Rape

:For other uses of the word rape (for example, the plant called rapeseed), see Rape (disambiguation).

Non-sexual usage of term

In its original sense, dating back to antiquity, "to rape a person" meant to capture the person for the purpose of enslavement, and was common in ancient warfare. In this context, the willingness of the victim is irrelevant to the categorization of the act as "rape". The "Rape of the Sabine Women" was a "rape" in this context. In Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock, the word "rape" is used hyperbolically in a similar context, exaggerating a trivial violation against a person.

Related Topics:
Enslavement - Sabine Women - Alexander Pope - The Rape of the Lock - Hyperbolically

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Though the sexual connotation is today dominant, the word "rape" is still sometimes used in a non-sexual context. For example, environmental destruction is sometimes described as "raping the earth", and the Rape of Nanking describes a violation both against a town, as well as the people. In "the rape of the Silmarils" in J. R. R. Tolkien's "The Silmarillion", the word "rape" is used with its old meaning of "seizing and taking away".

Related Topics:
Rape of Nanking - Silmarils - J. R. R. Tolkien - The Silmarillion

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Sometimes, the word rape is used to dysphemistically describe forms of non-sexual unwelcome conduct. It is argued by some that this usage is demeaning or disempowering to the victims and survivors of real sexual rape, because it ends up by weakening the force and horror of the word. Such metaphorical and hyperbolic usages are common with other words, for example "It was absolute torture" to mean ordinary embarrassment; or "I'm starving" to mean "I'm feeling hungry". Victims and survivors of rape, and their allies, may find this type of usage, pejorative and deeply offensive, since it normalizes the term "rape" to cover mundane events. Examples include:

Related Topics:
Dysphemistically - Metaphor - Torture - Embarrassment - Pejorative

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• In internet culture, using the word "raped" to refer to:
• having one's online writings voted/moderated downwards by a large number of people;
• defeating someone in an online game, without being seen, until the action against them is taken;
• "they raped his name in the media";
• "I got anally raped by that class";
• "The wood had been raped of its peace" (said of a disturbance caused by a fox-hunt in a forest);
• "The rape of England" (A newspaper article headline with a pun, referring to the rapeseed plant self-seeding on waste ground and motorway verges).

However, these usages are not, in fact, always examples of a hyperbole. The last two examples are continuations of the original meaning of "violating" in a general sense.

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