The problem with "Every man is a potential rapist"

durangodawood · Sep 20, 2016

"Every man is a potential rapist"

This could be read 2 ways:
1. I treat all men as possibly rapists because from my subjective pov, I cant know.
2. All men have some tendency, however small, to rape.

We should be careful about making statements with such divergent implications.

Tallguy88 · Sep 20, 2016

DaveW-Ohev said:
That does not work. The definition of "rape" requires penetration. Women lack the equipment to penetrate.

Many jurisdictions have removed the "penetration" requirement for a rape conviction.

Inkfingers · Sep 20, 2016

LOVEthroughINTELLECT said:
The problem with "Every man is a potential rapist" is that it implies that sexual assault is an explosion waiting to happen in every male member of our species.

The intent behind it is to make men feel guilty just for being men, with the purpose of them being apprehensive and thus quiet.

Simply return the comment with "and every woman is a potential child killer" and tell them to grow up.

Dave-W · Sep 20, 2016

Tallguy88 said:
Many jurisdictions have removed the "penetration" requirement for a rape conviction.

I doubt that, since the FBI controls the legal definition in the US.
While it may be informally called a "rape" case, in truth the actual text of the law most likely uses another term.

LOVEthroughINTELLECT · Sep 20, 2016

Paidiske said:
Safety of the vulnerable comes before anything else.

It compromises safety when we spend time, energy and other scarce resources treating harmless people with suspicion.

And sexism harms people--even if it is sexism against men. Harming people does not increase safety--it reduces it.

Ana the Ist · Sep 20, 2016

DaveW-Ohev said:
That does not work. The definition of "rape" requires penetration.

No...it doesn't.

Dave-W · Sep 21, 2016

Ana the Ist said:
No...it doesn't.

Did you not read the FBI's definition?

Sammy-San · Sep 21, 2016

DaveW-Ohev said:
Did you not read the FBI's definition?

the definition of sex doesnt just refer to penetration.

Dave-W · Sep 21, 2016

Superhero Sam said:
the definition of sex doesn't just refer to penetration.

True. Your point?

joshua 1 9 · Sep 25, 2016

Paidiske said:
But as a woman, I have no way of knowing which men might be rapists or not until the observation is made

Every man has the same hormones in his system and every women has the same hormones in her system. Could be they have different levels. We have a niece that loves to pump iron. I think she has an excessive amount of testosterone for a female. According to Dr Ox Donald Trump has a very high testosterone level, which could explain why he can be so aggressive. A lot of life, exp for younger people has to do with dealing with the hormones that are raging through their endocrine system. Hopefully older people can give younger people some good advice on how to cope with the issues that younger people have to deal with in life.

joshua 1 9 · Sep 25, 2016

WolfGate said:
The 20% of US college women (Washington Post article)who claim they were sexually assaulted over a 4 year period is an entirely too high number and frankly scary to me as my daughter will be heading off to university next year.

Both of my sons went to the conservative college. I see all the drinking and the parties at the liberal arts college and I am happy they did not go there. Sexual abuse is an issue for children also. There is a high rate of children that are evaluated for that.

Armoured · Sep 25, 2016

DaveW-Ohev said:
That does not work. The definition of "rape" requires penetration. Women lack the equipment to penetrate.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finger

joshua 1 9 · Sep 25, 2016

dysert said:
The fact is, men (and women) are depraved and sinful.

From an evolutionary view point there are people that would say that Darwin's Dirty Secret is that natural selection explains all human behavior--even the crime of rape.

joshua 1 9 · Sep 25, 2016

WolfGate said:
I'll wind up trying to teach my daughter a similar strategy for when she is off at school.

You can start by giving her some pepper spray for her key ring. I buy that stuff by the dozen and give it away to anyone that wants one. They use pepper spray in Alaska to stop 800 pound bears. I always carry them out on the trails in the parks where dogs can be a problem.

Fortran · Sep 25, 2016

DogmaHunter said:
Any human is a human with potential to do bad things. And good things.

Seems rather obvious.

Imagine any action a human could engage in.
That's potentially an action you could do, being a human and all.

This largely sums up my beliefs.

"Every man is a rapist" is true, but, even as women, I do find the statement problematic because it, for lack of better term, is promoted. To me, it just breeds fear. Like it or not, such phrases, if parroted enough, can color the way we view our world and the individual in it. It would be like promoting a statement such as "every Muslim is a potential terrorist". True, but, while in this very brief span of time much terrorism may be linked to Islamic extremism (or at least the terrorism the media reports), this does mean such was true in the past, nor will be in the future, nor is terrorism always fueled by Islam (or any religion) now. A virtually infinite number of "every (insert people group) is a potential (insert undesirable)" could be composed, with some level of accuracy.

Yes, we need to recognize this world is not always a pleasant one, but not at the expense of any individual group. People, and the decisions they make, are the problem, not men, women, Muslims, Christians, atheists, blondes, the obese, or anything else. Whether or not absolutely every individual has the capacity to commit every act of wrong (that is, the impact of environment) is a complex topic best left for experts, I think.

joshua 1 9 · Sep 25, 2016

bhsmte said:
And every women is a potential murderer.

Some women raise their son to be a rapist and or murder.

durangodawood · Sep 25, 2016

joshua 1 9 said:
From an evolutionary view point there are people that would say that Darwin's Dirty Secret is that natural selection explains all human behavior--even the crime of rape.

I doubt that.

The evolutionary pov typically allows for culture, in addition to biological natural selection, as an explanation for human behavior.

Gadarene · Sep 25, 2016

Paidiske said:
I find the concept of Schrödinger’s Rapist more helpful than the idea that "every man" is a potential anything.

No, it's still bigoted.

That is, not every man is a rapist or would rape. But as a woman, I have no way of knowing which men might be rapists or not until the observation is made (at which point the situation has gone beyond dispassionate observation and is a matter of survival).

So no, not every man is a potential rapist, but I almost have to behave as if that were true (in order to protect myself) because I have no way of knowing which man is a potential rapist.

Yeah, change "man" to "black" and "rapist" to "thief", and tell me how it sounds.

Why are moderators of this forum endorsing misandry?

Gadarene · Sep 25, 2016

Ana the Ist said:
I think that's understandable...it's the same principle that the police use in regards to citizens. They have no way which ones are armed or not, so they have to behave as if everyone is armed so they can be prepared for a situation where they are.

Yeah, but "everyone is armed" isn't discriminatory.

"Male rapists" (potential or otherwise) is singling out one subset of all rapists based on nothing more than gender, which is a class protected against discrimination.

Gadarene · Sep 25, 2016

WolfGate said:
Obviously that is true, but I also think it is clear that is not the context or message being sent by advocates of that phrase. The message they are trying to send is that all men have, at least subconsciously, an antagonism towards women, objectification of women and/or power need to control to women that could lead to rape in a certain set of circumstances. Got others from the list of reasons why men rape? Throw those in there as well and the message is the same - all men have at least one of those.

I suspect they would object pretty strongly if someone said "every woman is a potential false accuser of rape".

Yeah, and it is mostly women who commit that crime, like men commit the majority of rapes. It's still no excuse for bigotry. Or at least it isn't for every other group out there, but sexism against men is the last commonly acceptable prejudice.

The problem with "Every man is a potential rapist"

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