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From: edhall@randvax.UUCP (Ed Hall)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: Re: Re: violence
Message-ID: <2074@randvax.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 27-Oct-84 22:40:08 EST
Article-I.D.: randvax.2074
Posted: Sat Oct 27 22:40:08 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 29-Oct-84 03:23:30 EST
References: <328@mako.UUCP> <597@gloria.UUCP>, <2484@rochester.UUCP>
Organization: Rand Corp., Santa Monica
Lines: 26

Mike, I think you are missing an essential point here.  A rapist could
have any of a number of motivations; I'll agree with that.  However,
the victim experiences it as an act of violence.  Without exception.
That's what makes it rape.  All this wordplay just clouds the issue.

Why insist on viewing things from the criminal's point of view?  When
you claim that rape is an act of sex, you aren't giving any more
insight than if you say robbery is an act of greed.  It is the violence
experienced by the victim that defines the crime, *not* the motivation
of the criminal.

The reason that feminists underscore that rape is a crime of VIOLENCE
and not SEX is to counteract common myths that there is something
normal about rape, and that it is merely a matter of sexual aberration,
or of over-strong male sex drive, or (and these are the sickest) that
it is a matter of a woman not knowing what she should like, or even
that women secretly like to be raped.  These myths are all execrable
nonsense.  And, unless my experience of other men is exceptional,
very common.

I have to admit to being damned tired of these trivializing academic
discussions which utterly fail to address this extremely important
issue.

		-Ed Hall
		decvax!randvax!edhall