Rape

Rape: A Bigger Danger Than Feminists Know

"Rape: a bigger danger than feminists know", was written by Camille Paglia. She used a comparison-contrast pattern to develop her argument about rape issues. Her purpose for writing this story is to mainly let the women know that they are always in danger by men no matter what, in which case they should be careful with what they do. She does this by comparing the feminist's beliefs with her beliefs. Moreover, she sort of defends the men for being the way they are and blames women for not being careful around them.

Paglia's thesis was, "Rape is an outrage that cannot be tolerated in civilized society. Yet feminism, which has waged a crusade for rape to be taken more seriously, has put young women in danger by hiding the truth about sex from them." (Page 540) Her argument here is that because feminism is hiding the truth about sex from women, it is putting them in a sexual danger.

Paglia is trying to inform women about the dangers of mixed signals and that a women must be careful herself so that confusion for a man does not occur; men will not be able to use confusion as an excuse for a rape and women will generally be more safe if they are careful about who they are with and where they are at.

She points out that it is a woman who is stupid for not using her common sense and isolating herself from her girlfriends to be around men, and on top of that getting drunk and losing

control over herself. Likewise, she feels that in cases like these a women shouldn't even blame the men for raping her, instead they should have had known it was meant to happen and in which case should have been cautioned. The real person to be blamed for this situation was the girl and her stupidity.

Paglia feels that feminism does not see what men are really like; they don't see what eroticism is for men and how aggressive they can get. Feminists believe that society will protect women against rape but Paglia feels that it's not society that will protect a woman it is the woman herself.

"To understand rape, you must study the past. There never was and never will be sexual harmony. Every woman must be prudent and cautious about where she goes and with whom. When she makes a mistake, she must accept the consequences and, through self-criticism, resolve never to make the mistake again. Running to mommy and daddy on the campus grievance committee is unworthy of strong women. Posting lists of guilty men in the toilet is cowardly, infantile stuff." (Page 543) To me this was one of her strongest points; it shows what a woman should be like and what she shouldn't be like. It also helps women become strong and bold to be able to defend themselves. Most women can relate to her when it comes to this part of the reading and it brings the strongest attraction towards her readers. And paragraph nineteen explains what to do when a rape has already taken place. This is also is a very strong point to me because now she is informing those women of what steps to take when in that situation.

The author had written this piece of writing very well. She used the comparison and contrast pattern to expand her argument. For example, in her writing, she compares her beliefs with the feminists. She says, "We must remedy social injustice whenever we can. But there are some things we cannot change. There are sexual differences that are based in biology." And then she goes on to show what feminists believe. "Academic feminism is lost in a fog of social constructionism. It believes we are totally the product of our environment." She begins her argument here by comparing the two beliefs. Moreover she says that "the sexes are at war and men have to struggle for their identity by proving their masculinity whereas women don't need to do much." After saying this she says that "having sex with a woman is one way a boy becomes a man." (Page 541) By saying this she tries to show women that this is how a man thinks and that to them it is normal and that women must themselves be careful of what they do around them.

These points support the thesis and in turn were very important for the author to develop her thesis. She used this pattern of compression and contrast to not only bring out her argument but also to support her thesis. Also Paglia uses emotions to persuade people to listen to her opinion. For example, she says, "In our cites, on our campuses far from home, young women are vulnerable and defenseless. Feminism had not prepared them for this. Feminism keeps saying that the sexes are the same. It keeps telling women they can do anything, go anywhere, say anything, wear anything. No, they can't. Women will always be in sexual danger." (Page 541) This I felt was a very important point because it first of all was written to catch the attention of women emotionally by reminding them that they are always in danger because of men's sexual needs. And since it is an issue many women face it forces women into reading further more.

For this reason I felt that the topic