On Date Rape Camille Paglia Summary

To begin with, Camille Paglia creates a fallacy of personal attack in her article which creates a flawed argument. For example, in the second paragraph, Paglia makes an attack on modern young women who want freedom instead of focusing on date rape. She says that they do not want to admit the freedom they want comes with risk and therefore causing the problem of date rape. She argues that these women create the risk of being raped by going to the bars to drink and going out with men. Another example of personal attack is in the third paragraph which is still focused on the females instead on focusing on date rape which is the subject.

In “Riding the Bull at Gilleys,” Scully and Marolla depict the psychopathological and the socio-cultural models of rape. The psychopathological model is a representation of what psychotherapist have used for years to explain the reasoning behind rape. With this model, rape is the result of an eccentric mental dysfunction, which symptoms include involuntary and uncontrollable sexual impulses. These sexual impulses may be temporary, repetitive, long lasting or brief. This model also implies that male sexual aggression is abnormal, therefore; psychologists do not seek any other rational explanation. Mainly, the psychopathological model ignores any correlational factors linking male sexual aggression to learned social behavior.

In current days, date rape is an obvious risk for modern women. The criminal cases with regard to date rape and robbery are not unusual. In this context, many sociologists, researchers, and even police are warning young females to pay attention to personal safety when going for a party or having a date at night. However, in spite of these good-willed and well-intentioned warnings, there are also some comments and opinions putting forward advices on protecting personal safety for young girls based on the false ground, making their ideas lack of reason and reliability. The editorial, On Date Rape, written by Camille Paglia, is one of these opinions with obvious fallacies and weaknesses in reasoning. There are three most clear fallacies in this article.

On the forth paragraph, the author gave us an assumption, “My point is that if your car is stolen after you do something like that, yes, the police should pursue the thief and he should be punished. But at the same time, the police-and I-have the right to say to you, ‘You stupid idiot, what the hell were you thinking’” (Paglia 115)? The author tried to use this assumption to reflect girls should be aware, otherwise the girls have faults. It’s a fallacy which includes many problems. This fallacy includes straw man, personal attack and false analogy. First, it’s a straw man fallacy because it’s totally an assumption made

Slippery Slope - “When you do stupid things” - This fallacy employs the context of joining the nefarious class of Pretto will lead to many, yet unavoidable consequences that are to happen if a person would enter his classroom. Despite the impossibility of the actual probability of consequences happening, it provides a simple, yet memorable phrase to all viewers.

1.Based on Serono’s ideas rape culture is something that cannot be solved with “single-tact solutions”. The “men-as-predator/sexual aggressor assumption” (Serano 422) allows women to believe that the man is always a predator, and therefore leads to men being aggressive leading to the cycle of rape culture. Overall to change rape culture we must change this assumption that currently dominates out thinking.

Paglia’s unsympathetic comparison of a car being stolen because the keys were left on the hood of the car to a girl being raped because she drank alcohol is preposterous. The loss of a vehicle is mild in comparison to the theft of a woman’s most intimate possession. Sure, you may have lost your means of transport but a stolen car can be recovered, or a new vehicle purchased upon receiving funds from the insurance provider. A rape victim goes through many psychological and emotional changes. They often blame themselves and feel unclean. Their relationships and trust of other males in their life may be terribly altered also. In many cases, victims are haunted by the memories of the actual act. Depression and an addiction to pain pills may also be acquired as a way to escape from and alleviate the painful memories. Plenty of date rape cases are unreported because the victim feels that she will be harshly judged.

Camille Paglia talks about the increasing risk of rape in the current society as women demand more freedom without putting into consideration that it is their responsibility to take care of themselves. What the author forgets is that she is trying to compare the current society with her times in the 1960s, which are quite very different. She begins making her sentiments by stating the olden times and the difficulties they had to go through in their attempts to get the freedom they were yawning for. Camille states that it is only until the 60s when women started breaking the rules but always kept in mind that they were taking risks (Paglia, 2011, p. 22).

