Frank, a rich, powerful guy likes to HAVE power over other people. Raping someone is an expression of power, and some guys get off on the feeling of power more than the feeling of sex. If this doesn’t make sense to you, then I’m glad…it means that you’re probably never going to rape anyone, because it doesn’t trip your trigger. But just about every woman has experienced a man trying to “show her her place”, whether it’s a simple wolf whistle or forcing her to perform oral sex or any other sexual activity. Rape is about sex, but it’s mostly about forcing someone to do something they don’t want to do, and getting off on the ability to do so.
Quite apart from the disgusting hypocrisy, do you not even want to wait for the trial? Or do you really think the punishment for being accused of rape should be being raped?
Those guys are, IME, so surprised by the word “no” that they don’t comprehend someone may be saying it to them. I think the term is “entitlement”.
I have no doubt that some rapists feel that way. I also have no doubt that some rapists just want sex.
The idea that it is purely about power in every circumstance is silly.
I think you take yourself a little too seriously.
Also, saying it is only about power would mean that date-rape wouldn’t be rape. That’s all about sex, and is considered rape. As well it should be.
I didn’t say it was only about power. I said power was part of it. Power might be all of it. But it’s NEVER purely about sex, because almost everyone can find someone to have sex with. It’s just a question of how much you’re willing to pay, or how low you’re willing to go in terms of looks and craziness. In this guy’s case, he almost certainly has political groupies who’s be willing to have sex with him, or he could have hired a hooker. Instead, he (allegedly) forced a maid to perform oral sex with him, and then tried to take off her panties. Apparently he didn’t even ask her for sex, just started chasing her.
But rape always has a power/bullying aspect about it. It’s about doing something to someone against their will. That’s the definition of rape.
[quote=“Lynn_Bodoni, post:15, topic:581956”]
Rapists get off on FORCING someone to have sex. Even if plenty of willing sex partners are available, a rapist will enjoy raping someone more. /QUOTE]
I read your first quote as saying it was all about power.
There’s a problem with saying that it’s always at least partially about power though - it allows a man who date-rapes a woman to believe he’s not a rapist, because he just wanted sex, not to hurt her.
A man who date-rapes knows that she doesn’t want it, and doesn’t care if he hurts her. He uses power to get sex, and he doesn’t care if it hurts her, and sometimes he gets off on hurting her.
I think you’re conflating the means and the motive. I would say that the motive is often sex. The way they get sex is by exercising power. Power, in the form of strength, intimidation or whatever is the tool by which the goal is achieved.
Forcing someone to have sex requires that you can physically hold them still for it to happen or can intimidate them into not moving, like with a knife or something. That doesn’t mean that the intimidation or restraint is by necessity part of the goal.
This part is irrelevant. One can rape without hurting, and there’s plenty of consensual sex where one or both partners get off on being hurt, or hurting the other.
The lack of consent is the issue, not the motive.
Jeez. How did a thread about the disgustingness of a certain ultra-rich banker get turned so quickly into a thread about the nature of rape, sensitivity about rape talk, and fucking anti-semitism? Wow the uber-rich sure are good at getting criticism deflected away from their crimes!
Argent Towers, how much money is this guy actually paying you? It was a bit unsubtle to bring up anti-semitism before there was any hint in the thread that the guy was Jewish, though, and yeah, the woman couldn’t possibly have had both oral and anal sex forced on her!
Prediction: he will go free, and be awarded substantial damages, on the grounds that punishing him would be anti-semitic and might just possibly open him to the risk of prison rape. Also, it will be pointed out at the trial that the alleged incident can’t possibly have happened because it involved both oral and anal sex, which can’t ever both happen. (All this, at least, if the jury is selected from members of the SDMB.) Also, the maid will be “proved” to be an anti-semite who habitually makes jokes about rape, and thus, as an object of general public contempt, there will be no real investigation when she mysteriously “disappears” before the trial.
That’s what happens when you wear a French maid ensemble.
Darn, Sarkozy has just won the 2012 election before the campaign has even started. Leave it to the Socialists to fall on their swords just before the battle begins.
P.S: Argent Towers, while this has all the signs of a frame job, there are many similar stories that have surfaced about Strauss Khan these last years. If he isnt guilty of the exact story here, I would be surprised if he wasnt guilty of something anyway, and something criminal.
P.S.2:the ultra rich epithet is a bit weird for Strauss-Khan, he is quite rich but he isnt some bank CEO, just a powerful politician who specialized in finance.
Jesus Christ Argent Towers, is Strauss-Kahn your best friend or something?
FWIW, the guys a politician and bureaucrat, not a “banker”. He’s head of the IMF, which is an international organization involved in banking, but he’s there because of a political appointment.
My first thought on reading the article was that it was someone else in the room using the shower. It sounds like Kahn had already checked out and had a plane to catch. While its possible that he then went back to the room to shower, I’m not sure how he would get back in the room.
But if thats the case, I imagine it would get cleared up within a day or so (for Kahn anyways, obviously the cops would still have to find the actual rapist), so I guess we’ll find out.
I imagine the police would not arrest and publicly proclaim they have arrested someone of his status for the crimes.
I still can’t understand the “why” (he would commit the crime) though. I have read what the amateur psychologists ahve said above and it doesn’t stack up for me.
Good theory, but I heard on the radio an hour long ago that he left his cellphone and some other items in the room, which doesn’t really jive.
My first thought was that there had to be more to it though.
Yeah, I’m withholding judgment about this story until we know more about it (and certainly not wishing rape on anyone), but apparently Strauss-Kahn did have some antecedents. I still think it’s a very bizarre story though.
I’m wondering how long it will be until urbane Continentals begin to sniff that bourgeois Americans are ridiculously uptight about rape, and that it’s an outrage such a gifted man, so important to the world of finance, should have to answer such charges from a mere chambermaid.