[DEBATE] : Rape

[JEANME5 at aol.com]

People who have studied the  phenomenon, and know something about it, usually 
insist that rape isn't  about sex, but about power. It seems that rapists are 
driven, not  by  an irresistible need for sex, but by a need to assert 
themselves  bysubjugatiing someone else. The rapist uses another person for his own  
purposes, and against that person' will; and may get added satisfaction from  
inflicting humiliation on that person.
 
This helps to make sense of South  African rape statistics, for, in spite of 
being subject to the macho culture of  the country, South African men are not 
inherently evil people, impelled by their  own unbridled lust.  No sensible 
person would suggest that.  In  South Africa there are a great many men who have 
felt disempowered politidcally  and economically, or who have acquired some 
power, and seek to acquire more, or  who have power, but feel it threatened
 
It also makes some sense of the  rage with which some men  on this list have 
defended Zuma when he was a  rape suspect, and attacked the victim - I must 
call her a victim, though the  court found she was not raped, because she has 
suffered so many vicious verbal  attacks.
 
So emotional have some of  these men become, that they have sometimes lost 
all sense of reason. For  example, one or two suggested that it should be 
necessary to prove the alleged  rape; that is, that sex had not been consensual. 
This is obviously  unworkable; if no one else was present at the time (and more 
often than not no  one is)rape would become the only crime where a conviction 
cannot be secured  unless the acccused testifies against himslf.
 
Someone also found it necessary to  point out that the victim had 'cried 
rape' before. The rape statistics being  what they are, it's possible she'd had 
cause. And has anyone mentioned Jacob  Zuma's sexual history?
 
Jean