Why Men Rape
June 20, 2008
Some thirty years ago, Susan Griffin writing an article for a radical American magazine said: “I have never asked why men raped; I simply thought it one of the many mysteries of human nature.”
Unless, that mystery is unravelled and unravelled fast, no matter how radical the overhaul of our legal system,despite improved investigations, rapists will continue to attack without impunity. As long as, a society’s ignorance of men’s psychology behind rape, its total unawareness of the mental destruction rape causes victims of rape or date rape, the rapist will continue to be protected and shielded.
Instead of focusing on men’s psychology behind rape, for too long, the focus has been on the women’s behaviour. Not so far back as 1982, a judge imposed a fine of £2,000 on a rapist because of the woman’s “contributory negligence”, who had been hitch-hiking. Once, a mini-skirt was seen as a ‘come on’ for rape; that equation has now changed to six tequila slammers. The link between the two hypotheses is that a woman means Yes when every part of her is saying No.
But, the truth is that no matter how innocuous a woman’s actions, even in these times of sexual saturation, a long shadow is cast on them. Some men may say they raped out of vindictiveness, whilst others leaving the victim of rape with no defence, say: “She wanted it, she just won’t admit it.” In the 1970’s and 1980’s research found a false perception of the ‘average rapist’. In one study, an advertisement in California asked men who had committed rape without having been convicted to volunteer for an interview. Till now, most convicted rapists languishing in jail were poor, ill-educated and often black. Yet, those responding to the advertisement turned out to be mostly white, with higher education qualifications, two-fifths of whom were white-collar workers.
This reveals that we need a fuller understanding of why rape occurs. It is, of course, about power, it is seen as a weapon of war, it has become become an ugly rite of male bonding, it is a game for those seeking an adrenalin high. Men rape because they believe they have the right to control and to punish women who do not obey their rules of behaviour. Rape is an expression of unequal power relations between men and women. Such unequal power relations are not the result of nature or evolution but societies which, through legislation and social custom, have made women second-class citizens.
However, one aspect of the mystery why men rape is no mystery at all. Men rape because in our patriachal society, they can rape with impunity! More often than not women are blamed for inviting rape, while her attacker is let off with a mild reprimand of Boys will be boys!
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