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From: sunny@sun.uucp (Ms. Sunny Kirsten)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: Anti-rape tactics - a conundrum
Message-ID: <2432@sun.uucp>
Date: Wed, 17-Jul-85 15:04:53 EDT
Article-I.D.: sun.2432
Posted: Wed Jul 17 15:04:53 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 20-Jul-85 02:09:50 EDT
References: <392@mit-vax.UUCP>
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Lines: 68

Most rapes are committed by a person known to the rapee.  This can be
husband, "boyfriend", date, or just "friend".  Thus it is questionable
that rape will be solved by having some flavor of "friend" assuming
body-guard duty over each woman who would otherwise be alone.  Do you
really think most rapes are committed in the street?

> >	tactics of dealing with attacks of rapists,
> >	I've noticed a fatal flaw...
> >
> >	This also brings up the point of men trying to help women
> >	who are facing things like the long walk home at night.
> >	...The offer for help can be duplicated by a rapist...
> >	[Hence] any method proposed by a man for alleviating rape is
> >	suspect.
> >							Eric McColm
> 
> I'd like to take partial exception to that.  Presumably, if some man
> is at a party, he's known to the hosts and others there.  If he offers
> to accompany someone home (and others know that's what he's doing,)
> he's identifiable in case of untoward consequences.  Also, if he
> misbehaves he's in deep shit with his peer group.

Is he truly in trouble with his peer group, or only if the rapee is an
intimate of one of the men in his peer group?

> So perhaps a partial answer is to choose people who are integrated
> into a social group (yours?) for your pool of escorts home.  That
> doesn't address the political overtones of men walking women home to
> protect them.  [I don't think I can address that.]
> 
> Someone who knows more than I about rapists' integration in society
> might comment whether such a selection criterion has any merit.  If
> integration in social organizations has no correlation with tendency
> to rape (especially a negative correlation,) then such a selection
> would have little to recommend it, except for later identification.
> -- 

Again, this "solution" leaves women as relative prisoners in their own towns...
We can come up with a zillion answers to the symptoms of the problem
	(protecting women from potential rape)
But the only ultimate solution must deal with the cause of the problem
	(attitudes of men who rape)
	(attitudes of the criminal "due process" system).

It doesn't matter how many times women try to point the discussion at the
root problem in this (or any other forum), the men always redirect the
discussion back at the women (it's the way they dress...)
or back at the symptoms (I'll protect the women I care about).

That still leaves us with an overall attitude that men on the whole won't
take responsibility for their actions or the actions of their peers.

Lock the bastards up, and quit letting them back out on the streets so they
can rape again, and again, and again, without ever dealing with the
psychology behind their actions.

				Sunny

p.s.	everything in this discussion of rape could just as easily be
	applied to battering.

p.p.s.	Not until men view women as equals will any of these problems end.
	OK, men, how about organizing a push for the Equal Rights Ammendment?
	or is it that WASPS, black jews, purple people eaters, and all other
	men of every race, religion, creed, etc. have equal rights, but
	women don't?
-- 
{ucbvax,decvax,ihnp4}!sun!sunny (Ms. Sunny Kirsten)