I read this quote on a Catholic website explaining teachings of the Church. Does this imply that women are to blame if they are raped while wearing immodest dress?
No, it doesn’t. The very idea that rape is ever a woman’s fault is as vile and reprehensible as it is utterly stupid and ignorant. Which is to say,
very reprehensible.
And rest assured that the quote you provided does not imply such a horrendous opinion. The ambiguous section reads, “Dressing immodestly can allure men into committing sins of unchastity. Women have a moral obligation to avoid enticing men with immodest apparel.”
In the first sentence, “sins of unchastity” could refer to lust, impure thoughts, or later masturbation. In context it certainly cannot refer to rape, which is never a woman’s fault (more on this below).
The second sentence likewise does not specify what it is that an immodestly dressed woman is “enticing” men to - but it certainly and self-evidently is not rape that such a woman is inviting.
Tautologically speaking, it’s not possible to “entice” someone to rape since rape is by definition non-consensual. I believe that the quote therefore refers to other sins that immodest apparel could entice a man to: lust or fornication (if the woman is willing).
Finally, no one who knows anything at all about sex, women, or reality could possibly blame a woman for being raped.
Period. Rape is a wretched act of the most despicable evil that scars and disfigures a woman’s psyche so much that we men cannot really imagine it. Well, maybe we could - if
we were raped (which is possible and does sometimes happen).
Furthermore, rape is about violence more than sex. Unattractive women are literally just as likely to be raped as attractive women, thus proving that it’s
not a matter of, “Oh, she’s so hot I can’t resist myself.”
There are a lot of sites out there (scripturecatholic, this site) which try to promote the teaching of the Church; however, these sites are
not official parts of the Church, nor should they be considered to carry the same weight as the Magisterium. I would book mark the
Bible and the
Catechism of the Catholic Church and try to validate what you read. If some says, ‘The Catholic Church teaches…’, ask for which Magisterial teaching it comes from. A lot of Catholics have been led astray by following what they thought was official teaching. Always challenge.
Good advice for anyone considering Catholicism. In addition, your advice’s applicability quadruples when one is dealing with random Internet forum posters rather than a Catholic site’s actual content.
Modern research has found that rape is a crime stemming not from desire but of aggression instead. Even though the assault is sexual in nature, its cause is not from lust but from other defects.
Well put.
It is never the woman’s fault, but that does not mean that a woman should not have taken prudent steps to prevent it.
No woman should have to worry about “preventing” rape. Any society that thinks she ought to has already conceded too much to the rapists.
Hey this is sort of a sidebar, maybe I need to start another thread but I have never, ever understood the saying that rape is about violence and power and not about sex. And not to mention a really high number of rapists view pornography on a regular, ongoing basis. I don’t get it!
I think I can help you, and I’ll do it with great literature and a hilarious forgery, to boot!
In the ancient Greek comedy
Lysistrata, the titular character ends the disastrous war between Athens and Sparta by convincing all the women on both sides to boycott sex until the men stop fighting (the plot is deliberately fantastical; that’s how Aristophanes rolls). One of the women’s concerns before Lysistrata convinces them is what to do if their husbands or lovers force them to have sex anyway. Lysistrata replies:
“Then yield to their wishes, but with a bad grace; there is no pleasure in it for them, when they do it by force. Besides, there are a thousand ways of tormenting them . . . there’s no satisfaction for a man, unless the woman shares it.”
Then there’s a document called “Instruction and Advice for the Young Bride,” which purports to have been written in 1894 but is an obvious forgery. The point is that it contains a number of ways to completely ruin sex for men.
The point is, that unless a man is a sick, twisted monster with plenty of other issues, it’s not possible that he can find forcing a woman to have sex with him physically pleasurable. So why does it happen? Other reasons: violence, power, aggression, etc.
If it were really all about power, wouldn’t a man just as likely to rape a weaker man than a woman?
Yes, and men are sometimes rape victims, too. The rapist in such cases is
not necessarily homosexual.
I just want to say as the OP that I never actually thought that women were to blame for rape, ever. I am a staunch feminist myself.
I just misunderstood that particular paragraph and I was confused, that’s all.
Yes, when I first saw this thread, I nearly exploded with rage. Then, to my relief, I discovered that all you were asking was, “Catholics can’t really believe this! Can they?”
You are so right There are allot of people who jog and they are stocked for a few days or weeks and then the criminal strikes not because of sex all the time but because of their thoughts, some are just abusive people who like to hurt or kill, there are allot who are in it for the sex, because they find DNA on the victim.I d agree that woman and young girls should dress modest, but even though they may not it should not be a sign to be able to rape either.