what makes rape emotionally scarring for women?

The emotional toll that rape has is extremely complicated and requires a much more thorough treatment than can be provided in a paragraph or two. The victim of rape has undergone a most heinous attack upon her which causes innumerable symptoms that are often seen in patients with PTSD. These women experience a myriad of emotional turmoil and their treatment takes a very long time. Often they feel an inexplicable sense of shame, guilt or other counter-intuitive feeling because of the complex nature of this vicious crime and the difficulty of the lay public in understanding just how emotionally crippling this is. It's perhaps as sickening a crime as one can commit.

In the context of being raped by a stranger versus a spouse, the circumstances would have a major impact on how the victim deals with the sequelae, but nonetheless, the victim will still have undergone a sickening attack upon her greatest vulnerabilities. The rapist knows this and exploits this out of a sadistic/sociopathic sense of pleasure.

Are you doing this for research for a class? I don't know the answer really but my guess from a woman's prospective (who hasn't been raped but has been sexually harrassed a number of times), it's the fact that someone touched you in such an intimate way without your permission, and took something special from you. I mean most of the raped women are raped by people they knew so it could also be a trust issue as well, like someone you thought loved you or knew you well did not respect those fine line boundaries. And if you were raped as a child by a relative then it's not just trust and a special gift taken from you but that special relationship with the relative (have it been a father, brother, cousin, etc) was ruined by the stepping on the boundaries.

Also being raped takes away some of your control, given the self defense women can learn and have naturally, I say it probably distresses you more to think you tried so hard to defend yourself and to get away that somehow your power and control was taken away.

Well, imagine being completely overpowered and stripped of all your defenses by a wild animal. He is not interested in your feelings, physical pain or possibility of you to actually survive this ordeal. He is there to destroy you, and rape is the quickest way he knows to get his goal achieved. No reasoning will do you any good, because he is deaf and blind to reason. And if you scream and try to fight him off, he will enjoy killing you in a worst way he can imagine. That is why no emotionally and mentally healthy male can commit a crime like that. It takes a sick bastard to be so cold blooded and hateful.

As one who went through it all and managed to survive and overcome the pain to be able to have a normal life, I can testify that it takes years, professional help and overwhelming strength of character. At first there is an intense physical pain, possible pregnancy and also possible infertility for the rest of your life to deal with. After that, continuing nightmares, self loathing for letting yourself to be used in such a way (like you were given a choice there) and hate for everything male. Some people can't handle this stage of recovery and end their lives or go after their attacker and try to make him pay for what he had done to her. Both ways spell disaster and should be avoided at all costs. Next comes bottom low self esteem and very hard time trusting people. You basically crawl on your knees and elbows through life, because picking yourself up and letting yourself feel like a human being again takes too much strength, which you still don't have in you. Now, to overcome constant pain of all that we need qualified professional help, love and care of family and friends and personal strength. It takes years of constant struggle with yourself, so if and when you wake up in a morning and feel good and safe about yourself and the world around you, it is a great victory and an inspiration for others.

I hope that was helpful in some way.

Edit @ icewitch: I am really sorry for your pain, and I hope you will overcome your mistrust of people ( which is not easy by any means) soon. I did jump to conclusions, but I do not know anything about you and all I had is the information you've provided earlier. FYI, I have remarried since and have a great family and a lovely child. BTW, I do wish more of the same for you. The best of luck!

Can't say I have been in those shoes, but a friend has. For her, a guy broke into her apartment through the window, sneaked up on her, and attacked her. Oh, and there were bars on that window. So imagine how you would feel after that and the million reasons you could be emotionally scarred. I don't think you can generalize their feelings.

I think it's for similar reasons as to why rape is emotionally scarring when it happens to boys/men.

It's mainly because someone else is invading your body without your consent, and forcing you to possibly feel aggressive painful sex that can injure you, forcing you against your will to possible get a sexually transmitted disease.

