The article insists that rape as a phenomenon is not just about power. I agree that sometimes it is entirely about power, but it’s the “always” part of it that I’m contesting. One could say that rape is always about power because it involves one person exerting power over another, but that doesn’t speak to motivation which is what I’m really talking about.
Yes, but as I say, it doesn’t speak to the motivation. Pedophiles are attracted to children, not power, at least as we define it.
Thank you for bringing up science. If there’s scholarly work that interviews a large number of rapists on their motivations, and finds that clearly power is the primary motivator I’ll shut up and move on.
Admittedly, that was the weakest part of the article, him insisting that youth is a proxy for sexual attractiveness.
I’m not saying that of course.
I generally think better of men as a gender as well (being one). But individual people sure can suck at times. The article doesn’t acknowledge that there are female rapists (and there are). Several victims I know were men raped by women, and at least from the circumstances around it the stories sound very similar qualitatively to others I’ve heard–the rapist wanted sex, was told no, and saw an opportunity to get what they wanted anyways. Power being the means, and not the motive. Rapists choose to be rapists, they are not driven to it by their urges.
Some rapists are indeed primarily motivated by power–which I acknowledge. My issue with the narrative of power is that it just doesn’t seem to be so universally true given the variety of kinds of rapists (including female rapists).
