Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site bbncca.ARPA Path: utzoo!linus!bbncca!sdyer From: sdyer@bbncca.ARPA (Steve Dyer) Newsgroups: net.women Subject: Re: Re: Rape by Women?!?!? - (nf) Message-ID: <610@bbncca.ARPA> Date: Sun, 4-Mar-84 00:37:50 EST Article-I.D.: bbncca.610 Posted: Sun Mar 4 00:37:50 1984 Date-Received: Sun, 4-Mar-84 07:33:47 EST References: <973@inmet.UUCP> Organization: Bolt, Beranek and Newman, Cambridge, Ma. Lines: 28 Beth says, >What then, do you have to say about (my previously mentioned to you) Susan >Brownmiller's book Against Our Will, which theorizes that the crime of rape >is a method by which men dominate women by subjecting them to constant fear? > >If a man rapes to dominate (rather than sexually satisfy), doesn't this lend >some credence to this theory? I haven't read Brownmiller's book, but your paraphrase is a bit confusing. The phrase "...rape is a method by which men dominate women by subjecting them to constant fear" seems to imply that men (as a class) use rape as a means to subjugate women. This is effective as political agitprop in feminist writing; as a model of reality, it misrepresents the facts. Unless we are witnessing a situation of a single rapist repeatedly accosting women and terrorizing the community, rape is an act between individuals, and the violence is not directed against women (as a class.) I would prefer to see a statement like "...rape is a method by which rapists dominate their victims by subjecting them to constant fear," [the fear arising subsequent to their attack.] This properly puts the emphasis on the individual perpetrator. -- /Steve Dyer {decvax,linus,ima}!bbncca!sdyer sdyer@bbncca.ARPA