Brownmiller * From Against Our Will Men, Women and Rape 257 iiladelphia, July 3, letters, passim. Eunice Callender, Boston, to Sarah Rip- from a graceful faint, found her Virginity intact and etters, Eleutherian ley [Stearns], October 19, 1808. 32. Mary Black Couper to Sophie M. DuPont, March 5, thanked her lucky starres and God Almighty. 18 14, and passim; 1832. The Clementina Smith-Sophie DuPont corre- The original te.a of this Puritan fable, a seventeenth- :utler Wister, Ger- spondence of 1,678 letters is in the Sophie DuPont Cor- century propaganda pamphlet aimed at “those Cav- respondence. The quotation is from Eliza Schlatter, .adford Diary, Jan- aliers which esteem murder and rapine the chiefe 1st 11, and October Mount Holly, N.J., to Sophie DuPont, Brandywine, Au- ylvania; Sophie M. gust 24, 1834. I am indebted to Anthony WaUace foi Principalls of their religion,” is housed today in the ‘ont, Germanrown, . informing me about this collection. British Museum. lation. 33. Mary Grew, Providence, R.I., to Isabel Howland, Sher- pard, July 9, 1843; wood, N.Y., April 27,1892, Howland Correspondence, Three eventful centuries have passed since that Jefferis, June 28, Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College. fateful autumn night when Mr. Ralph Ashley at- issim, Biddle Fam- 34. Helene Deutsch, Psychologv of Women (New York tempted to ravish Mr. Adam Fisher’s nameless :iery, Swarthmore Grune & Stratton, 19441, vol. 1, chaps. 1-3; Clara :wis, Virginia, to Thompson, On Women, ed. Maurice Green (New York: daughter and was struck in his tracks by a bolt from hia, November 24 New American Library, 1971). the sky. Fewer of US these days, we would all agree, 1821. are young Virgines. The automobile has replaced November 16- 19, ,igail Bracken Ly- the horse and blazing comets have proved fairly un- nn., May 3, 1801, predictable after all. But the problem of rape, and :fferis to Anne Jef- how to deal with it, remains. letter, see Eleanor To a woman the definition of rape is fairly simple. dky Gibson, pas- A sexual invasion of the body by force, an incur- Philadelphia, May sion into the private, personal inner space without ?dywine, to Henry 832. consent-in short, an internal assault from one of :h 15, 1841;Mary From Against Our Will: several avenues and by one of sevegl methods- l-l875?]; see also constitutes a deliberate violation of emotional, phys- utler Wister, Ger- Men, Women and Rape nd Diary, Decem- ical and rational integrity and is a hostile, degrading SUSAN BROWNMILLER act of violence that deserves the name of rape. -.fferis, September Yet by tracing man’s concept of rape as he de- WOMEN FIGHT BACK dley Gibson, April fined it in his earliest laws, we now know with cer- On the fourteenth of November, 1642, ayoung Vir- tainty that the criminal act he viewed with horror, it, S.C., to Emily gine, daughter to Mr. Adam Fisher, was hurrying and the deadly punishments he saw fit to apply. had 7, 1872, Howland y, September 16, along a country road in Devonshire so darke that she little to do with an actual act of sexual violence that ry Black Couper, could scarce discerne her hand when the figure of a a woman’s body might sustain. True, the law has ’ont, Brandywine, Gentleman, Mr. Ralph Ashley, a debased Cavalier, come some distance since its beginnings when rape ter 29, 1808. approached on horseback. Inspired by the Devil1 meant simply and conclusively the theft of a father’s Ripley [Stearns] himself, this gentleman told the trusting maiden that daughter’s virginity, a specialized crime that dam- he knew her father well and would be pleased to aged valuable goods before they could reach the on] Journal, April itorical Society of escort her home in safety, for there were lustful sol- matrimonial market, but modern legal perceptions diers in those parts. of rape are rooted still in ancient male concepts of written by Peggy And then, Dear Reader, as if you didn’t know property. as been preserved Historical Society what next, he galloped her off to a deserted spot and From the earliest times, when men of one tribe ulp 4, 1769, Janu- went about to ravish her while she fervently prayed, freely raped women of another tribe to secure new Help, Lord, or Iperish. wives, the laws of marriage and the laws ofrape have I, the Arthur M. :allege, contains a Just then a.feareful1 Comet burst out in the ayre and been philosophically entwined, and even today it is TS to Mary Emer- strricke the rapacious Cavalier with a streanie offire largely impossible to separate them out. Man’s his- hey extend over a so that hefell downe stuggering. toric desire to maintain sole, total and complete ac- .rimen hod1 before According to some shepherds folding their flock cess to woman’s vagina, as codified by his earliest erson, November who had witnessed the Blazing Starre from a dis- laws of marriage, sprang from his need to be the sole :ly, and one must tance, Mr. Ashley expired within the night, ranting physical instrument governing impregnation, prog- son’s letters to her Cusas Lewis re- and raving in terrible blasphemy about that Round- eny and inheritance rights. As man understood his Bordley Gibson’s headed whore. Adam Fisher’s daughter, aroused male reality, it was perfectly lawful to capture and 258 I’ART I: 1975-1985

