Rape Fantasy and the Feminist Discussion A History of Critical Thought Michaela Tashjian Does having a rape fantasy It is easy to understand why many [email protected] feminist scholars would not want to bring up the fact that some women have erotic rape fantasies. Though some may fear that How have women’s erotic rape make me a bad feminist? doing so would undo the progress that fantasies been explained and feminists have made, Bivona criticized in the past? demonstrates that this discussion itself constitutes a feminist act:

The Psychology of Women By avoiding an area of study that is Helene Deutsch attributes women’s rape difficult to understand and perhaps fantasies to the masochism she claims is uncomfortable for researchers to inherent in feminine sexuality. discuss, such as rape fantasy, knowledge is limited and ignorance perpetuated. Just as important, an avoidance of this Against Our Will: topic sends the false and disturbing Men, Women, and Rape 1944 1975 1982 1984 message that women’s sexuality is Susan Brownmiller insists that rape something to be ashamed of. (Bivona 3) fantasies are a direct result of patriarchal conditioning and that it is our Women’s Erotic What do we know about women’s erotic rape References responsibility as feminists to eradicate Non-Cognitive Predictors of Student Success: Rape Fantasies fantasies today? A Predictive Validity Comparison Between Domestic and International Students them. All quotations are from Jenny M. Jenny M. Bivona According to Jenny M. Binova’s doctoral dissertation, 62% of women have had a rape fantasy. She is the first to Bivona’s 2008 doctoral dissertation Loving with a Vengeance: Mass- Doctor of Philosophy entitled Women’s Erotic Rape Fantasies. University of North Texas test the seven most common theories (below) about why produced Fantasies for Women 2008 some women have rape fantasies. The following are her most recent Tania Modleski delivers interpretations of publications on women’s erotic rape mass-produced literature which reverse fantasies. conclusions drawn by Deutsch and Brownmiller; Modleski explores ways in Rape Fantasy Continuum Theory Critelli & Bivona. “Women’s Erotic Rape which tropes that seem patriarchal may in These fantasies exist on a continuum; neither 100% erotic nor 100% aversive, they lie between the two extremes. Fantasies: An Evaluation of Theory and fact function to address patriarchal Research.” Journal of Sex Research, 45, 1, concerns, subvert them, and satisfy Openness Theory Blame Avoidance Theory 2008, 57-70. women’s desires. Women who have rape fantasies are generally more open to a The use of force against the self-character’s variety of fantasies; the rape fantasies that occur indicate her will allows the fantasizer to absolve herself of Bivona & Critelli. “Women’s Rape openness to her sexuality. sexual guilt. Reading the Romance: Women, Fantasies: An Empirical Evaluation of Patriarchy, and Popular Literature the Major Explanations.” Archives of Desirability Theory Sympathetic Action Theory Sexual Behavior, 41, 2012, 1107-1119. Some women have rape fantasies to feel that their Janice Radway addresses the popularity “Anxiety, fear, and anger, which activate sympathetic desirability has the power to make men lose decency of romance books containing rape scenes, arousal, can enhance sexual arousal” (Bivona 123). claiming that romance readers are and self-control. repulsed by these scenes, rather than aroused, and that these women read such Hariton’s Descriptive Theory Ovulation Theory Frequent rape fantasies indicate a “dependent…controlled… Evolutionary studies have shown that when they books to work through real anxieties. traditional woman; a variety of fantasies with occasional rape are most fertile, women prefer powerful, more fantasies indicates that the woman is “impulsive, aggressive men; women are more likely to have independent, and dominant” (Bivona 30). rape fantasies during ovulation.