rape

is a form of violence that targets not womens' bodies, but rather women's discursive control over consent to sex. Ironically 'the right to say no' simultaneously singles out a gender-specific form of agency that men can then attempt to deny women.

First, Scully identifies rape as a form of attack against the only source of power associated with women, namely, their bodies. But the power that the men in my study identified with women was not their bodies, but their discursive control over consent to sex. For many of these men, rape is a form of violence that targets dominant discursive constructions of women's power. Ironically, the turn of phrase coined by feminist that gives women the right to say no simultaneously singles out something tangible a gender-specific form of agency that men can then attempt to deny women.

is located at the crossroads of men's contradictory experiences of power and that such gendering practices produce the effects of a dominant masculinity and femininity that structures male actions to do violence against women.

I offer one understanding of rape as a gendering practice that subjectifies power. I argue that rape is located at the crossroads of men's contradictory experiences of power and that such gendering practices produce the effects of a dominant masculinity and femininity that structures male actions to do violence against women.

is something men 'choose' to do as a violent practice for maintaining patriarchal definitions of women's place in society. It is not an aberrant individual male sex act.

Brownmiller focuses our attention on men's agency and emphasizes the feminist mantra that men choose to rape. In theorizing rape as a violent practice for maintaining patriarchal definitions of women's place in society versus an aberrant individual male sex act she contributes to the demise of individualistic, medicalized models of rape, and to the dichotomization of males as rapist and females as rape victims. In her words:

 temporarily recreates masculine and feminine subjectivity... it recreates a pre-existing social structure that inscribes and reproduces the feminine as weak, passive, and possible to victimize and rape.

The gender effects of rape occur as part of a pre-existing social structure that inscribes and reproduces the feminine as weak, passive, and possible to victimize and rape (Tithecott 1997, 155). Kerry reflects on how rape temporarily recreates masculine and feminine subjectivity (see Atmore 1999... Marcus 1992): [With some sarcasm] Oh, the men who assaulted me were real men. They were real tough men. Part of my mind thought that. Because it's the antithesis to what I thought about myself which was that I wasn't a real man. I wasn't strong. I must be weak. It's the nature of the act that's unmanly. It's sort of like being branded. (Kerry)

Kevin Denys BonnycastleThinkers

Kevin Denys Bonnycastle