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Article Excerpt
Women's rape fantasies pose a special challenge for researchers, as there is something about these fantasies that does not seem to make sense. Why have a fantasy about an event that, in real life, would be repugnant and traumatic? Current evidence indicates that there is nothing abnormal or even unusual about women having rape fantasies (Critelli & Bivona, 2008; Leitenberg & Henning, 1995). For example, romance novels, which are extremely popular forms of literature written for women, allow the reader to participate in a structured fantasy. In these novels, rape of the lead character is a common theme (Thurston, 1987).
The level of confusion on this topic can be illustrated by noting that the two leading explanations of rape fantasy stand in direct contradiction to each other. One states that rape fantasies allow women with high sex guilt to avoid the blame and anxiety that would accompany a consensual sexual fantasy. Because the fantasy involves force, she cannot be blamed for its sexual content (Moreault & Follingstad, 1978). The other leading explanation is that rape fantasies are just the natural expression of an open, accepting, and guilt-free approach to sexuality (Pelletier & Herold, 1988).
The scientific challenge for psychology is to find out why women have rape fantasies and to determine how these fantasies inform our understanding of female sexuality. The foundation for this work lies in determining what goes into a rape fantasy. What type of force is typically used? How much resistance is offered? Is the non-consent real or token? Does non-consent change over the course of the interaction? What is the perpetrator's primary motive? What is the dominant emotion at the end of the fantasy? This investigation is designed to answer these questions.
Before dealing with the typical contents of rape fantasies, we will clarify our use of terms. Following Leitenberg and Henning (1995), we use the term sexual fantasy to refer to almost any conscious mental imagery or daydream that includes sexual activity or is sexually arousing. Sexual fantasies are acts of imagination rather than direct observations of external events or thoughts directed at solving a problem (Singer, 1966). A sexual fantasy can be an elaborate story or only a fleeting thought (Wilson, 1978). It can involve memories of past events or be completely imagined; and it can be intentionally imagined, occur spontaneously, or be stimulated by other events. Consistent with usage in this area of research, the term fantasy does not necessarily imply a desired experience or a pleasurable event.
Rape fantasies are a subset of sexual fantasies. The term rape fantasy follows legal definitions of rape and sexual assault (Corpus Juris Secundum, 2002). As such, it refers to women's fantasies that involve the use of physical force, threat of force, or incapacitation to coerce a woman's self-character in a fantasy into sexual activity against her will. As rape includes the use of force or incapacitation to coerce sex against a woman's will, rape fantasy also includes each of these components. In this sense, rape fantasy is a behaviorally accurate descriptor for these types of fantasies. At the same time, this terminology can be misleading, as it may connote a realistic depiction of violent stranger rape, which in reality is not typical of most actual rapes (Koss & Oros, 1982). In addition, many rape fantasies are not realistic depictions of rape. They are often abstracted, eroticized portrayals that emphasize some aspects of actual rape and omit or distort other features (Kanin, 1982). With this clarification, the term rape fantasy is used in this investigation.
The Content of Rape Fantasies
Kanin (1982) reported the only systematic empirical observations of rape fantasy content. He asked women to describe their rape fantasies and classify them as either sexual, fearful, or a combination of both. Kanin's results indicated that 50% of the women who had rape fantasies reported that these fantasies were completely fearful, 29% reported they were completely sexual, and 21% reported that they were a combination of fearful and sexual. Note that the estimate for completely fearful fantasies is higher than that suggested by other research (Maltz, 1995; Strassberg & Lockerd, 1998), and Kanin's methods were relatively unique. Rather than embedding a rape fantasy item within a sexual fantasy checklist, he asked a lengthy, solitary, and strongly worded item on rape fantasy (see the discussion later). In addition, participants completed their questionnaires in an unusual research setting--a dormitory without experimenter supervision.
