Why “Rape is about power, not sex” is bollocks
Whenever the topic of rape is discussed anywhere, someone will come claiming that rape isn’t about sex but about power and control. In fact this even appears in discussion about pedophilia. It goes like this: 1) Saying that any sexual contact with children constitutes a rape. (I don’t like using the term rape in this way because I think people get mislead by that, but I won’t discuss it further here.) 2) Saying that pedophiles are attracted towards children. 3) Concluding from 1) and 2) that pedophiles are attracted to power and control. Ender Wiggin has already dealth with this in his blog post.
Like in case of many myths, there is some truth behind the claim and one can imagine, how the myth came into existence. I think in this case it began with two myths: 1) That people rapes because of a sexual frustration or 2) because their victims provoke them by their clothing, behavior etc. While sexual frustration and victims appearance may play some role they are not the main factors.
A false dilemma
A part of offenders are motivated by the desire power and control. However, this doesn’t have to mean their motivation isn’t sexual. Sadistic offenders are sexually aroused by having power over their victims, by inflicting pain to their victims or by humiliating them. For them it’s both about power and about sex. While they doesn’t have to engage in typical sexual activities like coitus the fact is that they seek sexual gratification. Another kind of offenders tend to commit rape in a stereotypical way. The offenders seek non-cooperating victims, their behavior look very predatory, they try to immobilize the victim. Again, in this case offenders are motivated by specific sexual desires. Trying to present their behavior as nonsexual seems to me to be overreaction to sex negativity in society. I don’t think that to try to disconnect sex from anything negative is a good way to go. I think it creates confusion, it can make it harder for us to understand certain behaviors. I think the solution is to reject appeals to tradition or religious values and promote judging sexual behaviors by criteria like consent or safety.
In some cases it is (mainly) about sex
Some people commit rape because they have seriously impaired self-control. They don’t need to seek power and control at all. Some people may have problems finding a consenting partner. If they are also sociopathic, they can commit rape because of the desire for a sexual gratification. While some may enjoy power and control over victim, it doesn’t always have to be the case. They don’t have to desire to harm someone, it is enough that they don’t care and that they think they can get away with it.
Sometimes it is not about sex
There are cases when the motivation isn’t sexual. Rape has been used as a way to humiliate someone, to break a person. It has been used for example by totalitarian regimes against political prisoners. We know the cases of so called reparative rape being justified by the offenders as a tool to “correct” the sexual orientation of victims to heterosexuality. While in a lot of cases such excuses just masks the sexual motivation, in some cases the motivation can really be based on religious beliefs.
Conclusion
The problematic of rape is complicated. There are several types of rape offenders. The sexual motivation for rape is common, while it doesn’t have to be the only motivation and in some cases it can be absent. Denying the sexual motivation can harm our understanding of rape and can damage our attempts to reduce its incidence.