This essay will examine the social and cultural conditions, within the macro-diachronic and micro-synchronic theoretical models , that intensify or perpetuate sexual assault. I have chosen only one concept from each model because these are the only concepts that I feel that I can use to most accurately and comprehensively depict causes and reasons for why sexual assault is deeply entrenched in our social structure. I will thus explore, from these ideological viewpoints, some of the motivations and circumstances which lead offenders to sexual assault. I will also fuse some of the historical attitudes from which today's concepts have evolved to our contemporary understanding of this social

Patricia Lockwood’s The Rape Joke is a risky composition- not because it discloses information about Lockwood’s personal rape experience, but because it does so from a comedic stance, ridiculing the unfortunate event and the events leading up to and after it. While the creation of the poem was prompted due to the sexual assault she experienced, the content and subject are not centered around the incident or the assaulter but around rape culture and the sociological concept of victim blaming, from both society and oneself. There is no such thing as a rape joke-the joke is the incredulous ways society has guided people to respond to it.

Granting to the article “On Date Rape” by Camille Paglia, each paragraphs of her article frame the main idea about why women should pay more attention about their safety. The first paragraph of the article explains how the author thinks about the freedom when she was a college student. When she was a college student, she insists to break the rules to run outside and enjoy the freedom with man, even her aunt advised her not to do that (Paglia). As well, the author points out in paragraph two, women should acknowledge the risk when they are having fun with men. I believe that this two paragraph give us the background information and the main argument of this article. But the author uses an instance of different racial group in paragraph three, to explain the white feminists were lack of self-protection awareness compared with black or Hispanic. She explains that because the black and Hispanic women come from a culture fill with sexuality and dangerous, that’s why they will be more vigilant (Paglia). In my view, I think this is an improper example because it seems rushed to the conclusion without considering all of the variables about different racial group. In the fourth paragraph, Paglia uses a metaphor to explain even the women will have the

The acceptance of rape myths and sexual scripts are also major contributors to the thriving rape culture. Rape myths are the false but commonly-held beliefs about rape, and they are closely related to sexual scripts, the culturally established prototypes for how sexual encounters should proceed. Both of these elements support the act of rape and promote the victim blaming and normalization that rape culture entails. Key rape myths include: 1. Husbands can’t rape their wives, 2. Men must engage in sex once sexually aroused 3.Women ask to be raped 4. Rapist are different from most other men 5. Women enjoy rape 6. Women lie about being raped. These incorrect principles can be traced to the patriarchal system that accepts and fosters rape as an

While there are many problems in the world, like poverty, famine, cancer, and an abundance of carbon emissions into the planet, there is one that has been in the back of my mind for quite some time: rape culture. This issue is vastly popular in the world of bloggers and social networking site, tumblr. It’s slowly progressing into an important issue that the public is acknowledging. Reviewing the issue’s historical, social, political, cultural and economic perspectives will entail rape culture’s controversy.

The term ‘rape culture’ was coined by feminists in the United States in 1970. The term itself was designed to illustrate the ways in which society blamed victims of sexual assault, and how the normalization of male sexual violence was acceptable. Rape culture can stem from the acceptance of rape as a daily occurrence, manifested as a male prerogative. There is a hesitation by the authorities to go against the patriarchal cultural norms, hence linking nonconsensual sex to the cultural disposition of society. The patriarchal perspective of rape culture, embedded with gender inequality and misogyny are passed through generations which ultimately leads to the extensive institutional and social acceptance of rape. Actions which advocate sexist ideals are utilized to justify and validate normative misogynistic perceptions. Rape culture sexualizes violence inflicted upon women, as it serves as a continuum of a society which views a women’s body to be sexually available by default, deriving from the overall domination and objectification of a female. The underlying cause of rape culture is localized as it based upon the social aspects of culture. For example, countries with a prolific ‘war culture’ tend to emphasize violence and masculinity, and therefore rape is viewed as a normal facet of society. I intend to parallel the element of rape culture to the enforcement of social rules and the conditioning of gender roles. I plan on analyzing the notion that within the encompassment of

Rape and rape culture is a serious issue within the world we all live in today. What’s worse is men and women’s responses to rape, consequently promote ‘rape culture’ in society. The teachers statement was reflective of this problem and how societies perception and judgement of rape cases is far too tolerant. She is a woman, a wife and a stepmother to young girls, yet her comments only contribute to the “sweep it under the rug” attitude society holds for rape and rape culture. In her statement she indirectly validated the act