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CCM's picture

Rape: Towards a Moral Ontology of the Body

Submitted by CCM on Wed, 11/11/2009 - 10:12pm.

This past weekend I attended the Roland Altherr Memorial Symposium in Philosophy at Haverford.  This year's talk was given by Professor Jay Bernstein from The New School for Social Research in NYC.  Below are some notes that I took during Professor Bernstein's talk:

-people not principals are morally wrong

-rape puts the victim in a state of existential helplessness 

-the rape survivor develops PTSD due to a lost of trust in the world (1/3-1/2 of female rape victims develop PTSD)

-the body serves as a necessary vehicle/image to the soul

-the intrinsic value of a person is destroyed via rape- we value ourselves according to how others view us- therefore, we are dependent on the social recognition of others

-a master/slave dichotomy develops during rape

 

I personally was very disturbed by Professor Berstein's focus on women as the only victims of rape.  When I asked Professor Bernstein about men as rape victims he replied by stating that men become feminized once they are raped.  Feminization in these terms is very problematic.  By arguing that men become more like women after being raped, Bernstein is in actuality assigning femininity an inferior value.   

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