It’s about power, control, humiliation, and sadism.
I have seen often for rape to be excused through evolution; for an unfit male to impregnate a more fit female or to impregnate as many females as he’s biologically able.
But this isn’t the case, and though I haven’t found statistics on the sex, ages, even species of rape victims I can assure you that upon opening the newspaper, they are there.
I have known cruel, inhumane men who have said that they would rape a woman based on appearance, but it’s set behind a motive of insufficient control. Not that of normal, healthy mating desires, but of hyper sexual induced lust.
Even in prehistoric days a woman could give consent, and there was no need for rape- EVER. Rape is a power process. It gives the perpetrator a sense of ownership, giving him also the means to mutilate, toy with, and use to his entertainment.
But this poses another issue:
Power and sex are intertwined into the male psyche. (Although rape is not limited to men, statistics overrule the exception)
But it’s a bit limited to think about rape as a male-female thing.
Heard of the overcrowded rat syndrome? Gangs of “criminal rats” raping other rats - male, female, it did not matter. Rape is about power, and so sex is secondary. In prison, male rape is rife.
Feminist thinking seems deliberately ignorant of two things; men have a powerful sex drive, and women are naturally restrictive of sexual contact - that IS an evolutionary thing, because women have a limited amount of eggs to protect from unsuitable potential mates. Attraction is just natural eugenics, selecting “suitable” mates with good genes. Feminists would have you believe that men are just vile, selfish, thuggish rapists who will look you up and down because they’re sex-crazed monsters. They ask themselves “why do men rape?” when the answer is clear - status frustration or lack of sex, the two central reasons.
There is a study which evidences a lower sex crime rate in countries with a higher “salary” in monthly sexual encounters, with a similar trend for countries with legalized prostitution. Often, men rape because women won’t put out, it’s simple.
The other reason is the dominance thing - in any situation where a man feels he needs to assert dominance, one of the main methods they do it is through rape - males or females, hence prison rape.
This is probably true, but saying that this is not evolutionarily caused is saying too much in my opinion. What’s your guess about it’s origin, Echo? I know you think it’s cause isn’t evolutionarily linked. Is it something supernatural, or unnatural that messed with our evolutionary progression?
It seems to me that more often than not it is men that rape women, so it can’t be wholly only about power, control, humiliation, and sadism. It has to also be about the male and female thing. Because were it only about power and sadism then it would follow that men would attack other males; males in power with at least as much frequency as empowered females. But this just isn’t the case. Most rape is committed by men who want to get with a beautiful female, but who know they have no real shot of woeing her. It also becomes about power and control, but imo all sexual relationships are about that at least on some level. The humiliation and sadism part…I don’t know what to make of it.
And it’s so tightly intertwined that the male psyche cannot differentiate between the two.
The thing with rape is, since human sexuality has changed so quickly, old morality has not caught up to the new forms of sexual expression and competition available. Because this is the case, much of sex in today’s world cannot be anticipated to be qualified so quickly. What is rape? Is it when the male overpowers the female? Well, this can be any sex act, which it is. Certain forces must always be overcome in order for two people to have sex. That’s the way it works. So why are some sex acts called rape? I say that it’s female resentment. And in order to gain revenge, there are strength in numbers. This is the basis for modern day society-as-we-know-it. Women band together to kick the rapists out. The problem is, nowadays, all men are rapists. Some are just better at hiding it and making it non-apparent (i.e. the feminized men).
I wonder why the television show Law & Order: SVU is so popular, especially with my ex-gf? I wonder if it’s because women are entertained by seeing rapists go to jail. Talk about resentment. Now apply this to every man in the world for a magic trick!
I just read the same thing and thought the same thing.
Then I read what you wrote and burst out laughing.
I just came across this on the internet:
Doc Childre and Howard Martin, The HeartMath Solution
“In communications that are difficult or draining, ease into the heart and find something to appreciate about the person you’re dealing with, or find a feeling of compassion or kindness. This will clear your mind and give you the coherence you need to know what to say next. That’s energy efficiency at work”
And then one can also add:
What is it about sex that one would like to know but is afraid to ask.
Funny, but this thread is actually from a female perspective, and though I’m sure you went as far as the header, you probably missed the key points here.
