I saw a recent news item about a young man who was assaulted by an object being inserted into his rectum recently.
No doubt this is a terrible attack and the attackers should be convicted of a serious crime and pay for it.
I find it a little strange, though, that it was labeled a sexual assault.
The object used to penetrate was not a penis, or even a sex toy.
The rectum is also not a sex organ.
The attacker, as far as I know, got no sexual gratification out of it.
Obviously, a penis in the butt is still a sex act, and a foreign object in a vagina would be a sex act, but the only thing that makes a foreign object in the butt sexual is its resemblance to a sex act. It can be, sure, but all by itself in a situation devoid of all over sexual acts or sexual gratification, it isn’t quite. Should it be classified as simply aggravated assault instead of sexual assault?
If I read this in the news, I wouldn’t have questioned the type of assault (if there was no more to the article than what you have shared here), but after reading your opinion, I completely agree with you, this should be aggravated assault and not a sexual assault.
Perhaps you meant that it is their only receptive sex organ, and even then that would only be true for a very small number of people (if we include the mouth).
The anus (and the rectum and, for men, the prostate) can easily become sexualized due to the large number of nerve endings there. There is a significant portion* of the population (not just gay men but also straight women and men) who get sexual pleasure from that area.
So I’m with Dangerosa and **Trinopus **that forcible insertion of a foreign object into someone’s rectum should be categorized as a sex crime. For men especially, considering the opprobrium that still attaches (at least publicly, at least in certain circles) to men who receive in the act of anal sex, such an act against a man could possibly also qualify as a hate crime.
*We have to rely on sexual surveys for frequency, but I don’t think that anyone could argue with “significant portion.”
I find it strange that you would find this strange. To the best of my knowledge it’s typical for non-consensual anal penetration to be considered a sex crime. The only places I’d expect to hear that it wasn’t banned as rape, sexual assault, or similar would be places that still have anti-sodomy laws banning all anal penetration whether it’s consensual or not.
Sexual assault is defined as specific acts by law. So if you think non-consensual penetration of the anus by an inanimate object shouldn’t qualify, write your state legislator.
I can see anal penetration as definitely being a sex crime, but other areas it can get harder to draw the line. I’ve had my nose up a butt a couple of times, once by force and once by an admittedly hilarious prank.
And even more this. In fact, you would have to convince me that anyone stuck an object up another person’s anus, without their consent, unless intending a form of sexual assault in most cases.
I remember being 12yo getting kneed in the nuts so hard by a girl so hard it left a bruise that was black and blue. I did nothing to merit such an action. And I remember feeling quite freaked out over the situation.
Maybe I’m biased, but I’d say any sort of assault on your man bits is a sex crime. Less so than having something forcibly stuck up your anus. But still a sex crime.
Yes, I agree with the OP, among the totality of our perfect and ideal system of jurisprudence the dissonance of this law stands out like a vulture in a flock of swans. There is no greater injustice than prosecuting someone for a sex crime for non-sexually raping a disabled person in the ass with a wire hanger. This is why people have no respect for the law anymore.
…You (and others in this thread) really don’t get how shoving something up someone’s ass is a sex thing? Have you guys, like, not watched a lot of porn lately, or something? If someone showed you their asshole, you wouldn’t think it was a sex thing? If a stranger stuck something inside your 12-year-old kid’s anus, even something like a thermometer, you wouldn’t think there was anything untoward about it?
Anal penetration is typically associated with sex. Not just any sex, either - degrading, vulgar, sex. And with men, gay sex. That’s the connotation. This is a very long-standing cultural thing, and I find it hard to believe that anyone would actually miss that.
Also rape and sexual assault isn’t about sexy sex. Its about using sex to degrade or harm someone someone.
Getting punched in the boob or kicked in the nuts isn’t using sex to degrade someone. Its assault, but the strikes themselves aren’t what we associate with sex. Fondling someone against their will, penetrating them against their will - orally, vaginally or anally - those things are sexual in nature and are being used to degrade and harm someone.