Posted: Dec 26, 2012 11:56 am
tuco wrote:
But what is it good for? What kind of point does it make? If there is none and this is just a curiosity, then the answer to the question is trivial: Non-consensual sex is, by definition, a violation. Society decides what to criminalize and whatnot, regardless of any guild or shame involved. Whether females, thousands years ago, considered rape to be like toothache is like asking whether males considered rape to be like picking apples from a tree. It tells us nothing about anything.
Saying that society decides what to criminalize is trivial. Like beatsong noted about patriarchy, society is too big an umbrella word to usefully illuminate the causes for criminalization of rape. A society has its own inner logic and power structures and serves specific interests. My intrigue was about what kind of society would decide to outlaw rape. I am hypothesizing that welfare of women was not what led to it being outlawed. I am further suggesting that rape became a crime after women came to be seen as chattels belonging to men.