Heroic Rapists
By Rod Van Mechelen
A stereotype feminists understandably reject is that women want to be raped:
There is always the base Every Woman Loves a Rapist/All Women Want to Be Raped/Good Girls Never Get Raped/It's Always the Woman's Fault cliche. - Going Too Far: The Personal Chronicle of a Feminist, by Robin Morgan
Yet, one theme prominent in female literature is the heroic rapist. A mysterious, dangerous man whose sinister charisma is irresistible to women. (Why Men Are the Way They Are, by Warren Farrell, Ph.D. ) Brownmiller attributes this to men: "Throughout history no theme grips the masculine imagination with greater constancy and less honor than the myth of the heroic rapist." (Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape , Susan Brownmiller, pp 320) As proof, she quotes from an ancient Roman poet, a passage from an Ian Fleming novel, and Genghis Kahn -- reputable and timely sources all, to be sure.
While it may be true that, historically and in some cultures, men have admired the "heroic" rapist, now it seems he is most popular with women.
Many women, for example, find convicted murderers irresistible. Deadly men similar to the heroic rapists featured in their romance novels. (Women Who Love Men Who Kill , Sheila Isenberg, p 138)
By emulation, assertion, or action, many men unconsciously try to be what women demonstrate, by their choices, they want in men. Consequently, women who swoon over dangerous men, whether in bars, behind bars, or in the books they buy by the millions and read, tell men to be dangerous. By their own choices, women contribute to the creation of the same monsters they condemn.
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