Kopikatsu said:
Rape is only traumatic because society says that it should be.
But if you disagree, let me ask this; how is rape objectively bad? 'Violates one's right to their own body' or something similar is not an objective statement, it's a subjective belief and so it's not valid.
Sure, I'm bored. I'll bite. Let's define objectively good or bad as "beneficial to the individual" or "harmful to the individual," with no consideration of rights, freedoms, or emotions (I think these things are critical, but for the sake of argument, I'll leave them out, for now).
Injury is common during rape. Bruises, wounds, and broken bones/missing teeth all weaken the individual, and open the door to infection. In a society where physical appearance/charisma is important for securing work and interaction, a physically damaged face can impact ones ability to function. Likewise, damage to limbs or bones reduce one's ability to move and perform manual work.
STDs can be transmitted during rape. While some STDS are minor nuisances, some, such as HIV, can result in the individual's death. I don't think I need to define how that is detrimental to the individual.
Pregnancy can be very detrimental to the individual. A pregnancy severely reduces ability to function for 9 months, demands consumption of a huge amount of additional resources, can kill the individual, and usually creates a child. Certain biological traps make it difficult for the mother to give up the child, which leads to (at mininum) a dozen years of expended resources for the child's sake.
Ok, so we conclude that objectively, rape is bad for the individual. But what about society? Wouldn't needs of society trump needs of individual, in accordance with most social species' evolution? Let's redefine good or bad as "beneficial to society" or "harmful to society."
The benefit is obvious. More rape = more people. However, the cons outweigh the pros, although I'll have to take some time to explain why.
Unlike most animals, humanity's accomplishment is not based off genetic information passed onto the offspring, but intellectual information passed to the offspring. That is, the modern human is superior to the human 2000 years ago not due to genetics, but due to access to a larger pool of information. This pool of information confers many benefits to individual (longer life cycle, able to produce more children, able to reduce risks and threats to children and self such as disease) and society (elimination/reduction of disease, higher production of food resources). This can be seen in the rapid growth of world population since the industrial revolution. That is, intellectual info passed down is improving humanity's ability to survive at a much more rapid rate than genetic evolution is.
So, what does that have to do with harms of rape in society? A rapist does not stick around for the offspring. That is, the duties of providing resources, securing resources, and educating the child all falls to the mother. While it can work, it reduces the child's ability to learn. The mother must designate more time to resource gathering (working), leaving less time for the child. While the child benefits from genetic information from both mother and father, his ability to learn from the pool of the info (which is more beneficial to humans than genetic evolution) is severely hampered. That is, the child produced of a rape is less valuable to society than a child produced by a couple devoted to raising the child.
Now, I know that you can argue a thousand different scenarios where these things can be avoided, and rape is beneficial (many of the individual harms can occur during consensual sex, etc.)
So that leads to the next question. What are the harms and benefits of consensual sex? That is, what are the harms and benefits of a woman dictating her sexual partners, and having control of her body?
The harm is obvious. Most women have way less children than they are physically capable of, and thus, there are less people in society.
But the benefit is that a child is more likely to be produced of a father who will stick around (that is, the father must prove he is a worthy mate, and will stay after the child). Yes, true, fathers often abandon the offspring, and oftentimes sex is initiated by seduction rather than "you are worthy to father my babies". But by having an increased chance of the father sticking around, there is an increased chance of the child being able to learn from both parents, and be more beneficial to society.
And finally, while not objective, emotions/rights are critical to society. If people do not have basic rights, society is less productive. This can be seen in how in times of peace/stability, great contributions were made to the pool of humanity's information. The Greek's accomplishments, the Renaissance, the Scientific Revolution, and the Industrial Revolution all occurred in societies that were stable, and guarenteed certain rights (life, property, etc). That is, when less time had to be contributed to ensuring one's own survival, things could be discovered to benefit humanity. This has mostly been done by men throughout history, as women were forced primarily into caring for children.
The majority of modern studies have concluded that women and men, although different, are intellectually equal. That is, a woman is capable of making the same advances as a man, if guaranteed the same rights. However, if a woman has to devote resources to caring for a child she did not choose to have, then she has less time to make the advances which benefits humanity further than reproduction.
TLDR: Rape makes the victim less capable to survive. Man is less likely to stick around, which impacts the child's ability (and the child's contribution to society). For humanity, fostering and passing on intellectual info is more important than making more humans (which is different from every other animal species on the planet, where rape is a benefit). Finally, forced to deal with a child reduces the victim's ability to contribute to humanity's pool of information.
One objective arguement on the problem with rape, and why it is bad for humanity. Enjoy.
