Rape, Rape Culture and the Problem of Patriarchy [View all]
This is a small part of a well written article, but I thought these were salient points. Funny-- I usually don't read truth out.
Let me repeat: The majority of men do not rape. But consider these other categories:
Men who do not rape but would be willing to rape if they were sure they would not be punished.
Men who do not rape but will not intervene when another man rapes.
Men who do not rape but buy sex with women who have been, or likely will be, raped in the context of being prostituted.
Men who do not rape but will watch films of women in situations that depict rape or rape-like acts.
Men who do not rape but find the idea of rape sexually arousing.
Men who do not rape but whose sexual arousal depends on feeling dominant and having power over a woman.
Men who do not rape but routinely masturbate to pornography in which women are presented as objectified bodies whose primary, or only, function is to provide sexual pleasure for men.
Those men are not rapists. But is that fact that the men in these categories are not, in legal terms, guilty of rape comforting? Are we advancing the cause of ending men's violence against women by focusing only on the acts legally defined as rape?
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/23442-rape-rape-culture-and-the-problem-of-patriarchy