Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site ucla-cs.ARPA Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!genrad!panda!talcott!harvard!seismo!hao!hplabs!sdcrdcf!trwrb!trwrba!cepu!ucla-cs!mccolm From: mccolm@ucla-cs.UUCP Newsgroups: net.women Subject: re: re: Society and Rape Message-ID: <5654@ucla-cs.ARPA> Date: Fri, 24-May-85 00:15:52 EDT Article-I.D.: ucla-cs.5654 Posted: Fri May 24 00:15:52 1985 Date-Received: Mon, 27-May-85 07:19:22 EDT Organization: UCLA Computer Science Department Lines: 60 I seem to have been the target of a kettle of bedroom slops from Ed Hall. I am, I admit, whistling in the dark about some claims I made vis-a-vis women, society, and rape, but hardly enough to have brought so vitriolic and personal a return. I made many claims about the mental state of a rapist. This is my under- standing of the mental state of the rapist, and is not meant to be an expression of my own point of view. Mr. Hall was apparently offended by what I conjectured. To this, I return: The mental state of a rapist is likely to be repugnant. But the mental state of a rapist must be internally consistent, at least on some level. So if we as a people could determine the motivations and beliefs that rapists held, we might see some chance of doing away with the travesty of rape forever. But I am disturbed that there was an equating of my suggestion that women take action to deter rape, and the laying of responsibility for rape on women. It seems to me obvious that women did not invent rape, nor do women perpetuate it, so women do not in any way share blame in it. But women are the victims of rape, and so they have a vested interest in seeing rape end. At once. My suggestion proceeds from a policy of cynicism. If after >>5000 years of this sort of treatment by men, can women seriously expect men to suddenly stop? To my mind, any idea proposed by a man is suspect. (Think how that makes ME feel.) An alternative is to deal with the problem directly. While it is men's responsibility to end rape, it is not the men who will pay for the delay. And as for my claim about the Freshmen saying rape when they really want sex, I can only conclude that it was not understood. I do not believe these men actually wished to dominate, humiliate, and abuse a woman as a rape ACTUALLY WOULD. I believe they speak from an ignorance as pervasive as it is unforgivable. But their ignorance indicates to me that an education program to teach men to respect women could have a positive effect. If these men had been taught to respect women, they would find it unthinkable to rape a woman. As I have said before, however, education alone is not the answer. The rapes would be decreased, but not eliminated. It needs more. As long as a single woman lives in fear of rape, whether by a friend, husband, acquaintance, or stranger, all men are guilty of domination. As men, our guilt is collective if we continue to do nothing to end rape. None of us are free of it, and the argument that "I have never raped a woman" is no defense. We benefit materially by our collective domination over women, whether by design, or by a conspiracy of societal forces that our male ancestors initiated. --fini-- Eric McColm UCLA (oo' - kluh) Funny Farm for the Criminally Harmless UUCP: ...!{ihnp4,trwspp,cepu,ucbvax,sdcrdcf}!ucla-cs!mccolm ARPA: (still) mccolm@UCLA-CS.ARPA (someday) mccolm@LOCUS.UCLA.EDU "Scrabble is Peace; Link-Sausage is Slavery; UNIX is Strength."