rape sornc other tribe’s women, for what better way Yet the differences between rape and an assault or a space, a lesser inju for his own trihc 10 inci-caso?But it was unlawful, he robbery are as distinctive as the obvious si ilarities. self? felt, for thc insult to he returned. The criminal act In a prosecutable case of assault, bodily d7 mage to All acts of sex t he vicwcd \\.it11 horror and punished as rape was not the victim is clearly evident. In a case of rdpe, the serve to be treared sexual assauh pel. sc, but an act of unlawful posses- threat of force does not secure a tangible commod- fenses in the eyes sion, a trcspass against his tribal right to controlvag- ity as we understand the term, although sex tradi- penetration is less h inal ~CCCSSto all women who belonged to him and tionally has been viewed by men as “the female grade. Similarly, thc his kin. treasure”; more precisely, in rape the threat of force be bound by the vic Sincc marriage, by law, was consummated in one obtains a highly valued sexual service through tem- move in this directii manner only, by defloration of virgini€y with atten- porary access to the victim’s intimate parts, and the A gender-free, r dant ceremonial tokens, the act man came to con- intent is not merely to “take,” but to humiliate and ing all manner of s strue as criminal rape was the illegal destruction of degrade. first step toward leg virginity outside a marriage contract of his making. This, then, is the modern reality of rape as it of other, outdated r Later, when he came to see his own definition as too is defined by twentieth-century practice. It is not, narrow for the times, he broadened his criminal however, the reality of rape as it is defined by In cases of rape concept to cover the ruination of his wife’s chastity twentieth-century law. take a philosophic as well, thus extending the law’s concern to nonvir- In order for a sexual assault to qualify as feloni- for while the anci gins too. Although these legal origins have been bur- ous rape in an American courtroom, there must be (female rights as 1 ied in the morass of forgotten history, as the laws of “forcible penetration of the vagina by the penis, have some validic rape continued to evolve they never shook free of however slight.” In other words, rape is defined by divorces-civil prc their initial concept-that the violation was first and law as a heterosexual offense that is characterized law-it must not b, foremost a violation of male rights of possession, by genital copulation. It is with this hallowed, re- force perpeuated t based on male requirements of virginity, chastity strictive definition, the sine qua non of rape prose- wives. There are tl and consent to private access as the female bargain cutions, that our argument begins. laws governing ass in the marriage contract (the underpinnings, as he That forcible genital copulation is the “worst deal with the cases enforced them, ofman’s economic estate). possible” sex assault a person can sustain, that it those who take the To our modern way of thinking, these theoretical deserves by far the severest punishment, equated in assault law might origins are peculiar and difficult to fully grasp. A some states with the penalties for murder, while all legally separated 1 huge disparity in thought-male logic versus fe- other manner of sexual assaults are lumped together ‘‘claim’’ their mart male logic-affects perception of rape to this very under the label of sodomy and draw lesser penalties lutions fails to corn day, confounding the analytic processes of some by law, can only be seen as an outdated masculine Since the begin of the best legal minds. Today’s young rapist has concept that no longer applies to modern crime. rape has been bot no thought of capturing a wife or securing an in- Sexual assault in our day and age is hardly re- consent in marriag heritance or estate. His is an act of impermanent stricted to forced genital copulation, nor is it ex- to make a clean bl conquest, not a practical approach to ownership clusively a male-on-female offense. Tradition and sion of bodily inte and control. The economic advantage of rape is a biologic opportunity have rendered vaginal rape a and self-determin: forgotten concept. What remains is the basic male- particular political crime with a particular political place, in or out of female struggle, a hit-and-run attack, a brief expres- history, but the invasion may occur through the it is easier to writ’ sion of physical power, a conscious process of mouth or the rectum as well. And while the penis workable legal prc intimidation, a blunt, ugly sexual invasion with pos- may remain the rapist’s favorite weapon, his prime culties that juries sible lasting psychological effects on all women. instrument of vengeance, his triumphant display of when faced with a When rape is placed where it truly belongs, power, it is not in fact his only tool. Sticks, bottles forcing her into C( within the context of modern criminal violence and and even fingers are often substituted for the principle of bodil not within the purview of ancient masculine codes, “natural” thing. And as men may invade women tablished without the crime retains its unique dimensions, falling mid- through other orifices, so, too, do they invade other come an inviolablt way between robbery and assault. It is, in one act, men. Who is to say that the sexual humiliation The concept ol both a blow to the body and a blow to the mind, and suffered through forced oral or rectal penetration in the much debat a “taking” of sex through the use or threat of force. is a lesser violation of the personal, private inner consent is constri Brownmiller * From Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape 259

