[Dragon]

A sadly common logic skew, and not only applicable to rape. "If I'm miserable, everyone should be", people do sometimes think like that. Anyway, if anyone has a link to this article, please post.

[Bobboau]

...how did you spend so long on the internet without being aware there's an entire class of fetishes that are based around power dynamics or at least heavily associated with them?

I would say that distinction is at LEAST phylum level, if not domain.

[Apollo]

A sadly common logic skew, and not only applicable to rape. "If I'm miserable, everyone should be", people do sometimes think like that. Anyway, if anyone has a link to this article, please post.

But then the victim has become a hypocrite who deserves less sympathy. Doesn't that ever occur to them?

People have a remarkable ability to justify their own transgressions.

[redsniper]

People have a remarkable ability to justify their own transgressions.

[yt]Lightbulb turning on[/yt]

[The E]

However, I can't get my head around the idea that if you have this thing, you'll **** anything. Rape victims are usually female and usually pretty. If that is irrelevant, why not pick some homeless guy that no one will care about? Or some animal even, if power is the top factor?

I know some people are aroused by domination, but it's just a sexual preference, is it not? Some are aroused by being dominated.

Ahahahahaaa no.

Rape is always, ALWAYS about power. It is the ultimate form of dominance. How the victim looks is completely, utterly immaterial. And power over animals is not even close to the rush these people get from asserting their dominance over another human being. So there's no substitute.

BDSM and other practices are safe expressions of this, but they require that both parties have a degree of control over the act, something someone on a power trip is unlikely to give up.

Further reading: http://endrapeculture.com/2012/10/27/16/

[666maslo666]

Rape is always, ALWAYS about power. It is the ultimate form of dominance. How the victim looks is completely, utterly immaterial.

Thats a huge generalization, tough. Motivations for rape are not a settled thing and are probably multifactorial and variable. They may include desire for power over others, anger, cultural acceptance, sexual gratification and weak legal sanctions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape#Motivation_of_perpetrators

[The E]

From that same snippet:

The World Health Organization (WHO) states that the principal factors that lead to the perpetration of sexual violence are:

• beliefs in family honor and sexual purity;
  
• ideologies of male sexual entitlement;
  
• weak legal sanctions for sexual violence.
  

Please show how these are not ultimately about asserting power over others. Yes, saying they're all about power is a generalization, but one that is in the end pretty accurate, I believe.

[Lorric]

Ahahahahaaa

Don't laugh at me.

[Grizzly]

Ahahahahaaa

Don't laugh at me.

* -Joshua- laughs.

[Lorric]

Ahahahahaaa

Don't laugh at me.

* -Joshua- laughs.

Oh, I'm going to have to come and kill you now...

 

[The E]

On topic, please.

Lorric: The idea that rape is a function of attractiveness (i.e., the more attractive you are, the more likely it is that you'll be raped) has been pretty conclusively disproven. As with all crimes, opportunity plays a far greater role in determining such things; That's why it's unfortunately necessary for women to be cautious to a degree us men cannot imagine.

What this idea feeds back into is this meme that the victim is partially to blame for being victimized, and that's really really not the right way to think about these crimes.

[Lorric]

Lorric: The idea that rape is a function of attractiveness (i.e., the more attractive you are, the more likely it is that you'll be raped) has been pretty conclusively disproven. As with all crimes, opportunity plays a far greater role in determining such things; That's why it's unfortunately necessary for women to be cautious to a degree us men cannot imagine.

What this idea feeds back into is this meme that the victim is partially to blame for being victimized, and that's really really not the right way to think about these crimes.

Then why is it so often pretty girls, the young and attractive? You say it's been disproven, but that's what I see when I see rape victims.

I don't know if we should discuss this though, with how you get on this kind of topic. You've been nice lately, can you stay that way?

[deathfun]

I'm just going to go out on a limb that mostly it's the pretty girls that go out downtown into clubs, bars etc whereas the not so pretty stay home and do other things

So in terms of opportunity, breaking and entering don't enter into the mix

Intoxicated and stumbling down the street however


But I'm basically being mean and saying what is defined as unattractive gals are usually found indoors and away from these situations by lack of proximity

Which is a stupid thing to say, but I don't mind saying stupid things. I'd also like to say that every gal should be issued a Mosin-Nagant with fixed bayonets and travel in packs

[The E]

Given that the majority of rapes happen in domestic situations, whether or not you're out on the town doesn't really factor into it.

[Black Wolf]

However, I can't get my head around the idea that if you have this thing, you'll **** anything. Rape victims are usually female and usually pretty. If that is irrelevant, why not pick some homeless guy that no one will care about? Or some animal even, if power is the top factor?

I know some people are aroused by domination, but it's just a sexual preference, is it not? Some are aroused by being dominated.

Ahahahahaaa no.

Rape is always, ALWAYS about power. It is the ultimate form of dominance. How the victim looks is completely, utterly immaterial. And power over animals is not even close to the rush these people get from asserting their dominance over another human being. So there's no substitute.

Common belief, but far, far from proven. The idea that sexual gratification plays no part in rape ever is discussed by Steven Pinker (admittedly briefly) in "The Better Angels of Our Nature" (which is a really good book). He calls it " the politically correct ideology of rape" and one example of an "unexamined codes of etiquette, ideology, and taboo".

Rape is, like any human/human interaction, a complex beast that defies easy and completely consistent definition. I have no doubt that power plays a role - often a major, even dominant role - in a large number of rapes. But to claim that sexual gratification never plays any part in any rape is absurd - hell, to make any statement so absolute as that about any human interaction is absurd.

On topic, please.

Lorric: The idea that rape is a function of attractiveness (i.e., the more attractive you are, the more likely it is that you'll be raped) has been pretty conclusively disproven.

Has it? Sources please, and detailed data. That seems enormously, enormously unlikely. You think that rampaging soldiers wouldn't choose the most attractive woman in a household if they have the choice? Or that drunk guys at parties wouldn't preferentially try to force themselves on their most attractive potential target? I'm not saying that unattractive women have no risk of rape (the number of elderly women who're raped is pretty much proof of that - age rarely correlates with attractiveness), but you only have to think for a few seconds to come up with situations where this statement would seems extraordinary, so I'd expect some extraordinary evidence to back it up.

Again, in the same part of his book, Pinker states that this is not backed up by statistical facts about rape victims, and cites numerous sources - frustratingly, most of those are books rather than papers so I've not read them (and can't readily access them), but given how thorough and well researched the rest of his work is, I'm inclined to trust him.

[The E]

 My statement that rape risk is not a function of attractiveness cannot be backed up with research that I can find right now, so I'm going to retract it.

Regarding rape as a tool for establishing power:
It's my reading of the situation based on this article, more or less. It seems to me that most motivations for rape ultimately go back to the rapist establishing dominance over the victim, whether it is as punishment, tool of coercion, or sexual satisfaction. It's also what I was told anecdotally, and I probably have committed the mistake of mistaking anecdotal evidence for fact.

[Dragon]

I imagine that generally, the rapist's victim has to be compatible with his sexual preference. Men are victims less often than women (though not as much as the data would suggest, because they also report it less often), because most rapists are straight males. It seems logical that a woman (or man) that is generally considered unattractive would be less at risk of being raped, for pretty much the same reason.

[666maslo666]

There is news that she was pardoned:

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/dubai-pardons-woman-center-rape-dispute-19731633

[Lorric]

There is news that she was pardoned:

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/dubai-pardons-woman-center-rape-dispute-19731633

Excellent.

[The E]

Oh, good, and it only took threats to their image to do it.