Reports: 3 boys assaulted girl before her suicide

[Squinch]

156. I agree with you up to a point but I strongly believe that this issue of rape does NOT originate

with women, and men have to get off their asses on this.

As Beacool said, and I think accurately, this makes them look like alpha males to their friends, and it is cool.

It is cool because we still have that culture of the alpha male. And that is not a women's issue. That is an issue about how men talk to each other, and the expectations men have for each other. The alpha male is alpha because other men look up to him, and he can exert power over them.

The whole definition of "alpha" equals the exertion of power. Women, I think, are only peripheral in this. In this world view, the men jockey for position, and the men who win get many women, along with other commodities.

When women are a commodity whose consumption adds to the alpha status, that is a recipe for rape. (See Steubenville: alpha males feeling entitled to having women as commodities, other men - coaches and teammates and boosters - allowing and facilitating.)

Men need to change the way they mete out respect among themselves. They need to find some other paradigm than the exertion of power as the benchmark of status among men.

I know that many men will read this and say, "I don't do this." But we all know scads of men who do. And we have ALL seen groups of men where this elevation of the alpha male defines their behavior. (Look in any boardroom or sports team or middle school classroom or little league game.)