The following quality essay is devoted to certain aspects of such crime as sexual assault. The main point of the work is to describe the women's view on rape, the way it can be used as a threat and how it affects different spheres of their everyday life.
Sexual assault along with sexual harassment, pornography, and battery is one of the main subjects of Catharine A. MacKinnon's article Sex and Violence. The article defines rape as harmful actions usually towards women. Moreover, women's and men's opinions concerning this type of crime differ greatly. The neutral stand in this question does not consider women's point of view who believe that such sexual intercourse humiliates females. Alternatively, men think that a main objective of the article was to distinguish rape and intercourse. This way of differentiating these two notions bases on dividing them in two different categories by the amount of violence. The main distinction should be based on the realization that both rape and intercourse are violent actions, not pleasant ones.
It is possible that rape may be erotic to men, but for women it means degrading and humiliation. When starting any other sexual relationships, women might relive this painful experience again. Regular sex may also appear as a form of rape. It depends primarily on woman's reaction to it. Although the law seems to focus on the amount of violence in sex as a critical point for defining this crime, the question is still open.
Rape is a threat for many women not only in real life but also on the Internet. Nowadays, the amount of violent threats against women, be it rape, battery, death threats, or others, is unbelievably big. Anita Sarakeesian's and Amanda Hess' case prove this fact. Unfortunately, the reaction of law forces is unsatisfactory. As a number of threats increases, law force actions seem to stay the same. Notwithstanding the unpleasant feelings and harm after being raped, women still want to continue their public fight against men who menace them. However, a number of actions can raise awareness about the importance of this problem. First, these are public trainings for both citizens and police officers. Although the rape threats are not new for women, online rape threats are considered as something not serious and unworthy of actual attention. Secondly, treating threats like civil rights agenda, not the private business of the person who is threatened. Nowadays, the Internet is a popular means of communication, just as post-office and cell phones, and we all should treat it accordingly.
The subject of rape is a crucial one in the everyday life of both women and men. Sometimes, the theme of rape becomes contextual. One of the brightest examples of the subject is a song Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke, T.I., and Pharrell Williams. The words from a song like 'I know you want it' are likely to promote rape culture, as they are widely used by rapists. The song trivializes a sexual context and rape transforming it in a common thing. In 2013, this song was widely accepted by public and got very popular. However, the concept and context of the song presents rape as a subject of power and masculinity, not violence and sex. In this way, the idea corresponds with what Catherine A. MacKinnon criticizes in her article. The song, however, is a bright example of how music can bring rape context to everyday life activities.
To conclude, rape is distinguished from the intercourse by the deal of violence in it. In modern society the subject of rape also appears in Internet threats, making women not feel particularly safe online.
