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From: hilda@kaos.UUCP (Hilda Marshall)
Newsgroups: sci.bio,soc.men,soc.women,sci.misc
Subject: Re: Rape a reproductive advantage?
Message-ID: <411@kaos.UUCP>
Date: 13 Jan 88 02:36:27 GMT
References: <517@gtx.com> <5129@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu> <520@gtx.com> <23162@cca.CCA.COM>
Reply-To: hilda@kaos.UUCP (Hilda Marshall)
Distribution: na
Organization: Deus Ex Machina
Lines: 31

In article <23162@cca.CCA.COM> g-rh@CCA.CCA.COM.UUCP (Richard Harter) writes:
>
>The language " where the sexual act is intended solely for the
>infliction of pain, harassment, to terrorize the victim, etc."
>is loaded.  (1) Rape, in humans, is not necessarily for the purpose
>of... Rape (from the rapists side) can be socially sanctioned and
>principally sexual --  the conqueror takes his pleasure in the women
>of his enemies because he can, because it is pleasant, and because it
>is his right to do so.

It's pleasant in the conqueror's case because they are enemy women.  If
he went home and treated _nice_ women like that, he might be thought of as
crass (or even unable to find a willing piece!) by his own battlefield
buddies.  I forget who it was that swore up and down that a cup of still-
warm Dane's blood, drunk from said Dane's skull, tastes better than any
wine.  When not into conquering, most people stick to wine.

>...The glib
>formulation, "rape is not a sexual act, it is an act of violence"
>is political and misleading.

Only if you equate "political" with "misleading".  That statement is political
in that it expresses what would otherwise be considered an isolated incident
as an expression of a pattern.  Even if the primary intent of a rapist is to
feel pleasure, it is necessary for him to inflict pain and/or terror, or to
dominate through use of some existing advantage, to enjoy that pleasure.
Whether that need is a part of the rapist's full-time personality or something
that comes and goes, it makes rape, not sex per se, the object of the rapist's
actions.

-Hilda