Rape does not happen because of sexual frustration.
That is an insane, absolutely bullshit statement to make, that definitively and absolutely.
Many, many criminologists, sociologists, psychologists, who look into the causes of rape, who interview or otherwise assess male rapists… they come away with a theory that there are multiple factors that go into what makes a male more or less likely to commit rape… and the level of sexual frustration (ie the idea that they need/deserve more sex than they are able to have) of the male is a major factor in nearly all of them.
The attitude that Dworkin describes of men engaging in sex with women in a power imbalanced scenario… that actually meshes with the concept of sexual frustration as a causal factor of rape, and post-rape justifications, it does conflict with it or negate it.
The extreme levels of sexual frustration experienced/reported by some men are arguably only even possible in the world with the normalized attitudes Dworkin describes, where sex is framed as and excersized as a game of unbalanced power dynamics, or a method of enforcing them.
Here is Dworkin herself:
The woman appears to control sex. The man needs it. This causes his rage at her perceived power over him.
Men who believe they are owed sex, who believe they are entitled to it, and that they are justified to pursue it without consent… that mindset literally is extreme sexual frustration.
…
Here’s a good review of several different causal model theories of rape/sexual violencd:
You can measure the number of men who strongly feel that entitlement, that rage, that idea that they are correct when they take it forcibly… and many have done this and published studies on it.
Here are some that specifically delve into sexual frustration as a major factor, with many citations within them of similar, prior papers.
A whole, whole lot of extreme and violent behavior, done by men, is seen by the scientific community to have sexual frustration, unfufilled sexual desires, as a major element of a patchwork of causal factors… not just rape.
I do not know why, or even how, you can read Dworkin and somehow come away with the idea that sexual frustration has nothing to do with rape.
I really just do not understand.
As for Brownmiller… yes, I generally agree that as a societal phenomenon or ‘institution’, male rape of women does constantly intimidate women, and that patriarchal societies tend to have double standards when it comes to legally convicting men of, and protecting women from rape.
It was very historically impactful in getting the ball rolling on making rape conviction standards less ludicrous…
…but, looking back from 50 years later, the claims of hers that extend from her ‘observation’ that rape does not occur amongst animals… this is now known to be false; many, many animals have been observed engaging in rape… though I guess you could credit Brownstone with getting the ball rolling on more biologists looking into that as well.
That is an insane, absolutely bullshit statement to make, that definitively and absolutely.
Many, many criminologists, sociologists, psychologists, who look into the causes of rape, who interview or otherwise assess male rapists… they come away with a theory that there are multiple factors that go into what makes a male more or less likely to commit rape… and the level of sexual frustration (ie the idea that they need/deserve more sex than they are able to have) of the male is a major factor in nearly all of them.
The attitude that Dworkin describes of men engaging in sex with women in a power imbalanced scenario… that actually meshes with the concept of sexual frustration as a causal factor of rape, and post-rape justifications, it does conflict with it or negate it.
The extreme levels of sexual frustration experienced/reported by some men are arguably only even possible in the world with the normalized attitudes Dworkin describes, where sex is framed as and excersized as a game of unbalanced power dynamics, or a method of enforcing them.
Here is Dworkin herself:
Men who believe they are owed sex, who believe they are entitled to it, and that they are justified to pursue it without consent… that mindset literally is extreme sexual frustration.
…
Here’s a good review of several different causal model theories of rape/sexual violencd:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342143827_Theories_That_Explain_Sexual_Aggression_Against_Women
You can measure the number of men who strongly feel that entitlement, that rage, that idea that they are correct when they take it forcibly… and many have done this and published studies on it.
Here are some that specifically delve into sexual frustration as a major factor, with many citations within them of similar, prior papers.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4491036/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0047235221000854
…
A whole, whole lot of extreme and violent behavior, done by men, is seen by the scientific community to have sexual frustration, unfufilled sexual desires, as a major element of a patchwork of causal factors… not just rape.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/10887679221106975
…
Even just generally speaking, you can see that a common, broadly accepted symptom of being sexually frustrated is:
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/sexually-frustrated#symptoms
…
I do not know why, or even how, you can read Dworkin and somehow come away with the idea that sexual frustration has nothing to do with rape.
I really just do not understand.
As for Brownmiller… yes, I generally agree that as a societal phenomenon or ‘institution’, male rape of women does constantly intimidate women, and that patriarchal societies tend to have double standards when it comes to legally convicting men of, and protecting women from rape.
It was very historically impactful in getting the ball rolling on making rape conviction standards less ludicrous…
…but, looking back from 50 years later, the claims of hers that extend from her ‘observation’ that rape does not occur amongst animals… this is now known to be false; many, many animals have been observed engaging in rape… though I guess you could credit Brownstone with getting the ball rolling on more biologists looking into that as well.