Dilbert Creator Scott Adams Says Rape Is A 'Natural Instinct' For Men

[polaris93]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/20/dilbert-creator-scott-adams-on-rape_n_880590.html

"Dilbert" creator Scott Adams is finding himself in hot water again-this time with a blog post saying rape is a "natural instinct" for

Comments

[hannahsarah]

He may not have stated himself well, but I have to agree with his basic premise. People have urges to do LOTS of things that are against the good of society. When I see shiny jewelry, and no shop attendant paying attention, I want to take it home without paying. I don't do it (morals aside), because I respect the rules of society. It doesn't make me a thief just because I have those urges, but it makes me a potential thief.

The answer is not castration, as he says, but moral and civil behavior modification. Parents need to raise young men to accept the rules of society, and to respect women in general. When men stop viewing women as "non human" then we will see some real changes. Until then, we'll just continue to be the object that men use when their urge for dominance and violence rears it's ugly head.

[polaris93]

I agree. Oddly, one of the very few societies in the Old World in which women had legal rights equal to those of men, and were respected for achievement if the achievement warranted it, was Sparta. And Sparta achieved that state only because of their very draconian laws on various things, laws we wouldn't be willing to accept. However, Sparta was the only city-state in Europe at the time without any walls. None. Zilch. They didn't need them -- that's how good Spartan men were at the art of war, and how dreaded they were as opponents by would-be invaders. I think the Spartans would regard us today with contempt, especially Spartan women

[brezhnev]

What has he been smoking?

[polaris93]

Oh, he's right in that there is a cultural component to rape, but it's not anything "keeping men in a continuous state of arousal." It's people assuring one another that "it's only natural for men" and otherwise encouraging men to think that a) they can get away with it and b) other men will admire them for it. It's people who push the idea that "she must have deserved it somehow, she led him on, she had to have been dressed provocatively." "It's a man's prerogative." "Women should just lay back and enjoy it." Until the idea that rape is disgusting, something only a degenerate would do becomes common cultural currency, this sort of nastiness is going to keep happening.

[brezhnev]

I don't think there's much cultural support for that in the first place. Not even decent barbarian societies tolerated that. Nobody proposes decriminalizing it or even making it a misdemeanor. That used to get a person killed (either by judicial execution or lynching) up to about 70 years ago. People are already disgusted; that's why sex offenders are pariahs.

[polaris93]

That depends on who you know. A while back, two cops in Canada went on record as saying that there wouldn't be any rape if women didn't dress like sluts. And there are a lot of people out there who parrot that sort of thing. It's not everyone, not even a majority of people, but there are nevertheless millions who do look at things that way, and that's the problem. Since people tend to hang with their own, those who are likely to become sex offenders hang out with others who are of like mind, and their social interactions encourage them to look at rape and related crimes as "just what men do." Of course they do know better, but that's what they want to do anyway, so they look for encouragment for it. Then they Do Things and get busted for it, but more like them are waiting in the wings. I know -- I grew up around people like that, some affluent, some not. They're real, they're out there, and they're numerous.