RADICAL FEMINISM ON RAPE
RADICAL FEMINISM ON RAPE

Summary/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, 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.

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