Personal response on Extremities - Essay Example

Personal Response on Extremities There have been various debates about rape in our society. Some people argue that rape is apersonal problem while others view rape as a social problem that affects the general society. This paper addresses rape as a social problem and seeks to draw a personal response that connects the play to sociological, personal point of view about the issue of rape. Rape relates to sociology in that it manifests the degradation of morality in our social lives. Rape can happen anywhere and to anybody.

Indeed, we can have acquaintance rape, marital rape, gang rape, or forcible rape. Ideally, the number of rape cases in our society has been on the increase and its effects are dire to the victims and to the society. The play shows how rape occurs in our society and the aspect of immorality in leading to rape. Indeed, from the play we can see that rape is a social problem where Raul confides that he wanted to rape Marjorie and her friends and then kill them. He also confirms that he had actually raped and killed many girls.

This depicts a social problem on Raul’s life and hence the need for a medical assistant and the involvement of the laws that regulate social living. In the US, forcible rape is a growing social problem. This has led to the emergence of interest groups, social movements, and anti-rape movements that express their deep concern over rape in the world. Indeed, there have been social movements from the women’s movements that preach the anti-rape message, advice women on how to prevent rape, and eliminate rape in the society (National Center for Biotechnology Information, 2010).

All these factors lead to the justification that rape is a social problem that necessitates subjective concerns. However, socially, the play manifests the diverse causes of rape with some people arguing that the provocative dressing among women is to blame for rape cases on women. Indeed, in the play we can see Marjorie’s roommates and Raul whom the rape assailant is arguing that the revealing clothes Marjorie wore are to blame for her condition. However, it is factual that rapes being a social problem, women can rarely cause rape and that men only use this notion to justify their desire to rape.

The main objective of rape is to satisfy sexual desires, manifest power, humiliate, and intimidate the victim. Such objectives exist in the assailants minds long before raping and hence provocative dressing among women cannot be a justifiable reason to engage in rape cases. Indeed, we can see from the play that Raul decided to rape Marjorie from the time he saw her biking long time ago. He even confirms that he tried hitting on her but she ignored him, and hence he sought to rape her to teach her a lesson for ignoring him.

As such, we can see that it is not the revealing clothes that Marjorie wore which led to Marjorie’s current condition but Raul’s need to satisfy his sexual desires and the urge to humiliate and intimidate Marjorie for ignoring him. However, there are other causes of rape, which include psychological, socio-cultural, and life history of individuals (Francis, 2009). Some of these causes may include may include pornography, devaluation of women, high mating efforts, and antisocialist behaviors.

As such, we can see that most rape cases originate from men, seek to satisfy sexual desires, and adversely affect women. Indeed, rape affects women in very adverse ways. Notably, this is because many rape victims seek to conceal their suffering and humiliation because there is victimization against rape victims and rape assailants. As such, women suffer emotionally as they cannot share their problems with any one. They are even ashamed to expose the assailants because they fear that exposing them may trigger them to assault them again or even kill them.

This therefore leads to cases of trauma on women rape victims (American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, 2013). Indeed, we can see from the play that Marjorie lacks enough evidence to incriminate Raul and fears that his acquittal would probably lead to his return to kill her. As such, Marjorie solely decides to kill Raul and bury him behind the house. This depicts the trauma that Marjorie was undergoing. We can even see her three roommates turning against her and accusing her of betrayal, mistrust, and blaming her mode of dressing for her condition.

This is usually the case in the general society where people blame the victims for rape cases. This entirely leads to trauma as the victims lack emotional support from the people close to them. Ideally, the fear of contacting sexually transmitted diseases, the fear of getting unplanned pregnancies, and the humiliation there of propagates the trauma. References American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. (2013). Rape Trauma. Retrieved from: http://www.aamft.org/imis15/Content/Consumer_updates/Rape_Trauma.

aspx Francis, S. (2009).Violence Against Women: A Christian Ethical Analysis on Rape. New Delhi: ISPCK. National Center for Biotechnology Information. (2010). Rape: a social problem and a public health issue. Retrieved from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22046715