Why does the system condone rape?

[johanna_hypatia]

Why is the patriarchal system so anxious to defend some women from rape while the same system also condones and exonerates some rapists? The key issue is whether the rape victim is under the control of the patriarchy.

Jamie Leigh Jones, who was raped by other Americans while serving in Iraq, writes: A sexist male (or female), views of rape

Comments

[poeticalpanther]

Say it, sister. Can't disagree with you in the slightest.

Don't want to, actually. :)

[cmcmck]

You also hit on the uncomfortable matter of rape in warzones. Over my years of historical research I've become all too aware of rape as one of the most effective weapons in the soldiers' armoury. It was bad in the middle ages and the early modern period and hasn't got a whole heap better since. Sigh!
And people wonder why I'm both a military historian and a pacifist....:o(

[america_divine]

I agree. Another way of putting it might be as an agressively denial of sovereignty over one's body. In the rapist's eyes, either one shouldn't have choice or the particular choice causes rage. This would explain some rapes of Queer and gender variant males. It would explain why refusal can ignite some rapists (they haven't been chosen). Patriarchy is about subordination. Many rapists are sociopaths, but the ones who aren't might also be motivated from their own feelings of powerlessness. Gender is central to all these examples, of course, but I think it's deeply tied up with _choice_. As an anti-essentialist, I see strange aversions to choice in both homophobia and "born that way" homophilia. I also see it in abortion debates, which front the word "choice" itself. A woman who isn't property--or in some contexts, who's just out alone--is a woman making choices.

Maybe some people do hate "us" because we're free(r).

[johanna_hypatia]

Thank you. That is a very valid augment to what I was saying.

They hate us for our freedom? Actually that was first stated in the film Easy Rider.

[america_divine]

Oh, thanks for telling me that! That makes the phrase/notion much less tainted.

[johanna_hypatia]

It was said by Jack Nicholson to Hopper and Fonda, explaining why rednecks were attacking them:

--They're not scared of you. They're scared of what you represent to 'em.
--Hey, man. All we represent to them, man, is somebody who needs a haircut.
--Oh, no. What you represent to them is freedom.
--What the hell is wrong with freedom? That's what it's all about.
--Oh, yeah, that's right. That's what's it's all about, all right. But talkin' about it and bein' it, that's two different things. I mean, it's real hard to be free when you are bought and sold in the marketplace. Of course, don't ever tell anybody that they're not free, 'cause then they're gonna get real busy killin' and maimin' to prove to you that they are. Oh, yeah, they're gonna talk to you, and talk to you, and talk to you about individual freedom. But they see a free individual, it's gonna scare 'em.

[laura_seabrook]

Rape is always an exercise in power.