Quote:
Originally Posted by EatingPie
My point. I cannot find it in me to say at all that the girl bears any blame in any of these situations. In at least one case, the guy wanted sex because the girl looked pretty. So we put blame on the girl for being beautiful? Or is she just the 1%?
Heinlein is a scumbag for even suggesting such a number, and I think it's made all the worse by doing so through a female character. I personally believe the only reason we discuss this as possibly legitimate is that Heinlein is a well-loved writer, and Stranger in a Strange Land is considered a cultural classic.
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Hi Pie,
If some of your friends have been raped, I can completely understand where your sympathies lie, and your reaction to this quote.
That said, I still think you are mis-reading. Even if we grant that this is what RAH personally believed, and not what his character believes (which I am not ready to grant), whether he is to be censured for saying that depends on what causes rape.
It seems that today, the common understanding is that rape occurs regardless of the beauty or provocativeness of the victim (I personally believe this is true in the large majority of cases), in which case the quote can be seen as blaming the victim.
However, if the chance of a woman being raped does depend on her sexual attractiveness, then it wouldn't be out of the ordinary to see the quoted behaviour as being akin to dangling meat in front of the tiger, in which case of course the victim contributed in some amount, however small.
Also, don't forget that even if you think of this quote as blaming women for being vamps/minxes or whatever, in most of Heinlein's work it seems clear that it is the duty of men to defend, to the death if necessary, women's ability to behave in such a way if they want.