Sex and Violence

Humans have the largest penis-to-body ratio of any primate, and larger than most other animals. Whales have huge, retractable penises, mainly because it is hard to fuck when you are swimming. Barnacles have very long penises, because they have to extrude them and poke around in the vicinity trying to fuck other barnacles. (I’m not sure how they get consent.) Ducks have big penises, because they don’t care about consent — they rape. Most birds don’t rape, but ducks do. If you have ever seen male ducks chasing a female duck around in the water, they were trying to rape her.

Why do humans have big dicks? One theory is that the human penis pumps out the seminal fluid of other males during sex. However, that would only be adaptive if women regularly have sex with multiple men in rapid succession.

The semen displacement theory is sometimes used to argue that humans are naturally promiscuous or polygamous: that our ancestors had a relaxed and communal attitude toward sexuality, and lived in a prehistoric paradise of free love and sex, until at some point the patriarchy started oppressing everyone.

However, there is a more plausible explanation: gang rape.

Open sexual relationships are not natural for human beings. Pair-bonding and mate-guarding are found in all human populations. Some cultures permit polygamy, but it usually involves a man having multiple wives, not multiple men having sex with the same woman.

On the other hand, rape is a natural human behavior. We don’t like to admit this, of course. We would like to pretend that violent urges are the manifestation of some psychological problem: that only “sociopaths” rape. But that is a moral myth. Humans evolved to be killers and rapists under certain conditions, because those behaviors can be good reproductive strategies.

Rape can be adaptive, because it is a reproductive free ride. If the rapist impregnates the woman, she and others (her relatives and/or her mate) will pay the cost of raising the child. The rapist gets a free ride, aside from the cost and risk of the rape itself.

Did we evolve to hunt for sex as well as food? Hands are great for making tools and throwing spears. They are also good for holding on to a woman. Social organization is good for hunting and defending a territory. It is also good for sexual predation.

Before civilization, our ancestors lived in small groups that were perpetually at war with each other. Every man was a warrior. Capturing women was an important part of primitive warfare. Men fought for territory, to kill their enemies, and to capture women.

Team sports reenact primitive warfare. Groups of men engage in ritualized combat, while beautiful women stand on the sidelines, displaying their fertility. Symbolically, the men are fighting for the women.

Rape is also part of modern warfare. In WWII, Russian soldiers were told “The German Woman is Yours”. Stalin had a more realistic conception of human nature than Hitler did. Hitler expected his soldiers to fight altruistically for the German Volk. Stalin told his soldiers that they could rape with impunity on captured enemy territory. The Germans surrendered at Stalingrad. The Russians raped in Berlin.

Men evolved to rape, but also to defend their mates and relatives against rape. Social organization extends this protection to all members of the group. The prohibition of rape, adultery and promiscuity was an ancient part of the social contract. Sexual ownership prevents the reproductive free-rider problem. A man has the exclusive right to have sex with his wife. In return, he is responsible for her children.

Are there female adaptations related to rape? Anorexia might be the attempt to shut down fertility by eating very little during periods of social chaos (or perceived social chaos, such as high school). When surrounded by strange males, young women might instinctively attempt to delay fertility, to buy the time to bond with a male protector and provider.

Do women want to be raped? No, but many women have rape fantasies. There is an aggressive aspect to human sexuality, even when it is consensual.

Behavior patterns can be divided into two basic types: approach and avoidance. This probably goes back to some primordial fish ancestor, whose behavioral repertoire was limited but effective. It would either swim toward something, or swim away from it. Our more complicated behavior patterns are the descendants of those two simple patterns. Our more complex emotions are descended from hunger and fear. Back then, it was eat or be eaten. Life is more complex for us, but the basic distinction still holds. There are things that you want to approach, and things that you want to avoid.

Sexual behavior involves approach by the male and avoidance by the female. In most mammal species, the male pursues the female. The female scampers away, but doesn’t run too hard. She isn’t running for her life, just testing the male, and also demonstrating that she isn’t easy. Still, the male behavior is an approach behavior, and the female behavior is an avoidance behavior. Sexual pursuit falls into the same general category as predation and aggression. When the male catches the female, she submits to him sexually.

Sexual behavior involves male dominance and female submission. Dominance and submission are conflict-resolution behaviors. When members of the same species have a conflict, there are three options: fight, flight or submit. Submitting means you let the other party have what it wants. Sometimes, submitting is less costly than fighting or running away.

Sex is closely linked to dominance and submission. Males often use mounting to signal dominance over other males. By allowing himself to be mounted, the other male signals submission. Females can use sexual submission to resolve conflicts with males, and males can use aggression to make females submit to sex.

Female sexuality is linked to fear and avoidance behavior. Male sexuality is linked to aggression and approach behavior. Sex and violence are deeply entangled in the brain.

In some species, females use promiscuity to protect their offspring from violent males. After mating with the alpha stallion, a mare will often sneak off and mate with other stallions on the periphery of the herd. Why? Because stallions kill the offspring of other stallions. Having sex with multiple males is a way to confuse paternity, and thus protect her offspring from infanticide. Stallions will not usually kill the foal of a mare that they have fucked.

In most mammal species, males do not invest in raising offspring. Instead, they fight for access to females. We are an exception to that pattern. Like most bird species, humans pair-bond and raise children together. So, our primary sexual adaptation is cooperative. But we do have secondary strategies that involve coercion and deception. Rape is one of those strategies. It isn’t nice, but it is adaptive in some situations.

Sexual violence played a role in human evolution. It shaped our brains and bodies in certain ways. To fully understand human nature, we need to understand the dark side of human sexuality.