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From: mccolm@ucla-cs.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re (many): Rape and "understanding" rapists
Message-ID: <6558@ucla-cs.ARPA>
Date: Mon, 12-Aug-85 17:57:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucla-cs.6558
Posted: Mon Aug 12 17:57:00 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 18-Aug-85 04:13:15 EDT
Organization: UCLA Computer Science Department
Lines: 56
I've never been partial to fillet of crow, but at least it's not overcooked.
I included a short closing paragraph on my last posting which allowed for
the possibility of a disorder called "rapism". I made no claims about the
disorder, so I am a bit surprised that the reaction was both so rapid and
voluminous. I also was surprised that the comments all dealt with a rather
unexciting paragraph on the end of a long and (I thought) controversial
posting. Well, at least I'm glad you read that far.
Most of the responses have been along the line of "Yes, much is known, and
is included in book X." Fine. I've heard of some of these books, and not
heard of others, but it seems to me that there is currently a jigsaw puzzle
of theories about the causes of rape, with no consistent central theory
that to me sounds reasonable. I could be wrong, and it's possible that
the truth of the matter sounds silly to me, but then, how would I know?
There was one curious posting that seemed to imply that my naming something
(probably redundantly, by the way) also served as an excuse for it.
Consider this then: If I call the tendency to rape "rapism", that does not
give it sanction, just as if I call a pile of pigsh*t "manure" does not
make it gourmet food. There is much power in the name of a thing, but not
that much.
By the way, I must assume that *despite all sociological machinations*, there
is still something terribly wrong with the rapist. Why? I consider rape
to be a social evil entirely devoid of redeeming qualities. And I grew up
in the same society with the rapists, I assume. They rape, and I will not.
Either I must be crazy, or they are. I must assume it is they.
However, for the comment that very little is known about the causes and
motivations of rape, I stand (or rather, sit) corrected. Let me revise this:
very little is known about the causes and motivations of rape *by me*.
And at least from this flurry, I learned something.
Two things bother me, though. My E-mail box remained empty throughout this
bit, and I wonder if this has some significance. Secondly, some of you
quoted a posting by Sophie Quigley that seemed to form the basis of the
rebuttals. Sorry, Ms. Quigley, but that posting never got here. Sigh.
In closing, and just to get me in trouble again, a short thought:
Change the rapist, and you have one less rapist.
Change society, and you have no more rapists.
But how do you know what to change? Only the rapist can tell you.
And he doesn't know what he knows.
--fini--
Eric McColm
UCLA (oo' - kluh) Funny Farm for the Criminally Harmless
UUCP: ...!{ihnp4,trwspp,cepu,ucbvax,sdcrdcf}!ucla-cs!mccolm
ARPA: mccolm@LOCUS.UCLA.EDU
Quotes on the Nature of Existence:
"To be, or not to be..." -Hamlet (Wm. Shakespeare)
"I think, therefore I am." -R. Descartes
"" -Gleep (Robt. Asprin)