space, a lesser injury to mind, spirit and sense of something that cannot be retracted, as in marriage, sclf? but as something that cannot be given. Since the All acts of sex forced on unwilling victims de- thirteenth-century Statutes of Westminster, the law serve to be treated in concept as equally grave of- has sought to fix an arbitrary age below which an fenses in the eyes of the law, for the avenue of act of sexual intercourse with a female, with or with- penetration is less significant than the intent to de- out the use of force, is deemed a criminal offense grade. Similarly, the gravity of the offense ought not that deserves severe punishment because the female he bound by the victim’s gender. That the law must is too young to know her own mind. Coexistent with move in this direction seems clear. these statutory rape laws, and somewhat contradic- A gender-free, non-activity-specific law govern- tory to them, have been the laws governing criminal ing all manner of sexual assaults would be but the incest, sexual victimization of a child by a blood re- first step toward legal reform. The law must rid itself lation, where the imposition of legal penalties has of other, outdated masculine concepts as well. been charitably lenient, to say the least-yet another indication of the theoretical concept that the child In cases of rape within a marriage, the law must “belongs” to the father’s estate. Under current leg- take a philosophic leap of the greatest magnitude, islation, which is by no means uniform, a conviction for while the ancient concept of conjugal rights for statutory rape may draw a life sentence in many (female rights as well as male) might continue to jurisdictions, yet a conviction for incest rarely car- have some validity in annulments and contested ries more than a ten-year sentence, approximately divorces-civil procedures conducted in courts of the same maximum penalty that is fixed by law for law-it must not be used as a shield to cover acts of sodomy offenses. force perpenated by husbands on the bodies of their If protection of the bodily integrity of all children wives. There are those who believe that the current is to be genuinely reflected in the law, and not sim- laws governing assault and battery are sufficient to ply the protection of patriarchal interests, then the deal with the cases of forcible rape in marriage, and current division of offenses (statutory rape for out- those who take the more liberal stand that a sexual siders; incest for members of the victim’s family) assault law might be applicable only to those men must be erased. Retaining a fixed age of consent legally separated from their wives who return to seems a necessary and humane measure for the pro- “claim” their marital “right,” but either of these so- tection of young girls and young boys alike, al- lutions fails to come to grips with the basic violation. though it must be understood that any arbitrary age Since the beginning of written history, criminal limit is at best a judicious compromise since sexual rape has been bound up with the common law of maturity and wisdom are not automatically con- consent in marriage, and it is time, once and for all, ferred with the passage of time. Feminists who have to make a clean break. A sexual assault is an inva- applied themselves to this difficult question are in sion of bodily integrity and a violation of freedom agreemenr that all children below the age of twelve and self-determination wherever it happens to take deserve unqualified protection by a statutory age place, in or out of the marriage bed. I recognize that provision in sexual assault legislation, since that age it is easier to write these words than to draw up a is reasonably linked with the onset of puberty and workable legal provision, and I recognize the diffi- awareness of sex, its biologic functions and reper- culties that juries will have in their deliberations cussions. In line with the tradition of current statu- when faced with a wife who accuses her husband of tory rape legislation, offenses committed against forcing her into copulation against her will, but the children below the age of twelve should carry the principle of bodily self-determination must be es- maximum penalty, normalized to twenty years. tablished without qualification, I think, if it is to be- Recognizing that young persons above twelve and come an inviolable principle on any level. . . . below sixteen remain particularly vulnerable to sex- The concept of consent rears its formidable head ual coercion by adults who use a position of author- in the much debated laws of statutory rape, but here ity, rather than physical force, to achieve their aim consent is construed in the opposite sense-not as (within the household or within an institution or a

...1 260 PART 1’: 1975-1985

medical facility, to give three all-too-common ex- scrutinized under the theory that it relates to her question of whl amples), the law ought to be flexible enough to allow “tendency to consent,” or that it reflects on her statutes is as im prosecutorial discretion in the handling of these credibility, her veracity, her predisposition to tell the melf. At present cases under a more limited concept of “statutory truth or to lie. Or so the law says. As it works out in violence who set sexual assault,” with corresponding lesser penalties practice, juries presented with evidence concerning of male authorit as the outer age limits are reached. a woman’s past sexual history make use of such in- tion, values and “Consent” has yet another role to play in a case formation to form a moral judgment on her charac- fender’s camp. of sexual assault. In reviewing the act, in seeking to ter, and here all the old myths of rape are brought determine whether or not a crime was committed, into play, for the feeling persists that a virtuous That women the concept of consent that is debated in court woman either cannot get raped or does not gainto and design from hinges on whether or not the victim offered suffi- situations that leave her open to assault. Thus the ment, from the I cient resistance to the attack, whether or not her will questions in the jury room become “Mas she or tor’s