Rape Culture?

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In a message dated 03/15/2000 1:09:07 PM, sue  @  MCPHERSONS.FREESERVE.CO.UK
writes:

<< I still cannot agree with the use of the term 'rape culture', and
the implication that all* women are affected.  And even the use
of the term subculture somehow doesn't capture what is going
on.  In a consumer culture, and information culture, we are
immersed in it and cannot escape it no matter what.  Rape is
not comparable.  Rape is just one aspect of a 'culture of
violence'. Just like 'spending' is one aspect of a 'consumer
society'. >>

Just because a woman is not directly raped herself does not mean she is not
affected by rape culture. First of all, I doubt you can find a woman who does
not know at least *one* woman who has been raped, whether relative, friend,
co-worker, neighbor, etc. I myself have never been raped,* but my mother and
a friend of mine both were. (I suspect there are several others I know who
were raped but have not told me so.) Moreover, there were four occasions in
my life when I came close to being raped, twice by acquaintances and twice by
strangers. In one case a serial rapist entered my home early in the morning
and was surprised to find my (now ex-) husband in the bedroom, and he left
quickly. In the other three cases, quick thinking on my part saved me.

Because a woman is able to avoid being raped during her lifetime (I still
have maybe 30-40 years left, though, and anything can happen) does not mean
she is not affected by fear of the possibility. I think you would be hard
pressed to find a woman who does not *fear* being raped and who organizes her
life accordingly.

Secondly, using the term "rape culture" does *not* imply that one believes
every man is a potential rapist. But every woman *is* a potential rape victim
whether or not she experiences an actual rape in her lifetime, even if only a
small percentage of men are perpetrators, because most perpetrators repeat
the act again and again. The rehabilitation rate for sexual predators is
something like 10-20% max.

Thirdly, the actual commission of rape is only part of the term "rape
culture." The myths about rape--about men's motivations, about women's, about
victims deserving what they get, and so forth, remain highly prevalent. Just
because it is possible for us individually to reject those myths does not
mean we are not subject to them in their institutionalized form. They
certainly remain prevalent in law enforcement and the judicial system despite
all the efforts that have been made to eliminate those misconceptions.

Fourth, yes, "rape culture" is a part of the overall "culture of violence"--
more particularly the culture of violence against women. Saying so does not
deplete the usefulness of the term for the specific purpose of defining the
problem and the solutions. It is particularly helpful against definitions
that see rape as an individual problem with individual solutions, ignoring
the reality of the social, political, economic, and cultural systems that
reinforce the myths about rape.

Finally, as others have noted, "drive reduction theory" sounds eversomuch
like a re-appearance of the falsehood that men just can't help themselves.
Just like they can't help themselves if their anger makes them beat and/or
murder their wives and girlfriends. Yeah, right.

Georgia NeSmith
gnesmith  @  aol.com

*Here is an interesting slip. I am an incest survivor, yet only after about
six re-readings and revisions of this did I realize that I had not defined
what my father did as rape, for two reasons, 1) because there was no penal
penetration, and 2) I did not want to define myself as a rape *victim.*

Let me first say that I have been deeply impressed by the precision and
clarity of argument in many of the posts in this thread, especially those
critiquing the gendered power relations that enable rape.

It strikes me, however, that the discussion has not yet accounted for
male-male rape.  How is feminism(s)  to understand male-male rape, to
analyse and respond to it?  In purely strategic terms, this issue seems to
be a good opportunity to critique gendered/sexualized power relations
without necessarily locating women as "merely" victims, or seeming to
speak from a "victim mentality."  Any thoughts?

Amy Vondrak
Syracuse University
amvondra  @  syr.edu

I agree that we live in a 'rape culture' and that all women are indeed
affected. I think it is visible in many ways.  Pseudo rapes on soap opera's
and other TV programs, in film, where most rapes not to mention other
instances of violence, are often justified because the woman less that good,
billboards and other ad sources promote the idea that there a "good" women
and "bad" women based on clothing style, make-up etc and that "bad" women
get what they deserve and that is usually rape.

The judicial system instructs women that it is not really a crime to rape
someone, just to be the one who is raped.  In Canada we commit illegal acts
to prevent defence attorneys from getting access to the counselling records
of a rape survivor.  The supreme court has ruled that just in case the woman
is lying or has a history of sexual promiscuity the defence should have
access to her records.

