If a woman is raped by a man, who is responsible?
It’s a ridiculous question, with an obvious answer: The Man Is.
But if you’d listen to some of the public discussion around recent random attacks, you couldn’t be blamed for thinking otherwise.
And that’s what we’re discussing today:
When it comes to rape, should women be more conscious of protecting their safety or should men be responsible for changing their behaviour?
Mamamia TV’s Shelly Horton asks some of our editors if they believe rape is a male of female problem.
And the verdict, this time, was unanimous.
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Watch more from Mamamia TV here.
Tell us what you think – is rape a male or female problem?
Top Comments
Rape is a social problem, not defined by gender. Rape and sexual assault is wrong all the time, not just when men do it or when women are the victims. For example in a recent tv show (Wonderland) one of the main characters woke up when another (female) character was sexually assaulting him. He was very unhappy: he was asleep, he didn't consent and if he had been awake he wouldn't have consented. This is rape. It is wrong for men to have sex with passed out women and it is wrong for women to felate passed out men.
IMHO when we buy into the argument of which gender is more or most responsible we avoid the discussion about what behaviours are illegal. I would like to see an end to rape and sexual violence. It is not a feminist issue or a women's issue. It is a social and legal issue.
Statistically, rape is overwhelmingly committed by men against women, or men against children, or men against men. Female rape of men does happen, it's indefensible, there's no question about that however men are overwhelmingly the perpetrators of rape, rape is an issue of gender. I agree that rape is also a social and legal issue but legal and social issues are inherently gendered. I am not '"buying into the argument of which gender is more or most responsible for rape", the statistics are clear, men are. This should be addressed in our social and legal response to crime of rape.
Kate, I know you are right in the sense that most rapists are men. I don't have the statistics, but if anyone ever told me that 99% of all reported and unreported rapists were men I would believe them. I really don't question the fact that most rapists are men. I believe that rapes by men are the products of a rape culture. They are not caused by women. They are not caused by opportunity. They are caused because some people, predominantly men, believe that they are entitled to engage in sexual activity whenever they feel like it regardless of the other person's feelings, wants, needs. It is disgraceful that it still occurs when the law is so clear. I think we both probably agree with each other up until this point.
However, where we disagree is that I think by labelling rape a gender crime and focusing on female victims we reify the idea that only men are rapists and only women are victims. If we focused more on ungendered rape behaviour we might be able to get through to more people that rape is wrong, not men, not male rapists. All rapists do the wrong thing.
As I mentioned in my previous post. A man was raped by a woman in an episode of wonderland. Whilst he was disconcerted/distressed by the event, it was never labelled rape. Why not? Men can't get raped? Its not rape if there is no violence? It's not rape if the perpetrator is attractive or female? His worries about whether he would be believed if he told his wife were eerily familiar to female victim experiences. He spoke to his dad, but whilst he was advised to talk to his wife, he was never told to report it to the police. Rape is non consensual sex. The popular cultural script of violent male perpetrator ignores the legal reality: rape is an act not a gender.
Yes but taking the gender out of it eradicates the central problem. Focusing on ungendered rape is like trying to end apartid in south africa through a race-free lens.
Everyone agrees that rape is non consentail sex. Everyone agrees it can happen to men AND women. But rape, as a social issue, IS a gendered issue. Yes, of course we should teach our sons and daughters that men can also be raped - but that conversation only deals with a tiny tiny portion of rapes. If we want to reduce rapes as a social problem we have to focus on eradicating the cause of the vast majority - which is sexism and misogyny. Equality of the sexes will inevitably lead to reductions in male-victim rape too, without them being the focus.