For women, their being forced against their will to possibly get pregnant by a violent stranger.

Also, for both male and female victims, your being threaten for your life usually unless you allow it to happen.

These are all emotionally scarring reasons. It makes you feel humiliated, threatened, scared, shocked, unvalued like trash, etc. All of it is emotionally scarring.

If you have already encountered an unfortunate situation such as rape or assault, you may be experiencing a barrage of upsetting feelings. Often, a woman’s reaction to rape is known as the rape trauma syndrome. The initial phase is called disorganization, and the second, long-term phase is reorganization. Immediately following rape, a girl may either react expressively - by showing fear, anger, anxiety, crying, sobbing or tenseness - or by masking feelings and showing a clam exterior. They may have trouble sleeping, have nightmares reliving the rape, constantly wake up have stomach pains; genitourinary disturbances; and headaches, or develop phobias. For example, it attacked inside, they may develop a fear of being indoors. They may be very afraid to be alone. Additionally, they will commonly feel emotions such as depression, humiliation, embarrassment, anger self-blame, and fear of violence and death. Sexual fears may develop, and in extreme cases, a person is unable to resume normal sexual activity. However, studies say that depressive symptoms disappear in most victims within four months.

I feel like it is NEVER THE WOMAN'S FAULT. However, I think women should understand the world we live in. Is it wrong that women should have to worry about what she wears? ABSOLUTELY! But we can't act like evil doesn't exist in the world. Just because women "Shouldn't" have to worry about their clothing, doesn't mean she should be completely oblivious to the world around her. Rape is ALWAYS the rapists fault who had evil in his heart. Recently I came up with an analogy for how I view rape and it deals with me being Black. The analogy is: I am an AMERICAN CITIZEN who was born AFRICAN-AMERICAN. As an AMERICAN CITIZEN, I SHOULD be able to step foot in every town on AMERICAN SOIL. However, if I go to the Backwoods of Mississippi and walk into a KKK community, I can expect to die. It WOULD NOT be my fault for getting killed, of course it would be the racist peoples fault, but I should have avoided that situation altogether. Rape and Racism still exist and it's a SAD TRUTH that we live with. I don't condone either one, I'm just saying that UNTIL we end Rape and Racism, we should use Wisdom in how we dress and where we go. We can't act like it's not there and try to take risks. So until racism ends, I WILL NOT go to the Backwoods of Mississippi and women should try to watch how they dress and who they are around.

Woah. You are so far off base here, you are on another planet.

Rape has nothing to do with sex. It is about violence, and mostly power. How would you feel if someone took complete control over you, with extreme malicious intent? And then performed an act of violence upon you in the most personal way possible?

A stranger rape is normally very very violent - the woman is terrified for her life, being beaten, hurt, stripped and forced upon.

The man is not after pleasure from the action of sex but the pleasure of power, control and the terror they produce.

When a woman's body is tense having some one force themselves inside causes ripping, extreme pain and damage.

However its the terror that remains never feeling safe again, never feeling they can ever trust ANY man.

Terrified of walking in dark parking lots, terrified of strangers knocking on the door, terror that at any time someone might hurt them again.

even if you are attracted to someone the violence of rape turns a formally "nice man" into a violent and terrifying monster.

Its like having a nice doggy you love the dog but when it viciously attacks and hurts your child (or yourself) the doggy is no longer nice, sweet and all love/like for the dog does not take away from the horror of the event. - nor do you immediately want another dog.

all of the above answers are good, but here are my 2 cents.

rape isnt usually about sex and getting off.

usually for the aggressor, it is about asserting power over someone weaker than them.... ie: a 20 year old who rapes an 80 year old most likely does not think that the 80 year old is hot stuff.

for the victim it is traumatic because they are violently assaulted. in the case of a married couple, it would be kind of like if a woman spanks her husband during consensual sex -vs- if a woman hits her husband with a frying pan to knock her husband out and then rapes him.