Mmm, well everything is evolutionarily tied. Human psychology is a bit more in-depth than say, a bear getting it on with another bear. Human males always seek power in what they do; it gives them fulfillment. They want as much as they can get, and this is not restricted to reproduction. So rather than the type of innocent evolution we commonly speak of, we’re talking about the strongest creature on the planet earth getting his with no regards to whom or how it’s done.
I’ve seen some of the most ugly girls get raped, but usually they are the most strong willed and tough girls I know as well- this could be before, or after the fact. Point is, I think it’s a sad excuse for men to use that it’s just ‘in their nature’. Surely it is, but humans have this just amaaazing ability to overcome their desires and suppress them due to reasoning skills.
If a man believes the consequences outweigh the action, he will refrain from it. But raping is not limited to women in this respect. I believe men are prone to ‘raping’ everything in their sights for control; whether this is only about furthering their species is questionable.
To be honest, I’m still unsure as to what your points are exactly.
I think that’s about right. Though I’m a bit weary accepting the idea that women don’t have more or less the same disposition towards power.
It may not be in their nature, but I still don’t accept that a rapist could have done otherwise, what with being a determinist and all. Someone with the serious inclination to rape another will in most cases I think not use his prowess of reason to overpower this inclination. Reason will be used, but it’ll most likely be used as a means for the person to justify their acts to themselves. “This bitch had it comming, actin’ all high and mighty an’ shit.” Fact is it’s not reason that guides us in our day to day actions. I feel comfortable even saying that in our daily routines “we” are more of a backseat observer than driver. “We” may and often times do retroactively analyze something we just did, but in most cases that act wasn’t premeditated through syllogisms. We did whatever we did because at that moment we were propelled to it. I didn’t think it’d be a good idea to be shy and say weird things to that girl. I didn’t think at all. I now when I reflect on my day think what I said is pretty lame, but I know better than to give my act then some sort of logical intent. I’m not going to say “oh, clearly I thought at the time that the pros of saying lame things outweighed the pros of saying cool things” because I know no such thing crossed my mind.
I’ve lately come to the conclusion that reason is often times a mere tool of the sentiment; and not a transcendent means by which we can deter our instincts or sentiments, as it is often times thought. One cannot change or tell oneself how or what to feel through reason. We justify what we feel to be right or wrong through reason, post hoc.
I speak from experience here, so maybe I’m an oddball.
I think the problem is somewhat broader. It’s been argued by some that rape is an adaptive strategy where men (who presumably can’t get it without coercion or force) rape in order to mate with fertile women. Examples of ‘forced’ sex between animals are generally used to support this claim of the ‘rape strategy’. But it’s the same old deal, the anthropomorphization of animal behavior extrapolated to apply to a human ‘construct’ of what this behavior means. But it either disregards or conflates differences between human and animal practices, especially regarding the ‘fertile’ part. In humans, it’s well known that rape is commonly practiced on young girls and elderly women, not to mention boys and prison inmates…so it’s not just about women in their fertile years. Yet those who continue to spout a universalistic explanation just disregard any evidence that undermines it. They claim they’re just holding up a mirror to nature, without ever having stopped to consider that the mirror itself has been constructed in the image of current social relations.
Agreed. Consider the widespread practice of white slaveowners and plantation overseers in the South raping their African female slaves, with a nearly complete indifference as to the outcome of the offspring that were produced by it.
The major problem is that women think that men are are shallow as they seem.
In a perfect world, saying a woman has great tits and a pert little arse would get you a, “oh, thank you!” and a flutter of eyelashes. It would be a genuine compliment, not a “degrading insult.” Men are not emotionally as shallow as they are sexually. Their emotionality is just different to women’s. I’m watching Diagnosis Murder at the moment on TV and Steve Sloan has just been asked if he looked at a stripper present at a stag party. He said he did, because he didn’t want to hurt her feelings. That pretty much says it all.
