-Jae
Friday, March 16, 2012
Rape 3/15/12
Today in class we discussed the rape of Lissla by her father. The king used his superiority as a weapon, or maybe a crutch to get what he wanted. Up until the point that we are now in the book, the king raped Lissla because of her strong resemblance, and features that reminded her father of her mother. I completely think the rape was unacceptable, as it always is, but I will play devils advocate for a minute. Was the king so wrong for his reasoning? He lost his wife and his daughter reminded him so much of her that he felt like he had to have her. So I understand where the king is coming from with his thought process, but maybe he could have chosen a better way to express those feelings. Dr. Hager stated rape is always an issue of power over sexual desire, but in this case was it? I didn't feel like in the rape he was using superiority other than his strength. Was it power or did he really yearn for his wife so bad that maybe he thought his daughter would fulfill the desire? Does anyone else think the rape was an actual sexual desire or is it just me?
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I think that it could have been sexual desire, however I do not think that sexual desire was the only thing that motivated the action.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that he beat Lissar shows me that there was anger in the fact that she did not succumb to his power. That anger could have started when she did not open the door for him for nights in a row, or when he entered her bedroom through the back door and made his intentions abundantly clear.
At the risk of getting entirely too personal I am going to share a few thoughts of mine...
The act of rape is an entirely controlling act. It is not always the case that there is absolutely no sexual attraction in the act, but the driving emotion is power and control by the aggressor. In cases more common than most people are aware of, there is a submissively willing party (yes, the fact that they are willing takes away the stead fast definition of rape and turns it into rough sex), but the emotions still exist. The dominant party (usually the male) finds being controlling a turn on. There are also people who find being submissive exceedingly sexual and enjoy being thrown around (and sometimes hit).
Of course, in the case of Lissla Lissar, she was not a willing party and in no way did she find her father's aggression attractive; but again, it is possible that feelings of sexual desire were there and the act of being able to overpower Lissar perpetuated those feelings.