Sexual assault can be about sex. — Akanthinos
I think we might need to have a few weekly prizes awarded on the Forum.
This one gets my vote for "Bleeding Obvious Comment of the Week".
Sexual assault is what sex is most about.
Sex is a natural reward provided by evolves responses of survival, in that animals who seek out sexual pleasure are more likely to provide the species with progeny. Nature, being dispassionate and disinterested, cares not how and when such pleasure is gained, so much so that the link between reproduction and the pleasure of sex is not well forged.
To the degree to which the orgasm is accompanied with the production of the elements of preproduction (semen) is the limit of this connection. Many animals do this much better even than humans in that ejaculation and oestrus is also the stimulus for the pleasure. Most mammals have limited interest in sex and this is most expressed seasonally when at
particular times the males and females are brought together with pheromones. Violence is the common outcome of such meetings, with males often forcing themselves on females often having fought off other males.
Sex then is naturally linked with violence, and pleasure.
For the primates this seasonality is less marked with several species demonstrating sexual behaviours which are not directly related to the fertilisation of the egg. But violence is a common accompaniment to these practices which also relate to hierarchy.
Culture prevents us from acting like animals, but this is a denial of our nature.
As i said above, every man wakes up every morning and has to deny his natural sexuality. There are two sides to every balancing act. On the one hand society provides us with rules of behaviour, and on the other there is man's natural tendency to insert his penis into something warm and soft to leave his semen, preferably a woman (in the case of a heterosexual).
Each man is his own unique set of scales.
For some, complete sexual repression would work to emasculate the individual completely, though i think the tension would emerge in other ways, such as rampant oppression of others. For others it would make them more devious to seek out others willing to participate willingly or otherwise in sexual practices. This is the Victorian model - every thing swept under the table; including covering table legs incase they inflamed the desire of men; apparel contra onanism were sold to prevent a man from touching his own genitals at night.
There again in a world were sexual repression were minimised or ended would work in a number of ways for different people. For the abuser it would be the licence they were always looking for to use their power to more freely impose themselves onto others. Although the wider knowledge would 'protect' some against the vile advances of a Weinstein, there would always be submissive females who would continue to be abused.