I doubt if you will find a woman of any age who has never been worried about
being raped, about being alone on the street after dark, because she might
be raped.  Even if the worry is not justified, it does speak to the
prevalence of the "culture of rape".  Women know that the entire force of
the "culture" will be brought to bear if they are raped.  They will be
criticized for being out after dark, wearing the wrong thing, being in the
wrong part of town, allowing someone they know into their home when they are
alone, dating, having a drink, being sexually active, well really the list
is endless.  The only thing that is not said by the "culture" is that it is
the rapists fault.  In the crime of rape the culture determines the
extenuating circumstances for the perpetrator rather that the evidence.  And
if the rape survivor is a total paragon of virtue, the final statement of
the "rape culture" is that he just couldn't help it because men cannot ever
control their sexuality or their bodies.

I do not believe that all men are rapists, in fact I believe the majority
are not which leads to me to ask if most men don't rape, why are so many of
our "systems" act on the belief that rapists, the poor dears, simply could
not help it and if women would just behave better it would not happen at
all.

Rape is about power over and rapists rape because they can.

michelle

mforrest  @  city.winnipeg.mb.ca

I am in total agreement with Amy -- I intend taking sections of these posts
to class to help clarify the issues relating to this subject and as models
of communication style.  My thanks to everyone involved.

Marilyn

At 06:00 PM 3/16/00 -0500, Amy Vondrak wrote:
>Let me first say that I have been deeply impressed by the precision and
>clarity of argument in many of the posts in this thread, especially those
>critiquing the gendered power relations that enable rape.

In a message dated 03/16/2000 6:02:04 PM, amvondra  @  MAILBOX.SYR.EDU writes:

<< It strikes me, however, that the discussion has not yet accounted for
male-male rape.  How is feminism(s)  to understand male-male rape, to
analyse and respond to it?  >>

Male-male rape offers an example of why rape is not about sexual
gratification but about power. Male-male rape is often committed by
heterosexual men, particularly in prisons. It's an act demonstrating
dominance and submission.

We tend to forget that patriarchy is not just about male-female relationships
but also male-male.  In patriarchy, someone must be at the top of the power
structure. That means that males dominate other males as well as women. There
are multiple ways of enacting and reinforcing dominance. Rape is one of them.

Rape defines the victim (regardless of gender) as powerless. In prison, male
victims become their dominators' whore. Much prison talk about male-male rape
defines the male victim as essentially female relative to the rapist.

Georgia NeSmith
gnesmith  @  aol.com

Sue McPherson is right to point out the prevalence of feminist-inspired
literature that actually attacks heterosexuality by its extraordinarily
broad definitions of rape and by its view of heterosexuality itself as a
patriarchal plot against women.  I have documented this at some length in
my book *Heterophobia: Sexual Harassment and the Future of Feminism.*  So
commonplace has this feminist attack on heterosexuality become that even a
standard reference work - the Houghton Mifflin Reader's Guide to U.S.
Women's History, published just two years ago,  has an entry under
"heterosexuality" that uncritically mirrors the most radical rhetoric on
this subject.
    I personally believe that one of the major reasons many young women
(not to mention older ones) dissociate themselves from the term 'feminist'
is because they see it -- quite correctly -- as being anti-male. Of course,
a great deal of feminist literature on the subject will simply advise them
to get their sexual desire in line with the correct feminist analysis --
i.e., to recognize that they are victims of "compulsory heterosexuality"
and to shape up.
  ---------------------------------
daphne.patai  @  spanport.umass.edu

A few things stood out in the web pages on 'rape culture'
(http://pubweb.ucdavis.edu/Documents/RPEP/rculture.htm)
that I believe could be changed and would improve them.
Calling our culture a 'rape culture' is very negative, and
does not allow for a positive appraoch to sexuality.  It
may be claimed that rape is not about sex or sexuality,
but the pages include examples of personal and sexual
interactions between men and women that don't
necessarily lead to rape, and there is no explanation of that.

The page title "Defining a Rape Culture' implies that
some behaviours, such as ogling, touching, and
suggestive comments are pre-rape behaviours, and not
men's clumsy - or skillful - but normal (for them) behaviours
they were socialized to do, just as women have been
socialized to react to them.  There are pages on this website
that deal very well with these issues, and point these things
out, but what the pages fail to do is say that men cannot
change overnight, and we need to find ways of dealing with
the problem.  But naming ordinary behaviours as sexual
harassment or pre-rape behaviours (see rule # 5) is not helpful.