office, from was truly overcome by the use of force or the threat wasn’t she asking for it?”; “If she had been a decent bench, up to an of bodily harm. The peculiar nature of sexual woman, wouldn’t she have fought to the death to preme court jui crimes of violence, as much as man’s peculiar his- defend her ‘treasure’?’’; and “Is this bimbo worth handicap for rap toric perception of their meaning, has always the ruination of a man’s career and reputation?” laws of man’s de clouded the law’s perception of consent. The crime of rape must be totally separated from the face of the la It is accepted without question that robbery vic- all traditional concepts of chastity, for the very the faces of those tims need not prove they resisted the robber, and it meaning of chastity presupposes that it is a woman’s sibility of enforc is never inferred that by handing over their money, duty (but not a man’s) to refrain from sex outside must change as P they “consented” to the act and therefore the act the matrimonial union. That sexual activity renders I am convince was no crime. Indeed, police usually advise law- a woman “unchaste” is a totally male view of the with men in the c abiding citizens not to resist a robbery, but rather to female as his pure vessel. The phrase “prior chas- be the ultimate te wait it out patiently, report the offense to the proper tity” as well as the concept must be stricken from for women will t authorities, and put the entire matter in the hands of the legal lexicon, along with “prosecutrix,” as in- means quite liter. the law. As a matter of fact, successful resistance to flammatory and prejudicial to a complainant’s case. sary, to maintain a robbery these days is considered heroic. A history of sexual activity with many partners the days of the ri ... may be indicative of a female’s healthy interest in male prerogative Currently employed standards of resistance or sex, or it may be indicative of a chronic history of biologic construc consent vis-&vis force or the threat of force have victimization and exploitation in which she could ing from which W’ never been able to accurately gauge a victim’s terror, not assert her own inclinations; it may be indicative as stern as the law since terror is a psychological reaction and not an of a spirit of adventure, a spirit of rebellion, a spirit If in the past w. objective standard that can be read on a behavior of curiosity, a spirit of joy or a spirit of defeat. Mhat- be our lawful prc meter six months later in court, as jury acquittal ever the reasons, and there are many, prior consen- the law but its en rates plainly show. For this reason, feminists have sual intercourse between a rape complainant and be an urgent prio argued that the special burden of proof that de- orher partners of her choosing should not be scruti- things have come volves on a rape victim, that she resisted “within nized as an indicator of purity or impurity of mind that allows the thr reason,” that her eventual compliance was no indi- or body, not in this day and age at any rate, and it our social contrac cation of tacit “consent,” is patently unfair, since has no place in jury room deliberation as to whether cation whereby br such standards are not applied in court to the be- or not, in the specific instance in question, an act of tenance of law an havior of victims in other kinds of violent crime. A forcible sex took place. Prior consensual intercourse unaware that men jury should be permitted to weigh the word of a between the complainant and zhe defendant does cities have shown victimized complainant at face value, that is what it have some relevance, and such information proba- that size and stre1 boils down to-no more or less a right than is bly should not he barred. in the making of a granted to other victims under the law. An overhaul of present laws and a fresh approach may be temporar Not only is the victim’s response during the act to sexual assault legislation must go hand in hand dated male values measured and weighed, her past sexual history is with a fresh approach to enforcing the law. The sively that women R~ozo,r?d/er Frmi Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape 26 1

question of who interprets and who enfnrces the men in calming a disturbance and in making an ar- statutes is as important as the contents of the law rest, and they accomplish their work in potentially itself. At present, female victims of sexual crimes of violent situations without resorting to the unneces- violence who seek legal justice must rely on a series sary force that deserves its label, “police brutality.” of male authority figures whose masculine orienta- I am not one to throw the word “revolutionary” tion, values and fears place them securely in the of- around lightly, but full integration of OUT cities’ po- fender’s camp. lice departments, and by full I mean fifty-fifty, no ... less, is a revolutionary goal of the utmost impor- That women have been excluded by tradition tance to women’s rights. And if we are to continue and design from all significant areas of law enforce- to have armies, as I suspect we will for some time to ment, from the police precinct, from the prosecu- come, then they, too, must be fully integrated, as tor’s office, from the jury box and from the judge’s well as our national guard, our state troopers, our bench, up to and including the appellate and su- local sheriffs’ offices, our district attorneys’ offices, preme court jurisdictions, has created a double our state prosecuting attorneys’ offices-in short, handicap for rape victims seeking justice under the the nation’s entire lawful power structure (and I laws of man’s devise. And so it is not enough that mean power in the physical sense) must be