Why Men Rape, is an article that appeared in the New York Academy of Sciences Magazine, The Sciences in January, 2000. I can email anyone a copy of the article. The authors claim that "prevention efforts will founder until they are based on the understanding that rape evolved as a form of male reproductive behavior."

From Scripps Howard News Service:
Jennifer Beeman, director of the Campus Violence Protection Program at the University of California-Davis, said she instinctively read the article as "dangerous." But after the third reading, she said, "Some of it rang true, and intuitively it sounds right."

Beeman, who has counseled more than 1,000 rape victims, said she hopes the article and book will force scientists, social scientists, women's organizations and rape experts to do some soul-searching.

"For so long our mantra has been 'It's about power, not sex,"' she said, "that I think we're afraid to admit it might be about both."

I have no sympathy for rapists. I don't care if they can't control themselves - I'd happily erase them and neuter their offspring. And there's no point in suggesting to anyone who was raped or robbed or assaulted that they would have decreased their vulnerability had they acted differently - you can't protect yourself against something that has already happened. But there IS a point in pointing out precautions to people who wish to avoid future rapes, robberies, and assaults.

The arguments about clothing seem really bizarre. I just can't wrap my head around the idea of any man with a modicum of self-control in my XXX-porn-riddled culture being provoked past the point of rational self-control simply by seeing a woman in a f**k-me outfit. Planned, predatory behavior, rather than out-of-control behavior seems more probable. On the other hand, I'm really unimpressed by people who claim that REAL men are always rational enough to stop right in the middle of sex. And WHO forgot to educate young women that when they forcefully tell a man they need to stop, that subsequently demanding a hug for the next three hours, well, it doesn't help the relationship.

I once had a condom foul-up but went ahead and finished having sex, unprotected, with a young woman who, by that point, I knew I really, REALLY didn't want to marry and whom I knew was dead-set against abortions. I still have trouble understanding how I could be that out of control. If *I* could be that out of control, I really think women need to take better care to guard themselves against men. Regardless of what you ought to have the right to do, use your common sense, and guard yourself against that invisible 10% or so of men in our culture who are potential rapists.