Why is rape or even just sex worse than death?

[bigfatcarp93]

If you kill someone in a video game, it's usually because they deserve it. You're removing them from existance because they're a threat. There is not "deserving" rape, and it's never nescessary. That's the difference.

 

[Erttheking]

Obviously, rape is not worth than death. In many cases people who are raped do not resist out of fear, often the fear of being murdered, so the idea that rape is a worse experience or that people fear rape more is obviously false.

I don't think you have the authority to make that judgement.

Actually, rape cannot be worse than death, since living is the basis of experience. That is, death cannot be a better alternative, because death is the be all end all of YOU, you know?

There is more to moral judgement than merely measurements of pain and trauma, you know.

Hm, nice reasoning there pal, so the guys in I have no mouth and I must scream were better off being tormented for all of eternity by a sadistic AI instead of being dead, because that would have been the end of their existence, yeah there's never any torment so great that death is a preferable alternative, that's why people never ever commit suicide...I was being sarcastic in case that was painfully obvious.

The notion that death is any better alternative to pain/trauma is an irrational fallacy

Doesn't stop people from using that line of thinking though

Oh yeah, I could be kept alive, tortured within an inch of my life for a hundred years, no, a thousand years, to the point where I can't even remember my name, there is no end in sight, and wanting to die is "illogical". Bullshit. Living may be all of our existence, but sometimes existence can really be unbearable.

 

[Chris Bandy]

It's because our society has grown up around a christian/catholic socio-norm and is unwilling to give up outdated normalcy. Should our populace ever get the stick out of their colectiveass about sexuality, we will see a rise in acceptance of sexual content versus violence. I, too, often wonderwhy it's acceptable to see decapitations and flaying more so than it is to see a woman's nipple.

 

[axlryder]

A lot of rape is followed by murder, so that sucks.

This is my thought on it.

Death and murder *IN MY OPINION* isn't always bad. Death as a natural or accidental thing could be stupid, tragic and sad, but it is never hateful. Now look at murder, I believe murder is a perfectly sound reason to defend yourself from getting murdered.

So what I am trying to say is you can kill someone without the act of hate, could be an act of defense, protection of a loved one, justice and what not.

Rape on the other hand is ALWAYS hateful. There is no such scenerio as an OKAY rape. It's always forced and it's always evil.

The more you know *Rainbow*

So what if the button to disable the nuclear warheads headed towards innocent civilians has been shoved inside someone who clearly does not want to be penetrated. The button itself only able to be deactivated after a long series of rhythmic presses and the only person around for miles who could possibly deactivate the thing has no arms and nothing else with which to reach the button? What then?! Clearly rape is the only option.

 

[CentralScrtnzr]

Nothing to do with Abrahamic religions. We've been celebrating violence at least ever since the advent of Epic. On that note, Western Literature begins with an epic celebrating the mythic warriors of ancient Greece and their violent deeds.

I suppose that sex ought to be something pleasant, something to be enjoyed. To use sex as a weapon the violate another individual leaves marks beyond the act itself; it is also, I suppose, a horrific irony.

At least the slain suffer no longer.

This somehow doesn't seem to explain well-enough. Really is an issue better left to scholars. If I had some authoritative link, I would provide it.

 

[CentralScrtnzr]

Now look at murder, I believe murder is a perfectly sound reason to defend yourself from getting murdered.

Urr... nough

Noun:
The unlawful premeditated killing of one human being by another

Eye doughn't thinqu murdur is the right thing to do, if ewe nough somme mo'fo is koming fo ewe then goe too the po'leece.

Translated

Ah, no

Noun:
The unlawful premeditated killing of one human being by another

I don't think murder is the right thing to do. If you know a person wants to kill you, alert the police.

Well of course, I was totally joking around silly. If someone was about to kill me or I thought my life was in danger I would alert the police, of course. Luckily the police are pretty much always near by, pretty much every street corner. I would just holler to them and I'm sure they would lend there assitance to keeping me alive in whatever situation I was in.

To think we live in an age that we can feel safe knowing that even if I was jumped in the streets a man of the law would be right there to be my shield.

I'm not familer with your "english", it looks like "racist", but I'll try to translate it anyway, cause I'm a sport.

Translated

Youf canot ahways rely on duh po'leece cause like dos mo'foz ain't nevas aroond to help me out nun and like, eye, feel lik duh if i get ya like shanked i might die and I herd that u can not live aftur yous die so it usually in mys best intrest to fight back ifs I gets attaked in duh streets homes....but I's tots respect uses opinion on the matser. You probably just didn't read the capitalized *IN MY OPINION* bit.

Irish is right, the reverse darwinism of society is beginning to make me nervous. People are far to willing to rely on others to help them, when they should be looking after themselves. Take bullying. I was bullied as a young man, and I asked my father why, he told me that they don't respect me, So I have to do something to make them respect me. So I fought them, both of them, and won. I am now good friends with them. If someone doesn't have respect for you, put the respect into them.

