Entitlement

There was an article in the Age (daily life) this week that was reflecting on the practices of the horrible youth rape ring in New Zealand.  The problem was identified as 'misplaced entitlement.' I've heard that language from other sources, and to me it seems to betray an unhealthy prioritization of social reality over physical reality.  The same thing happens when sensible warnings about rape incidence rates (higher when there's alcohol; higher when more intimacy has been available (strangers< on a date <kissing <embracing <frotting) are denounced as apologies for rape.  Trying to make social reality ultimate is doomed to failure, and is arguably a bad project (social reality is vulnerable to physical reality and must respect it). 

However, making physical reality ultimate is also disastrous. A state is a power machine, made of violence*, but the more successful states are societies in which vast swathes are at little risk of physical violence, are protected classes. (I believe the laws and norms have effect, but often wonder when estranged fathers kill their children whether they have the full effect aimed at. Are these killings and honor killings related, I wonder, just two forms of the same disappointed rage?)

The work of giving young men a complete social identity was kind of a big deal in a lot of very old societies (and even then, out-group women were at their mercy, and in-group women had to take their chances on the group norms).  Initiation was often violent, often resembled the hazing it is in its modern form, but with real scars. These days, the same issues are thrashed out in more dislocated groups - professions, clubs etc, for whom the young men are a means to an end, not their whole futurity.

I'm not sure where to finish with this.  I think its true that some rapists have a feeling of entitlement - but the basis of title in our society is force - try stealing and see who stops you. Our society is a power machine, made of violence.  Maybe its just a plea to ladies not to discount their physical power to reduce rape by strategic behavior.  Maybe its a plea for men to discover a role in constructing social reality that works for them.

*This very apt description I first saw in a translation of a Chinese general's intro to his warlike friends book.  It is very Hegelian, which always reminds me that China's communism, Marxism and materialism are actually thoroughly intelligible Western ideas.  The Chinese practices around law and corruption, family and power are probably more foreign. Later I saw some toned down translations but that was disappointing.