As far as I can tell, rape victims seem to almost always be more emotionally scarred than victims of other acts of violence. My question is, why do they care so much? If you look at it from a purely objective standpoint, there’s really no reason to be that upset from being raped - but I know if I was forcibly sodomized it’d deeply bother me.
So why is being raped so emotionally devastating?
Well basically all of your suppositions are wrong. Different people react differently to various events and you just can’t tell. Some women rape victims never tell anyone for years and get on with life. Some guys who get in a small scuffle on the street can’t go outdoors again. Generalisations just kind of devalue the discussion.
Funny how there’s been three posts with this recently, starting with HYDROCORTISONE’s, who ended up banned.
I smell something FISHY here! :dubious:
Well if there doesn’t seem to be a higher amount of trauma related to rape as opposed to other violence, then ignore this question.
I have wondered this same thing (to myself), but only to realize that other people’s psyche is probably much different than mine, especially women’s. So, for the same reason I won’t ever understand why women like flowers so much, I will not understand this. It’s just a fact of life.
Good question, PetW!
Here’s a related thread-
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=214250
Many rapes occur under circumstances that would be emotionally devasting to the victim even if the actual rape did not occur, but in the remainder of cases it appears that our cultural values play a role in how we choose to feel about it.
Two points:
Why do you say there is no reason to be upset?
Why do you seem to assume that an ‘objective’ standpoint is in any way useful? - From an objective standpoint, a person who is past reproductive age shouldn’t fear a painless death and there is nothing embarrassing about public nudity.
But we aren’t objective creatures. This is Earth, not Vulcan.
People get upset about rape because (generalising):
-We consider our genitals to be highly private.
-We consider genital interaction to be an intimate act.
-We don’t like having circumstances forced upon us.
-We don’t like being dominated/threatened.
-We don’t like physical pain.
in the best Orc voice ever!: “I smells me a troll.”
Let’s cut out the “troll” accusations, kids. It’s a valid question and not everybody who asks it is a jerk.
Actually, he asked “there’s really no reason to be that upset from being raped” (the emphasis is mine). He is asking why some women, though popular culture would suggest ALL women, are permanently traumatized by their rape.
I still think the question is fundamentally flawed; trying to look for objective* reasons why people should or shouldn’t suffer emotional trauma. People, for the most part, are not clinically logical entities when it comes to the way in which they perceive themselves and their world, but this doesn’t automatically render their subjective or emotional perceptions invalid.
Personally (which of course also means subjectively), I’d say that being subjected to rape gives you reason to be as upset as you feel is appropriate or necessary.
He’s not asking why they “should” or "shouldn’t feel a particular way, he’s asking “why” they do. Regardless, I felt it’s a good question.
As for “Don’t Ask”, if we never generalized about anything, I can assure this forum would have a significant decrease in activity. Regardless, i too have noticed this and there’s no denying the media pays a lot more attention to a rape allegation than a simple battering.
I wasn’t trolling or anything - thanks to those that were defending my question. I just feel that the general consesus has seem to be that rape is a more despical crime than most (except maybe child molestation, as stated in another thread), and I was just wondering if anyone had some of the insight as to some of the reasons why, or could perhaps link to any studies that had been done (as this is GQ).
I don’t blame some of you for jumping on my question in the beginning - the rest of the recent rape threads have generally been in distaste. I tried to change that by stating in the OP that even though I am among those that think rape is a horrible act, I don’t understand exactly why.
The only conjecture I had was that since procreation is more or less our main objective, maybe when an act of violence is performed on what we’re wired to believe is an act of love, it messes up the wiring in our brains.
My point was that it’s obvious we are not clinically logical entities, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t reasons why we think the way we do. I was wondering what those reasons were.
ugh. I won’t bother fixing some of the spelling in that last post - I’m just happy I didn’t screw up the quotes box
I was thinking about rape a while back and couldnt understand why a woman who had been raped could get so upset, then I imagined how I would feel if I got raped( I’m a dude) and I began to understand.
People who are raped respond in various ways, a friend of mine’s sister was raped at a party and she began eating all the time, and started packing on the pounds, she was attractive so I think it was sort of a defense mechanism to keep a potential rapist from finding her attractive, but then again she could have just been overeating for comfort
Lot of potential complications here.
It’s certainly traumatizing to have someone bigger, meaner, and tougher than you are beat the crap out of you, certainly. In such a way that you don’t really have any hope of defending yourself. Hell, the person in question might just kill you, what the hey, right?
It’s somewhat worse, I think, to have someone beat the crap out of you, threatent to kill you, etc., for FUN, as opposed to any other reason. If you give a damn about motives, anyway.
It’s somewhat worse, I think, to have someone beat the crap out of you (maybe kill you) for fun, and to make use of your body for their amusement, in a particularly brutal way, don’cha think?
And that’s just the start of it all.
Why is Rape so emotionally devastating? Because, it is being forced to something against your Will and you are Violated. The act is not loving or consensual, it is hateful and violent.
That’s certainly part of the reason, <b> Intaglio</b>, but there seems to be something special when it comes to rape as opposed to other times you may be forced against your will and violated.
I think <b> Master Wang-Ka </b> was on the right track, but then again, there doesn’t seem to be any studies on this (that I can find), although it seems like some other people are trying to find out also:
http://www.psych.auckland.ac.nz/psych/research/Rapestudy.htm
My vB skills are lacking.
Here’s my take.
Rape is the most intimate of all forms of violent crime, both in terms of location and action. We may give strangers cash, let a stranger into our house for a party or give someone a ride in our car, but we don’t just let people inside our clothes. Alternately, we may feel angry if another driver hits our car, furious after a mugging or unsafe in our own house after a burglary. Rape takes things to a much more personal level than any of these offenses.
There is no other reasonable explanation for rape than that someone wanted to use someone else’s body for their own gratification, victim be damned.
My two cents:
Like cornflakes said, only it’s not merely an intrusion inside our clothing, but inside our most personal parts – rape is an invasion of one’s body space.