Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post

Gilda · 02-21-2007, 02:08 PM

There's a theory in social psychology that says all relationships are about power, about establishing dominance of one individual or group over another, and that all conflict between groups or individuals comes from attempts to establish, contest, or reinforce dominance.

While I don't think this explains all relationships, it does help to explain a great many of them, and it's helpful when looking at the phenomenon of rape.

Rape is just short of murder as a way of exerting control, another word for power, over another person. Sex is, of course, an element of rape, but the question becomes why the rapist chooses rape as the means of gaining sexual satisfaction. A partner isn't even necessary to get the physical stimulation and release that comes with sex. Partners are readily available in most instances, either willing partners or prostitutes. So what leads someone to choose rape instead of a more socially acceptable form of release? What is the attraction, the thing that makes it different from paying someone or picking someone up in a bar for a one night stand?

Ordinarily we have sex with a partner because there is something more to that than just the physical sensations. There's a connection of some kind. It may be a power connection, going either way--the ability to convince someone you find attractive to have sex with you is a form of power, more subtle than brute force, but a form of power nonetheless.

With a rape, this connection becomes explicitly about the exertion of dominance. The sex is an element, sure, and the rapist wants the sex, but the method chosen is all about the power, the control, that comes with it.

There are sadists who get sexual pleasure strictly from the infliction of pain, and there are dominants who get pleasure directly from controlling others. Rape is one more expression of this.

Rape involves sex, but it isn't about the sex.

02-21-2007, 02:08 PM	#29 (permalink)
Gilda 32 flavors and then some Location: Out on a wire.	There's a theory in social psychology that says all relationships are about power, about establishing dominance of one individual or group over another, and that all conflict between groups or individuals comes from attempts to establish, contest, or reinforce dominance. While I don't think this explains all relationships, it does help to explain a great many of them, and it's helpful when looking at the phenomenon of rape. Rape is just short of murder as a way of exerting control, another word for power, over another person. Sex is, of course, an element of rape, but the question becomes why the rapist chooses rape as the means of gaining sexual satisfaction. A partner isn't even necessary to get the physical stimulation and release that comes with sex. Partners are readily available in most instances, either willing partners or prostitutes. So what leads someone to choose rape instead of a more socially acceptable form of release? What is the attraction, the thing that makes it different from paying someone or picking someone up in a bar for a one night stand? Ordinarily we have sex with a partner because there is something more to that than just the physical sensations. There's a connection of some kind. It may be a power connection, going either way--the ability to convince someone you find attractive to have sex with you is a form of power, more subtle than brute force, but a form of power nonetheless. With a rape, this connection becomes explicitly about the exertion of dominance. The sex is an element, sure, and the rapist wants the sex, but the method chosen is all about the power, the control, that comes with it. There are sadists who get sexual pleasure strictly from the infliction of pain, and there are dominants who get pleasure directly from controlling others. Rape is one more expression of this. Rape involves sex, but it isn't about the sex. __________________ I'm against ending blackness. I believe that everyone has a right to be black, it's a choice, and I support that. ~Steven Colbert Last edited by Gilda; 02-21-2007 at 02:54 PM..