The second wave of feminism carried this weird belief that, since men were apparently the only ones who got enjoyment out of sex, all sex between men and women was therefore rape. So, any woman with a sex drive is a woman who wishes to be raped, and therefore give power to men and relinquish power from women and oh god I can't believe people think this.
Speaking as someone who was THERE during second wave feminism, I have to say that this is wrong. It wasn't a prevailing belief during second wave feminism; in fact, I can remember being twelve years old and hearing the concept of marital rape coming up for the first time ever in newspapers. Prior to this, a married woman was presumed by the law to perpetually be "in a state of readiness" for her husband. That a woman could be married and could be raped by her husband was a very new concept in 1974.
As I recall, the concept of sex = rape came along in third wave radical feminism. It was never accepted by all feminists, or even by most of them. It was a concept that the media of the late 1980s to mid 1990s latched onto in a hurry, though, because it could be easily ridiculed and therefore used to dismiss all those silly women and their beliefs about ingrained sexism in society and inherently unequal balances of power. I never heard of it before graduating from college, and that was in 1984--which is after the second wave.
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Date: 2010-08-16 10:47 am (UTC)Speaking as someone who was THERE during second wave feminism, I have to say that this is wrong. It wasn't a prevailing belief during second wave feminism; in fact, I can remember being twelve years old and hearing the concept of marital rape coming up for the first time ever in newspapers. Prior to this, a married woman was presumed by the law to perpetually be "in a state of readiness" for her husband. That a woman could be married and could be raped by her husband was a very new concept in 1974.
As I recall, the concept of sex = rape came along in third wave radical feminism. It was never accepted by all feminists, or even by most of them. It was a concept that the media of the late 1980s to mid 1990s latched onto in a hurry, though, because it could be easily ridiculed and therefore used to dismiss all those silly women and their beliefs about ingrained sexism in society and inherently unequal balances of power. I never heard of it before graduating from college, and that was in 1984--which is after the second wave.