stripped the face of the law be changed to reflect the reality; of male dominance and control-if women are to the faces of those charged with the awesome respon- cease being a colonized protectorate of men. sibility of enforcing the law and securing justice A system of criminal justice and forceful author- must change as well. ity that genuinely works for the protection of I am convinced that the battle to achieve parity women’s rights, and most specifically the right not with men in the critical area of law enforcement will to be sexually assaulted by men, can become an ef- be the ultimate testing ground on which full equality ficient mechanism in the control of rape insofar as for women will be won or lost. Law enforcement it brings offenders speedily to uial, presents the means quite literally the use of force when neces- case for the complainant in the best possible light, sary, to maintain the social order, and force since and applies just penalties upon conviction. While the days of the rudimentary lex talionis has been a I would not underestimate the beneficial effects of male prerogative because of size, weight, strength, workable sex assault laws to “hold the line” and pro- biologic construction and deliberate training, train- vide a positive deterrent, what feminists (and all ing from which women have been barred by custom right-thinking people) must look toward is the total as stem as the law itself. eradication of rape, and not just an effective policy If in the past women had no choice but to let men of containment. be our lawful protectors, leaving to them not only A new approach to the law and to law enforce- the law but its enforcement, it would now seem to ment can take us only part of the way. Turning over be an urgent priority to correct the imbalance. For to women 50 percent of the power to enforce the things have come full circle. The biologic possibility law and maintain the order will be a major step to- that allows the threat and use of rape still exists, but ward eliminating rnuchismo. However, the ideology our social contract has reached a point of sophisti- of rape is aided by more than a system of lenient cation whereby brute force matters less to the main- laws that serve to protect offenders and is abetted tenance of law and order, or so I believe. I am not by more than the fiat of total male control over the unaware that membFrs of the police force in various lawful use of power. The ideology of rape is fueled cities have shown considerable reluctance to admit by cultural values that are perpetuated at every level that size and strength may not be the prime factor of our society, and nothing less than a frontal attack in the making of an effective police officer, and they is needed to repel this cultural assault. may be temporarily pardoned for sticking to out- The theory of aggressive male domination over dated male values. New studies show quite conclu- women as a natural right is so deeply embedded in sively that women police officers are as effective as our cultural value system that all recent attempts to 262 PART V: 1975-1 985

expose it-in movies, television commercials or ready fired the first retaliatory shots in a war as an- Colorado, is th: even in children’s textbooks-have barely managed cient as civilization. When, just a few years ago, we encouraged, or to scratch the surface. As I see it, the problem is not began to hold our speak-outs on rape, our confer- in their stern ru’ that polarized role playing (man as doer; woman as ences, borrowing a church meeting hall for an after- their fatherly so bystander) and exaggerated portrayals of the female noon, renting a high-school auditorium and some years of writter body as passive sex object are simply “demeaning” classrooms for a weekend of workshops and discus- ,yuizize to comb to women’s dignity and self-conception, or that such sion, the world out there, the world outside of radi- invention. portrayals fail to provide positive role models for cal feminism, thought it was all very funny. Men are not young girls, but that cultural sexism is a conscious “You’re talking about rape? Incredible! A political the contrary, th form of female degradation designed to boost the crime against women? How is a sex crime political? harshest penalti male ego by offering “proof” of his native superi- You’re actually having women give testimony about But given an ap ority (and of female inferiority) everywhere he their own rapes and what happened to them after- an illegal encro: looks. wards, the police, the hospitals, the courts? Far a stranger corn ... out!” And then the nervous giggles that betray con- gave (and still t Once we accept as basic truth that rape is not a fusion, fear and shame disappeared and in their of rules and reg crime of irrational, impulsive, uncontrollable lust, place was the dim recognition that in daring to speak erty penned in, but is a deliberate, hostile, violent act of degradation the unspoken, women had uncovered yet another keep his flock I and possession on the part of a would-be conqueror, part of our oppression, perhaps the central key: his- taking precaut designed to intimidate and inspire fear, we must toric physical repression, a conscious process of in- from the fold. look toward those elements in our culture that pro- timidation, guilt and fear. stranger, never mote and propagandize these attitudes, which offer Within two years the world out there had stopped the female as a men, and in particular, impressionable, adolescent laughing, and the movement had progressed be- fortunate tendc males, who form the potential raping population, yond the organizational forms of speak-outs and ished and war: the ideology and psychologic encouragement to