On Rape

Angelica, in response to nasty and disheartening polling, writes:

I wonder how much of the damage done to rape victims occur after the attack, either from the victim-blaming attitudes of the society if she chooses to pursue her case, or in the shame and guilt she feels because she internalized those attitudes.
I wonder how much women who are not raped lose nevertheless because of the curbs placed on their freedom through fear of rape -- is that skirt too short, is that makeup too provocative, is walking alone in the dark tantemont to asking for it.
I wonder how much men who are not rapists lose nevertheless because women are taught to treat them all as potential rapists.

I can't answer the first two, but I know it was a pretty bizarre experience going through school and puberty while much of the discussion around rape presumed that Men Rape, period. Now, I went to a pretty bad school for that - the two teachers hated children first, and especially male children - but it gives you some weird issues growing up, when you have to second guess your own (already confused) feelings while you go through the normal vicissitudes of puberty.

I've long since come to the conclusion that merely having a Y chromosome does not mean I am going to rape anyone, but the statistics don't lie, either. Men - especially young men - are responsible for the vast majority of violence and violent crime, throughout history and across borders. It's kind of unsettling to know that I belong to a dangerous demographic, and I have since before I was born.