Millar, “Meet the Predators”

1. Millar, “Meet the Predators” • If a survey asks men, for example, if they ever “had sexual intercourse with someone, even though they did not want to, because they were too intoxicated (on alcohol or drugs) to resist your sexual advances,” some of them will say yes, as long as the questions don’t use the “R” word.

2. Lesak & Miller (2002) • Repeat Rape and Multiple Offending Among Undetected Rapists • (1) Have you ever been in a situation where you tried, but for various reasons did not succeed, in having sexual intercourse with an adult by using or threatening to use physical force (twisting their arm, holding them down, etc.) if they did not cooperate? • (2) Have you ever had sexual intercourse with someone, even though they did not want to, because they were too intoxicated (on alcohol or drugs) to resist your sexual advances (e.g., removing their clothes)? • (3) Have you ever had sexual intercourse with an adult when they didn’t want to because you used or threatened to use physical force (twisting their arm; holding them down, etc.) if they didn’t cooperate? • (4) Have you ever had oral sex with an adult when they didn’t want to because you used or threatened to use physical force (twisting their arm; holding them down, etc.) if they didn’t cooperate?

3. Lesak & Miller (2002) • 1882 college students, ages 18 to 71 • median age of 26.5 • 120 men (6%) admitted to raping to attempting to rape • Of these 120 admitted rapists, only about 30% reported using force or threats, while the remainder raped intoxicated victims. • Approximately same rate between the 44 rapists who reported one assault and the 76 who reported multiple assaults.

4. Lesak & Miller (2002) • The surveys covered other violent acts • Including slapping or choking an intimate partner, physically or sexually abusing a child, and sexual assaults other than attempted or completed rapes. • The 76 repeat rapists (4% of the sample of 1882), were responsible for 28% of the reported violence. • All 1882 men reported just under 4000 violent acts, but this 4% of recidivist rapists results in over 1000 of those violent acts.

5. McWhorter (2002) • Male Navy recruits • 1146 participants, 144 (13%) admitted an attempted or completed rape • Lisak & Miller: 6% • 71% of the men who admitted an attempted or completed rape admitted more than one • Lisak & Miller: 63% • 96 men who admitted multiple attempted or completed rapes averaged 6.36 assaults each. • Lisak & Miller: average of 5.8 assaults per recidivist. • Of the 865 total attempted or completed rapes these men admitted to, 95% were committed by 96 men, or just 8.4% of the sample.

6. McWhorter (2002) • 61% of the reported attacks intoxication-based • 23% were overt force alone • 16% were both • Rapists who admitted ever assaulting strangers less than a quarter of the rapist population • More than 90% targeted acquaintances some of the time • About 75% said they only targeted acquaintances. • 7% of all the self-reported rapists reported targeting only strangers • No overlap between the men who said they targeted strangers and those who used only force.

7. McWhorter (2002) • “Of the men who used only force against their victims, none reported raping a stranger; all the men knew their victims… [T]he stereotypical rape incident characterized by a man violently attacking a stranger was not reported by any of the respondents. Instead, respondents who used only force against their victims reported raping only women they knew. Men who targeted strangers exclusively reported they used substances only in the rape incident. • These findings may help explain why most self-reported [attempted or completed rape] incidents go undetected.”

8. “The vast majority of the offenses are being committed by a relatively small group of men, somewhere between 4% and 8% of the population, who do it again … and again … and again”

9. http://www.rainn.org/get-information/statistics/reporting-rateshttp://www.rainn.org/get-information/statistics/reporting-rates

10. Millar & ValentiPurity Culture & Rape Culture “Rape is an act of war against women, one that can be committed only because of an entire culture of support”

11. Power & Forms of Knowledge • “Forcible rape” • What is sex? • Commodity • Scarcity model • “Giving it up” • Exchange & zero-sum negotiation • Earning, contractual obligation, entitlement • Agency & objectification • Pick up artists

