Maybe it’s rash to read the suggestion that all men are potential rapists as a negative? It suggests that the word “potential” carries destiny within it, when actually it contains choice.
At roughly the point historically that we started telling young women that they had the potential to be anything, we started telling young men that they had the potential to be rapists.
Is it possible that culturally we were just aiming low for our boys? The word “potential” doesn’t speak to any real likelihood – a child may have the potential to be president of the USA, or an astronaut, but it doesn’t mean they will be.
Still, it does seem to be a little sad that women had their notional horizons broadened for them, while men had theirs cut right down.
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