On 10/10/06, Christian <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Frank, with the greatest respect for you, biologist (and I am one by > training) call it rape. It is forced sexual contact and the females do > have the capacity to agree or disagree with the situation. The normal > behavior for the females in these instances is to get the hell away. > sometimes the females are drown in the frenzy. whether the males > "understand when a female says no" is debatable; they just know that in > a group/gang setting, they gotta do whatever they can to get their sperm > in the females cloaca. > > Now I fully understand what the issue is with the title. You, shel and > Tim think by "anthropomorphizing" the ducks we are "lessing" the crime > of rape. I can assure you that I would never do that. By calling what > a gang of male mallards do to a female mallard "rape" maybe you feel we > are making "rape" seem like a normal or natural event. It is "normal" > for ducks, but I would never say it is natural or normal for humans. It > is a horrible despicable crime against humanity. >
I'm sure you're right, Christian. I don't doubt that biologists call it rape - if it's ducks or any other dumb animal that's doing it. If a biologist is describing the situation to another biologist, I have no problem with that - it is, in effect, a term of art. It in no way means the same thing as the violent sexual attack of one human upon another - truly one of the most heinous and despicable acts that one person can perpetrate upon another. Given how loaded with emotion the word rape is, I would submit that to use it in everyday conversation when referring to ducks is most inappropriate. However, I could be wrong. cheers, frank -- "Sharpness is a bourgeois concept." -Henri Cartier-Bresson -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
