How is so-called "rape porn" even a thing?

[redqueen]

Depicting violence against women, specifically and intentionally for the purposes of sexual arousal... seriously, why is this legal?

Some people love to harp on the idea that since some women have rape fantasies, that its fair. Well, bullshit. Maybe if Hollywood stopped portraying rape as in any way fucking romantic, people (men and women) might not have the sick association between rape and romance in their heads. Let's try, oh I dunno, maybe not enabling and reinforcing rape culture throughout various forms of entertainment, and see how that works.

Enough. Rape culture must end. We cannot afford to avert our eyes and let the 'but free speech' argument derail any discussion of things that are truly indefensible. We have to stop pretending that this stuff is harmless.

This is reinforcing and enabling rape culture in a direct, unquestionable manner.

[Chunk]

1. Some people

[TahitiNut]

2. Watch "Gone With The Wind" sometime ...

... and tell me that Rhett didn't rape Scarlett.

Not so long ago, such "dominant" behavior was commonly depicted as "sexy' ... and, even as a guy "of a certain age," I've always regarded it as abhorrent. (I detest that movie.) Scarlett is presented as a "heroine" because, for the first time in her life, she fends for herself. Just somewhat. For a short time. She's shown as a woman dependent upon men and slaves or servants. ("Some day my prince will come"?) Rhett is an abusive spouse in a codependent relationship with Scarlett who is incapable of any other behavior. Absolutely disgusting personalities.

[4lbs]

3. I've never been turned on by such a thing.

I'm a male.

I've watched a significant amount of pr0n in my life, I admit.

Any time I've watched scenes where a woman is slapped or had violent acts perpetrated on her, I've been turned off.

The scenes that have actually turned me on have been the ones where the woman has been an equal participant and "gotten into it" as much as her male counterpart.

In my actual life, the same way. My best experiences have been when my female companion has enjoyed it as much as I have.

So yeah. this "rape porn" and such degradations, I am not too fond of and do not desire to watch.

[Eyes of the World]

4. But sexual attacks have dropped

with the growth of internet porn.

Guys would rather maturbate to fake rape then commit the real act.

So arent you arguing against a thought crime?

[redqueen]

5. Yeah... no. About those studies, some facts:

http://www.fightthenewdrug.org/science/articles/PORN-AND-SEXUAL-CRIME/

...

So what’s the catch? Why is there support for both sides? Well, the porn pushers love to talk about these studies because they seem to validate their points. What they don’t like to talk about is how the people who have since reviewed these studies have found some major flaws in the conclusions. It turns out that there are a couple of things that distorted the results.

First of all, at the same time that pornography was legalized in all of those countries, a lot of other sex crimes including peeping, “indecency towards women,” and certain types of incest, were also made legal. So with those things no longer considered a crime, it’s no wonder the crime rates dropped.

Second, Kutchinsky put rape in the same category as less serious sex crimes. That made it easier to hide the fact that serious crimes like rape actually increased after pornography was legalized in Denmark (5).

Porn advocates also don’t like to talk much about the results of studies in Sweden, Great Britain, New Zealand, and Australia, where the number of rapes increased when the constraints on the availability of pornography were lifted. Like how “when South Australia liberalized its laws on pornography and Queensland maintained its conservative policy . . . the number of rapes in Queensland remained at the same low level while South Australia’s showed a six fold increase” over a 13 year period (25).

...

[seabeyond]

6. ya... no is right.

rape is our entertainment. it is a new norm.

there are so many way the numbers of rape are manipulated. says a hell of a lot about men that use a manipulated number to dismiss any discussion of rape.

[MadrasT]

7. I understand why

I understand why men who rape would cite manipulated numbers. What puzzles me is why men who don't rape do that.

Is it some kind of bro code? "Protect our own" or something?

I personally know men who I am pretty certain would never rape anyone ever who minimize and downplay rape culture and freak out and get angry over any mention of it.

It is weird.

[seabeyond]

9. honestly, in discussing rape with any man, even my sons, i am the one that must tippy toe

in conversation for them to even get to the point of kinda listening, or thinking about what is said, being sure to protect THEIR ego.

[MadrasT]

12. Yes. Me too.

And I get really pissed off that I am supposed to worry about protecting their egos.

Male ego is supposed to take precedence over rape?

Seriously?

Patriarchal norm. And what is accepted as "normal" in a patriarchal culture is bullshit.

I am fed up with tiptoeing around male ego.

Even some men who would never, ever rape anybody respond as if they are getting blamed for something other men do -- they get extraordinarily defensive.

[seabeyond]

13. male ego takes precedence over ALL things. and this is for real. this is our society. they say

women are the weaker sex. but, since very young i have seen how we so often must coddle mens ego and we women are told our ego does not matter, we must buck up, we must ignore our ego, our ego matters not.

i am so beyond coddling the male ego.

if i must buck up, then so too, must they.

[zazen]

10. and very often it isn't a "fake rape"

When you think about the conditions under which pornography is produced, with "actors" at best not having meaningful options, regularly (per reporting) using drugs to cope, and being emotionally degraded by engaging in an act to which others are aroused by your depiction of pain, there's a level of coercion and discomfort on the part of the woman.

That's the good half.

Now think about all of the underage kids who are pimped, trafficked, beaten and drugged, for whom all sexual acts are rape because they're done under duress, and ask yourself why so many men would masturbate to what are essentially crime photos.

[seabeyond]

11. kidnapped, taken out in the middle of nowhere, raped, filmed and put on the net

with the males fuzzied out so they are not seen.

simulated? or not. i found that some men went to simulated rape. no evidence. no reason to believe. just a shut down of the horror and reducing it to simulated.

to appease?

to deny?

but, even if simulated, if everything about it was to make it appear the horrors of a rape. a girl walking on the street, kidnapped, and brutally raped, does the mind shut down the horror of rape and say not real. EVERYTHING about it was to make it real. and who is to say it wasnt. with internet we can so create all these horrors. have the horror of rape brought into our home. i never thought i would be discussing with my husband the filming of a rape of a girl, and it being put out there to entertain men so they could jack off.

but, what gets me, is the need to immediately turn away from the horror with.... meh, PROBABLY simulated rape.

what does that say....

and yes, we have heard enough from the people in the culture, that the "legal" rape porn and other misogynist porn might as well be labeled rape

[ismnotwasm]

14. That is so fucked up

What that says is that men will rape if they can't have/watch sex. That's wrong. And debunked. And it says really shitty things about men. I'm betting the majority of men who watch and enjoy porn are NOT doing it so they stop themselves from running out and raping someone

someone. Rapists will rape in spite of porn, married sex, bought sex, whatever sex. I never did understand why anyone would stick their head in the sand with that creepy-ass argument.

[CrispyQ]

15. +1

Outstanding.

[seabeyond]

8. yes... that is still with me. wish i had never seen. and yes, ..... that was put out for men to

jack off. i really do not give a fuck about the difference in our sex life. that is beyond disgusting, pathetic.

i knew the girl with tattoo took the almost three minute graphic rape as entertainment over the line to normalize porn rape for mainstream consumers. i understand it is a norm in some of the cable "hit" series.

and interesting. in the 70's and 80's bodice ripper romance, there was always the "rape" conquest. at some point that industry found that to be unacceptable. today, you will not find a book that a writer uses that scenario. until the shades of gray hype. and hype is all that it is. it is a fail. and media pushed it to a success. for women as a whole that storyline has been retired. now it seems to be the storyline too many men want.