I find rule # 5 objectionable also as it centres out a
particular group - construction workers - and implies  - no,
states that they are engaging in pre-rape behaviour.
-------------------
RULE #5: Causal touching or suggestive comments in social settings are meant
as a tribute to a woman's desirability.
Many women believe that being ogled by a group of construction workers is
nothing more than a form of praise. Many sexual assaults, however, begin
with a "harmless" compliment or inquiry from a rapist. His comments are a
way of testing how accommodating the woman might be. The lack of clarity
about what constitutes insulting behavior and the learned ambivalence women
have about unwanted approaches makes them vulnerable to sexual assault.
-----------------------------

The following quote from the web pages is another of the problems:

"The high incidence of rape in this country is a result of the power
imbalance between men and women. Women are expected to assume a subordinate
relationship to men. Consequently, rape can be seen as a logical extension
of the typical interactions between women and men".

I really believe this needs rewording, and that would help a lot.
There is definietly the idea expressed here that rapes follows from
ordinary interactions between men and women.

Finally, I have a comment on rule # 4 and the explanation.

"RULE #4: When in trouble, it is best to defer to the protection and
judgment of men.
There are two flaws with this rule:
l) it is men who endanger or bother women
2)there are not always trustworthy men around to protect women.
Women must take the problem of victimization into their own hands; support
and protect each other by being together, watching out for each other and
understanding what it is like to be at the mercy of men".

My comment:  sometimes men can be helpful and women
may not be.  And sometimes no one helps.  Sometimes
women protect their men, and are rewarded for it, at the
expense of other women.

Sue McPherson
sue  @  mcphersons.freeserve.co.uk

Feminism: it's all a plot of those man-hating lesbians?

What an original thought.

[in response to the last of Daphne Patai's March 16 messages above]

Max Dashu    Suppressed Histories Archives
 <maxdashu  @  lanminds.com>

One element I haven't seen mentioned is the link between war and rape.
This is a gendered issue.

Even now, Japan is not comfortable admitting its use of Korean women as
"comfort women" for Japanese soldiers during World War II.

More recently, the "ethnic cleansing" atrocities in Eastern Europe
included systematic rape as a tool of war/political domination.
This has been labeled a war crime, but the notion of "spoils of war" is
very old.

And the war/military-rape issue is not limited to opposing factions.
Women in the military are at risk of rape by male soldiers and officers
who are supposedly "on their side."

Some homophobic arguments opposing "gays in the military" apparently stem
from fears by heterosexual men that they might become recipients of
unwanted sexual advances from other men.  This is very interesting,
because we hear heterosexual males protesting about having to cope with
the reality women face all their lives.


Betty

_________________________________________________________
Betty Glass, Humanities Bibliographer
Getchell Library/322
1664 N. Virginia St.
University of Nevada, Reno
Reno, NV  89557-0044

 email: glass  @  unr.edu

office: (775) 784-6500  ext. 303
   FAX: (775) 784-1751

There is a wonderful book called "Does Kaki Become You" and it traces the
link between war and rape from the Classical Greek period to the mid 1980's.
Not only does it explore the link between war and rape but examines the
legislation that was enacted by different countries to keep the combatants
"healthy" if they engaged in rape.

Currently I am researching with some Muslim women in Serbia on this very
issue.  Rape as an instrument of terrorizing and controlling a civilian
population.

[In response to Daphne Patai's March 16 message above beginning "Sue
McPherson is right to point out the prevalence of feminist-inspired
literature that actually attacks heterosexuality by its extraordinarily
broad definitions of rape and by its view of heterosexuality itself as a
patriarchal plot against women.]

I find this extraordinary:  In all the feminist writing from all over the
world, what is the percentage of writing that you describe.  I work with
young woman and they say they have become shy of the word feminist because
of the backlash, because older feminists do not make room for them and their
issues, because we do not engage the class issues within our sisterhood.  I
find them very clear...

Michelle wonders about the % of antiheterosexual writing within feminism.
However, it's not a matter of the percentage of such writing (though I
think if someone actually did such a study they'd find the heterophobic
strain to be a persistent and recurring one within feminist discourse of
the past thirty years) but rather of the prominence and visibility of this
point of view. That was why I gave the example of the Houghton Miffllin
Reader's Guide, not a work most people would consider marginal or flaky.
And then, of course, there is the informal evidence of women's studies
classes and their dynamics.  As I've said many times on this list, it's not
"backlash" but reasoned criticism of women's studies that many people,
faculty and students, make.
DP
---------------------------------
daphne.patai  @  spanport.umass.edu

