Original scientific paper

RADICAL FEMINISM ON RAPE

Igor PRIMORAC

Abstract

Rape is one of the major issues where the contribution of
feminist philosophical, social, and legal thought has been
particularly prominent. In this paper,1 the author takes a
critical look at the main tenets of the radical feminist view of
rape: that rape is not a deviation, but rather a deeply
entrenched social practice that both expresses and reinforces
far-reaching inequality and oppresion of women in our
society; that under these conditions a woman is not in a
position to give valid consent to sex with a man and that,
accordingly, the crime of rape should no longer be defined
in terms of lack of consent; that we need a new definition of
rape, which will help us recognize that rape is much more
widespread than we tend to assume; that all men in our
society are collectively responsible for the practice of rape. In
order to assess these arguments, the author focuses on the
contrast between the liberal and radical feminist views of
consent to sex. He tries to show that the radical feminist view
of rape is both much too crude and much too radical.

Keywords

Hrčak ID:

20312

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/20312

Publication date:

31.8.1999.

Article data in other languages: croatian german

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