Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site hcrvx1.UUCP Path: utzoo!hcrvax!hcrvx1!tracy From: tracy@hcrvx1.UUCP (Tracy Tims) Newsgroups: net.women Subject: Re: Rape: The Unresolved Trauma Message-ID: <1029@hcrvx1.UUCP> Date: Tue, 11-Dec-84 19:52:36 EST Article-I.D.: hcrvx1.1029 Posted: Tue Dec 11 19:52:36 1984 Date-Received: Wed, 12-Dec-84 01:54:54 EST References: <1855@sun.uucp> <938@abnjh.UUCP> Organization: Human Computing Resources, Toronto Lines: 45 ...but no rapist will argue with a .45 . Rapists rape generally because they feel some need to demonstrate some power over another person. Perhaps they aren't getting out of life the things they expected. Perhaps they feel a little pushed around. Whatever. It is an degradation of another's humanity and individuality that makes the degrader feel more important. Now I personally feel that the best way to solve the problem is to try to not produce new people who feel this way, to try to educate people who already feel this way, and to remove the people that can't be educated and are too dangerous. I think that situations very analagous to rape occur often. (I wouldn't say more traumatic situations.) When neanderthal young men in my grade in public school were threatening me (with spectators watching) with physical harm so as to force me to acknowledge in some way their "superiority" an action analogous to rape was happening. It wasn't anywhere near as serious and traumatic, but it had the same roots. Now I don't know exactly how to get rid of that sort of person. Sometimes I think exile to the moon without space suits would be appropriate. But one thing I know for sure: it is appropriate to respond to such behaviour towards you with as much violence as you need to stop it, as long as your own violence isn't an expression of your own need to dominate and degrade. This violence is a rational response to an unsane person who is threatening your safety. In the case of weapons advocates, I generally get the impression that they in some way *like* the idea of carrying guns around, and that disturbs me. I don't think there is an abundance of people who could limit their use of violence in the way I described above. We are only starting to ramp up production of sane people (the tools for doing it are just starting to be recognized). Tracy Tims {linus,allegra,decvax}!watmath!... Human Computing Resources Corporation {ihnp4,utzoo}!... Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 416 922-1937 ...hcr!hcrvax!tracy PS. I think that in a generally "sane" society it would be felt that weapons were not needed for normal protection, and that in a generally unsane society (such as we are in and hopefully moving out of) the common possession and acceptance of weapons will simply provide more opportunities for the wrong sort of violence and will indeed legitimize it (this assumption is based on that fact that people usually fail to make useful distinctions when they analyze situations). People in the unsane society would tend to blur the distinction between the two types of violence.