I've been wanting a post like this for a while...

[raichu100]

...and no one has written it, so I'm taking the initiative.

In a recent post by the_rukh there was a heated ensuing discussion about whether it's appropriate to give advice to women to help them prevent being raped. One of the things that came up repeatedly in the discussion was that whether or not the advice was appropriate (and that is NOT the focus of

Comments

[nano_muse]

All of these are broad and oversimplified, but in a general sense...

1. What are the most important steps that should be taken to prevent rape and decrease its prevalence in our society?

Reduce the culture of turning women into meat or sex objects, and perhaps educate men on the female side of sexuality, the importance of consent, ect ect - it's easy to go on about consent and its role in our society, but it means nothing when my male friends don't know how having sex with an unconscious drunk woman is rape. A lot of colleges open with long orientations for women on how not to get raped - perhaps there should be one for men on how to have enjoyable sex without committing rape.

2. What are the most important steps that should be taken to improve treatment for rape victims?Make more options available in as widespread of an area or as many areas as possible. Make these options widely known and information about them easily accessible. Make them anonymous, and try and keep the prices low (depending on country/healthcare system), and

[paft]

Really, I think cutting down on incidences of rape is going to involve a massive shift in male attitudes towards women. Men will have to get over several widespread concepts:

1. Men will have to get over the notion that women owe them sex.

2. Men will have to stop defining women strictly in terms of whether they are sexually desirable or not.

3. Men will have to get over the idea that having sex with someone is a way of establishing ownership of or superiority over that person.

4. Men will have to get over the notion of women as property or territory.

Number 3 in particular can be applied not only to the rape of women by men, but the rape of men by men, which in some cases (as in prison rape) seems to be related to deliberately degrading the rape victim, putting him in the role of a woman.

Until this miraculous shift in attitude takes place, all women can do is stay aware of the dangers around us.

And believe me -- after a certain age, most of us are.

[southwest]

It is interesting how everything starts with "men will have to..."
What about women, will not they have to do anything?
Like start carrying small, but powerful handgun in their purse?

[paft]

s: It is interesting how everything starts with "men will have to..."

Since in most cases rape is committed by men, yeah, it's male attitudes that will have to change.

s: What about women, will not they have to do anything?

We have to do pretty much what we've been doing for centuries -- staying aware of the danger and making conscious decisions about the level of risk we're willing to run.

s: Like start carrying small, but powerful handgun in their purse?

...so if the rapist forgets his own gun, he'll have one!

Believe me, most women my age have already heard it all. Carry a gun. Buy a big dog. Put locks on your doors. Don't walk in certain areas. Don't go out at night. Build a nice big fence around yourself...

For years and years the onus has been on WOMEN to prevent rape, as if we were the one's responsible for the rapes.

We aren't. And the sooner men figure that out, the sooner rape statistics will decline.

[hikarugenji]

staying aware of the danger and making conscious decisions about the level of risk we're willing to run. Although this is something that women have to be taught as well. 18-year old women just entering college may be under the same mistaken impression that many males are that rape is mostly about people jumping out of the bushes with a knife. They may honestly not be aware of what they should do to be more careful in potentially dangerous situations like parties with lots of alcohol, particularly ones associated with fraternities and the like. If a woman thinks all the danger is outside in the dark, she may not be as prepared to protect herself against the nice upperclassman who's offering her yet another drink. You also hear about people who get raped by their boyfriend but don't understand that it's possible to get raped by someone who you're in a relationship with

[meus_ovatio]

The problem with rape is that it is often conceived of within bourgeois paradigms, wherein the pro-active way to prevent it is couched within middle-class or upper middle class terms of buying things or paying for training, or utilizing any number of costly measures.

The fact remains that the most vulnerable and destitute in society remain the most victimized, including minors and women not of consensual age. College students are also vulnerable, as many of them live within strict financial allowances.

Perhaps the most ridiculous advice is to tell someone to go a seminar on kicking men in the nuts, or some kind of "martial arts". Of course, "martial arts" are about useless if you don't have a lifetime of reflexivity, muscle memory and training.

Until sexual attitudes are tempered with sexual ethics, rape will remain a problem, as sex is related to two other things: power and punishment. If and until men are taught not to be scumbag date-raping morons... well then, nothing will change.

[southwest]

But the question remains, what the society can do? Perhaps we can learn from other countries, which have more successfully dealt with the problem. According to the unbiased statistical date, the lowest rape incidents per capita is recorded in Saudi Arabia. Perhaps, they are doing something right.

[meus_ovatio]

But the question remains, what the society can do?
Stop selling frat-boy, white-hat sexual escapades as anything but exploitative junk. Reform the movie industry, that might help. Quit portraying rape victims as stupid idiots who didn't buy a gun, that might help. The prevalence of rape is masked by several social attitudes which make rape out to be rare, when in fact it is not rare. And if people think it is rare, they generally tend to think of victims as idiots who didn't walk on the right side of the street or some such nonsense. Generally speaking, the attitude towards rape is such that people think people who get raped are just doing it wrong. Which is silly.

Female sexual habits remain a core component of trial proceedings, which is entirely irrelevant and inappropriate. Fix that too.

[weswilson]

Wow... you mean a country where non-virgins are more likely to be social outcasts and that promotes the death penalty for committing the crime has the fewest reported rapes per capita in the world? WOW! One would think that a female who is raped by someone close to her would instantly run out to have that person killed at the expense of all future family life.... seems totally rational.

...

They are only doing something right if you want to keep rapes from actually being reported.

[ddstory]

How many more posts about rape and abortion before everyone pukes collectively? Is there any sub-sub-sub-issue of the issue that we haven't discussed yet? Seems yes.

/pukes lavishly again/

(Don't worry, not your fault. Must be the pregnancy. Can't be otherwise).

I summon everybody who'd like to join my Alliance Against Rape/Abortion Posts, and post as many maximum-interesting non-abortion-non-rape posts as they can. There's candy!

[abomvubuso]

Where do i sign?

[ddstory]

Wherever you feel like.

[oportet]

Encourage the reporting of rapes and attempted rapes.

I know plenty of jokes can be made and plenty of holes can be punched into the suggestion of sex contracts, but it would be a start. Most people over the age of consent have cell phones, it couldn't be that hard to tie the two together.

Not allowing advice might make for a more reasonable discussion here, but it should be said that someone giving advice isn't necessarily a rapist, and isn't necessarily blaming rape victims for being raped.

[raichu100]

"Not allowing advice might make for a more reasonable discussion here, but it should be said that someone giving advice isn't necessarily a rapist, and isn't necessarily blaming rape victims for being raped."

I agree with that, I was just trying to keep this post more, er, polite because I know it's a sensitive topic (from direct and recent experience). :)