Sexual Stratification, Pornography, and Rape in the United States

Publisher Summary This chapter presents the three hypotheses derived from feminist discussions of rape, using the 50 states and the District of Columbia as the units for analysis. From the perspective of feminist theory, the findings suggest that the combination of a society that is characterized by a struggle to secure equal rights for women, by a high readership of sex magazines that depict women in ways that may legitimize violence, and by a context in which there is a high level of nonsexual violence, constitutes a mix of societal characteristics that precipitates rape. To the extent that this interpretation is correct, it suggests social policies directed toward eliminating or mitigating the conditions that make rape more likely to occur. These steps would include reducing the cultural acceptability of violence, of which rape is a part; and restructuring male gender roles in both sexual and nonsexual relationships to specify equality, warmth, and supportiveness, rather than dominance, aloofness, toughness, and violence. Such a restructuring of relationships between the sexes, while it will not eliminate rape, could reduce the high-incidence rates that currently characterize American society.