Hi, Jo,

You are of course entitled to your views but I totally disagree - male
violence against women particularly sexual violence is endemic on a
global scale and the primary cause is the dominant social
construction of masculinity - not masculinities but masculinity.

This dominant patriarchal social construction claims that men as a
group are entitled and have the right of unlimited sexual access to
any woman or girl. There is a proviso of course and that is such
'sexual access' must not be afforded when a woman or girl is the
property of another male.

A few, very few women do commit rape but commonly this is used as a
diversionary tactic, which is designed to deflect attention away from
how boys are socialised into dominant notions of masculinity and
pseudo male sexual entitlement.

Until such time as patriarchal societies no longer exist, male sexual
violence against women will continue to be at epidemic proportions.
Critiquing and understanding the complexities of how and why so many
men and boys too, believe they cannot possibly have committed rape
when forcing a woman or girl they know into unwanted sexual activity
is core to understanding how and why rape and in particular male
sexual violence against women and children is commonly excused,
minimalised or simply denied.

The case quoted wherein one male who acknowledged and accepted he had
committed rape is not common because sadly far too many men who do
commit rape and other forms of sexual violence against women and
children never accept their accountability. Our society remains a
male-dominant and male-centered one which continues to privilege male
sexual autonomy, whereas female sexual autonomy remains non-existent.

The reason why so many prisons are full of male offenders is due to
the fact most of these offenders are non-white and/or not white,
middle-class males. The recent case of Fritzl who was convicted of
multiple rapes against his daughter is an excellent example of how the
media and society in general medicalised and minimalised Fritzl's
accountability and responsibility. Unfortunately women who commit
crimes are also medicalised but they are subject to pathology wherein
it is their biological female sex which is seen as innately 'faulty.'
Fritzl knew he was committing multiple rape but he rightly believed
his crimes would not be uncovered (they were not for decades). Fritzl
was not a sociopath or mad - but mainstream society still refuses to
see or even accept how men as a group continue to be accorded greater
power and privilege than women as a group. Not all men of course
have the same amount of power as white, middle-class 'respectable men'
but all men are accorded greater power and privilege than women simply
because of their biological sex. This is why male sexual violence
against women and children is so widespread and commonly ignored
because as a number of feminists have shown 'nothing really happened.'

Elizabeth Stanko in her book 'Intimate Intrusions: Women's
Experiences of Male Violence' discusses and analyses this common perception.