The Social Production of Rapable Bodies and Rapist Mentalities
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Consuming Others: The Social Production of Rapable Bodies and Rapist Mentalities Submitted by Martin Baxter to the University of Exeter as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Sexuality and Gender Studies in October 2013 This thesis is available for Library use on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. I certify that all material in this thesis which is not my own work has been identified and that no material has previously been submitted and approved for the award of a degree by this or any other University. Signature: ………………………………………………………….. 1 2 Abstract Sexual violence is ubiquitous throughout the Anglophone West and shows no sign of abating. Feminist analysis has long demonstrated that this is a problem grounded in gender relations, patterns of masculine socialisation, and patriarchal social organisation. However, this thesis proposes that the roots of the Anglophone West’s rape culture also extend far beyond matters of gender and sexuality, deep into the core of the dominant culture itself. Setting feminist theory in dialogue with wider socio-cultural analysis, the research explores the complex relationships between the prevailing ideologies, ethics, systems, structures and practices of the dominant culture and the Anglophone West’s high incidence of sexual violence. In so doing, it reveals that, contrary to popular misconceptions, rape is neither a ‘natural’ nor a ‘savage’ act but a highly ‘civilised’ one which expresses the foundational philosophies of Anglophone Western culture in a sexualised, gendered form. Specifically, it shows that sexual objectification, which presents women as little more than ‘rapable bodies’, is part of a far wider pattern of normalised objectification developing from the Anglophone West’s underlying belief that some lives are worth less than others and so may be legitimately used and ‘consumed’ for personal gain. Expanding this to include analysis of men who commit sexual violence, it also establishes that perpetrators’ ‘rapist mentalities’, or the modes of thought and relation that enable and motivate rapists to commit rape, function as interpersonal, gendered expressions of the Anglophone West’s celebration of and reliance upon exploitation, conquest and coercive rule. Through these arguments, the thesis ultimately demonstrates that rape is not only an act of gender violence but also an inevitable manifestation of the dominant culture of the Anglophone West at large which can be fully addressed and challenged only by expanding analytical frameworks to include broad socio-cultural critiques and diverse social justice activism. In taking this position, the thesis expands understanding of rape beyond the limits of existing research and raises significant issues for both future scholarship and the ongoing struggle against sexual violence. 3 4 Contents Introduction.................................................................... 9 The Scale of Enquiry: The ‘Anglophone West’ and Sexual Violence............13 Methodology: Revisiting and Revising Radical Feminism............................20 Beyond Patriarchy: Expanding the Rape Culture Paradigm.........................34 Dissecting a Rape Culture: Structuring the Argument.................................42 Consuming Others: Civilisation, Savagery and Sexual Violence...................48 Nafissatou Diallo vs. Dominique Strauss-Kahn: An Overview.......................48 ‘Dualistic Thinking’ and the ‘Discourses of Civilisation’.................................52 The Civilised/Primitive Dualism..................................................................58 ‘Civilisation’, ‘Savages’ and Sexual Violence...............................................61 Western Feminism, Naturalised Rape and the ‘Primitive Rapist’...................67 Giving Rape its (Pre)History: Brownmiller’s Uncivilised Origins of Rape........71 Beyond Savagery: Brownmiller, Dowd and ‘Progress’..................................76 Culture and Rape.....................................................................................81 Brownmiller and the ‘Typical Rapist’...........................................................83 ‘Powerful Men Don’t Commit Rape’: Problems with ‘the Typical Rapist’.........88 Brownmiller and ‘The Subculture of Violence’..............................................91 Feminism, Rape and Violence....................................................................93 5 Beyond Subcultures and Scapegoats: Rape, War and Hegemonic Masculinity.................................................97 Making War, Making Rapists: Zurbriggen and Causality.............................100 Beyond the Military: The Limits of Zurbriggen’s Focus on War....................103 Objectifying and Consuming Others: The Dominant Culture of the Anglophone West.....................................108 In a World of Objects: The Social Production of Rapable Bodies......................111 The Anglophone West: A Superculture of Objectification............................112 The Underlying Philosophy of Objectification.............................................119 ‘Rape Prone’ and ‘Rape Free’: Cross-Cultural Analysis of Rape..................122 Underlying Philosophies and Rape: Native North America and the West......125 Objectification, Rape and ‘Systems of Oppression’ in Western Socio-Political Organisation.................................................138 Intersectional Objectification and Sexual Violence......................................144 Sexual Savages and Objectified Animals: White-Supremacist Oppression and Rape.............................................146 Always Consenting: The ‘Unrapability’ of ‘Promiscuous’ Black Women.........152 Trafficked Bodies and Disposable Lives: Anti-Immigrant Oppression and Rape....................................................157 ‘Fair Game’: Rape and the Objectification of Sex Workers...........................168 Complexes of Oppression: The Intersectional Objectification of Survivors........................................176 Abusive Culture: The Civilised Foundations of Rape...................................182 6 Culture of Abuse: The Social Production of Rapist Mentalities................188 Myths and Misconceptions: The Natural Rapist and the Aberrant Rapist.........................................188 Learning to Harm Others: Socialisation and Inhibitions against Abuse..........................................192 Overcoming Inhibitions: Three Rape-Enabling Components of Rapist Mentalities........................200 Being a Man: Self-Interest, Lack of Inhibitory Empathy and a Sense of Entitlement......205 The Normality of Harming Others: The Anglophone West’s Culture of Abuse..............................................223 Real Men: Masculinity, Heterosex and Rape Motivations.............................232 Patriarchal Power or Personal Power?: Exploring Domination Motivations.........................................................242 Displaying Dominance: Rape and Power...................................................253 Conquest and Control: Sexual Violence in a Culture of Domination...........................................261 Conclusion....................................................................270 Dominant Culture as Rape Culture: The Case against the ‘Civilised’ Anglophone West................................273 A Holistic Analysis of the Anglophone West’s Rape Culture: Conclusions and Implications..............................................................285 The ‘Global’ and the ‘Local’: Limitations, Further Research and Hope..............................................292 Bibliography.................................................................296 7 8 Introduction On December 16th 2012, an unnamed woman was beaten and gang raped by six men whilst travelling on a bus in Munirka district of New Delhi; despite emergency treatment, her injuries—which included the rapists ripping out her intestines—were so severe that she died in hospital thirteen days later.1 Media response was swift and extensive, with numerous articles and reports from around the world expressing outrage, shock and disgust at the attack. In the Anglophone West, much of this coverage treated the issue as a specifically Indian problem, laying the blame on the country’s ‘deeply entrenched patriarchy and widespread misogyny’ and its men’s ‘murderous, hyena-like male contempt’ for women.2 Recalling the colonial treatment of sati or self-immolation in the nineteenth century, sexual violence in India was presented as a symptom of India’s supposedly primitive barbarism with journalists deploring the country’s ‘medieval attitudes towards women’ and speculating whether ‘gang-rape shame could drag India into 21st century’.3 Alongside this narrative, however, there emerged another which challenged the implied image of the West as a paragon of gender equality and ‘progressive’ attitudes to violence and abuse. This narrative argued that, 1 Dominique Mosbergen, ‘Delhi Bus Gang Rape Victim has Intestines Removed as Shocking Details of Assault Emerge’ (20/12/2012) <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/20/delhi- bus-gang-rape-victim-intestines-shocking-details_n_2340721.html> [accessed 1 September 2013]; Ravi Nessman and Heather Tan, ‘India gang rape victim dies in hospital’ (28/12/2012) <http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/india-gangrape-victim-dies-in-hospital- 8432561.html> [accessed 1 September 2013]. 2 Soutik Biswas,