was put forth by Susan Brownmueller and it remains gospel but when you think about it this makes little sense. Rape is not about power over women it is about sex. If it was power then a) men would rape women of all ages and certainly raping an older woman would be easier. Men rape young women. b) If rape were about power then men of all ages would commit it but rape is a crime of young men; men with no real prospects. Thornhill and Palmer took enormous flack for their work. They were accused of condoning rape as "natural" of saying that all men are rapists. Well of course all men are not rapists and I really doubt that we live in a "rape" culture. Hunter gatherers actually commit more rape. In fact they go to war with neighboring tribes so they can rape the women. But the fact that rape is a strategy that men use when they don't have access to women does not condone rape or mean that all men are rapists. Just as we have genetic predispositions to do thinks like rape we have predispostions to not rape for other reasons. In the vast majority of men in the vast majority of cultures (including our own) men do not rape and don't consider it an option. For most it is unnecessary. Men do have reasonable chance of mating so do not need to resort to the less than optimal solution of rape (danger of getting caught danger of retaliation from the family of the victim). In addition, there are moral ethical and social constraints many of which are just as "innate" as the impulse to rape that counter the rape impulse. > >I'd identify three interrelated candidates: the myth of masculinity, >cultural disdain for women, and our society's conception of sexuality as >something possessed exclusively by women. >... > >--- >I would think this ties greatly into David Brins 4 Primary Meme's, >particularly Machismo. > _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
