Rape Myths

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that people who report the crime of rape to the authorities are attacked very often because of rape myths. The author points out that rape myths permeate society with their age old rhetoric and transform large scale false beliefs. The paper stresses that rape myths give perpetrators the ability to justify their actions and, at the same time, they discredit the real victims who wish to seek justice. The author underscores that there are numerous rape myths, but the most common ones, which the author examines in detail, are 'you can't rape the willing', 'men are at danger of being falsely accused of rape', 'some categories of forced sex are not really rape' and, the most famous one of all, 'no can mean yes'.

Table of Contents:
Introduction
Impossible to Rape an Unwilling Woman
Women Secretly Want to be Raped
Women Cry Rape
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"Metaphorically speaking, the penis was deemed a weapon and the vagina as a submissive holder for it. The saying implicates that by merely 'vibrating', this holder could fend off the attack. In the words of Michael Ryan, one of the most prominent jurists in the 1830s, it was 'almost impossible' to rape a resisting woman. Children who had claimed that they were raped had to do so very carefully, many at the time considered the rape of a child impossible! John Leeson, who was a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, was one of the professionals who had claimed this."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Benedict, Helen. Virgin or Vamp. New York: Oxford UP, 1992. 13-15.
• Brownmiller, Susan. Against Our Will. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1975. 250-253.
• Childs, Mary, and Louise Ellison. Feminist Perspectives on Evidence. London: Cavendish, 2000. 6 Apr. 2008 <http://books.google.com>.
• Crooks, Robert, and Karla Baur. Our Sexuality. 10th ed. Wadsworth, 2007.
• Groth, Nicholas A., and Jean H. Birnbaum. Men Who Rape: the Psychology of the Offender. New York: Plenum, 1979. 130-152.

More papers on Rape Myths:

• Argumentative Essay # 113299 : "Rape Myths and "Cosmopolitan" Magazine"
• Term Paper # 138813 : "Ambivalent Sexism and Rape Myth Acceptance"
• Argumentative Essay # 92202 : "Rape Myths"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: