# Is rape really about power and not sex? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 14, 2013, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-rape-really-about-power-and-not-sex/650275 "2013-02-14T12:31:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![colander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e8c25b/32.png) [@colander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/colander)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-rape-really-about-power-and-not-sex/650275/21 "2013-02-14T17:02:13Z")
> [@pchaos](#): > > There’s also the other side of the coin. Girls from a very young age are told that men are animals. So they are much more careful about the way they dress than men are. Knowing this, why do some women let it all hang out? Isn’t that like saying, come and get me you animal? Dear **The Surb** , re: pchaos kidding about the rape stuff. No, he’s serious. Please see above. Cheers! ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-rape-really-about-power-and-not-sex/650275/22 "2013-02-14T17:03:14Z")
> [@pchaos](#): > > There’s also the other side of the coin. Girls from a very young age are told that men are animals. So they are much more careful about the way they dress than men are. Knowing this, why do some women let it all hang out? Isn’t that like saying, come and get me you animal? It’s definitely rape month. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-rape-really-about-power-and-not-sex/650275/23 "2013-02-14T17:12:29Z")
> [@Blackberry](#): > > Rape is now thought to be about both power and sex. And I’m not going to get into the rest of your…whatever those are. Is that because the definition of rape has been expanded to include things like date rape? There is a power issue to it, the ability to violate another body and also have that person many times live thinking they did something wrong, and often the victim bears this in silence. But as it seems the definition of rape has broadened to the point that clarification of what happened needs to be asked when someone says they were raped, and that broadened definition could include sex with out much power. ---
**Author:** ![you\_with\_the\_face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ecccb3/32.png) [@you\_with\_the\_face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/you_with_the_face)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-rape-really-about-power-and-not-sex/650275/24 "2013-02-14T17:23:31Z")
> [@FrankJBN](#): > > The OP is correct as to age of victims. The rape, Abuse, Incest National Network states that 80% of rape victioms are under the age of 30. Infants and children are under the age of 30, so this stat doesn’t support the claim about the vast majority of rape victims being in their 20’s. Please take a look at this [post](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=14573199&postcount=180) I wrote in a past thread that touched upon rape. Girls below the age of 11 are at greater risk of rape than adult women. It’s easy to conclude otherwise when just look at prevalence, but for a more meaningful analysis, you have to take into account the length of time an adult spends at risk of rape compared to a child. When you control for the multiple decades worth of exposure that adults have relative to kids less than a decade old, it’s more obvious that kids are at greater risk of being victimized. So really there is no basis for saying that rapists preferentially attack women of childbearing age. Which seems to be the premise the OP derives his conclusion. ---
**Author:** ![EMCEE\_98](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b5ac83/32.png) [@EMCEE\_98](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EMCEE_98)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-rape-really-about-power-and-not-sex/650275/25 "2013-02-14T17:48:41Z")
> [@pancakes3](#): > > As Adam Carolla likes to say, rape is a violent, violent crime no different than bashing someone’s face in with a bat, except you come at the end. There are people out there who would orgasm over both actions. Pretty sick. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-rape-really-about-power-and-not-sex/650275/26 "2013-02-14T17:49:33Z")
> [@pancakes3](#): > > As Adam Carolla likes to say, rape is a violent, violent crime no different than bashing someone’s face in with a bat, except you come at the end. Actually, a good deal of the time the rapist doesn’t come at all. [Cite](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=13357754&postcount=16). Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-rape-really-about-power-and-not-sex/650275/27 "2013-02-14T17:57:31Z")
> [@colander](#): > > Do you have a secret desire to be ridiculed? I don’t think its a secret at all. ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-rape-really-about-power-and-not-sex/650275/28 "2013-02-14T18:02:20Z")
> [@pchaos](#): > > There’s also the other side of the coin. Girls from a very young age are told that men are animals. So they are much more careful about the way they dress than men are. Knowing this, why do some women let it all hang out? Isn’t that like saying, come and get me you animal? This is starting to go over the line, pchaos. Your posts of late have been very close to seeming like trolling. Knock off the reactionary posts. ---
