Rape Mentality

To the Editors of The Crimson:

For the purposes of treatment of the rape trauma syndrome experienced by sexual assault victims, rape is defined as violence against a person in which sex is used as the weapon. Control of the most private part of one's self is wrested violently in rape. A strict legal definition of rape construes it as nonconsensual penetration of any body orifice by any instrument.

By either definition, it is clear that Holly Idelson (April 3 issue "Behind Closed Doors") was too mild in her otherwise laudatory article criticizing the Pi Eta Club Newsletter which began "Before we get in any discussion about the amazing rounding of private parts some poor suspecting fat load is going to take this Saturday night by your huge and erect penis..." This is not simply sexist. This is "rapist," or "pro-rape" (I note that Ms. Idelson did make a passing reference to rape imagery). The link between violence and male sexuality, which is precisely the operative factor in rape, is sickeningly, terrifyingly obvious here. "A bevy of slobbering bovines fresh for the slaughter" is typical of an attitude that not simply objectifies, but dehumanizes women to the degree that they can be sexually abused and raped with impunity.

It is time we face up to the fact that society daily condones, if not actively supports, attitudes, imagery, and actions that promote the dehumanization and tape (physical, psychological or emotional violation) of women. Men amused at or gratified by the imagery in the Pi Eta Club newsletter are no different from those men who cheered on the rapists at Big Dan's.

And while we are facing up to facts--when will The Crimson itself stop supporting the dehumanization and sexual abuse of women by carrying ads for pornographic magazines (a tasteful seven pages distant from Ms. Idelson's article)? Like rape, pornography is based on the premise that male control of female sexuality is okay--in fact "more fun" (because violent) than sexual activity that is mutually agreed to. Pornographic magazines make female sexuality and male violent fantasy about it available at the flip of a page, no consent required.

Last, I might add that the Pi Eta letter is a horrifying reminder to women who are rape survivors (of which there are hundreds at Radcliffe) of what can only be described as the most dehumanizing moment of their lives. Had the newsletter's author known this, he may have thought twice about writing. Then again, maybe not. Caristine Hayes '83-4