An interesting article on Rape Culture (a term I just learned) from /r/twoxchromosomes. Wanted to know what you guys think of this.

kanuk876 · 2010-05-01T18:11:04+00:00

Goldman [1] reveals some interesting correlations in publicly available demographic and crime data:

From 1960 to 1990: reported rape increased in tandem with the rate of circumcision 25 years earlier.
In 1994: the rate of reported rape in non-circumcising countries (Spain, Portugal, Netherlands, Italy, Germany, France, Denmark, Austria) averages 18 per 100,000 women age 15-59. The USA had nearly 120 per 100,000 women.
From 1930 to 1990: the probability of divorce for new marriages grew at the same rate as the circumcision rate for husbands (based on the circumcision rate 25 years earlier)
From 1974 to 1990: the percentage of single males over 18 grew in tandem with the circumcision rate 40 years earlier.
In 1994: the rate of intentional homicides by men in non-circumcising countries (UK, Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, Netherlands, Italy, Germany, France, Denmark, Austria) is less than 2 per 100,000. The USA is over 12 per 100,000.
From 1960 to 1990: reported violent crime increased at the same rate as circumcision 25 years earlier.
From 1950 to 1990: the suicide rate of males age 15-24 grew in tandem with the circumcision rate 20 years earlier (from 6 to 21 per 100,000 males).
From 1960 to 1990: rate of reported larceny-theft increased roughly in tandem with the circumcision rate 25 years earlier.

Mathews [2] also has some interesting facts to offer:

there is an alarmingly high rate of sexual abuse by females in the backgrounds of rapists, sex offenders and sexually aggressive men - 59% (Petrovich and Templer, 1984), 66% (Groth, 1979) and 80% (Briere and Smiljanich, 1993). A strong case for the need to identify female perpetrators can be found in Table 4, which presents the findings from a study of adolescent sex offenders by O'Brien (1989). Male adolescent sex offenders abused by "females only" chose female victims almost exclusively (93.3%).

While correlation is not causality, the above data convinces me that any supposed "rape culture" is merely one part of a much larger system of issues. And it's that larger system we need to study if we genuinely want to end rape.

Here is a valuable question: where are the studies investigating why men rape?

If we want to end rape, simply blaming men is not the answer. We must dig deeper. We must look into the motivations behind rape. Something more concrete than feminist navel gazing is required.

Maybe another MensRights issue can shed some light the lack of studies: male suicide [3]:

why aren't we asking what's wrong with a culture that drives boys, much more than girls, to take their own lives? Even in academia, where you can find studies on the most obscure topics, there is little research explaining why boys are disproportionately killing themselves. The Center for Adolescence at Stanford, a nationally recognized clearinghouse on teen behavior, has no one on its long roster of experts who can speak on the topic. Neither does the American Association of Suicidology, an organization dedicated to suicide prevention since 1968.

"As much as I would love to lead the charge (in finding out why boys kill themselves), try to go out and get funding for it," said Lanny Berman, the executive director of the association. He is frustrated that funders aren't interested in studying boys and men.

"If there is no research money available, no academician is going to go that route," he said. "As executive director, I have to pay attention to fundable projects."

So the association has an expert on female suicide but none on male suicide, even though suicide is an overwhelmingly male issue well beyond adolescence. Of the 30,622 Americans of all ages who took their own lives in 2001, 24,672 were men.

And here we have it.

We are not interested in looking into the motivations of men's actions. We are only interested in holding men accountable for the consequences of their actions. We do not care about men as people and human beings.

We expect men to "suck it up". If "sucking it up" results in a suicide, nobody cares. If "sucking it up" results in rape, then we incarcerate or kill the alleged perpetrator.

So, getting back to 2X: Are people in 2X willing to discuss the possible link between circumcision and rape? How many readers of 2X circumcised their own sons?

Are people in 2X willing to discuss female culpability in creating rapists through the sexual victimization of young males? And the devastating effect for male victims to be told their suffering is "not possible", that there are no female sexual predators?

Are people in 2X willing to pull back the veil of male action to expose underlying male motivation?

Are people in 2X willing to face the very real possibility that they, individually, contribute to the supposed "rape culture" through their own action and/or inaction?

References:

[1] Ronald Goldman, PhD, "Circumcision, The Hidden Trauma", 1997.

[2] Frederick Mathews, Ph.D., C. Psych., "The Invisible Boy: Revisioning the Victimization of Male Children and Teens", National Clearinghouse on Family Violence, Canada, 1996

[3] Joan Ryan, "Sorting out puzzle of male suicide", article from SFGate, 2006

LT;DR:

*"Rape Culture" is just another way for women to "blame teh menz" and disavow themselves of any wrongdoing or guilt. I'm tired of these one-sided arguments from the female camp. I'm not interested in discussing rape culture independent of other important contributing factors, including factors which may cause women to feel uncomfortable or expose female culpability. *

Furthermore, I posit that anyone *not** willing to discuss the larger system of issues around rape is merely serving an agenda and does not actually care about changing our supposed "rape culture". *

Alanna · 2010-05-01T21:05:51+00:00

she seems to me like the kind of woman who could perceive almost anything as evidence of rape culture

ignatiusloyola · 2010-05-01T23:15:20+00:00

I think my comment over there is in a race between downvotes by the 2Xers and the MRers. My comments are constantly shifting from negative to positive. Oh well... Talk about hypocrisy, since they rag on us about downvote squads when they come to r/MR

Title	An interesting article on Rape Culture (a term I just learned) from /r/twoxchromosomes. Wanted to know what you guys think of this.
Author	Eurynomos
Upvotes	23
Comments	47
Date	May 1, 2010 4:26 PM UTC (16 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/byrkf/an_interesting_article_on_rape_culture_a_term_i/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/an-interesting-article-on-rape-culture-a-term-i.1049653 https://theredarchive.com/post/1049653

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