12. Power & Forms of Knowledge • Collaborative performance • Enthusiastic consent • Withdrawal of consent • Conditional consent • Entitlement not possible • All parties involved as agents (subjects) • “Scarcity” no longer relevant

13. Purity Oath • “I, [daughter’s name]’s father, choose before God to cover my daughter as her authority and protection in the area of purity. I will be pure in my own life as a man, a husband, and father. I will be a man of integrity and accountability as I lead, guide, and pray over my daughter and as the high priest in my home. This covering will be used by God to influence generations to come.” (In Valenti, 302)

14. The Virgin • “The perfect virgin is imagined in US culture is sexy but not sexual. She’s young, white, and skinny. She’s a cheerleader, a babysitter; she’s accessible and eager to please. • She’s never a woman of color—who are so hypersexualized in American culture that they’re rarely positioned as ‘the virgin.’ She’s never a low-income girl or a fat girl. She is never differently abled. • ‘Virgin’ is a designation for those who fit into what a certain standard of women, especially younger women, are supposed to look like. The positioning of one kind of girl as good and ‘clean,’ of course, implies that the rest of us are dirty.” (Valenti, 300) • Fetishizing purity • Pornography • Preacher’s Daughters, Toddlers & Tiaras

15. The Slut • By having sex with some number of men, or a man she isn’t supposed to, assumed to have sex with any man • Always wants it • Presumed consent • The slut & rape trials • Damaged goods • May have nothing to do with actual sex • Attractive to men • Particular style of dress or body type • No male equivalent

16. Todd Akin • “Well you know, people always want to try to make that as one of those things, well how do you, how do you slice this particularly tough sort of ethical question. First of all, from what I understand from doctors, that’s really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. But let’s assume that maybe that didn’t work or something. I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be on the rapist and not attacking the child.” • How can the rapist be punished? What is rape? • “Legitimate rape” = violent, stranger rape • A woman pregnant from rape by definition not raped • She wanted it, culpable in her own rape

17. Consequences • Maryland law until 2008: • Consent not able to be withdrawn • “The damage is done” • “A woman could never be ‘re-flowered’” • “If a woman consents prior to penetration and withdraws consent following penetration, there is no rape” • California hung jury • Video of unconscious victim raped by multiple men, penetrated vaginally and anally w/pool sticks, bottle, lit cigarette • Victim’s sexual history, desire to make porn video, used as evidence she could not have been raped (Valenti, 299-301) • Steubenville rape case • Rape, Suicide, Bullying • Elizabeth Seeberg • AudriePott • Rehtaeh Parsons

18. Julian Assange sexual assault accusations • Forcibly held a woman down, forced sex on her • Second women penetrated while she was sleeping • Assange describes Sweden as “Saudi Arabia of feminism”, seeks refuge in Ecuadorian embassy • Keith Olbermann: “the term 'rape' in Sweden includes consensual sex without a condom” • False • Claims of women dismissed • Alleged as dupes of imperial power, fame-seekers, ‘buyer’s remorse’ • Michael Moore: • Donates $20,000 to defense of Assange, says “We’ve lived long enough, through enough of this kind of deception, these kinds of dirty tricks that governments and corporations play. • And the issue here is that if he were any other just normal Brit, with this so-called “crime” that he’s been accused of — which I understand isn’t, wouldn’t actually be a crime if it was committed in Britain, a condom broke I believe is the “evidence.” He hasn’t even been charged with a crime. He hasn’t been charged with anything” • Would be a crime anywhere, Swedish formal charge comes at end of investigation, rather than beginning (as in US & UK)

19. Cui bono? • In what ways do the vast majority of men, who are not rapists, benefit from rape culture? • Sexual freedom, agency • A legacy of power & ownership • Prestige and status • Epiphenomenal • Culture that takes men’s word more seriously than women’s continues to do so in cases of rape • Male dominance extends into sexual sphere • Privilege & invisibility