It only helps if you have the ability. Otherwise this is just more "blame the victim."

 

[Vault101]

Irish is right, the reverse darwinism of society is beginning to make me nervous. People are far to willing to rely on others to help them, when they should be looking after themselves. Take bullying. I was bullied as a young man, and I asked my father why, he told me that they don't respect me, So I have to do something to make them respect me. So I fought them, both of them, and won. I am now good friends with them. If someone doesn't have respect for you, put the respect into them.

no need to go backwards in society

also thats anecdotal evidice..what applies to you isnt going to apply to everybullie victm ever...its not always that simple and it pissed me of when peopel are like "well I did x so obviously x solves everything"

 

[Jonluw]

What is more disturbing to look at: a dead body, or a living body screaming in agony?
Humans sympathize with other humans who experience pain. When someone is killed, we aren't exposed to someone in pain.

 

[Freechoice]

Irish is right, the reverse darwinism of society is beginning to make me nervous. People are far to willing to rely on others to help them, when they should be looking after themselves. Take bullying. I was bullied as a young man, and I asked my father why, he told me that they don't respect me, So I have to do something to make them respect me. So I fought them, both of them, and won. I am now good friends with them. If someone doesn't have respect for you, put the respect into them.

no need to go backwards in society

also thats anecdotal evidice..what applies to you isnt going to apply to everybullie victm ever...its not always that simple and it pissed me of when peopel are like "well I did x so obviously x solves everything"

Bullshit.

Animaniacs says otherwise.


And I say otherwise. How the fuck is someone supposed to learn that behavior is intolerable if no one comes down hard on them? You think parents will? The, to quote General Victor Sarrano, "goofball miscreant ball-tuggers" that raised the little ass maggot bully are NOT going to change the kid. Know why? Cuz they already fucked'em up. Beating someone down is the clearest, quickest way to get them to back the fuck off because it puts fear into them. And this needs to be done early before the kid learns about weapons and decides to be a punk when they do finally get their ass handed to them.

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

Obviously this is not a new thought. But I'm thinking more from a biology/psychology perspective. If I see a sexual crime I'm like ewww, but if I see someone's head being ripped off I'm like eh.

This applies to games much more than other mediums too. Can you imagine the uproar if you could rape someone in a mainstream game? But killing people, well, I'm sure you can finish this thought off.

A couple of reasons:

1) Rape is torture.

If you see someone being actively and graphically tortured in a game, you'd likely be sick (assuming it looked at all real). Torture is about pain, about suffering, and about destroying someone's mind.

On the other hand, ripping off someone's head is an instant death - comparatively painless.

2) Evolution.
Evolution designs life to do two things - kill and fuck - or taking life and creating life.
We destroy life so that we can survive (eating other life, destroying other predators, etc).
We create life, on a biological level, when we have sex. We also have orgasms, which release happy drugs into our brains. Sex is a creative, happy, positive process.

Rape is the inversion of that - it is taking the life-creating, pleasure-causing portion of life and turning it into something that causes pain, destroys minds, and is generally awful.

Or, to put it another way, it's like murdering a puppy with another puppy. Killing one puppy is bad, but using another puppy, which should be being cute somewhere else, as a murder tool is just... fucked up.

3) Rape DOES occur in video games.

Pyramid Head in Silent Hill 2.

The Ethos Priests in Xenogears (who are a cutting satire of Catholic priests).

Vincent in Catherine (technically date rape).

And those are just from the games I personally own (and can see from where I'm sitting).

4) And finally...
Here's a big question - why do games NEED rape?
Is there any game that would be improved by letting the player torture someone?

There are ways in which rape can be handled artistically and with care and intelligence. However, not many of those ways work well in a video game.

I suppose one could play a recovering rape victim dealing with her (or his) trauma through surreal dreams that represent the trauma and allow the player to "defeat" the trauma. That might work.

Anyway, here's the thing - games are generally built around conflict resolution. In most games, you resolve conflict by fighting.

It is impossible to resolve a conflict with rape.

That is why murder is a common theme of games (because it resolves the conflict) but torture, rape, or even more positive things like eating (apart from healing items) rarely come up in games, and then only as a story aspect rather than a gameplay aspect.

 

[Vault101]

From a sociological standpoint, we (as a society) have become very desensitized to murder or killing in general. What happens when we see The Joker ram a pencil in someone's eye? We laugh. When the Thomas Jane (as the Punisher) straps John Travolta to a car before it explodes, we cheer. We're bombarded with real life tales of murder in the news. It's described to us in literature. We celebrate it in history.

).

I think that depends on the amount of exposure

plenty of peopel cringed when joker did the pencil trick (I know I did)...and somone who isnt used to violence will have a hard time watching a violent film

that said...we like violence, little boys play solder and all