Excuse me?

I noticed in both the Brownmiller and the Crenshaw essays that some people seem to go out of their way to make an excuse for men. The freudians analysis of the rapist seems like one gigantic excuse for them. The freudians assume there must be some reason that a man rapes a woman. I do not believe in their theory of an "uncontrollable urge." Any urge can be controlled. Some urges may be harder to control than others, but the urges are still controllable none-the-less. The idea that the rapist is suffering from a disease and has a worst time than the victim is really appalling. The freudians transfer understanding and sympathy for the victim to the rapist. Freudian Dr. David Abrahamsen's idea that basically the wives of rapists had sexually frustrated the men is a clear attempt to transfer the blame for rape from the men to women. I do not understand why anyone would be so eager to give rapists a free pass. Rape is a horrific crime, and any man that commits rape should be held accountable for his actions.

I saw a pattern of excuses for men in Crenshaw's piece as well. Crenshaw discusses author Shahrazad Ali. Ali suggests that the conditions in the black community are the fault of "the insubordination of Black women and...the failure of Black men to control them." This notion is beyond shocking. What is actually disgusting is Ali's idea that black men need to get physical with black women in order to establish control over them. Ali bases her theory on a patriarchal world in which if the woman does anything but submit to the man then something must be wrong. Black women cannot be blamed for conditions of a whole community. They are only one half of the community, and there are many factors that go into the community being the way that it is, such as oppression. 

Apart from the pattern of blaming women, there are several facts that bothered me in the two readings. First, the statistics that Brownmiller gives about rape really suprise me.
The fact that 71% of the rapes in Philadelphia were planned is a reality check for me. I usually think of rape as something spontaneous and in the moment. Also, the statistic that 43% of the rapes were done in groups or pairs absolutely stunned me. This statistic is so terrible. A woman having to fight off one man let alone multiple men should never happen. Also, the statistic in Crenshaw about young men in jail for homicide is jarring. 63% of teenagers in jail for homicide are there because they killed a man that was battering their mothers. Domestic violence should never be allowed to get to this point. However, I do understand that cultural issues and other issues, such as financial issues, prevent domestic violence situations from being resolved.