Particularly, but not only, in times of war, the effect of “othering” is to render certain elements of society as less worthy than oneself, whether that be by dint of nationality, race, gender, religion or whatever, even to the extent of considering them sub-human. It’s then a fairly small step to see that it’s no longer rape since their consent is no longer even a matter for consideration, given their status. It seems to be fairly easy for what we would consider normal people to make the transition into something quite unsavoury.
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According to the press, he was a member of a site called ‘à son insu’ which means ‘without her knowing’ where people would post their up skirting etc videos and pictures (he’d been arrested for doing that sort of photography before) and presumably it developed there. Disgusting vile creep.
Because it isn’t about mutual enjoyment, it’s about power and terror and degradation.
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Hmm, yes - one of those experiments that, for all it produced useful data it should never have taken place. The one where students had to “administer” ever escalating electric shocks is in the same space, though that was faked and no one was hurt.
It shows, I think, the enormous power of peer pressure - being “egged on” by others and not feeling you can go against the group for fear of becoming a victim yourself is very, very compelling.
There are so many sexual philias, many quite bizarre. Seems there are more people interested in unconscious partners than we might have realised hitherto
I wouldn’t have given the matter much thought until I read about the existence of a wide variety of kinks in one of the Strike detective novel I’ve been reading.
A lot of the press reports and comments on SF have used the phrase ‘ordinary men’ in the context of the defendants having ‘ordinary jobs/professions’ and seemingly ordinary lives. But as I’ve argued above, ‘seemingly ordinary men’ would hopefully be a better description.
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Except he wasn’t ‘ordinary’ in the most important aspect of his life.
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Some men are born to disaster, while others have disaster thrust upon them.
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I expect they struggled to find an adjective for ‘common’.
commonly found as in “courant” "quelconque’ etc?
Or common as in ?vulgaire ?
There isn’t one really. When it comes to human beings, were all on a spectrum with sometimes wildly differing behaviours in lots of different directions. I’m sure some of us would consider ourselves to be ‘ordinary’ or more likely ‘normal’. I definitely don’t.
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Yes, I knew someone in the early 80’s who would fit that epithet perfectly. He really had no seeming control of his actions or emotions, going at 1000 mph from one thing to another regardless of the outcome. He wasn’t a ‘bad’ person and to my knowledge didn’t cause harm to anyone but himself. I liked him, but only for an hour or two at a time. He predictably died young. He was sitting cross legged on the top of a moving car in Spain when the car crashed into the back of a stationary vehicle.
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I’d imagine that he’d be recognised as something like ADHD these days, typically impulsive with no concept of consequences.
Someone who used to work for me had a tendency in that direction and could not foresee the consequences of his actions, which was quite tricky in a regulated environment.
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I had more in mind those who were instinctively malign, rather than just being full-on. The children who would torture small animals and classmates, bully and abuse others for their own pleasure, look for opportunities to gain at the loss of other people. I’ve sometimes wondered what the boys I knew who were planning to set up a protection racket in the local neighbourhood actually did after they left school, and whether any of them became normal, healthy adults or if the best they could expect was prison eventually. One of the guys was just stupid, unable to read at 14, but some of them were smart but ‘not academically inclined’.
More in line with Pelicot, I had a biker mate who just saw women as playthings, really no interest in them as people, and he’d choose those with low self-esteem almost instinctively (and the friends of my wife that had low self-esteem chose him, and men like him).
I suppose that just goes to show how lucky some of us have been in life. There but for the grace of god and all that …
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Very much my sentiments. I have always been very cautious about being in situations where I might get it badly wrong because I don’t have those feelings of horror or revulsion that some express as though it should be an automatic instinct. I can generally look at something coming and see far enough into the future that there might not be a good outcome, but they don’t produce the kind of response that some plainly expect every right-thinking individual to have.
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I read through the list, bit of an education,
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