conferences, our internal consciousness-raising, to male eyes as n commit their acts of aggression without awareness, community outreach programs that were imagina- her not to cla for the most part, that they have committed a punisha- tive, original and unprecedented: rape crisis centers themselves. SL ble crime, let alone a moral wrong. The myth of the with a telephone hot line staffed twenty-four hours tous and genu heroic rapist that permeates false notions of mascu- a day to provide counseling, procedural information further aggrav linity, from the successful seducer to the man who and sisterly solidarity to recent rape victims and they gave was “takes what he wants when he wants it,” is incul- even to those whose assault had taken place years appended the c cated in young boys from the time they first become ago but who never had the chance to tak it out with not follow the I aware that being a male means access to certain other women and release their suppressed rage; rape own violation. mysterious rites and privileges, including the right legislation study groups to work up model codes to buy a woman’s body. When young men learn that based on a fresh approach to the law and to work A fairly de females may be bought for a price, and that acts of with legislators to get new laws adopted; anti-rape 1974, issue of sex command set prices, then how should they not projects in conjunction with the emergency ward of men who felt c also conclude that that which may be bought may a city hospital, in close association with police- also be taken without the civility of a monetary women staffing newly formed sex crime analysis Don’t broac exchange? squads and investigative units. With pamphlets, another WOI y ... newsletters, bumper stickers, “Wanted” posters, com- on the mail A law that reflects the female reality and a social bative slogans-“STOP RAPE”; “WAR-WOMEN tering your the rear sea system that no longer shuts women out of its en- AGAINST RAPE; “SMASH SEXISM, DISARM car, keep tl forcement and does not promote a masculine ideol- RAPISTS!”-and with classes in self-defense, women up. If you tI ogy of rape will go a long way toward the elimination turned around and seized the offensive. go directly of crimes of sexual violence, but the last line of de- The wonder of all this female activity, decentral- Possible \h’ fense shall always be our female bodies and our fe- ized grass-roots organizations and programs that keys, umbi male minds. In making rape a speakable crime, not a sprung up independently in places like Seattle, back physil matter of shame, the women’s movement has al- Indianapolis, Ann Arbor, Toronto, and Boulder, telling effec Bmt.oi~ririllev* Froin Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rapc 263

Colorado, is that none of it had been predicted, What immediately pops into mind after reading encouraged, or faintly suggested by men anywhere (this] advice is the old-time stand-up comedian’s in their stem rules of caution, their friendly advice, favorite figure of ridicule, the hysterical old maid their fatherly solicitude in more than five thousand armed with hatpin and urnbrella who looks under years of written history. That women should or- the bed each night before retiring. Long a laughable xirrzizr to combat rape was a women’s movement stereotype of sexual repression, it now appears that invention. the crazy old lady was a pioneer of sound mind Men are not unmindful of the rape problem. To after all. the contrary, their paternalistic codes reserved the But the negative value of this sort of advice, I’m harshest penalties for a violation of their property. afraid, far outweighs the positive. What it tells us, But given an approach to rape that saw the crime as implicitly and explicitly, is: an illegal encroachment by an unlicensed intruder, a stranger come into their midst, the advice they 1. A woman alone probably won’t be able to de- gave (and still try to give) was all of one piece: a set fend herself. Another woman who might possi- of rules and regulations designed to keep their prop- bly come to her aid will be of no use whatsoever. erty penned in, much as a sheepherder might try to 2. Despite the fact that it is men who are the rap- keep his flock protected from an outlaw rustler by ists, a woman’s ultimate security lies in being taking precautions against their straying too far accompanied by men at all times. from the fold. By seeing the rapist always as a 3. A woman who claims to value her sexual integ- stranger, never as one of their own, and by viewing rity cannot expect the same amount of freedom the female as a careless, dumb creature with an un- and independence that men routinely enjoy. fortunate tendency to stray, they exhorted, admon- Even a small pleasure like taking a spin in an ished and warned the female to hide herself from automobile with the windows open is danger- male eyes as much as possible. In short, they told ous, reckless behavior. her not to claim the privileges they reserved for 4. In the exercise of rational caution, a woman themselves. Such advice-well intentioned, solici- should engage in an amazing amount of pre- tous and genuinely concerned-succeeded only in tense. She should pretend she has a male pro- further aggravating the problem, for the message tector even if she hasn’t. She should deny or they gave was to live a life of fear, and to it they obscure her personal identity, life-style and in- appended the dire warning that the woman who did dependence, and function on a sustained level not follow the rules must be held responsible for her of suspicion that approaches a clinical definition own violation. ... of paranoia. A fairly decent article on rape in the March, Of course I think all people, female