Well here’s your depressing study of the day: A quarter of men in some Asian nations admit to rape; more than half committed their first rape as teenagers. The vast majority of rapists — been 72 and 97 percent — faced no legal consequences. And men rape because, well, they feel entitled to sex and to women’s bodies:
The most common motivation that men cited for rape was related to sexual entitlement — a belief that men have a right to have sex with women regardless of consent. Over 80 per cent of men who admitted to rape in rural Bangladesh and China gave this response.
That’s a key finding in rape prevention. Cultures where men feel sexually entitled to sex and to women’s bodies, and where men have many opportunities to interact with women, are cultures where sexual assault rates remain extraordinarily high. That’s why most feminists take a holistic view of bodily integrity and sexual rights — issues like state interference in reproduction, blocking access to contraception, abortion rights, coercive sterilization, cat-calling, unwanted touching, street harassment and sexual assault are all intertwined. When women are imaged as the “holders” of sex and men as the “getters,” and when women simultaneously have less power and are idealized as submissive and servile to male partners, you have a culture that enables and excuses rape.