For nearly 20 years, I have annually taught a couple of Women self-defense classes. Every year we get onto the topic of what motivates someone to rape someone else. And every year we open a can of worms with that discussion. Exploring the topic of sexual assault can be a political hot potato as the pro-feminist take on this issue, which is the politically correct one, is riddled with questions as well as unusual research findings.

For example, research conducted by cultural anthropologist Peggy Reeves Sanday found that the only cultures that do not have rape include the following: 1) they have both a male and a female ruling deity; 2) they give equal political power to men and women; and 3) they satisfy both men and women regarding the social power equation within their relationships. Cultures with an exclusive male top-god all have problems with rape. From one point of view, it can be argued that a patriarchal system keeps itself in business by raping its women. The male power-grid will have nothing to fear from women if they are all wandering around with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It seems, then, that if the community is to shoulder some of the responsibility for ending sexual assault, we will have to 1) dismantle the patriarchal system, and 2) outlaw sky-god religions.

On the other side of this, however, is the answer to the above question on why men rape women. The answer to that is, "Because they can." Each of us has a primary responsibility for our own well being -- from what we eat to how we exercise to our own personal protection. The sad fact is that men will stop raping women only when women can effectively refuse to be victimized. Since we probably won't be importing a goddess tradition anytime soon, the push within the community probably ought to be towards helping women become "hard" targets. To do that, though, rape crisis center policies would have to change. Current policy is neutral about self-protection. At a recent conference, I talked to a staff member from a local rape crisis agency and learned their logic goes something like this: If we (the agency) promoted self-protection, and a woman who didn't learn self-protection needs our services, then she may get the message that the assault is somehow her fault; we want the focus to be on the perpetrator and his behavior, not the woman.

I find this logic fatally flawed. Not only does it dismiss one's primary duty to self-care, but this policy also assumes that women cannot protect themselves. In all my years teaching women's self-defense classes, I have found that women are not incompetent with respect to their ability to protect themselves. Indeed, FBI statistics note that when women have defended themselves with a weapon, the bad guys disarmed them less than 1% of the time. Besides, who would women want protecting them -- men? Or which institutions should they rely on for protection -- the patriarchal system? Regardless of the obvious flawed logic in the pro-feminist position, these policies are the political reality.

Furthermore, the police, regardless of the propaganda about their mandate to protect us, cannot lawfully act until there is a crime. In other words, police don't protect (i.e., prevent a crime); rather, they retaliate on our behalf after a crime has been committed. We are responsible for our own protection. Luckily, we live in a right-to-carry state, so we benefit from this situation whether or not we are carrying a gun. Bad guys aren't sure who is carrying, and they are hesitating somewhat in their indiscriminate assaults. This trend is beginning to show up in crime-frequency statistics.

To make this topic even more complicated, it is also known that as many as 75% of all convicted rapists were themselves sexually abused as children. From a psychological perspective, they are acting out what was done to them in a futile attempt to heal -- sort of a horrible game of "tag: you're it." Once these men are in prison, they are inmates in a system where rape is a tool in the power dynamics of that society. In short, their sexual victimization, or their career as a sexual predator, or both, is continued.

If we add in to this mixture what we are beginning to discover about who will become chemically dependent (about 70% of those going into in-patient chemical dependency treatment are self-disclosing a history of sexual abuse), then we can also win the war on drugs by eradicating rape.

In this brief report of the various issues involved in the study of sexual assault, it should be glaringly obvious that sexual assault is the soft underbelly of the patriarchal system. It is a tool -- perhaps the tool -- to keep women out of the power system. It is a tool in prisons. It is a tool that society is mostly unconscious of, or in denial about. When society brings up rape as a topic for public discussion, we never seem to get to the questions: Why is it used? How is it used? When is it used? Who benefits from its use? There is a dark cloak of secrecy about this whole topic.

To their credit, the pro-feminist advocates are bringing attention to its frequency, and they keep the topic of sexual assault alive. In my view, however, their program for dealing with it is counter-productive and patriarchal itself. Women don't need to be "taken care of." They can take care of themselves quite handily. Over the years, the most gratifying calls I get are from women who have used what their other martial arts instructors and I have taught them -- to protect themselves from an attack.

I am without an alternative agenda to the pro-feminist approach in asking that society take a stronger stand. I only have the hope that we have matured enough as a society to actually discuss this issue realistically.

Bruce Bibee, MTP, is a counselor in private practice who has worked for 15 years in the area of sexual assault recovery, domestic violence, and Stage 2 recovery from chemical dependency. He is the owner/instructor of the Kung-Fu San Soo Center, offering programs in self-defense for women since 1982.