Eroticised (sexually satisfying) rape by a male is the most common sexual fantasy for women (Janda 1985). Shulman & Horne (2006) show that sexually empowered and erotophilic females, a category also associated with the strongest feminist beliefs, are the most likely to experience eroticised rape fantasies or dreams. I evaluate the hypothesis that rape fantasies and feminism are causally connected unconscious compensatory responses of the female psyche to the conflict between the Enlightenment ideal of human equality irrespective of gender and the primordial domination/submission schema of sexual reproduction that pervades the animal world (Janicke 2016; Terranova 2016).

According to a survey conducted by Bivona & Critelli (2009) 62% of women admitted having a rape dream or fantasy at least once in their lifetime. “Actual prevalence of rape fantasies is probably higher because women may not feel comfortable admitting them.” (Psychology Today) 91% of women in the survey had fantasies that were entirely or partly sexually satisfying. “In these fantasies, women typically are approached aggressively by a dominant and attractive male who is overcome with desire for her; she feels or expresses nonconsent and presents minimal resistance; he overpowers her and takes her sexually.” (Critelli & Bivona 2008) There are many online discussion forums where women share their rape fantasies, for example, (Warning: Sexually Explicit Content) here. Eroticised rape is often portrayed in the literary genre of ‘romance novels’, which accounts for 40% of mass paperback sales in the United States (Salmon & Symons 2003). These erotic love stories are written almost exclusively by women for women, and 54% include rape of the lead female character (Thurston 1987). “In a romance novel that includes rape, women identify with the lead female character and vicariously experience her rape.” (Critelli & Bivona 2008) Commercial exploitation of this theme has been taken to a new level in a series of fashion advertisements by designers Dolce & Gabbana, causing global outrage.

Vicarious and fantasy rape ‘culture’ is a distinctly female phenomenon that evidently goes deeper than conscious desires as it may conflict with personal ideology and ethics. This conflict is likely to be particularly acute in women who profess strong feminist beliefs. Data relating to prevalence of eroticised rape fantasy among males is relatively scarce. Male participants in two small surveys have reported having lucid fantasies of being aggressively led into sex (10-20% prevalence) and those fantasies have occurred during actual sex with a partner (Person et al. 1989; Sue 1979). Sexual orientation of males who have reported the fantasies or the gender of their imaginary assailant was not reported. Assuming that the male fantasies were about a female aggressor, there is an important qualitative distinction between forced sex fantasies of males and females: males are typically stronger than females and are capable of physically restraining a female aggressor, while females typically cannot restrain a male aggressor, suggesting that male fantasies of this description are not about forced sex but voluntary submission to sexual advances. This hypothesis needs further verification. Conversely, the fantasy theme of perpetrating rape on a woman is not a dominant male fantasy (Leitenberg & Henning 1995).

The most frequently cited theory explaining the phenomenon of eroticised rape fantasy is sexual blame avoidance, according to which women fantasize about rape because it mitigates their guilt when pursuing sexual fulfillment in a culture characterised by general repression of female sexuality. This theory is now in doubt; several studies have shown that women who had rape fantasies scored lower than other women on sex guilt (Shulman & Horne 2006; Strassberg & Lockerd 1998). It was also found that women with high sex guilt have fewer sexual fantasies in general (Leitenberg & Henning 1995; Moreault & Follingstad 1978; Pelletier & Herold 1988) and women who were “brought up in a background of sexual repression (…) reported no fantasies at all during intercourse, and they had difficulty with orgasm and sexual arousal.” This suggests that rape fantasies are not a result of sexual repression but are positively correlated with sexual freedom and empowerment. Shulman & Horne (2006) observe that prevalence of eroticised rape fantasy is significantly higher among more empowered (low sex-guilt score) and erotophilic women, and erotophilia and empowerment are in turn correlated with feminist beliefs. The total effect (direct and indirect) of feminist beliefs on rape fantasies was positive (regression coefficient = 0.129; 0.05>p>0.01).

There is a growing body of evidence from evolutionary psychology that the phenomenon of eroticised rape fantasy may have both environmental and biological causes. “In a number of species, for copulation to take place, the male must present a display of dominance, pursue, and sometimes physically subdue the female (Fisher 1999). Eibl-Eibesfeldt (1989) explains that the reciprocal display of male dominance and female surrender is a basic pattern in the animal world, and that these predispositions originate from primitive brain regions that have evolved to insure successful mating in reptiles, birds, and mammals.” Fisher (1999) nonetheless stresses that from evolutionary perspective females desire to surrender may be limited only to a selected, dominant male, and this ritual is reproduced in erotic dreams and fantasies, although it does not generally correspond to the desire for actual rape. Critelli & Bivona (2008) further suggest that “the display of male dominance may function as a way for females to assess genetic quality and the ability to protect”.