<<
 i would suggest that NON-exposure to rape (and, men who do NOT rape) is
 the exceptional subcultural phenomenon in american society, and that
 identifiable environmental factors (both sociocultural and locational)
 "protect" (or, "isolate") some subcategories of women from this
 experience, in the same way some subgroups of women are "protected" or
 "isolated" from poverty or glass ceilings or gender bias despite their
 prevalence for women as a group and legitimate designations as part of
 the overall "character" of the culture--or, conversely, we can
 legitimately label ours a "gun" culture even though there are
 subcategories of men who abhor guns and violence (also with identifiable
 causes of this "deviance")...
  >>

I've been a forensic psychologist working with court ordered clients for many
years.
I must remark that the FBI stats bear out the above conclusion. As many as
one in four women in the USA report an attempted sexual assault by adulthood.
 Fully one half of the victims are under the age of 14 years old. Most are
assaulted by someone they knew --- but to clarify --- knew only at an
acquaintance level. They knew them  well enough to get in a car, or let the
person in the house. The most common location of sexual assualt is the
victims home, followed in prevalance by the perps home.

I think this level of prevalance presumes some sort of cultural support for
sexual assault.

I've also worked with perpetrators who were court referred. They had some
common attitudes or presumptions.

1) Might makes right.
2) End justifies means.
3) Women deserve it.
4) Other people are responsible for my feelings.
5) Other people are responsible for my behavior.
6) The weak are fair prey.

Quite frankly, many males in this culture are socialized to think that the
above concepts are acceptable, if not preferred behaviors. Many young boys
are taught to believe the above, and young girls are socialized to facilitate
them in this nonsense.

Most of the rapists I've counseled have very specific criteria they use in
victim selection that they learn from other rapists. It "maximizes gain" to
quote one more articulate one. They go for people they perceive to be young,
naive, weak, and vulnerable.

But this is generalized in the greater society. On the average records show
that:

Men marry down in age, finances, education, and class, but up in looks.
Women marry up in finances, age, and education, and class, but down in looks.

While this is slowly changing, certainly it still applies to the general
culture.

This implies a culture where men are  most comfortable dominating marital
situations, and presumably relationships with women generally -- or the
prevaling marital patterns would not demonstrate this.

I refer you to these references:
References:
AMA,Strategies for the Treatment and Prevention of Sexual Assault,  American
Medical Association, Copyright 1995. (Call AMA Coalition of Physicians
Against Family Violence at 312-464-5066 for
a complete list of available references. )

Cascardi, Michele:Objective Ratings of Assault Safety as Predictor of
Recovery,Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 03/01/1996.

Craven, Diane: Female Victims of Violent Crime, Bureau of Justice
Statistics, 1996.

Freeman, Thomas W.,Cardwell, David, Komoroski, Richard A.:In Vivo Proton
Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy of the Medial Temporal Lobes of Subjects with
Combat-Related Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Magnetic Resonance in Medicine,
July 1998. (Shows post-trauma has physical expression as well as
psychological.)

Foa, Edna: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Following Assault, Current
Directions in Psychological Science,
04/01/1995

Foa, Edna B.:Trauma and Women: Course, Predictors, and Treatment,  The
Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 1997.

Greenfield, Lawrence: Violence by Intimates, Bureau of Justice  Statistics,
1998.

Greenfield, Lawrence: Sex Offenses and Offenders, Bureau of Justice
Statistics, 1997.

Greenfield, Lawrence:Child Victimizers: violent offenders and their victims,
Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1996.

Pitman, Roger K.,Orr, Scott P.,Shalev, Ariel: Once Bitten, Twice Shy: Beyond
the conditioning Model of PTSD, Biological Psychiatry, Feb. 1993.

Ringel, Cheryl: Criminal Victimization 1996, Bureau of Justice
Statistics, 1996.

Max ridicules me by suggesting I consider feminism a plot cooked up by
male-hating lesbians. What a ridiculous idea - and not at all what I claim.
DP

---------------------------------
daphne.patai  @  spanport.umass.edu

Daphne,

I read Max's criticism as being directed towards your posts that seem to
assert an inherent connection between feminism and being a lesbian and/or an
intrinsic link between being a lesbian and hating men.

I will be glad to join in the conversation...

