Essay #2-Rape Actualities

By undermining, taking from, and demeaning women, men assert their dominance. “Rape Fantasies” explores the specifics aspects of rape that are used against women tot be victorious in this struggle between man and woman. The tools used in this short story addresses the questions of what type of women are targeted and why, the result of the attack, and why men rape in the first place.

Estelle, the narrator, is an insecure lonely woman who, throughout the story, demonstrates her naiveté. As the reader reads on, it’s evident that Estelle fits the profile of a rape victim: desperate, insubordinate, dependent, and lonely. Research shows that women who have these traits are most likely tot be potential victims because they’re easier tot intimidate. This type of woman is less likely tot fight back, which serves the assailants well. It’s easier for them not to fight back, they said, because many rapists don’t carry weapons in fear, ironically, of the more severe sentence they would receive if they were caught. Lonely and desperate women are also more prone to be victims because, as many know, they are less likely to report the incident. As naïve as Estelle seems and as unreasonable as her fantasies are, some truth can be drawn in her own conclusion that if you attempt to humanize yourself to the assailant then they can’t really hurt you. In an interview of incarceratted convicts, they said that they’re less likely to hurt the woman if she strikes up a conversation with him, not because she humanized herself, butt because she is now able to identify him in a lineup. In these same fantasies, the happy ending that occurs instead of the assault that’s supposed to happen enforces the reader’s impression of her as desperate and dependent. Her unwillingness to injure anyone in self-defense, more specifically men, shows her feeling of insubordination to men. By creating this character. You’re only as strong as your weakest part, and by creating Estelle, Atwood has

Because of the type of women that are victimized and assaulted, many hardly ever report the incident. Guidelines dictate that one should report the attack as soon as it happens, but there are generally a number of obstacles and deterrents that keep many women silent. Victims, women like Estelle, are mentally incapable of dealing with that kind of trauma; By using rape, men incorporate psychological means of warfare in this battle of the sexes. Most women experience social withdrawal, recurrent nightmares, depression, and many other emotionally debilitation symptoms. Thornhill and Palmer theorized that Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a Darwinian adaptation to prevent women from continuing whatever behavior, provoked the attacker in the first place. In addition, they theorized that the reason woman also have a hard time re-establishing relationships with the male race is because, in evolutionary terms, they were not able to choose their mate. In addition to the mental restraints that come from the women herself, are also the stressful legal regulations that make reporting a complete nightmare. In the event that the authorities do believe-instead of prosecute-her, the embarrassment of recounting the events over and over again to people she don’t know is excruciating, and many women don’t want to suffer more than they have already.

With the knowledge of what victims have to endure, one has to ask the disturbing question of why men rape. What motivates a man to rape another human being? There are countless explanations and theories that have reasons, which vary from the need for power to the theory of evolution. Some theorize that because the definition of rape is not exactly set in stone, the mind of a rapist is extremely complex. The theory contain four types of rapists:
1. Type 1 is the most dangerous in that he is motivated by anger. They are so enraged by women that they react aggressively sexual towards women.
2. This type of rapist was most likely sexually abused as a child. Type 2 has a tendency to break rules, regardless of what they are. He isn’t able to make and keep relationships with people.
3. Type 3 believes that women enjoy being assaulted because they have cognitive thinking problems. Most date rapists fall into this category.
4. Extremely impulsive, type 4 is sexually aroused by hurting women in some fashion.
For type 3 offenders, rape is a conquest; type 3 men attempt to establish their masculinity: he feels threatened. Indeed, many men are intimidated by the by the modern woman: she’s strong successful, she doesn’t need men. One can attribute the increase in attacks to the exponential increase in women’s independence. Thornhill and Palmer attribute a man’s motivation to evolution. They compare male scorpion flies to human males in that while flies have a notal organ specifically made to force males to mate with uncooperative females, human males have psychological abilities that parallels the male scorpion notal organ: men’s ability to sense vulnerability and the ease in which young men ejaculate. However, a critic of Thornhill and Palmer’s work believes that men are less like flies, and more like apes. Like apes, power is a natural aphrodisiac, which is the reason rape. Power, which is what the struggle between man and woman is all about, drives men to rape. In contrast to these theories, Estelle’s rapists are sad lonely men like her who she eventually bonds with.