I think that some of the refusal to see rape victims as marryable (not the same as marriagable) goes back to odd ideas about breeding - in animals as well. There was an idea that features could be inherited from the rapist, even some time after the event, years, maybe. Dog breeders would regard a bitch which had been impregnated by a mongrel as spoiled for all future breeding. So, the child of a woman who had been raped might well not be the child of the husband, who would then be passing on his inheritance to a cuckoo. Stupid, but the attitude could be carried on even when people know better.

In war, these attitudes, linked with rapes by invaders, could lead to the loss of future generations of the invaded nation, as the pool of potential mothers would be diminished.

I find the arguments that rape is mainly about sex deeply disturbing. If it is, then sex is not what I have thought it to be, and men are things which should not be allowed to reproduce. We are supposed to be homo sapiens, with our selves in our heads, aren't we?

Penny