Lisa
LBurke2  @  njcu.edu

Lila writes: " As many as
one in four women in the USA report an attempted sexual assault by
adulthood."  These are the same questionable statistics that were discussed
on this list not long ago.  The fact that so many feminists like to repeat
such statistics despite reasonable challenges to them demonstrates the
trend toward "the worst the better" thinking within feminism. Of course
feminism isn't unique in taking such an approach.  A great many political
movements do, for obvious reasons.  But what's more interesting is that
Lila puts this same statistic in a message in which she agrees with someone
else's observation : " I would suggest that NON-exposure to rape (and, men
who do NOT rape) is  the exceptional subcultural phenomenon in american
society. . ."   Even the wildly exaggerated "one in four" figure does not
support the conclusion that non-exposure to rape is the "exceptional"
phenomenon.  One of the most fascinating and troubling things with women's
studies today is the eagerness with which faculty members try to inculcate
fear into their students. This list has demonstrated that over and over
again, in the frequent discussions of students who "resist" the feminist
message, who do not feel frightened or discriminated against or oppressed;
apparently such attitudes need to be corrected by many teachers, in the
name of feminism .
DP

---------------------------------
daphne.patai  @  spanport.umass.edu

I am curious what specifically Daphne refers to when she asserts
"antiheterosexual writing within feminism."    I am not comfortable with the
position that feminism is generally antiheterosexual or prolesbian.    I
wonder if Daphne, and those who share her viewpoint, are reading critiques
of traditional power structures in male-female relationships, particularly
"amorous" relationships, as being antiheterosexual.

I have had the privilege of knowing just as many feminists who are
heterosexual as I have feminists who are lesbian (often working side by
side), so I feel that such an assessment is based not on looking at the
entire picture but rather at excerpts out of context.

Maybe we need to go back to "What is a feminist?" or at least "What is not a
feminist?"  ??? (I know, I know--it's been discussed before, so I am not
suggesting re-starting the thread.)

Open to dialoguing,
Lisa
LBurke2  @  njcu.edu

>I've also worked with perpetrators who were court referred. They had some
>common attitudes or presumptions.
>
>1) Might makes right.
>2) End justifies means.
>3) Women deserve it.
>4) Other people are responsible for my feelings.
>5) Other people are responsible for my behavior.
>6) The weak are fair prey.

If you substitute "some people" for "women" in #3, I think you might have a
good description of the attitudes of perpetrators of "hate" crimes, as well
as of bullies, including young students who devalue and bully other
students. In fact, it describes the attitudes of many perpetrators of
workplace violence.

Carrie

No, madame, it is you who ridiculed feminism as "anti-male" and went on to
assert that

>a great deal of feminist literature on the subject will simply advise them
>to get their sexual desire in line with the correct feminist analysis --
>i.e., to recognize that they are victims of "compulsory heterosexuality"
>and to shape up.

What other construction can we put on this than that lesbians are
campaigning to get heterosexual women to join up? And that this is a
preponderant theme in feminism? (I am still puzzling over how "anti-male"
might differ from the colloquial favorite "man-hating.")

>Max ridicules me by suggesting I consider feminism a plot cooked up by
>male-hating lesbians. What a ridiculous idea - and not at all what I claim.

Max Dashu    Suppressed Histories Archives
 <maxdashu  @  lanminds.com>

Since my work focuses on representations of dead women in popular culture
and literature, I am quite aware of just how central images of ravished
and dead women are in the United States.  Just as one example, I can
guarantee that JonBenet Ramsey's killing would have gone unnoticed if
she couldn't have been depicted as a raped little fox.  See my
"Necrophilia, Pedophilia, or Both?:  The Sexualized Rhetoric of the
JonBenet Ramsey Murder Case," _Sexual Rhetoric_ (Greenwood Press, 1999).
But until I suggest to my students that depictions of rape in movies and
on tv should not be passed off as entertainment, it has not occurred to
them. Rape Culture?  Of course it is.  That's a no-brainer.

I am proud to be a feminist professor who learned from other feminists and
passes feminism along to the next generation.  I have the opposite
experience that Daphne claims to have:  as the semester progresses female
students grow more and more fascinated with the subject of feminist self
determination and tell me constantly how these classes have changed their
lives, permanently and for the better.  Men, too, respond to the message
that patriarchal capitalist gender norms enslave us all until we begin to
resist.  Why do Daphne and I encounter such different people?  I'm in the
Bible Belt for crying out loud.  So it isn't regional.

On a personal/political note, while a graduate student at UCLA, I was
riding my scooter down Wilshire Blvd one evening with a group of friends.
As they motored ahead of me, I was pulled over by an undercover "cop" who
insisted that I move off the main road and down into a dark underpass.  I
was pissed off at having my fun ruined, so I behaved insolently, refusing
to move until he showed me his badge.  As we stood their arguing about it,
I saw my friends coming back down Wilshire to find me.  Gesturing to them
that I had been pulled over, I turned to see the man was backing up onto
the 405 freeway.  It was only at this point that I realized he had been a
phony.  Was he a rapist?  At least.

