Why is rape or even just sex worse than death?

[Erana]

Because rape is about dominance. Look at a child abuse or long term school bullying or ostracism victim, someone who has been completely dehumanized, dominated, and subjugated. Now condense those years of abuse into one single episode. That's why.

I think it's insulting to compare 1 episode of rape to years of mental abuse.

Rape can and at time does fuck people over that badly.
General mental abuse occurs in varying degrees.

Honestly, they're too different in my book to compare, especially without any context with which to appraise, but I can't help but feel that you're underestimating the potential devastation rape can cause.

Still, OP, sex is to rape as murder is to violently killing (a most likely innocent) someone while reveling in their death while making damned sure they know you're enjoying it.

Yeah, contemporary society is really weird when it comes to sex, but you really should start with making nonsexual nudity not be a social taboo before jumping to the "why not let people have rape sims" topic.
I'm sorry, but no. Rape is too serious a topic for general entertainment. To be frank, most people just suck at writing competently on the topic of rape. Bad use of rape is a Mary Sue trait.
And if someone, somehow works rape into a video game properly, it... well, it generally goes unnoticed in the grand scheme of the gaming world because it works. Or its The Path.
Same thing with children getting hurt. People complain it doesn't happen in games, but it does happen a lot.
... Also like The Path.

Jesus, I think I was a bit too young when I first played that game.

Part of it has to do with feminist activists, while rape has been considered pretty bad for a very long time, it's now skewed ridiculously out of proportion. I believe that the governments of the world passed new legislation without proper rational thought regarding rape, all to quickly appease the growing hoard of angry women crying out for "justice" and equal rights.

It's not just the media, it's the laws that are messed up, the sex offender registry in particular. There is only one type of offence that will literally follow you around for the rest of your life, a sexual offence.

You can commit murder, be convicted and serve your time, be released and be allowed to start over again and live a new life. You can make a drunken mistake and rape a woman, be convicted, serve your time, be released and you will never be allowed to have a normal life again. All because the governments will not let people forget what you've done, posting your name on websites and everything, even making it law in some cases to announce to everybody you meet that you're a sex offender. Justice...

Rape is more than just "Have sex with someone who didn't openly concent and was of legal age." Rape is a concept that describes total, violent domination of another entity. "The Rape of Nanking" isn't just called that because of the comfort women.

I really feel like the courts messed up by calling any sex that the law doesn't agree with "rape." Pinning an unwilling victim down and fucking their brains out is blatant rape. An 18-year-old having concentual sex with their 16-year-old boyfriend isn't anywhere near that level. Having sex with someone when you're both blitzed out of your mind isn't the same thing either. They should be "Unlawful sex" or "Unconcented sex," but not rape.
It muddies the meaning of something truly horrifying.

But the treatment of sexual offenders is another issue entirely; someone jacking off in the theater also has to bare the label of sex offender.

Just please, don't categorize all rape as some kids getting stupid over a weekend. Rape can be genuinely horrible and leave emotional scars for the rest of the victim's life.

 

[renegade7]

Because rape is about dominance. Look at a child abuse or long term school bullying or ostracism victim, someone who has been completely dehumanized, dominated, and subjugated. Now condense those years of abuse into one single episode. That's why.

I think it's insulting to compare 1 episode of rape to years of mental abuse.

I'm not necessarily comparing. It's about a person's humanity and dignity. In either case, it's about a person's sense of value, humanity, and dignity being taken from them. Sometimes it takes one traumatic episode, sometimes it happens over years. In either case, the end result is a person who has been made to feel completely worthless.

 

[Terminal Blue]

snip

I think your question is misleading, to a degree.

Obviously, rape is not worth than death. In many cases people who are raped do not resist out of fear, often the fear of being murdered, so the idea that rape is a worse experience or that people fear rape more is obviously false.

Rape is not different because it's worse, it's different because it's too close for comfort. Practically everyone is going to have sex at some point, and rape is functionally equivalent to having sex. It's the same action in a different context. That's why it's disturbing, because it violates the boundary between something you do and enjoy and something which you are horrified by.

This goes back to Sigmund Freud, although I think it's Julia Kristeva who said it best. People don't fear things which are remote and distant, like some non-entity movie character being blown up by an action hero. They fear things which they can't separate themselves from, which seem to violate the boundaries of their personal identity.

People like having sex, and in order to like having sex in a guilt-free way they generally have to hate the possibility that they might rape someone.

Incidentally, I knew some revolting shit was going to come out in this thread. But please people, think about what you say.

 

[Jadak]

Not many people stick around to complain about having died, the same can't be said of rape.

In other words, death is something we only fear in an abstract sense. For the non religious, it's simply fearing the end of who we are, or the unknown. If your religious, you might not even view it as a bad thing at all.

Rape on the other hand, is the opposite of that. It's tangible fear based on easily understandable and relate events, more in line with a fear of being burned, or stabbed, but with an extra touch of personal violation throw in.

 

[Erana]

Obviously, rape is not worth than death. In many cases people who are raped do not resist out of fear, often the fear of being murdered, so the idea that rape is a worse experience or that people fear rape more is obviously false.

I don't think you have the authority to make that judgement.

 

[Scorpid]

I would say its because we've been desensitized to killing because of violent movies. How many times do we laugh at Steven Segal doing corny one liners as he blows off some dudes head. Would we laugh if Steven Segal did corny one liners while ass raping those same guys then killing them? I think yes we would. Remember how mad T-bagging in Halo made people at first now it's something we laugh at even with all the homophobic implications.
But there is also the fact that heros can die. In real life Good guys, bad guys, your mother, grandmother we're surrounded by death even if it's always in the periphery of our mind. So seeing it is much less of a shock on screen then rape.
In fact I would say we see this play out in real life already. I was watching Girl with the Dragon Tattoo in theaters and there is a scene SPOILER where the protagonist rapes her rapist. At the first scene where she is raped everyone gasps and what not and when SHE rapes him (not in a fun way) all the men in the audience still gasped like they did the first time, but all the ladies cheered. I was confused by this till I thought of how much women think about rape in their daily life (again not in a good way). Like when I see a dark sketchy alley as a guy my concern is ultimately only death. When a women sees that alley way her concern is death and/or rape. So back at the movie the fact that that our protagonist was raping someone, even if it was by the protagonist, was not as shocking to them as it was to us.

 

[Craorach]

I think Rape also has an instinctive issue to it.

In more tribal societies, women would be captured by conquering or raiding forces, and no doubt rape was a part of that. The be killed in war was one thing, but to be captured and forced to betray your family by bearing the children of your enemy would have been a far more unpleasant experience. This is no longer something we find acceptable, but it has left a lasting mark on our cultures and society.

There is also the other matter, of course. One of the reasons we find rape so disgusting, is that sex is an enjoyable thing to us... and our body can "enjoy" it even when the individual does not want to. We are no longer animals and we no longer, socially or psychologically, consider the strength to take a woman to be all that is needed.. however, sex is a biological matter and our bodies can accept things that we do not. Both genders can find the idea of sex arousing even if it is forced, and even if they don't want to find it so.

 

[GlenTheFox]

Death is a natural part of life and more easily understood as 'acceptable,' whereas rape is a violation of another being, and we see this as being wrong both morally and socially. Easiest way for me to put it, I guess.

 

[AmrasCalmacil]

Rape is a perversion of one of the most beautiful, natural things that humans can do. Not only is there the obvious mental torture, but there's also the potential for pretty grievous internal damage.

I'd say the revulsion to it is both a mix of society and psychology. I'd like to think that most people wouldn't genuinely want to see another human being in physical or mental anguish, it's a disturbing thing, but there's also the whole existence of these warrior cultures in the past that made a sport of it, and horrific events not too long ago like the Yugoslav Genocide, it might well be the dehumanization of their enemies, but that has to come from within the society.

Adding a feature where you can rape to a mainstream game would be a terrible, terrible idea. Hell, even including a well portrayed rape scene into a mainstream game would be a bad idea due to how harrowing it would be. We kill hundreds through the course of a game without batting an eye, but look closely into a game such as say, Red Orchestra 2, where the act of killing is sometimes slowed down, humanised, you hear your enemy's screams and even after you've put them down, their dying breaths and gargles still fill the air, and even something we've grown accustomed to as a feature of most games can be made that much more disturbing.

 

[Freechoice]

Because when you die, you don't have to spend the rest of your life dealing with the trauma.

How do you know that?

Besides, you can at least get psychiatric help to cope with the trauma. Once you're dead, well [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzwmsI9ydrE#t=1m18s]...

 

[Destude]

Are you all fucking retarded? Rape has nothing on being killed. The only reason this is even a topic is because shows on tv allow people to die yet if someone has a nip slip it's fucking catastrophic. Society is retarded on matters like this. I'll take being raped over being killed any day of the god damn week.