After reinterpreting participants' self-descriptions, Kanin (1982) concluded that women's rape fantasies fall into two discrete categories: sexual and fearful. In sexual fantasies, a woman is aggressively approached by an attractive man, who is typically a friend or lover. She gives only token verbal resistance, if any, to a desired sexual encounter. Kanin described these as highly charged, aggressive seductions. Thus, Kanin suggested that women's self-identified rape fantasies that involved sexual arousal should be thought of more as aggressive seductions rather than as rapes. In fearful fantasies, the man is likely to be older, less attractive, and a stranger; and the woman is more likely to see herself as an innocent victim. These fantasies contain coercive and painful violence and no sexual arousal. Kanin did find systematic differences between fearful and sexual fantasies, but there was also considerable overlap with regard to the man's status as a friend or stranger, male age, male attractiveness, and perceived female innocence.
The information gathered by Kanin (1982) is valuable, but his methodology may have led to misleading conclusions. After inspecting the descriptions of the fantasies, Kanin reclassified the self-identified combination participants into the sexual category, although four of these cases were described as "too vague to classify," and the women themselves reported these as rape fantasies that involved both fear and sexual arousal. In contrast, we believe that if a rape fantasy involves the use of force to coerce sex against the will of a woman's self-character, it should qualify as a rape fantasy, regardless of fear or sexual arousal, just as a similar event in real life would qualify as rape. Further, in Kanin's study, 54% of fantasies that were characterized as exclusively fearful contained physically attractive male rapists, suggesting an element of sexual attraction. Rather than conclude that "women's fantasies are all negative or all positive" (p. 116), it may be more accurate to describe these fantasies on a continuum.
Although a number of other research studies have been conducted on rape fantasies, these are limited to anecdotal statements of content. For example, on the basis of informal observations from interviews, Hariton (1973) suggested that the male perpetrator in rape fantasies was often presented as ardent and faceless; the woman offered only token non-consent, and she was often incapacitated by being unconscious, tied up, asleep, or intoxicated. In addition, forced sex fantasies were highly erotic, often leading to orgasm.
Haskell (1976) distinguished between realistic fantasies of rape in which there is no sexual arousal and erotic rape fantasies with high female sexual arousal. She suggested that in erotic rape fantasies, the woman displays only token resistance; and the man uses minimal force, is attractive, and has high levels of sexual desire for her. He is motivated by uncontrollable longing and the desire to enhance her pleasure.
Gold, Balzano, and Stamey (1991) had participants write narratives of their frequent sexual fantasies. Those who included a force fantasy reported feeling more frightened, guilty, disgusted, and less happy after having the fantasy than did other women. Those with a force fantasy may have been describing the type of aversive rape fantasy noted by Kanin (1982). It is also possible that some of these fantasies were negatively toned flashbacks of previous sexual assault, as such flashbacks are common (Foa, Rothbaum, Riggs, & Murdock, 1991; Kramer & Green, 1991; Maltz, 1995).
Strassberg and Lockerd (1998) examined logs of sexual fantasies and suggested that most force fantasies are desired by the women, and that women do not voluntarily engage in erotic fantasies of realistic rape. Bader (2002), on the basis of clinical experience, suggested that some erotic rape fantasies do involve a powerful, ruthless, uncaring brute and that these fantasies are highly exciting for some women. His interpretation was that rape by this type of man relieves dominant women of the need to feel worried or guilty that a full expression of their own sexuality might threaten or overwhelm an actual partner who is believed to be sensitive and weak.
Taken as a whole, current literature on the content of rape fantasies is incomplete and contradictory. There is agreement that mental imagery of realistic violent rape is almost never an erotic experience (Bond & Mosher, 1986) and that nearly all women have no interest in acting out a realistic fantasy of rape (Gold et al., 1991). Beyond that, there is considerable disagreement. Several researchers suggest that the non-consent and resistance in erotic rape fantasies is token, but this has not been empirically demonstrated. Many other questions about the content of rape fantasies also require an empirical answer. For example, how typical is it that the perpetrator is faceless or the woman incapacitated? How often are rape fantasies highly arousing? How often is the man concerned with enhancing the woman's pleasure? How often is the perpetrator selfish and uncaring? How often does the fantasizer have a negative emotional reaction after having the fantasy? How often are rape fantasies flashbacks of previous sexual assault? In addition, what types of verbal or physical abuse are used against the woman? What proportion of rape fantasies,...
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