From: rpetsche@mrg.tmc.edu (Rolfe G. Petschek)
Newsgroups: talk.rape
Subject: Re: date rape??
Date: 26 Sep 1992 21:14:03 GMT
Organization: CWRU Physics Department
Distribution: na
Reply-To: rpetsche@mrg.CWRU.EDU (Rolfe G. Petschek)
NNTP-Posting-Host: mrg.phys.cwru.edu

In article <92262.111718AERE6969@RyeVm.Ryerson.Ca> AERE6969@RyeVm.Ryerson.Ca writes:
>
>    I was just wondering about this recently. I recall from a few years back,
> (haven't heard this for a while) that rape is an act of violence towards
> women, period, and has nothing to do with sex. So how did date rape, or
>marital rape, come to be included in the same category? These seem to be
>purely matters of sex, lust, or whatever. Don't flame me to death, I'm not
>trying to trivialize these acts at all, for I'm sure that they are quite
>traumatic on their own, but it seems to me to be very different from what
>used to be called rape.

What gives you the impression that marital rape is non-violent?  or date
or acquaintance rape?  or that calling either rape is new?

Of four attempted or contemplated rapes described in Henry Fielding's "Tom 
Jones" (Fielding was a jurist who died long before the advent of Susan
Brownmiller who thought the height of woman's lib was that a daughter
should be able to marry whom she chooses, provided her father does not
object) three (75%) are acquaintance rapes.  One is the rape of a long
time lover.

I also do not agree completely with "rape is violence not sex" possibly
better "rape is hatred, not love or even indifference".  As sex can be
used to express love (or make love) rape is used to express hatred (and
is very effective in making it).

Marital rape can be very violent indeed, as can acquaintance rape.
Examples (these are disgusting and not for weak stomachs, what is more
they all took place):

A man asks his wife to have sex.  She is tending their baby and refuses.
She has commonly refused since the child.  He beats her up, leaving
bruises all over her body.  He then carries her into the bedroom and
they have sex.  Given the availability of whores and the fact that the
man was having an affair with a younger woman do you think that this was
"about sex" or hatred?

Mr. Morgan, a member of the Royal Airforce, is estranged from his wife
and lives in the same house but no longer shares her bed.  He is
drinking with some younger (and lower ranked) members of the Royal
Airforce.  They fail to find willing women to have sex with.  Morgan
suggests sex with his wife who, he warns, likes it "rough".  He lets
them into his house.  His wife is awakened by their presence in her
bedroom.  She is "held by each of her limbs and each of Morgan's three
younger companions have sexual conduct with her, an act to which she will later
testify she made her opposition very clear indeed.  The accounts I have
read are unclear as to what extent Morgan participated (I have always
supposed he held one or more limb) and it is unclear to me if he also
had sexual conduct with her as, I believe, no sexual conduct of a man
with his wife was, at that time, illegal in the United Kingdom and
therefore his sexual conduct may not have been an issue in the case.

Anyway I would call that marital rape.  Is it about sex? violence?
hatred?
--
Rolfe G. Petschek			Petschek@cwru.bitnet
Associate Professor of Physics		rgp@po.cwru.edu
Case Western Reserve University		(216)368-4035 
Cleveland Oh 44106-7079
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