I don't really know the history of rape, but my guess is that it's about as "natural" as is veganism. Nonhumans rape each other, if I understand correctly. Yet, it is a universal human right not to be raped. So why isn't it a universal nonhuman right not to be raped? Or tortured? Or slaughtered for human pleasure? No, outlawing it won't just make it go away, but it will be a start. In the same way, rape of humans goes on and on and on to this day. There are sex slaves who are raped ten times a day. For human pleasure.
"It's natural." I am happy that my European Civ professor said she really disliked the use of the "natural" argument because throughout history it has been used to justify every unjust tradition or habit. I noticed this, too. Homosexuality is "unnatural" or "disordered." Independent women are "unnatural" and removed from their "natural" duty as childbearers and childrearers and homemakers. Birth control is "unnatural." Blacks are the "natural" inferiors of whites, "naturally" made to toil physically due to their "natural" brute strength and dim wits, as slaves. Eating meat is "natural," look at your teeth, everyone does it, that's why it's so tasty, we were hunters and gatherers, animals have been bred for the purpose of being killing by humans for so many millennia that they'd lose their "natural" purpose if we stopped, it's the "food chain," the circle of life, etc.
Yet, is an adult drinking a cow's milk natural? Is hooking animals up to machines natural? Are cookies and cake natural? Are chips and dip natural? Is coffee natural? Is shipping your food 12,000 miles natural? Is spending 5 hours a day sitting at a computer natural? Dying your hair? Taking a daily shower? Ruling the world?
What is natural?
Last night I told a guy that it's possible to feed a cat a vegan diet, after he told me he'd just shared a piece of "organic" and "local" cheese with the cat. He went berzerks on me, calling me an "extremist" who would dare put a cat at risk with "experimental" food because no one *he* knows would ever recommend a vegan cat diet. After all, it's "not natural"!
But, of course, "organic" and "local" cheese is completely and utterly natural.
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