DiMono said:
mike1921 said:
DiMono said:
Aardvaarkman said:
[. . .] it's rather strange that you define rape as "forcing other adults to engage in sexual intercourse" - there's nothing about rape that requires the victim to "engage in sexual intercourse" - it's physical violence that is forced upon them - not something that requires engagement in anything sexual.
Actually, yes, rape is all about sexual intercourse. Rape is the unlawful compelling of a person through physical force or duress to have sexual intercourse. Forced sex is the tool by which the rapist asserts their dominance, which allows them to get off on imposing their will upon the victim. By definition, if there's no sex involved, it's not rape. [https://www.google.ca/search?q=definition+of+rape]
his problem is in the "engage in" part, not the sexual intercourse.
See, I don't think that's the case. Because he specifically said "it's
physical violence that is forced upon them - not something that requires engagement in anything sexual." If you were correct, then the point he would have argued would have been force vs "engage in", but instead he argued sex vs. not sex.
Actually, the "engage in" bit is key to my argument. The point being that rape is a non-consensual activity, one that the victim has no choice in. They don't "engage in" sexual activity, it is forced upon them.
This brings up a higher-order problem - what is "sexual" and why is "sexual violence" different than other forms of violence? Does sex mean it involves genitals? What about breasts? People are sexually aroused by all manner of things. Some people have fetishes about shoes. Does that mean that shoes belong in a special category so they should be protected from shoe rapists?
The whole foundation of this discussion/argument lies on shaky ground when sexuality is mentioned. There are no clear definitions of sex. Our laws and our language surrounding sex are completely inadequate. One needs only to look at pornography to see that almost anything can be considered as a sexual object or subject.
Therefore, rape is very complicated. Many legal definitions of rape include acts that are considered consensual sex by the participants. Similarly, there are legal definitions of rape that exclude forced sexual violation.
In my opinion, "rape" is a type of physical assault. The fact that it's linked to "sex" is a historical artefact, because it's almost impossible to define sex. In previous historical eras, sex was much more narrowly defined. But today, sexual activity is much more widely acknowledged to encompass a huge variety of activities. For examples, in 2012, most people think that it's possible for two women to have sexual intercourse. In earlier times, that would not be considered sex because it didn't involve a penis.