I share this because even as I have been reading the fine and noble
responses to those few reactionary voices on the list, I had not been
counting myself as someone who was a direct victim of rape culture, except
insofar as I have been socialized to loathe my body and fear male
attention and could watch Clockwork Orange as a 12-year-old girl without
feeling repulsed and angry.  But finally, when one member noted that she
hadn't wanted to count her father's violation as rape, I remembered this
incident that apparently on some level I still view as "normal" and
somehow my fault.

I work for a day when girls and women do not have to take potential and
actual violation for granted.  I work for a day when we do not have to
blame ourselves for our own victimization. I work for a day when the
brualization of women is no longer used to sell shoes.  I will not be
silenced by those who would shame me and all of those like me for
having such a vision.

Diana York Blaine
University of North Texas
dblaine  @  unt.edu

Regarding this type of argument:

> . . . Women are expected to assume a subordinate
> relationship to men. Consequently, rape can be seen as a logical extension
> of the typical interactions between women and men.

Its important to keep in mind that this argument, seen by many as evidence of
feminism's complete hostility to all heterosexual and other male-female
interactions, became prominent in second wave feminism of the 60s and 70s.  I
think its a big mistake not to consider the very different sexual norms of those
years, norms that are perhaps best remembered by reading literature.  For
example, Alix Kates Shulman's _Memoir of an Ex-Prom Queen_ , Sylvia Plath's _The
Bell Jar_, or Margaret Atwood's _Surfacing_,  are shocking today in that they
reveal the many many ways that behaviors we'd consider sexually violent now were
considered "normal", i.e., part of "normal" heterosexual relations, then.
I think it good that "normal" heterosexuality has been redefined since the 60s,
and I think that that change has been one of feminism's greatest
accomplishments!  The problem remains how to preserve the second wave insight
that rape and other forms of sexual violence permeate and are naturalized in
patriarchal cultures, while acknowledging change in actual norms in the wake of
the 2nd wave and preserving a vision of heterosexuality that doesn't collude
with patriarchy by accepting patriarchy's own assertion that violence is natural
and normal.
Glynis Carr
Program Coordinator for Women's Studies
Bucknell University

This is interesting. Do you think there has been such a chnage?


At 06:44 AM 17','03' '', '2000 -05, you wrote:
>Regarding this type of argument:
>
>> . . . Women are expected to assume a subordinate
>> relationship to men. Consequently, rape can be seen as a logical extension
>> of the typical interactions between women and men.
>
>Its important to keep in mind that this argument, seen by many as evidence of
>feminism's complete hostility to all heterosexual and other male-female
>interactions, became prominent in second wave feminism of the 60s and 70s.  I
>think its a big mistake not to consider the very different sexual norms of
those
>years, norms that are perhaps best remembered by reading literature. 

Based on what evidence?  I sure don't hear much "reasoned criticism of
women's studies."
I hear and see misinformation and misunderstanding.  Bergine

  As I've said many times on this list, it's not
>"backlash" but reasoned criticism of women's studies that many people,
>faculty and students, make.
>DP
>---------------------------------
>daphne.patai  @  spanport.umass.edu


************************************

Bergine Haakenson
Department of English
University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
Eau Claire, WI 54702-4004

Phone:  715-836-5838
email:   haakenba  @  uwec.edu

I appreciate Amy's clarity, especially her point about male-male rape,
pointing out the power vs. gender essence of the argument. I believe that
this is key to any definition of 'rape culture.'

When we made the film "Rape Culture" we highlighted the actions of an
organization founded in 1974, called Men Against Rape in Lorton Prison in
the Washington DC area).  At the time people often misinterpreted what
these, primarily African American men were saying.  They were talking about
rape inside the prison(raping men) and out(raping women)  and pointing out
the similarities. It appeared that they were defining themselves as rapists
but they were trying to define rape as a power relationship that took a
sexual form. Only one of the 13 members of the group was actually in prison
for rape. Their work, in collaboration with members of the DC Rape Crisis
Center was groundbreaking.

Margaret
Cambridge Documentary Films, Inc.
P.O. Box 390385 Cambridge, MA 02139-0004
ph (617)484-3993  fx (617)484-0754
www.shore.net/~cdf
cdf  @  shore.net