**Author:** ![Blaster\_Master](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cab0a1/32.png) [@Blaster\_Master](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blaster_Master)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-rape-really-about-power-and-not-sex/650275/29 "2013-02-14T18:14:20Z")
It seems to me that generalizing about rape as about power or sexual gratification is intellectually lazy and dangerous. Both are going to play a part in different proportions in different situations. Why do we see this sort of discussion with a crime like rape, but we don’t people trying to lump all murders or all thefts as having a single motivation in all cases? The motivations for crimes will be different in different circumstances and trying to act like it’s always going to be the same is what makes it lazy. But I’m more concerned about the dangerous implications of it. A guy who takes advantage of a drunk girl is probably a lot more motivated by sexual gratitifcation than power, whereas the recent incident in India is very much the opposite. Yes they’re both rape, but they’re as different as say someone who kills another person upon finding he’s being cheated on, or killing them in committing another crime. It’s this sort of thinking that gets us such a bizarre phrase as “rape rape”, as if non-violent rape isn’t really rape. It’s also dangerous because of a lot of the thought processes illustrated by the OP. Sure, some men might do it because of low self esteem or some biological urge or whatever. But there’s plenty of cases where that isn’t true. At it’s core, rape is a form of violence that is manifest in a sexual way. And in just the same way that a man might rape a women because she won’t voluntarily have sex with him, another man might beat the hell out of her, and they’re both of the same motivation. Or you might see the exact opposite where someone is trying to exert power over another, as in a lot of prison dramas, they might use the threat or act of rape to exert power on other prisoners or they might use the threat or act of a beating to exert power. In the end, both parts play a role, since sex of some sort is necessarily involved in rape and exertion power is part of most criminal acts. Regardless, you’re not going to have a one-size-fits-all explanation for it any more than you would for any other criminal acts that people do. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-rape-really-about-power-and-not-sex/650275/30 "2013-02-14T18:20:31Z")
Happy [del]Valentine’s[/del] Rape Day everyone! ---
**Author:** ![FrankJBN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f0a364/32.png) [@FrankJBN](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FrankJBN)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-rape-really-about-power-and-not-sex/650275/31 "2013-02-14T18:24:17Z")
“Infants and children are under the age of 30, so this stat doesn’t support the claim about the vast majority of rape victims being in their 20’s.” You are mistating what the OP said which was "teenage girls and women in their 20s. " According to RAINN, 44% of victims are under the age of 18. ---
**Author:** ![FrankJBN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f0a364/32.png) [@FrankJBN](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FrankJBN)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-rape-really-about-power-and-not-sex/650275/32 "2013-02-14T18:26:21Z")
“Knowing this, why do some women let it all hang out? Isn’t that like saying, come and get me you animal?” No, it is nothing at all like saying that. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Surb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ce73a5/32.png) [@The\_Surb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Surb)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-rape-really-about-power-and-not-sex/650275/33 "2013-02-14T18:42:02Z")
> [@colander](#): > > Dear **The Surb** , re: pchaos kidding about the rape stuff. > > No, he’s serious. Please see above. > > Cheers! I see that. Godammit! Now I am outraged, properly! ---
**Author:** ![you\_with\_the\_face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ecccb3/32.png) [@you\_with\_the\_face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/you_with_the_face)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-rape-really-about-power-and-not-sex/650275/34 "2013-02-14T18:46:37Z")
> [@FrankJBN](#): > > According to RAINN, 44% of victims are under the age of 18. This still doesn’t alllow us to infer that rapists preferentially target teenagers and 20-somethings. ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-rape-really-about-power-and-not-sex/650275/35 "2013-02-14T18:47:00Z")