and male, 1974, issue of The Reader’s Digest was written by two child and adult, must be alert and on guard against men who felt obliged to warn, the warning signs of criminal violence and should take care in potentially hazardous situations, such as Don’t broadcast the fact that you live alone or with a dark, unfamiliar street at night, or an unexpected another woman. List only your last name and initial knock on the door, but to impose a special burden on the mailbox and in the phone book. Before en- of caution on women is no solution at all. There can tering your car, check to see if anyone is hiding on be no private solutions to the problem of rape. A the rear seat or on the rear floor. If you’re alone in a woman who follows this sort of special cautionary car, keep the doors locked and the windows rolled advice to the letter and thinks she is acting in up. If you think someone is following you. . . do not go directly home if there is no adult male there. society’s interest-or even in her own personal Possible weapons are a hatpin, corkscrew, pen, interest-is deluding herself rather sadly. While the keys, umbrella. If no weapons are available, fight risk to one potential victim might be slightly dimin- back physically or& if you feel you can do so with ished (and I even doubt this, since I have known of telling effect. nuns who were raped within walled convents), not 264 PART T’: 1975-1985 1

only does the number of potential rapists on the amenable to legal divination-nor should it be, in It would be de loose remain constant, hut the ultimate effect of the final analysis. Nor should a feminist advocate to juncture I did not rape upon the woman’s mental and emotional health her sisters that the best option in a threatening, un- book included a tll has been accomplished men without the act. For to pleasant situation is to endure the insult and later jitsu and karate, tl accept a special burden of self-protection is to rein- take her case to the courts. hours a night, th force the concept that women must live and move ... when I crashed to about in fear and can never expect to achieve the Prohibitions against a fighting female go back to 1 lost one month o personal freedom, independence and self-assurance the Bible. In one of the more curious passages in of my clavicular st of men. Deuteronomy it is instructed that when two men are fication with the fi That’s what rape is all about, isn’t it? And a pos- fighting and the wife of one seeks to come to his aid nition that age thii sible deep-down reason why even the best of our and “drag her husband clear of his opponent, if she time in life zo bqi concerned, well-meaning men run to stereotypic puts out her hand and catches hold of the man’s break a snangleho warnings when they seek to grapple with the prob- genitals, you shall cut off her hand and show her no awareness of my 1 lem of rape deterrence is that they prefer to see rape mercy.” When the patriarchs wrote the law, it would age. I learned I I as a woman’s problem, rather than as a societal seem, they were painfully cognizant of woman’s one know 1 possessed problem resulting from a distorted masculine phi- natural advantage in combat and were determined how to kick back losophy of aggression. For when men raise the spec- to erase it from her memory. how to fight dirty. tre of the unknown rapist, they refuse to take Man’s written law evolved from a rudimentary Most surprisir psychologic responsibility for the nature of his act, system of retaliatory force, a system to which tion that these ba: We know, or at least the statistics tell us, that no women were not particularly well adapted to begin den twists, jabs a more than half of all reported rapes are the work of with, and from which women were deliberately ex- my experience ar strangers, and in the hidden statistics, those four out cluded, ostensibly for our own protection, as time that all little boys of five rapes that go unreported, the percent com- went by. Combat has been such a traditional, ex- applauded for x mitted by total strangers is probably lower. The man clusionary province of man that the very idea of a fresh white pinaf who jumps out of the alley or crawls through the fighting woman often brings laughter, distaste or and told not to I window is the man who, if caught, will he called “the disbelief and the opinion that it must be “unnatu- difference in rear rapist” by his fellow men. But the known man who ral.” In a confusion partially of their own making, the start of our le presses his advantage, who uses his position of au- local police precincts put out contradictory mess- invited all the w thority, who forces his attentions (fine Victorian ages: they “unfound” a rape case because, by the rule punch him in thc phrase), who will not take “No” for an answer, who of their own male logic, the woman did not show tation, for we dis assumes that sexual access is his right-of-way and normal resistance; they report on an especially bru- hitting was so SO physical aggression his right-on expression of mas- tal rape case and announce to the press that the mul- try none of us co culinity, conquest and power is no less of a rapist- tiple stab wounds were the work of an assailant who the inhibition ag yet the chance that this man will be brought to jus- was enraged because the woman resisted. greater hindranc tice, even under the best of circumstances, is com- Unthinkingly cruel, because it is deceptive, is the than our pathetic paratively small. confidential advice given from men to women (it ment in both dep I am of the opinion that the most perfect rape appears in The Reader’s Digest article), or even from Not surprisir laws in the land, strictly enforced by the best con- women to women in