sunny@sun.uucp (Sunny Kirsten) (11/10/84)
> Surgical castration need not be the only method considered. After all there > are other less drastic wasy to accomplish the same end. > > Consider if you will the end result of implanting, surgically, a time released > supply of female hormones in a male body adequate for perhaps a year and > renewed under court order for a) a set period of time or b) life. > Adding female hormones is not the same as removing the male hormones. Removing the testes prevents reproduction also, which adding female hormones would not. That's an advantage, unless you WANT to propogate the genes of rapists (which I guess is how we got into castration). I'm not sure that castration is the answer to rape, but as long as we're discussing it... let's get the facts on hormones straight. Personally, I believe that the problem/solution to criminal proclivities is guaranteed jail time... as opposed to our revolving-door due-procces "legal" system, which guarantees that even murder will only carry a "life" sentence of seven years(given good behavior in jail). When "life" again means until death, and criminals carry in their hearts the fear of incarceration or death, then there's a chance they might think twice before committing a crime. Let's not just pick on rapists... (oh, wait, this is net.women, and the discussion started as, what do we do about rape?). I also think we're missing the point by devolving into squabbles over how to treat the criminals who perpetrate rape. I think the bottom-line issue is one of social conditioning, sex-roles, and power-roles, of our existing society, which allow men to feel that they have power over women, and to ignore when a woman says "no". The solution will not be found in what we do with men who have commited rape and been convicted by our "put the woman on trial" court system, but instead by how we raise our boy children. Let's get back to the root cause of "rapist behavior". Why does a boy/man grow up to become a rapist? What aspects of society/home need to be changed so that future men do not become rapists? Let's cut off the source of new rapists, rather than the balls of existing ones. I think it would be more constructive to work toward keeping criminals IN jail rather than allowing them back on the streets to have the opportunity to repeat their crimes (which statistics prove is usually the case with rapists), and to work on changing our social/moral training to prevent the growth of new rapists. Women: are you doing everything you can as mothers/wives/etc. to come done hard on every man in your life who shows an accepting attitude as opposed to a disapproving attitude toward rape? We have to educate everyone. Do not sit quietly while those around you accept rape as normal. Men: examine thine attitudes toward rape. Regardless of what the courts do, you know it's wrong for any person (man) to violate the sanctity of another human (woman) as in the case of rape. Aside from mass education against rape, we might look at constructive alternatives. For those of you who believe the reason for rape is "sex", what do you think of "sex" being legally available (a la prostitution) as an alternative to forcefully taking it from a random non-consenting woman? For those of you who believe rape is a crime of violence, have you thought about the implications of having your children (of both sexes) viewing hour after hour of sanctified murder, mayhem, violence, and lack of human values as evidenced in normal TeleVision fare, versus the fact that TV could be showing the positive value of loving and caring for your fellow humans? How many times have your children viewed the positive loving aspects of sex versus the number of times they've seen it connected with violence on the boobtoob? For those who believe castration is the answer, think on this... for every rapist you succeed in castrating, how many more are concurrently being created simply by the fact of allowing the TeleVision to be the PRIME source of social "values?" we educate our children with? Do you really believe that you can "fix" a psychological problem (the rapists mind) by cutting off his balls, or incarcerating him? I suggest the answer lies in the home, in the social values we impart to our children, the place where rapists are CREATED. Throw out your television. It is the largest source of mind pollution and newspeak you can brainwash your children with. Watch your children playing, carefully, and observe their adoption of the values they are surrounded with. Do you use the vidiot box as a babysitter? Is that a good idea? No way. When did you last write your local television station, or the networks, requesting less violence and more sex on television? Without healthy models of "normal" sex for our children to view, and with all the unhealthy violence they are inundated with, what do you expect them to grow up to be but rapists? Why does the motion picture rating system concentrate on sex rather violence? Why don't we let every age view healthy loving sex, and limit access to violence to parental guidance? Why do you believe that violence is OK, but sex is not? Why do you allow this warped sense of values into YOUR home? Farenheit (umm...what is the temperature of a burning television?) -- mail ucbvax\!sun\!sunny decvax\!sun\!sunny ihnp4\!sun\!sunny<<EOF EOF
edhall@randvax.UUCP (Ed Hall) (11/15/84)
I suspect that castration and other such mutilation will only encourage further violence. By angering men who already feel resentment against women, castrating rapists (especially with the current unlikelihood of being caught and convicted) would be likely to increase the rape rate. -Ed