I wonder why they are treating rape fantasies differently from other forms of sexual fantasies. I mean, sure, it is different in the sense that it involves force/violence, but in the sense that it is a fictional fantasy, it's still the same thing - it's a fantasy that turns women on. It's like they think "fantasy" means wish fulfillment, which it absolutely doesn't. This shouldn't be the case, since they literally lay out the case for rape fantasies being connected to a more open/driven sexuality and that an increase in sexual fantasies of all varieties coincides with an increase in rape fantasies. It's just dumb that the rest of the article seems to ignore that.
Also strange that they are only mentioning the fantasy from a female's perspective. Did they not think a male's perspective on rape fantasies could give insight? Were they so sure that they didn't even look?
Masochism in its broad definition could be a reason. I would definitely agree with the article though, that the original thesis put forth by Deustch is just... embarrassing.
Sexual blame avoidance is one of those things that sounds very clever and reasonable, but for which there's literally no evidence for, and will just live on in the minds of researchers and policy makers who think facts shouldn't get in the way of a good story.
Openness to sexual experience - Yeah, no shit? It's in the name...
Desirability is one of the more sound theories to me. The amount of women I've seen on roleplay sites that have this exact narrative in their ads is in the hundreds. It's by no means the only reason, though, but I'm positive it's one for a good chunk of women. The narrative I'm talking about is that the man is overcome by the woman's beauty - he is so blinded by his lust for her that he can't help himself and rapes her.
Male rape culture? This is stupid. There are no cited sources for even the existence of 'male rape culture', nor is there any evidence cited that this theory from 1975 is relevant. This whole section is there to pander to feminists and for no scientific reason.
Biological predisposition: I find it pretty hilarious that they decided to type out the researcher's full name, showing that she is a woman and not a man, when putting forth the citation that females may have a biological predisposition to sexual submissiveness. They don't do that in the other sections. I wouldn't put much stock in this theory though. It might have a tiny impact, but realistically, the human brain is so much more sophisticated than those of other animals, that any such predisposition would likely be subdued by cultural or personal biases pretty quickly.
Sympathetic activation seems flawed to me. I mean yeah, elevated levels in the sympathetic nervous system could lead to sexual arousal just like they present, but they're not explaining why some women would choose this to get turned on, over other sexual fantasies which do not activate it. I.e. if the goal is to be turned on and you can choose between imagining being raped, or imagining having consensual sex, why would the first be more attractive? This theory does not explain that - at least not in this article.
Adversary transformation. This is a quote, without citation:
In a romance novel that includes rape, women
identify with the lead female character and vicariously
experience her rape.
It's that straight-forward, huh? I feel like the authors went ahead of themselves a little there. But whatever, that's not what adversary transformation is about. It's about the age-old adage of a woman changing a bad man into a better man - but still a man. It's a little bit funny to me that "turning an evil man good" is a theory, as is desirability - which is essentially "turning a good man evil". That, if anything, should show you how far away from a conclusion this research is. As for my own thoughts, this is also definitely one of the many reasons for rape fantasies.
The only real thing you can take away from this assessment would be this:
Current research indicates that from 31% to 57% of
women have had rape fantasies, with from 9% to 17%
reporting that rape fantasies are either a frequent occur-
rence or a favorite fantasy. Because rape fantasies are
perceived as socially unacceptable or potentially embar-
rassing, these are most likely underestimates.
