Stopping Rape: Successful Survival Strategies

215 Pages·1985·8.404 MB·English

by  Pauline B. Bart

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STOPPING RAPE Successful Survival Strategies
Pauline B. Bart and Patricia H. O'Brien
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Stopping Rape
Successful Survival Strategies
Pauline B. Bart
UCLA
Patricia H. O'Brien
St. Xavier College
Pergamon Press
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Copyright © 1985 Pergamon Press Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Bart, Pauline.
Stopping rape.
(The Athene series)
1. Rape-United States. 2. Rape-United States-
Prevention. I. O'Brien, Patricia H. (Patricia Helen),
1949- . II. Title. III. Series.
HV6561.B367 1985 362.8'83 85-6589
ISBN 0-08-032814-8
ISBN 0-08-032813-X (pbk.)
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Printed in Great Britain by A. Wheaton & Co. Ltd., Exeter
We dedicate this book to the women who shared their
experiences with us, some of them enduring nightmares
and anxiety at the thought of being interviewed and having
to speak once more about their assaults. They did so
because they wanted to give their suffering purpose by
helping other women avoid sexual assault.
We also dedicate this book to Maura and Jake, Pat's
children, and Rebecca, Pauline's granddaughter, with the
fervent hope, but not the expectation, that they will be
able to live in a rape-free society.

Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xi
Chapter
1 Why Study Women Who Avoided Rape? 1
2 What Constitutes Rape? How the Women Defined
Their Situations 16
3 The Rape Situation 23
4 How Accosted Women Prevented Rape 32
5 Socialization and Rape Avoidance: Guise and Dolls 58
6 Ethnicity and Rape Avoidance: Jews, White Catholics
and Blacks 70
7 Why Men Rape 92
8 Summary and Conclusion: What We Learned and
What It Means 105
Appendices
A Getting Better Estimates on Rape 129
B Strengths and Limitations of Our Sample 132
C The Women's "Legal Claim" 136
D The Conceptual Scheme 139
continued
vii
VIII
E Self-Report Questionnaire 140
F Case Profiles 143
G Case Transcript 160
Bibliography 187
Case Index 193
Subject Index 195
About the Authors 201
Preface
We became concerned about sexual assault long before writing this book,
for fear of rape lies within the hearts of all women. We are warned to be
wary of rapists at an early age (Griffin, 1971), and we are advised on how
to avoid rape by family, friends, schools, legal institutions, and the media.
This is not a recent trend. In 1857, the Macon Missouri Gazette presented
women with the following cautionary note:
A young lady of California recently broke her neck while resisting an
attempt of a young man to kiss her; this furnished a fearful warning to
young ladies. (State Historical Society of Missouri)
We all know women who have been raped and who have avoided rape
though they may not have told us. In 1973, one of us (Bart) was awakened
by the telephone at seven o'clock one morning. It was a friend in tears. I
had never heard her cry before; she was a tough woman. She told me that
she'd been raped, that the police were there and that they were taking her
to a nearby hospital. My roommate and I went to the hospital to meet her.
She was in the examining room, legs up in stirrups, but we couldn't be with
her. She was kept in that vulnerable position for what seemed to her an
interminable length of time. After that, I was able to go with her to x-ray;
had I not gone with her, she would have been by herself. She was treated
very much as if she had suffered a sprained ankle, rather than having been
violated for several hours in danger of being murdered.
Later, her landlord refused to refund her apartment deposit when she
wanted to move, as is common with women who are raped at home in their
beds. He also warned her not to tell her experience to other women in the
building. But a group of feminists said that they would picket the building
unless he returned the deposit, so he relented. After the hospital experience
she talked with my roommate, a feminist therapist. The next time I saw her,
several hours later, was outside the Women and Health class that I was
teaching. She said, "Pauline, do you think that it would be good for the
class if I would talk about what happened?" I said, "It would be good for
the class, but I don't know if it would be good for you, which is the most
important thing." She thought it would be, so she decided to talk about it.
SR-A1 IX