Rape

This last sentence I find particularly interesting — because after all,
in most circumstances it’s extremely difficult to separate the effect from
the cause, in any sphere, but especially when it comes to thinking and
emotion. But the whole question of whether “fantasizing” about rape (in
quotes because the word seems to have so many different meanings) actually
makes men more likely to rape seems to me only the most obvious suspicion
about “fantasy” or pornography. I’m much more concerned about how these
things affect my normal daily interactions with men. And I would have to
say that in this realm the demeaning and objectifying approach of
pornography and the ways in which it is shored up through the patriarchal
systems of the traditional family, the military and the fraternity house
make it nearly impossible for me to truly communicate with most men. Once
you’ve been educated to look for that “perfect woman” (the right breasts,
the right waistline, the neediness…), it’s extremely hard to not view
every woman in terms of how she diverges from that model.
And from my own experience, reinforcement, whether positive or
negative, plays a big part in everyone’s life. That’s how we learn anything,
after all. The scary thing is, there’s reinforcement to be had for just
about every position a person could hold. If you’re interested in Nazism,
for instance, there are neo-fascist movements all over the place. By
joining one, you can progessively pump yourself up to more grievous acts
of violence, perhaps acts you would have shuddered at earlier in your
life. And people can consciously choose to keep receiving this reinforce-
ment, even when they know on another level of awareness that what they
are doing is harmful in almost every way.
Reinforcement doesn’t have to be actual person-to-person back-
slapping, either. Playboy is patriarchal reinforcement on the glossy
printed page. Reading it, men can, perhaps unconsciously, reassure them-
selves that the subjugated half of humanity is still firmly in its place.
And people who claim that this “fantasy” doesn’t carry over to everyday
reality, are, I believe, fooling themselves.

Today featured sex/pornography/rape gallery