Men, Women, and Rape

Susan Brownmiller’s article on Rape delves into the psychological realities of rape. The empirical evidence she sites shows that that our culture’s image of the rapist is far different than the reality. As she notes, most people associate rapists with social rejects with serious psychological problems who prowl on women, or men with insatiable urges who suddenly decide that they will forcefully get what they want. Yet the truth is that somewhere around 50% of rapes are in fact gang rapes. Furthermore, the goal of these rapes is clearly to demean the victim. Furthermore, most of these rapes are premeditated and planned, with specific women becoming targets. It is likely that these women are chosen because they have spurned the men’s advances or because they have slighted the men in some way. Thus, Susan reveals that our conception of rape is much different from the reality, as rape seems to be a sort of male group activity.
Susan concludes that there are some systematic forces at work which produce the urge to demean women among young men. After rapes occur, all women fear for their safety even among men they know, and thus are forced to live in constant fear of rape and men, which in turn harms their sexuality and relationships. I both agree and disagree with her point. I think it is clear that occurrences of rape do in fact cause women to fear for their safety, a kind of systematic oppression that does harm their sense of sexuality as rape, sex, and shame are so closely connected in society.
Yet I think she too closely links rape with some sense of a oppressive, sentient patriarchal system. It is important to note that men rape other men as well, and that women too are perpetrators of sexual assault on men. Thus, her depiction of rape as a solely male on female act is inherently flawed.
Furthermore, I agree with her that rape does cause all women to fear it, but I do not agree with her linking it to the patriarchal system. Is homosexual rape a systematic attempt by homosexuals to have all heterosexuals fear homosexuals and homosexual physical advances? Similarly murder or assault could be viewed as certain groups attempting to oppress others.