How Might Rape Be Considered Form of Social Control to Reinforce Gender Hierarchies - Essay Example

? How might rape be considered a form of social control to reinforce gender hierarchies? How might rape be considered a form of social control to reinforce gender hierarchies? The act of rape has been discussed in feminist theoretical work as a form of social control that supports the patriarchal society in male dominance over the female. Authors from the 1970s began a discourse that separated the discussion between the biological and the social. The following essay aims to discuss the issue of rape in relationship to its use as a form of control. As a mechanism for creating fear to establish dominance, the issue of rape can be discussed through a variety of uses and transformed from criminal act to social norm. The following essay establishes a discussion about the issue of rape and comes to the conclusion that the criminalization of rape is a facade through which the true purpose of rape has been filtered. Rape is a social convention that enables the patriarchal society to continue its dominance through creating fear. A clear connection exists between the criminal act of rape and sex. The act of rape is to use sexual activity as a form of control and power. It is violence and it is sex. It is not intimacy. What divides the act of rape from the concept of human sex is its extreme opposite state from intimacy. Sex as an assertion of power can be seen in the animal kingdom, dogs asserting alpha state through ‘humping’ other dogs, even male on male, in order to assert hierarchy status. Rape in the human world is often used to assert power over others. It is a common part of war, and supports the oppressive force in their assertion of power over a weaker people. Rape is a social convention in prisons, colleges, and institutions, supporting the need for a development of a hierarchy within a closed community. To understand the nature of rape as a method of social control, the effect of rape on the victim must be understood. Thornhill and Thornhill (1990, p. 297) write that “Mental pain has been hypothesized to reflect psychological adaptation designed by selection to detect and cope with the occurrence of social problems that reduced individuals’ inclusive fitness in human evolutionary history”. It is not just the physical violation of rape that is important, but the mental violation that is important in understanding rape. The nature of self control over the body has been taken by the rapist, the ability to protect the inside of the self no longer valid. Self and social value has been diminished, which is only further diminished by the process of law where the individual must be prodded and probed, tested as an object of the crime, and then questioned for the nature of their chosen sexual life as it somehow seems to relate to their victimization (Holmstrom and Burgess 1983, p. 2). A victim of rape is not only a victim of a violent act, but a transformative act from a state of grace and value to one that has been diminished in value and worth. Rape is used as a means of social control through influencing ideas about the nature of the woman in her victimization. Thornhill and Thornhill (1990, p. 301) discusses four means of social influence that is accomplished by rape. The first is injury of the victim. The second is that rape would deny the woman the capacity to choose when and how conception might take place and who is the father of any child that is the result. The third is that the capacity to secure material support through copulation is then circumvented for the woman. The social exchange that is made between the genders in that men provide for women in exchange for sexual access is then denied as a choice to the female. The fourth is that through raping a woman who is bonded to another man, the offender is influencing the male in respect to protection and the quality of patriarchal support that the male might be willing to provide. In looking at this framework, it is clear that rape is a means to disrupt the social contracts that are made between men and women. Brownmiller (1976, p. 8) wrote a seminal work on the social nature of rape. One of the concepts that is introduced is that woman is one of the first acquisitions that men will attain in their lives. Women are part of the need for adult social status, a female that is loyal and preserved for his use is part of what defines a male’s status as a man. Brownmiller (1976, p. 8) calls women the first ‘building block’ of a man’s development of his identity within the social construct. Rape, on the other hand, is a method of controlling the female position in society. The central theory on rape that developed from this patriarchal concept of ownership is that in asserting control of the female through rape, the denial of ownership provides for increased social power by the rapist. The problem that blocks a part of this theory is that the rapist himself is given relatively little social power when he is criminally held responsible. Therefore, what occurs according to Brownmiller (1976, p. 8) is that because some men commit rape, all men benefit from the control that the threat of rape holds over the female of the human species. Brownmiller, according to McElroy (1996, p. 24) maintains that rape is the primary mechanism “through which men perpetuate their dominance over women in general”. McElroy (1996, p. 24) goes on to describe the three basic principles that are presented by Brownmiller. Those principles are that rape is an ongoing part of patriarchy, there is a mass psychology about rape perpetuated by men, and that rape is a normal part of human life. McElroy (1995, p 25) goes on to discuss how rape is not perpetuated by male social frameworks, but that rape is denied in relationship to male control over society Camille Paglia is quoted by McElroy (1995, p. 26) for stating that society is a protection against rape rather than a perpetuating factor as without the protection of society, women could not easily walk down a street. Browmmiller (1976, p. 5) writes that rape “ is nothing more or less a conscious process of intimidation by which all men keep all women in a state of fear”. This is presented as an archetype of social mentality, a theory that suggests that all men have the capacity to rape and it is in this capacity that women are held in a position of submission and subordinate status Feminists have defined a part