OP, here, [Let Me Google That For You.](http://lmgtfy.com/?q=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FCauses_of_sexual_violence) ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-rape-really-about-power-and-not-sex/650275/36 "2013-02-14T19:01:42Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > Is that because the definition of rape has been expanded to include things like date rape? Do you feel that date rape isn’t ‘real’ rape? ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-rape-really-about-power-and-not-sex/650275/37 "2013-02-14T19:06:33Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Actually, a good deal of the time the rapist doesn’t come at all. [Cite](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=13357754&postcount=16). > > Regards, > Shodan Interesting, and noted. I was just snarkily stating that the sexual component cannot be discounted, but at the same time neither should the power aspect. > [@pchaos](#): > > There’s also the other side of the coin. Girls from a very young age are told that men are animals. So they are much more careful about the way they dress than men are. Knowing this, why do some women let it all hang out? Isn’t that like saying, come and get me you animal? I just want to say that as offensive as statements like this are to women, it is also offensive to men. [preemptive note that I did not say “just as”] ---
**Author:** ![Kaio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c68b51/32.png) [@Kaio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaio)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-rape-really-about-power-and-not-sex/650275/38 "2013-02-14T20:02:42Z")
> [@donnie\_darko](#): > > Well for one thing, the fact women are more likely to become pregnant from rape than from consensual sex. Ha! It’s like the GOP rape fiasco, in reverse. You fell asleep in biology class, didn’t you? [BTW, RAINN doesn’t seem to believe that the incidence of pregnancy resulting from rape is any different than pregnancy resulting from consensual sex.](http://www.rainn.org/get-information/statistics/sexual-assault-victims) > [@FrankJBN](#): > > The OP is correct as to age of victims. The rape, Abuse, Incest National Network states that 80% of rape victioms are under the age of 30. Note that a _substantial_ portion of those are children, however. ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-rape-really-about-power-and-not-sex/650275/39 "2013-02-14T20:39:35Z")
> [@you\_with\_the\_face](#): > > I’d appreciate some cites for this. > [@Kaio](#): > > Ha! It’s like the GOP rape fiasco, in reverse. > > You fell asleep in biology class, didn’t you? > > [BTW, RAINN doesn’t seem to believe that the incidence of pregnancy resulting from rape is any different than pregnancy resulting from consensual sex.](http://www.rainn.org/get-information/statistics/sexual-assault-victims) Here’s a [blog post](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/08/20/study-rape-victims-have-a-higher-pregnancy-rates-than-other-women/) with links to studies that show that the rates are at the very least no lower than from consensual sex, and may be higher for varied reasons. The RAINN link doesn’t really refute the idea that pregnancy from rape occurs more often than consensual sex, it simply uses the average rate from consensual sex to estimate the number of pregnancies from rape. ---
**Author:** ![you\_with\_the\_face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ecccb3/32.png) [@you\_with\_the\_face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/you_with_the_face)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-rape-really-about-power-and-not-sex/650275/40 "2013-02-14T20:54:21Z")
> [@Jenaroph](#): > > Here’s a [blog post](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/08/20/study-rape-victims-have-a-higher-pregnancy-rates-than-other-women/) with links to studies that show that the rates are at the very least no lower than from consensual sex, and may be higher for varied reasons. From the link: > [@](#): > > They used data from the federally administered National Violence Against Women survey. There, they found a sample of 405 women between the ages of 12 and 45 who had experienced one incidence of rape that included intercourse. > > Of those 405 women included in the sample, 6.4 percent — or 26 women — reported a pregnancy that year. A separate large-scale study showed that, for the general population of women that age, the per-incidence pregnancy rate for a single act of intercourse is 3.1 percent. Where do I start? Although it’s interesting (not really) that a sample of rape victims were more likely than the general female population to experience pregnancy within the last year, that should not lead us to infer that their pregancies was caused by rape. These women might be more likely to be in sexual relationships than their non-raped counterparts or less likely to be on birth control. The same factors that put them at risk for rape might also increase their risk of pregnancy. The last sentence on the blog reads thusly: > [@](#): > > The Gottschalls do acknowledge that their study was at odds with previous research, **which showed a lower rate of pregnancy among rape victims.** [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-rape-really-about-power-and-not-sex/650275.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-rape-really-about-power-and-not-sex/650275.md?page=3)