Pornography: Men Possessing Women, by: Andrea ... - Feminish

encouragement was nothing of the sort is in real danger if heattempts, by physical force, to detain a frightened girl in orderto calm her and make his apologies. Assault with intent to rapeis a charge that requires very little in the way of physicalcontact, and judges and juries are apt to be cynical toward theman who disclaims any intention to rape. Men, knowingthemselves, are prone to assume the worst about another mancharged with a sex offense. 79The authority of the scientist, which is the authority of the male,permits this astonishing somersault. Suddenly, the male, recognizinghis own desire to rape, will attribute an intention to rape toother males, virtually without evidence. The male, convicted forusing force (an astonishment in and of itself), might well have beenattempting to comfort a hysterical female whom he innocentlymisunderstood—probable because the provocative behavior of thefemale is so misleading. The projection of the male judge or juror (anecessary construct, since it is hard to blame the female directlywhen she is not allowed on juries nor is she on the bench; womenwere systematically excluded from serving on juries until recently,women are still systematically excluded from the judiciary) is usedto posit the essential blamelessness of the man whose use of forcewas in fact so gross that not only was he convicted of a sex offensebut even the authors of Sex Offenders had to create a category for himin which the use of force established the parameters of the category.Needless to say, if one has managed to obscure the meaning offorce when used by adult men against females under the age oftwelve and females aged twelve to fifteen, it is unlikely that the useof force in sex against adult women will be a compelling issue.In the category called “heterosexual offenders vs. adults, ” the useof force is excluded by definition. This is a remarkable categorybecause the scientists basically conclude that the men in thiscategory were convicted for having consensual coitus with femaleswho were adult—by their definition, over the age of fifteen. Thisconclusion is in part held to be self-evident because three-quartersof the females attacked were friends of the offenders and the sexualact at issue occurred in a residence.