If a nun was raped and she enjoyed it, does it cause an offence for the nun?
If a nun was raped and she did not enjoy it, does it cause an offence for the nun?
I would rather speak in terms of bhikkhus because bhikkhunis do not exist in classical theravada. However, monks can get raped and have been raped.
Enjoyment are factors for full offense. It is an unfair situation but that is the rule. If he did not enjoy, then it is not an offense.
A bhikkhuni is defeated even by allowing the touching below the collar bone and above the knees.
The bhikkhuni incurs a sanghadisesa offense if she travels alone, sleeps alone or crosses a river alone for her own protection. I know of one case of a monk in the past 20 years who was raped and disrobed. What more could be said about women nuns doing the same while traveling and living in a van and breaking sanghadisesa rules?
3 Likes
The phrasing of the question is somewhat strange, although it may pique the curiosity of some.
No one enjoys getting raped.
At one time a young brahmin had fallen in love with the nun Uppalavaṇṇā. When Uppalavaṇṇā had gone to the village for alms, he entered her hut and hid himself. When she had eaten her meal and returned from almsround, Uppalavaṇṇā washed her feet, entered her hut, and sat down on the bed. Then that young brahmin grabbed hold of her and raped her. She told the nuns what had happened. The nuns told the monks, who in turn told the Buddha. “There’s no offense for one who doesn’t consent.”
The translated text (and all the chapter about Pārājika 1) doesn’t mention enjoying as an element for defeat, it mentions consent.
You may be referring to having sexual pleasure while enduring the rape. But it’s possible to the body to produce pleasant sensations during forced sexual contact, even if the victim is not consenting. It’s not something that the victim can control. Having such pleasant sensations during rape is not enough to characterize consent. And it certainly doesn’t reduce the guilt of the perpetrator.
1 Like
Well, this is what ought to be commonly understood in principle, but what goes on in the minds of individuals in societies is entirely different; there is acceptance of rape in many societies and even justification for it, and you will find that individuals who adopt such attitudes are more inclined to accept rape myths with concepts such as the assumption that the victim (most often a woman) is in a state of consent or enjoyment, or whatever one may call it. This is clearly present in the context of American culture discussed in Martha R. Burt’s article, Cultural Myths and Supports for Rape (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1980, Vol. 38, No. 2, 217-230), and it is attributed to certain cultural attitudes that condone sexual assault. One example is:
And also:
