jeand@ihlpg.UUCP (AMBAR) (08/09/85)
> The netters who have stuck to the "provocative clothing" argument so > tenaciously keep on telling those of us who tried to point out the > stupidity of that argument that rapists are humans not animals, and we > should therefore be interested in what they think. This is an > extremely good point. I think that the proponents of the "provocative > clothing" explanation should apply it to themselves. Rapists are not > like bulls who run because they see a red flag waved in front of them, > yet some people on the net who try to have us believe that rape can be > explaned in such simplistic animalistic terms. Who is calling who an > animal here? (besides, even bull's motives might be more complicated > than that). If rape was as simplistic an issue as that, we'd see more > occurence of it among the so-called "lower" animals, whose actions are > supposedly dictated even more by their hormones and the visual cues they > receive from the females of their species. Yet non-human animals do not > rape (which might suggest that it might be insulting to animals to call > rapists animals <-:). Interestingly enough, rape behavior *has* been documented in feral horses. The herd consists of a head stallion and a harem of mares. Mares come into heat every month, for about one week. Sometimes two stallions will fight for dominance over the herd. In cases where the 'newcomer' wins, rape behavior has been observed in that the new stallion will breed with mares who are pregnant or otherwise not in heat. The prevailing theory is that it is to establish dominance over the new social group. I think that this adds more evidence against the "provocative clothing" argument, as the mares are not at all sexually receptive (ie, "provocative"). However, it is not true that non-human animals do not rape. This was documented in the magazine EQUUS, sometime within the last six months. Sorry I can't be more specific (month, title, author) but my copy is 1500 miles away just now.... > Sophie Quigley AMBAR {*ANYTHING*}!ihnp4!ihlpg!jeand "I told you when I *MET* you that I was crazy, and you weren't listening!"