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13 Ohio St. J. Crim. L. 299 (2015-2016)
Patriarchy, Sexual Freedom, and Gender Equality as Causes of Rape

handle is hein.journals/osjcl13 and id is 311 raw text is: Patriarchy, Sexual Freedom, and Gender Equality as Causes of Rape David P. Bryden* & Erica Madore** 1. INTRODUCTION Feminists' anti-rape campaign, launched in the 1970s, was a part of their more general movement for liberation from patriarchy: male supremacy in legal, political, economic and sexual realms.' Rejecting psychologists' characterizations of rapists as mentally ill deviants, feminist rape scholars have described them as mostly normal men, motivated chiefly by a desire to prove their masculinity and to dominate and control women. They rape because they are products of a rape culture consisting of patriarchal laws, practices and ideology.2 Among many examples, feminists contend that two of the most harmful results of this culture are pornography3 and victim-blaming.4 We will call this narrative the traditional feminist analysis (TFA). There are wide doctrinal variations among self-identified feminist scholars.' Even on the subject of rape, large differences exist in the degrees to which individual authors stress the TFA's propositions. This is especially true of careful social scientists, many of whom endorse some of what we call traditional feminist ideas but not necessarily others. To avoid arbitrary characterizations, we focus * Gray, Plant, Mooty, Mooty & Bennett Professor of Law Emeritus, University of Minnesota. ** J.D., 2014, University of Minnesota Law School. Law Clerk, District Court, Hennepin County, MN. The authors wish to thank Marcus Felson, Richard Felson, Richard Frase, Aya Gruber, and Kevin Reitz for their comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. They do not necessarily agree with all of our conclusions, and we alone are responsible for any remaining errors. We are also indebted to Dee Gibbons for her outstanding administrative assistance. David Zopfi-Jordan of the University of Minnesota Law Library provided more help than any author is entitled to expect. All rights reserved, David Bryden. I See generally RUTH ROSEN, THE WORLD SPLIT OPEN: HOW THE MODERN WOMEN'S MOVEMENT CHANGED AMERICA 107, 116, 122, 126, 129 (2001). 2 E.g., SUSAN BROWNMILLER, AGAINST OUR WILL: MEN, WOMEN, AND RAPE 395 (1975) (But does one need scientific methodology in order to conclude that the anti-female propaganda that permeates our nation's cultural output promotes a climate in which acts of sexual hostility directed against women are not only tolerated but ideologically encouraged?). SE.g., id. at 390-96. 4 See generally David P. Bryden & Sonja Lengnick, Rape in the Criminal Justice System, 87 J. CRiM. L. & CRIMINOLOGY 1194, 1195-98 (1997). 5 See generally JANET HALLEY, SPLIT DECISIONS: HOW AND WHY TO TAKE A BREAK FROM FEMINISM (2006). 299

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