Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site eosp1.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!princeton!eosp1!colucci From: colucci@eosp1.UUCP (Lisa Colucci) Newsgroups: net.women Subject: rape and violence Message-ID: <1133@eosp1.UUCP> Date: Thu, 20-Sep-84 16:37:05 EDT Article-I.D.: eosp1.1133 Posted: Thu Sep 20 16:37:05 1984 Date-Received: Tue, 25-Sep-84 20:12:24 EDT Organization: Exxon Office Systems, Princeton, NJ Lines: 49 I cannot understand that any supposedly intelligent person could possibly believe that rape is not a crime of violence. Whether or not a weapon is involved is unimportant in the classification of this crime as one of violence. Rape is a crime committed mostly by insecure men. What better way to assert one's 'power' than to totally degrade and humiliate another human being? The fact that many rapists were victims of child abuse (pointed out in an earlier article) only supports my statement. Children that are abused generally think of themselves as deserving of their punishment. They believe they are inferior to their friends who they believe are not abused, and their siblings who may not be abused. They are also very aware of the powerlessness of their situations. When they become adults, they are generally insecure and still feel somehow inferior to other people. Some may try to prove to themselves and others that they are no longer powerless by raping women and/or abusing children. Many women who fight a rapist are killed because the rapist becomes enraged that he is not in complete control of the woman's body and emotions. He is gratified by her fear of him and THAT is the main reason people rape. The act of sexual abuse, whether penetration or some other method, is used for its emotional affect on the victim. If cutting a woman's hair were the most fear-provoking attack imaginable, a rapist would be content to cut hair. Also, ihuxe!rainbow (Robert) mentioned that if a woman doesn't fight a rapist but instead gives in to save herself from more standard physical abuse, then no bodily harm (damage, pain) is inflicted. WRONG! Unless this rapist is kind enough to carry and use K-Y Jelly at all times, a great amount of physical pain and damage can and is inflicted. (Not that I really mean that, I'm just mad and being sarcastic but :-) was not appropriate at the time.) Until people realize the emotional implications of rape for both the victim and the perptrator, we're far from realizing a means to prevent it. Lisa Colucci Let me say that I have no specific references for any of the assertions that I have made but have based this article on information gathered over several years and from many different sources.