The biological explanation of rape fantasy is nonetheless not well supported by historical evidence. No practitioner or researcher has reported such fantasies prior to 1940s. It would be unlikely for Freud or Jung not to have come across the theme of eroticised rape among their many patients if such fantasies and dreams where indeed common at the time. This does not necessarily mean that the biological theory is false; the absence of historical evidence ought not to be taken as the evidence of absence. A plausible explanation could be that the biological predisposition of females to surrender produces rape fantasies only under certain conditions, for example, if a relevant set of biologically conditioned needs of a female are not satisfied in a given social-environment.

It may be hypothesised that the high prevalence of eroticised rape fantasies is the result of cultural changes that originated in the Age of Enlightenment: the idea of universal value of humanity and the essential equality of sexes. Western culture has progressively integrated the Enlightenment ideals into social attitudes, having a huge impact on our understanding of gender and the associated expectations about gender roles, culminating in the female suffrage and, later, in the feminist movement. The Age of Enlightenment has also affected male attitudes, mitigating the culture of male dominance and aggression, what may in turn be causally linked to the rapidly declining testosterone levels in the male population. These effects have allowed for profound social changes to occur, affecting both the male and the female psyche, that could explain eroticised rape fantasy in terms of subconscious compensation for partial breakdown of the primordial schema of sexual dominance. The conflict between the conscious ideology of female empowerment and the unconscious libidinal predisposition to select for a dominant sexual partner may have prevented conscious realisation of the problem. On this picture, contemporary feminism could have evolved not because women were excessively dominated but because in some critical respect they were not dominated enough. C.G. Jung has described this strategy in his Two Essays in Analytical Psychology (1966, §247) as having “the unconscious purpose of forcing a man into a superior position and thus making him an object of admiration.”

If this is true, then how could the female psyche cause the male libido to dominate her in the right way if both the male and the female had already consciously accepted that gender domination was ethically wrong? Clearly, this could be accomplished only via an unconscious libidinal provocation. The female psyche may have driven those women who are the most psychically conflicted about dominance/submission to continuously escalate the feminist rhetoric, making increasingly bold and even unjust demands in order to elicit a corrective response from the opposite sex. Could this provoke the male libido to reconquer and dominate the female, hopefully without loosing all the material gains that the feminist movement has already secured? There is no direct way to test this hypothesis but the recent evidence of sex-specific, biologically controlled dominance/submission mechanism (Terranova 2016) in combination with the evidence that some conventional sex roles are inherent to anisogamy (Janicke 2016) does call for a sex-specific compensatory response in case of contingent qualitative changes in the dominance hierarchy.

A possible objection to the proposed hypothesis is that rigorous study of rape fantasy is less that 40 years old, limited to western society, and virtually no data exists for women prior to the Enlightenment. This is a valid concern (more culturally-varied data is needed) but it is not a refutation (the existing data is still compatible with the hypothesis). What counts in favour of the hypothesis is that neither Freud nor Jung reported dreams or fantasies that involved eroticised rape, suggesting that its current prevalence is a relatively new phenomenon, correlated with female empowerment, sexual tolerance and the rise of feminism. Critelli & Bivona (2008) note that “future research should explore the generalizability of prevalence estimates across demographic characteristics such as age, ethnicity, and sexual orientation… focus on samples from cultures that are both more androcentric and more egalitarian than that of the United States, as these will provide valuable evidence as to the relative biological and cultural contributions to rape fantasies.” The proposed hypothesis could be categorically refuted only by demonstrating continuous prevalence of eroticised rape fantasy across androcentric, egalitarian and gynocentric cultures.

Another important consideration is that there are several complementary and competing theories of eroticised rape fantasy, the most promising of which are sympathetic activation (anxiety, fear, and anger can activate sympathetic arousal and enhance sexual response) and adversary transformation (transforming a dangerous and brutal male into a guardian of a hypothetical offspring enhances emotional arousal). There are several other theories that attempt to explain the phenomenon, see Critelli & Bivona (2008), which are omitted here on account of conflicting evidence. Conversely, the schema of biologically regulated differences in social behaviour of the sexes is consistent with the observed behaviour of other mammals and may therefore be the best explanation so far. Finally, it may be objected that feminism is motivated just by the desire to dominate rather than being a psychic provocation to elicit reciprocal dominance. While this explanation is certainly plausible it does not fit well with the primordial dominance/submission schema of reproduction that pervades the animal world. If the drive to dominance is more representative of male psychology then this motivation is not quite feminism but, rather, introjective masculinism. Considering the range of conflicting views on the subject of eroticised rape fantasy in empowered women, the academic debate about what causes this phenomenon is likely to continue for years to come.

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