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JoshuaZ comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread - Less Wrong
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Not true. Indeed, Draco is a classic counterexample to this statement. This is part of the reason why there's a whole trope entitled Draco in Leather Pants. Moreover, the notion that whether people are ugly or not has something to do with whether or not they engage in rape is so wrong-headed I'm not at all sure how to even begin to touch it.
I said most fictional, evil characters are fugly. I stand by that statement.
Correct my "wrong-headed" beliefs if you can, but I suspect the sexually desperate are more likely to rape. This column presents evidence that sex crimes go down when the internet is introduced.
Porn -> decreased desperation -> less rape
Is there another pathway that explains this evidence I'm not seeing?
Ceteris paribus, girls are far, far less desperate than guys. Supply and demand says an egg produced once a month will have a higher asking price than what guys churn out. This makes me suspect female rapists must be less attractive.
Right, this evidence is one of the strong pieces of evidence that undermines the entire rape-is-about-power claim. And there's other evidence for this also (for example, prison systems that allow conjugal visits have lower rape rates than those that don't(a citation for this claim would be nice. I've seen it before but a quick Google search doesn't turn up anything useful)). But sometimes, it is about power. Indeed, the type of rape being discussed in this context, by someone like Draco is the classic power situation. And when people are raping enemies that's more or less unambiguously about power.
That's a good point. However, I think there's a false equivalence in there.
I imagine rape is way, way, way more painful for girls than for guys.
I think that depends entirely on particulars that should probably not be discussed here-- suffice it to say that a male can be raped in multiple ways, just as a female can, and that rape involves emotional/mental pain as well as physical pain.
What!
Oh, wait. You mean rape of males by females without the use of any paraphernalia.
My impression of approximate rape statistics was along the lines of 90%/9%/1% male->female/male->male/female->male. I don't know where female->female fits.
"Involuntary heterosexual coitus" is the last think of when evaluating the relative expectations of pain.
Wikipedia on motivations for rape
I think it's complicated. Even the access to the internet lowering the incidence of rape could be about increased chances of finding partners as well as access to more porn-- it isn't as though porn was rare before the internet.
My impression is that it isn't as true as it used to be that fictional evil characters are ugly, but I don't have stats. It's certainly reassuring to think that the people you find repulsive are also more dangerous.
Interestingly, I actually had a specific female Death Eater that I had in mind when I wrote that post. The character in question, Bellatrix Lestrange, was played by Helena Bonham Carter, who does not strike me as unusually physically unattractive.
True. But I still think Harry Potter is a traditional melodrama in that evil is very hard to miss. Bellatrix's boss looks like this.
That is the movie.
(Warning: TV Tropes)
If I recall correctly, she was attractive-- even beautiful-- in the books until she was imprisoned, at which point she became a shadow of her former self. However, she was imprisoned for torturing two people into insanity (I can rot13 that if necessary, but I think it's a very minor spoiler at best), so I think it's fair to say that she was evil before she became unattractive and not the other way around.
There may be different factors going on for female rapists. The statistics you cite don't separate out male and female rapists, and I suspect that female rapists are less likely to rape out of desperation, rather than being less attractive.