Men are from Mars, women are from Venus. Women are far too sensitive and simply do not understand how men think, even though they think they do. Looking at a woman nowadays is rape, but that’s because feminists assume that men are just sex-craving cavemen. Why do men rape, despite this consideration of the thought processes of males? Because men crave status, even subconsciously. When they are denied it or feel frustated with their status, they are more likely to react to their situations in ways in which advance their status or allow them to express their power - rape is an option some people take. It’s never simple, oh no. Rape may seem like a simple crime but it is far from simple.
power has been mentioned a number of times in this thread
but certainly there is, among perhaps many other variations of power we might fathom(intellectual, spiritual, political), indeed a distinctly sexual source and craving of power, driven by the most primal of our basic instincts, inherent to the total will of every man to a greater or lesser degree.
a lustful yet deprived man, left cold and unsatisfied again and again, is spiritually weak and bound to shape and reshape his reality in peculiar and degenerative ways; and, like all that is weak and impotent, will often harbor overwhelming feelings of resentment toward all he finds to blame for his failures and shortcomings – in nearly every case of a man resorting to rape so as to spread his seed, there is some deep underlying resentment and fear of the opposing sex
but to say that rape is not evolutionary is naive and bubbly nonsense – the man described above could carry the gene to produce the next great genius, which destiny willed to be born to a rape victim.
pillage, rape, war, and plunder have been and will continue to be every bit as instrumental to evolution as their opposites; they bear the fruit of one another
Not well said, amor. You appear to have forgotten that about half the world is female in your androcentric little post there.
See, here’s the difference between us, amor. The thing is…I don’t give a shit as to the degree of deprivation the lustful man suffers. I don’t give a shit if he’s spiritually weak and I don’t give a shit about his ‘overwhelming feelings’ and ‘need to blame’ and his fear and resentment and need to spread the ole’ seed around.
Women have had, for millenia, to put up with a lot of male ‘weakness’ and ‘feelings’ and ‘need to blame’ and fear…and you know what? The women – you know, the half of the population that your post neglected to consider? – the women get RAPED.
Which is why all I give a shit about is that if he does it, he rots in prison. So the power, from my point of view as a woman, rightly belongs to to the system that puts him in prison. Once behind bars, we’ll let him deal there with his primal needs and psychologocial problems resulting from the lack of getting them fulfilled, without raping again. Okay?
It’s not that I think men should be babied, Ing, but men by greatest majority are rapists and ‘they just do’ isn’t good enough for me. There are underlying psychological reasons for their behavior. You’re taking a statist/punishment approach and I don’t oppose that men who rape are scum and should be rightly taken care of via whoever will do the honors; I do know that raping comes natural to them, though, and it can’t be denied. They are ‘bad’ according to law, and instinctively acting on their desires by nature. I argue that they may not excuse the behavior based upon desire alone, but that men are common sexual predators and that rape psychologically has nothing to do with an innocent need for sex, or ‘law’, but an inward longing for strength.
Your view is far-fetched and not realistic. What are the chances that a raped woman will actually bring such a baby to term and give it the attention and love it might need to fulfill its potential of the so-called genius? I say very slim. You might be thinking that the fetus is a potential future genius, but I am sure that it’s not what the pregnant woman (who’d just been raped) is thinking.
I say the fetus is likely not to make it even to the second trimester.
That’s because these effing threads are like effing rocket ships, soaring over your effing head
is this thread getting a little personal for you chap? did I stick my salty finger in an open wound?
was it your cute little sister? perhaps your mother? both of them and your wife concurrently?
let me pretend to give a shit
is it not the duty of a so-titled ‘Philosopher’ – perhaps you’re less myopic and clueless outside the realm of ethics and human nature – to dig deeper and deeper with our inquiry and questions? to embrace our childlike curiosity and introduce it to the intellect? to ask why?
man has his reasons for everything given his circumstances, even if they are not your reasons.
but you Ing, you see the surface, what is blatant and obvious; and rather than having the intellectual courage and tenacity to probe and ask questions, you simply impose your own myopic ideal on the world and default on your convictions – is it black, or is it white? asks the self-righteous arbiter and moral pedant, wishing to lay his curiosity and conscience to rest.
perspective and human nature: subtlety, nuance, color Ing… truth here is for the refined
Oh dear Gods, here we go again ](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/uploads/default/original/2X/7/7c349bf1053f368a5729d053e1e91215f22ce66c.gif "Brick wall"){kind=small}
