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!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!whuxlm!whuxl!houxm!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!hplabs!sdcrdcf!trwrb!trwrba!cepu!ucla-cs!mccolm From: mccolm@ucla-cs.UUCP Newsgroups: net.women Subject: Re (many): Rape and "understanding" rapists Message-ID: <6558@ucla-cs.ARPA> Date: Mon, 12-Aug-85 17:57:00 EDT Article-I.D.: ucla-cs.6558 Posted: Mon Aug 12 17:57:00 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 18-Aug-85 04:13:15 EDT Organization: UCLA Computer Science Department Lines: 56 I've never been partial to fillet of crow, but at least it's not overcooked. I included a short closing paragraph on my last posting which allowed for the possibility of a disorder called "rapism". I made no claims about the disorder, so I am a bit surprised that the reaction was both so rapid and voluminous. I also was surprised that the comments all dealt with a rather unexciting paragraph on the end of a long and (I thought) controversial posting. Well, at least I'm glad you read that far. Most of the responses have been along the line of "Yes, much is known, and is included in book X." Fine. I've heard of some of these books, and not heard of others, but it seems to me that there is currently a jigsaw puzzle of theories about the causes of rape, with no consistent central theory that to me sounds reasonable. I could be wrong, and it's possible that the truth of the matter sounds silly to me, but then, how would I know? There was one curious posting that seemed to imply that my naming something (probably redundantly, by the way) also served as an excuse for it. Consider this then: If I call the tendency to rape "rapism", that does not give it sanction, just as if I call a pile of pigsh*t "manure" does not make it gourmet food. There is much power in the name of a thing, but not that much. By the way, I must assume that *despite all sociological machinations*, there is still something terribly wrong with the rapist. Why? I consider rape to be a social evil entirely devoid of redeeming qualities. And I grew up in the same society with the rapists, I assume. They rape, and I will not. Either I must be crazy, or they are. I must assume it is they. However, for the comment that very little is known about the causes and motivations of rape, I stand (or rather, sit) corrected. Let me revise this: very little is known about the causes and motivations of rape *by me*. And at least from this flurry, I learned something. Two things bother me, though. My E-mail box remained empty throughout this bit, and I wonder if this has some significance. Secondly, some of you quoted a posting by Sophie Quigley that seemed to form the basis of the rebuttals. Sorry, Ms. Quigley, but that posting never got here. Sigh. In closing, and just to get me in trouble again, a short thought: Change the rapist, and you have one less rapist. Change society, and you have no more rapists. But how do you know what to change? Only the rapist can tell you. And he doesn't know what he knows. --fini-- Eric McColm UCLA (oo' - kluh) Funny Farm for the Criminally Harmless UUCP: ...!{ihnp4,trwspp,cepu,ucbvax,sdcrdcf}!ucla-cs!mccolm ARPA: mccolm@LOCUS.UCLA.EDU Quotes on the Nature of Existence: "To be, or not to be..." -Hamlet (Wm. Shakespeare) "I think, therefore I am." -R. Descartes "" -Gleep (Robt. Asprin)