Letters: Gender equality vs. the rape crisis

Re “In S. Africa, shock and outrage at rape crisis,” Nov. 29

Again we will ask ourselves, “Why do men rape?” This is an important question, but it is not enough to ask it. We must also ask, “Why do men not rape?”

Here, I refer not so much to individuals as cultures. There are societies in which rape does not exist or rarely occurs.

The anthropologist Peggy Reeves Sanday speaks of “rape free” societies. In these cultures women have a structurally central role with economic responsibility and power. Children have their mother’s name, and the strongest social bonds between men and women are between sisters and brothers, not husbands and wives, which has far-reaching consequences for gender dynamics.

These are people worth learning from.

Barbara Watson

San Diego

The writer is a professor emerita of women’s studies at San Diego State University.

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