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From: barry@ames.UUCP (Kenn Barry)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Sex and violence
Message-ID: <544@ames.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 28-Sep-84 14:20:46 EDT
Article-I.D.: ames.544
Posted: Fri Sep 28 14:20:46 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 30-Sep-84 03:35:48 EDT
Organization: NASA-Ames Research Center, Mtn. View, CA
Lines: 66

[]

	A lot of the discussion about rape recently has asked, explicitly
or implicitly, what the relationship is between sex and violence. What
has not been brought up, however, is what is perhaps the most fundamental
question: is there an INHERENT connection between sex and violence in
the human being (male and female)? That is, do people naturally associate
the two activities, apart from any cultural biases in their upbringing?
	I don't have an answer to this question, but because I suspect
that most people's answer would be 'no', I'm going to present a few 'yes'
arguments in the interest of promoting discussion. The following examples
could be interpreted as evidence of inherent connections between sex
and violence in human beings:

	1) The obvious one - rape and similar sexual violence. Rape is
known in all cultures I am aware of. Why is this desire to dominate and
hurt expressed sexually?
	2) 'play' violence - A lot of people (in many cultures) include
symbolic or playful violence in their sexual activities. Bondage and
S&M are the obvious examples, but there are other, less extreme forms
which are very common: role-playing in dominant/submissive roles, 'rough'
sexual play (biting, pinching), etc.
	3) fantasy violence - rape fantasies, harem fantasies, etc. Erotic
literature shows that sadistic and masochistic fantasies are common in
many different cultures (e.g., Japanese, Roman).
	4) sexual arousal from viewing non-sexual violence - this was
mentioned in someone else's posting recently; a study of American men
found this was a common connection. There are also anecdotal stories
of both men and women being aroused by hunting, either doing it or watching
it. Likewise, there are accounts of women being aroused by seeing men
fight one another (boxing, football, etc.). I don't vouch for the
accuracy of these stories, I only mention them to encourage discussion.
Anyone know of any studies on this?
	5) Many of our relatives in the animal kingdom have dominance
fights among the males to see who will get the females.
	6) Among our close relatives (primates, baboons), gestures of
non-sexual submission are often sexual in form, i.e., a male baboon will
acknowledge the dominance of another male baboon by adopting the copulating
posture of a female baboon, even though no sexual activity is intended.
	7) Violent language - sexual terms are often used in aggressive
and insulting language ("f*ck you!"). I don't know if this is true in
other cultures, but I suspect it is; anyone know?
	8) Biochemical similarities - I believe that both aggression and
sexual arousal involves release of adrenalin; can anyone confirm this,
or cite other biochemical similarities between sexual arousal and aggression?
	9) Behavioral similarities - Sexual and aggressive behavior *look*
similar; the best illustration of this is what commonly happens when
a small child happens to interrupt his/her parents when they're making love,
and one of the parents has to then explain that 'Daddy wasn't hurting
Mommy'.

	In addition to discussion of the nature/nurture question itself,
I would also be interested in discussions of how this question relates
to the question of what we DO about sexual violence. For instance, if
associating sex and violence is a conditioned response, it might make
sense to try to decondition people; if, however, it's partly biological,
this approach could never be entirely successful, and it might make more
sense to let people's thoughts alone, and just work on their behavior.

	Comments?

-  From the Crow's Nest  -                      Kenn Barry
                                                NASA-Ames Research Center
                                                Moffett Field, CA
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