of their social comprehension based on this idea that it is the power of rape that holds social control between the dominance of the patriarchy in contrast to the submission of the female gender. Dubinsky (1993, p. 31) describes Brownmiller’s theories as based solely on an idea about the biology imperative of rape. This concept is based upon the idea that it is biologically mandated that rape be used as coercive and controlling mechanism in order to support the patriarchal impulse. In response to these ideas Clark and Lewis (1977, p. 28) wrote a book that examined Brownmiller’s proposed ideas. They believe that the imperatives that construct the convention of rape are social, not biological in nature. According to Dubinsky (1993, p. 33), Clark and Lewis propose the idea that the two social constructs within the patriarchal society that support the incident of rape are that women were in history denied the right to have autonomy and that they were considered possessions themselves. This is further exampled by the fact that during the 19th century the rape of a woman was not considered an offense against her, but against her father or husband. In violating a woman, the property of a man was violated. This can be seen through the ways in which the law is both designed and enforced. Rape of a woman is framed by this idea that it is the woman’s value as property that is violated rather than victimization of the woman herself. Clark and Lewis (1977, p. 119) write that “rape laws were designed to preserve valuable female sexual property for the exclusive ownership of those men who could afford to acquire and maintain it”. Perpetrators of rape are often seen to be, according to Dubinsky (1993, p. 34), from working classes because they cannot afford the higher quality of woman that class and wealth provides. In this framework, the female is commodified and her value is defined by her ability to not be the object of rape to maintain her position as valuable through her ability to not be violated and sullied by the incidence of rape. The myths about rape continue to abound. American senatorial candidate Todd Akins, a member of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology states in to a television interviewer that ““First of all, from what I understand from doctors, [pregnancy from rape] is really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down” (Petri 2012). The giant pause of shock and dismay that rippled across the United States when this commentary was made public commented on the still prevailing myths, at least among old congressman who had power in the realm of law, that woman had some type of mysterious power over their bodies that controlled the event and consequences of rape. It is the procreative impulse that is at the core of rape. The ability to control the procreative process is essential in the continuation of the bloodlines, but through the invasion of rape, the procreative processes are put into question. The ability to control the procreative purity of a woman is to have the power over the future. Husbands have the security, through fidelity, of overseeing the procreative power, but through rape are no longer assured that the seed that has taken root in their name remains in their name (McElroy 1996, p. 26). It is not merely procreative control that supports the social inclusion of rape as part of legitimized anti-social behavior, but in the use of rape as power when asserting control in relationship to female roles and male dominance. This is why that while there are more women raped than men, there are more rapes committed against men in prisons than out in society. The message that is clearly made when a man is raped is that he is an object, usable and not in control of his body (Curra 2011, p. 188). The message to all victims of rape is clear in that they have been subordinated to another. To be raped is t be placed in a sort of slavery, use as a price to not having the power to prevent the act. No one would consciously want to admit that rape has a legitimate place in patriarchal society as a means of control over women, but Brownmiller, Clark and Lewis, and most writers on the subject have stated that rape serves a purpose of control which gives dominance to men and keeps women oppressed through the threat of that power. Brownmiller (1976) suggested that this was a biological imperative, but more likely the development of rape as a social control falls in line with the theories of Clark and Lewis (1977) who defined the problem as a social construction. The capacity for the male body to inflict damage on the female body, or even upon the male body asserts control in which invasion and a loss of control oppresses the victim. The construction of a society in which rape is used as a social control is based upon the idea of ownership that emerges as husbands and fathers laid claims of ownership over the reproductive properties of a woman. The nature of rape within modern society still acts as a form of social control through oppressing victims and keeping them in a state of fear. Women are given the privilege of freely accessing the public sphere through the good graces of men who both pose the threat and define the nature of public safety. Bibliography Brownmiller, S. (1976). Against our will: Men, women, and rape. New York: Bantam Books. Clark, L. M. G., & Lewis, D. J. (1977). Rape: The price of coercive sexuality. Toronto: Women's Press. Curra, J. (2011). The relativity of deviance. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press, an Imprint of Sage Publications. Dubinsky, K. (1993). Improper advances: Rape and heterosexual conflict in Ontario, 1880-1929. Chicago u.a: Univ. of Chicago Press. Holmstrom, L. L., & Burgess, A. W. (1983). The victim of rape: Institutional reactions. New Brunswick: Transaction. McElroy, W. (1996). Sexual correctness: The gender-feminist attack on women. Jefferson, N.C: McFarland. Petri, A (20 August 2012). ‘Legitimate rape’and Todd Akins myths. The Washington Post. [Online] Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/p ost/legitimate-rape-and-todd-akins-myths/2012/08/20/f8c048b4-ea76-11e1-a80b- 9f898562d010_blog.html (Accessed on 5 January 2012). Thornhill, N, & Thornhill, R (1990), 'An Evolutionary Analysis of Psychological Pain Following Rape. III: Effects of Force and Violence', Aggressive Behavior, 16, 5, pp. 297-320, Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 8 January 2013. Read More