some feminist literature, that a share our inhib cerned citizens, will not be enough to stop rape. Ob- sharp kick to the groin or a thumb in the eye will work physical grappli vious offenders will be punished, and that in itself miracles. Such advice is often accompanied by a dia- ours. And yet, a will be a significant change, hut the huge gray area gram in which the vulnerable points of the human wonderment th‘ of sexual exploitation, of women who are psycho- anatomy are clearly marked-as if the mere knowl- and jabs with PI logically coerced into acts of intercourse they do not edge of these pressure spots can translate itself into spire fear in tl desire because they do not have the wherewithal to devastating action. It is true that this knowledge has learned to our a physically, or even psychologically, resist, will re- been deliberately obscured or withheld from us in the the core of their main a problem beyond any possible solution of past, but mereknowledge is not enough. Whatwomen lical injunction. criminal justice. It would he deceitful to claim that need is systematic training in self-defense that begins Is it possible t the murky gray area of male sexual aggression and in childhood, so that the inhibition resulting from the justice in the an‘ female passivity and submission can ever be made prohibition may be overcome. which has been Pugels IV11ur Becanie of God zlae Mother? Conjlicliiig Irrruges of God in Ea$v Clznstiunizy 265

It would be decidedly less than honest if at this a weapon of terror against women, should have at juncture I did not admit that my researches for this its root an awkward place of painful vulnerability? hook included a three-month training program in ju- Acutely conscious of their susceptibility to damage, jitsu and karate, three nights a week, two and a half men have protected their testicles throughout history hours a night, that ended summarily one evening with armor, supports and forbidding codes of “clean,” when I crashed to the mat and broke my collarbone. above-the-belt fighting. A gentleman’s agreement is I lost one month of writing and the perfect symmetry understandable-among gentlemen. When women of my clavicular structure, but I gained a new identi- are threatened, as I learned in my self-defense class, tication with the New York Mets’ injury list, a recog- “Kick him in the balls, it’s your best maneuver.” How nition that age thirty-eight is not the most propitious strange it was to hear for the first time in my life that time in life to begin to learn how to kick and hit and women could fight back, should fight back and make break a stranglehold, and a new and totally surprising full use of a natural advantage; that it is in our interest awareness of my body’s potential to inflict real dam- to know how to do it. How strange it was to understand age. I learned I had natural weapons that I didn’t with the full force of unexpected revelation that male know I possessed, like elbows and knees. I learned allusions to psychological defeat, particularly at the how to kick backward as well as forward. I learned hands of a woman, were couched in phrases like emas- how to fight dirty, and I learned that I loved it. culation, castration and ball-breaking because of that Most surprising to me, I think, was the recogni- very special physical vulnerability. tion that these basic aggressive movements, the sud- Fighting back. On a multiplicity of levels, that is den twists, jabs and punches that were so foreign to the activity we must engage in, together, if we- my experience and ladylike existence, were the stuff women-are to redress the imbalance and rid ow- that all little boys grow up learning, that boy kids are selves and men of the ideology of rape. applauded for mastering while girl kids are put in Rape can be eradicated, not merely controlled or fresh white pinafores and patent-leather Mary Janes avoided on an individual basis, but the approach and told not to muss them up. And did that early must be long-range and cooperative, and must have difference in rearing ever raise its draconic head! At the understanding and good will of many men as the start of our lessons our Japanese instructor freely well as women. invited all the women in the class, one by one, to My purpose in this book has been to give rape its punch him in the chest. It was not a foolhardy invi- history. Now we must deny it a future. tation, for we discovered that the inhibition against [1975] hitting was so strong in each of us that on the first try none of us could make physical contact. Indeed, the inhibition against striking out proved to be a greater hindrance to our becoming fighting women 53 than our pathetic underdeveloped muscles. (Improve- e ment in both departments was amazingly swift.) What Became of Not surprisingly, the men in our class did not share our inhibitions in the slightest. Aggressive God the Mother? physical grappling was part of their heritage, not Conflicting Images of God ours. And yet, and yet . . . we women discovered in wonderment that as we learned to place our kicks in Early Christianity and jabs with precision we were actually able to in- spire fear in the men. We could hurt them, we ELAINE H. PAGELS learned to our astonishment, and hurt them hard at the core of their sexual being-if we broke that Bib- Unlike many of his contemporaries among the dei- lical injunction. ties of the ancient Near East, the God of Israel Is it possible that there is some sort of metaphysical shares his power with no female divinity, nor is he justice in the anatomical fact that the male sex organ, the divine Husband or Lover of any.‘ He scarcely which has been misused from time immemorial as can be characterized in any but masculine epithets: