What is "rape: a bigger danger than feminist know" by camille paglia about?

Question

what is this article about, what is it trying to tell the audience, are you for or against it? what is the point of this article? i know that it has to do with rape, but what is it mostly about, can someone please explain it to me with more detail so that i can understand it better, thanks :)

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Voters

Hi Yoli,
I haven't read Paglia's article but I think I've got the basics from the critiques I've read. Feminist theory of rape is that it's not about sex, it's about power. They also contend that the perpetrator of the crime is always responsible for their choice to rape. It is never the fault of the victim/survivor.
A popular feminist perspective is that women have the human right to exist in a world without the constant fear of rape.
It seems that Paglia is suggesting that under some circumstances the victim is to blame for someone deciding to assault them. Women (she suggests) should know that men have urges and basic instincts that a woman should be aware of and therefore avoid situations where those urges might lead to rape. Failure to do so means you share the blame for any assault.
As far as leading some women into danger... I think she's saying that the feminist thoughts that a woman has a right to safety is leading some women, particularly young women, into a false sense of security which puts them in harms way when they should know better. For instance they shouldn't go drinking with men.
I think that's the basics of it. Below is an extract from a paper on it that probably explains it in more detail.
I hope that helps.
Wendy

Paglia's thesis was, "Rape is an outrage that cannot be tolerated in civilized society. Yet feminism, which has waged a crusade for rape to be taken more seriously, has put young women in danger by hiding the truth about sex from them." (Page 540) Her argument here is that because feminism is hiding the truth about sex from women, it is putting them in a sexual danger.

Paglia is trying to inform women about the dangers of mixed signals and that a women must be careful herself so that confusion for a man does not occur; men will not be able to use confusion as an excuse for a rape and women will generally be more safe if they are careful about who they are with and where they are at.

She points out that it is a woman who is stupid for not using her common sense and isolating herself from her girlfriends to be around men, and on top of that getting drunk and losing
control over herself. Likewise, she feels that in cases like these a women shouldn't even blame the men for raping her, instead they should have had known it was meant to happen and in which case should have been cautioned. The real person to be blamed for this situation was the girl and her stupidity.
More: see first link

I've also put on another page that discusses this editorial.

Source(s):

http://www.oppapers.com/essays/Rape/9804…
http://www.progressiveu.org/064011-rape-…