A "Guy's Girl's" Take on the Scary, Scary Men

This is something I have been thinking about somewhat obsessively for a few weeks, so I decided to share my neuroses with you all, as I am wont to do. Here goes.

I have always been what could maybe be described as a "guy's girl". The majority of my friends were male when I was growing up, and despite feeling incredible love for a small group of close girl friends, I do not build strong relationships with women easily. I have never had trouble relating to men on a non-sexual level. I have many guy friends who I believe honestly feel 100% platonic towards me.

That being said, my take on men as a whole changed some as I grew up and gained some perspective. A man is inherently more threatening than a woman, because men have a more diverse set of natural weapons. As a woman, I have come to understand that pretty much any man I encounter has the ability to hurt me physically, emotionally, psychologically, and special bonus sexually. The penis is literally a weapon, and, unless we are having a conversation about HIV and other diseases, female genitals don't really work that way.

The immediate response by most people, and my reasoning for a long time, was that men who intentionally cause sexual harm (i.e. rapists) are a psychologically flawed minority. Normal, nice guys like my friends don't do things like that. And usually that is true. I know plenty of decent guys who, accidentally or otherwise, have used sex to contribute to some not-very-nice psychological mistreatment, but I don't view that as a uniquely male tactic.

However, I recently came to a realization that really shook my perception of the male population at large. That realization is that throughout human history, during war times and similar conflicts, the rape of women in conquered areas has been extremely common and rampant. The rapists were not all sexual or psychological anomalies. They were people's young sons, their neighbors, even nice girls' boyfriends.

Seemingly normal, decent men, under war-type circumstances, are capable of maintaining erections and often achieving orgasm while a strange woman begs them to stop.

That's god damn scary. The thought that my nice friends, or my brother, or my husband could be in that situation and potentially do something like that is horrifying. It doesn't mean I love them any less, of course, and it doesn't mean that I think they would do that. But they could. They could because they are men, and men are a scary bunch.

That's all.

Update: I received a lot of responses to this post on here, on facebook, and in private messages. Unsurprisingly, the response from women and men was completely different. The men pretty much universally either made cases for the extenuating circumstances in war that lead to atypical rape or told me to take self defense classes. The women did not miss the point and saw this post for what I meant it to be: the acknowledgement that it is a bummer that every single man on Earth has the ability to cause irreparable psychological and physical harm with his sex organ, whether he plans to do so or not.

I did not mean to imply that I or other American women live in constant fear of being raped all day. Anyone who knows me can tell you that I am unafraid of strange men, possibly to a fault. I also didn't mean that I don't love men. I love guys. Guys are awesome.

I would liken my feelings on this subject to the way guys feel about PMS. Guys pretty much universally think it sucks that girls get real bitchy for a few days before bleeding from their vaginas. There is nothing anyone can do about it, but it's pretty gross and kind of upsetting to talk about.

That's pretty on par with how I feel about this rape potential issue. I don't think any of the men I am close with are going to rape anyone. It's just really crappy and gross that they could.

And before any feminists yell at me for comparing having a period to committing rape, let it be noted that I was merely likening having a period to having a penis.

SECOND AND FINAL UPDATE: I also feel a bit bad for implying that men alone sexually damage and scar people. In heartbreaking and irreparably damaging cases involving the sexual abuse of children, women are sometimes the culprits. I still insist that is a more natural instinct for men to use sex as a physical weapon. For instance, I 100% guarantee you that a man coined the phrase, "hate fuck."