 

[JaceArveduin]

Time cannot heal death.

In fact, Time is Death's ally, when you really think about it

 

[Terminal Blue]

I don't think you have the authority to make that judgement.

If rape is worse than death, then everyone who is raped should fight to the last breath to prevent it, even if it means their own death. Therefore, if you didn't struggle hard enough, it wasn't rape. Do you see the problem?

For the record, I once knew someone who killed themselves as a direct result of being raped, so don't pretend like I'm measuring the objective worth of experiences. Despite the pain of that event I never judged that person and I never will.

But I'm not going along with any kind of bullshit which claims that death is somehow better or more noble than being raped. I'm not devaluing the experience of other people who survived by saying it would be better if they had died or killed themselves so they wouldn't have to live with the experience, because how fucking insulting would that be?

I'm also not ignoring the vast majority of actual rape experiences for the sake a convenient lie that rape victims always struggle.

Sorry, this whole thing puts me in a bad mood. You can probably figure out why from the above. It's nothing personal.

 

[AquaAscension]

Obviously this is not a new thought. But I'm thinking more from a biology/psychology perspective. If I see a sexual crime I'm like ewww, but if I see someone's head being ripped off I'm like eh.

This applies to games much more than other mediums too. Can you imagine the uproar if you could rape someone in a mainstream game? But killing people, well, I'm sure you can finish this thought off.

Is this a societal thing, caused by the Abrahamic religions?

Is it biological?

What gives?

CAPTCHA: marry me. If only I could, captcha, if only I could...

I think it's just a matter of exposure to it. We don't really see sexual assault very much in games or movies or television shows because it's a violation of honor/rights... Really, very many things. Also, it's not a very good motivation for a character in a role. I'll get back to this in a few.

Murder becomes a good reason for someone to get some kind of revenge. The crime has been committed, the stuff victim can no longer take action for him or herself and "needs" some other actor to do something in order to get closure. With sexual assault, the victim is still alive but destroyed in a different way. I think the reason that there aren't very many rapes etc. is that it's not a good plot point. If the protagonist is avenging his/her dead something, it's seen as something of a noble act. If the protagonist is avenging his/her assaulted female friend, it's looked at as honor killing or something - it also removes the autonomy of the victim.

For an assault to be a viable plot line, it would probably require the victim to do something. This kind of a plot is mostly a psychological or internal struggle. It's difficult to make a realized "battle" or "fight" out of that, and that sort of story would require the protagonist be female. Not many of those in games either.

So... those are really more thoughts than an answer, but oh well. It's something at least I suppose.

 

[Vault101]

But there is also the fact that heros can die. In real life Good guys, bad guys, your mother, grandmother we're surrounded by death even if it's always in the periphery of our mind. So seeing it is much less of a shock on screen then rape.
I was watching Girl with the Dragon Tattoo in theaters and there is a scene SPOILER where the protagonist rapes her rapist. At the first scene where she is raped everyone gasps and what not and when SHE rapes him (not in a fun way) all the men in the audience still gasped like they did the first time, but all the ladies cheered. I was confused by this till I thought of how much women think about rape in their daily life (again not in a good way). Like when I see a dark sketchy alley as a guy my concern is ultimately only death. When a women sees that alley way her concern is death and/or rape. So back at the movie the fact that that our protagonist was raping someone, even if it was by the protagonist, was not as shocking to them as it was to us.

while it was hard not to feel a certain "serves you right you sick bastard!" both in the book and the film...

to be fair I dont think lisbeths actions were suposed to be considered nessicaryly the best thing, its made pretty clear to us she has some serious issues

though it was rather evilily brillaint of her

 

[Wintermoot]

it,s a American thing for some reason it,s worse when somebody suckles a boob then when it get,s sliced of.
no other country (except maybe strong Islamic countries) are this anal about sex.

 

[gigastar]

From the victims perspective, death is the end of everything. Including the mental and physical trauma, while rape (and other tortures) will have lasting effects of both the physical and mental variety.

You see in some work of fiction where a character goes in for torture to then return much later as a realative shadow of what said character once was? Has real life basis. Not pretty but true.

 

[Zeckt]

I am at least glad that every one of you who is talking about rape has not just pigeon holed it to women, as boys / men can be victims too and its just as traumatizing and degrading. It's really nice to of found such an open minded and mature forum.