Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Getting seduced and calling it rape

Here is a misleading factoid:
Approximately 18% of women aged 18-24 report having experienced forced sexual intercourse at least once in their lives.
Here is how the survey defined force:
Were you given alcohol or drugs?
Did you do what he said because he was bigger than you or a grownup, and you were young?
Were you told that the relationship would end if you didn’t have sex?
Were you pressured into it by his words or actions, but without threats of harm?
Were you threatened with physical hurt or injury?
Were you physically hurt or injured?
Were you physically held down?
With such a broad definition of force, I would expect that about 80% of the women had forced sex. Pressuring your mate for sex can be considered rape, while withholding sex can be considered domestic violence.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Denial of sex is only "domestic violence" if you think you're entitled to your wife's body when you're married. Roger... are you married? For the sake of the (un-)lucky lady, I hope not.

Roger said...

No, I do not agree with such broad definitions of force and domestic violence. I am just reporting on how these terms are sometimes interpreted.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps you should state it better. Mentally pressuring your partner into sex may not be rape, but it's not good relationship practice, and it sure as hell isn't nice. Holding the relationship hostage for sex, too, is pretty damn evil, and getting a girl drunk just for that purpose crosses a line. Again, perhaps not rape, but not gentlemanly.

Roger said...

Maybe the survey should ask if anyone ever does anything that is not a good relationship practice.