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Long time readers of my writings on sexual mores know that I make frequent, usually sarcastic remarks at the expense of conservative commentators who are pleased to denounce younger men as “predators.” Many writers use the term, and as a regular reader of Chronicles between 1997 and 2005 I saw it constantly—on almost every occasion the subject of sex arose, in fact. From time to time, I have heard particular men accused of being sexual predators as well, including men I have known personally.
But something has always disturbed me about the popular use of this term: I have never seen anyone attempt to define it. I like to have clarity about the words I use—and the words I hear used by others. Perhaps this is a matter of personal temperament, or perhaps due to my education in philosophy, but it seems to me that if you do not have a clear idea what your words men, you literally “do not know what you are talking about.” So today I wish to pose the question of what, exactly, a sexual predator is.
The first point to make seems to me that the expression is metaphorical. A literal predator is an animal that lives by feeding off other organisms. Professional biologists even speak of seed predators and egg predators, but the popular conception usually involves carnivorous animals that live by feeding on other animals: lions chasing down gazelles, hawks swooping down on mice, kingfishers diving for fish, etc. Sexual predators are not literal predators, with only one exception of which I am aware: Jeffrey Dahmer (1960-1994), the “Milwaukee Monster” who apparently got some sort of sexual pleasure out of eating the remains of the seventeen men and boys he murdered. But apart from this cannibal, when we speak of a sexual “predator,” we are employing metaphor.
Another point it seems safe to make is that only men get referred to as sexual predators. It is not entirely obvious why this should be the case. I once knew of a man who unexpectedly came into a good deal of money and, as sometimes happens in such circumstances, soon found himself popular with women. Like most men, he was naïve about the opposite sex, and it was not too long before he married some gold-digging bimbo. She was not easy to keep happy, and his fortune quickly eroded. Once it was gone, so was she. Such behavior might reasonably be described as predatory, but is not what people normally mean when they speak of sexual predators. Perhaps the woman I described might pass muster as a financial predator—but in the context of female sexuality, sex and finances are very closely related.
In short, and whether rightly or wrongly, “predators” in the metaphorical sense of the term are always men. But which men?
I have seen it stated somewhere—in an old essay by Irving Kristol, if I remember correctly—that all men are in some sense predators. Of course, it would be possible to use the term as a synonym for “man,” but this would render it less useful (except perhaps to Andrea Dworkin). As for Kristol, he may simply have meant that normal young men desire sexual intercourse with a woman, and thus usually try to find themselves one for this purpose—a common form of human behavior traditionally known as “courtship,” while the sexual relationship itself is traditionally known as a “marriage.” But predation does not seem a useful metaphor for either courtship or marital intimacy, and people who denounce men as predators will certainly deny that they are thinking of ordinary suitors and husbands.
So let us set it down that a sexual predator is some specific subset of men other than suitors and husbands. What distinguishes such men from non-predators?
To return to the term’s literal sense, we note that the relations between a lion and a gazelle are, let us say, rather lopsided: the lion chases down the gazelle, kills it, and eats it. This nourishes the lion, but provides no benefit at all to the gazelle, which simply dies. Now let us ask: is there any kind of human sexual transaction that can reasonably be likened to a lion devouring a gazelle?
It seems clear that there is, and it is just what we commonly refer to as “rape.” Since we are living in the twenty-first century, let me add that I am not thinking here of any of the new sorts of rape introduced to the world by feminism in recent decades, such as date rape, acquaintance rape, or marital rape. I am referring to good old-fashioned jumping-out-from-behind-the-bushes rape: the kind where a man waylays a woman in some location where she is vulnerable and satisfies his sexual urges with her body using physical force or threats. Most rapists then run away to avoid capture and punishment. Like the gazelle killed by a lion, the woman victimized by such a rape has no say in the matter and derives no benefit from it. So there is a real and valid analogy here between a form of human sexual behavior and the literal predation which occurs in the animal kingdom. I have no objection to characterizing rapists (of the traditional sort described) as sexual predators.
Now the question arises of whether there are any other types of sexual interaction between men and women which might also be validly, if metaphorically, characterized as predation. And this is where I become confused because, as mentioned above, I hear men being spoken of in this way without the term being defined or it being made clear precisely what they have done. Denunciation of such “predators” can be vehement and angry, but it is all heat and no light, so to speak.
There are many ways in which men can misbehave themselves sexually, after all. Some are highly adept at seeking out willing women, irresponsibly fornicating with them, and then quickly turning their attentions elsewhere. These are known as “cads,” and many of them are what psychologists call psychopaths: reckless, irresponsible, and without a conscience. Is the behavior in which cads engage predation? Perhaps one might make a convincing argument that it is, but I must note this objection from the outset: no naturalist has ever observed a gazelle seeking out a lion to offer itself to. And as I just explained, cads are men adept at seeking out willing
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women. If no women were willing to fornicate with them, how would the cads succeed in becoming cads? So in this case, the “predator” metaphor already appears to be breaking down.
And there are many other types of sexual misbehavior in which men can engage. How about a one-off act of fornication by a man who is not a habitual cad? How about a husband who is unfaithful to his wife? How about an unmarried man who is intimate with another man’s wife? How about a man who takes up with a slightly underage girl? How about one who takes up with a very underage girl?
It seems to me we could debate endlessly about each of these instances. A convincing case might well be made that we are justified in calling the men who engage in one or more of these behaviors “predators.” But then aren’t we really debating more about words than realities—about whether we ought to define the term “predator” to cover such behaviors or not?
For my own part, as already stated, I am content to see the predator metaphor employed in cases of forceable rape. But it also seems to me that it breaks down rather quickly as the behavior in question departs from that model. And if “predator” is a mere synonym for rapist, the term is not really necessary at all; we can just say “rapist” and dispense with the more ambiguous expression. In other cases as well, it seems better to name the specific sort of objectionable behavior at issue.
This is not merely a theoretical question. Any man described as a “sexual predator” is certainly being accused of serious wrongdoing. Such a man may be punished or lose friends without anyone bothering to state precisely what he has done. As noted above, I have heard men of my own acquaintance described as predators. In one case, a woman in the conversation quickly added that, well, after all, lots of men are predators. That old Irving Kristol essay instantly came to mind. Probably the woman herself did not know exactly what she meant.
So when I see that acquaintance of mine, I shake his hand. I have never once thought of breaking off ordinary social intercourse with him. I simply do not know what, if anything, he did wrong. But I do know that, while some men will misbehave themselves sexually, there are also people who will condemn men for the most innocent behavior, including what would properly be described as flirting. I do not say this by way of exaggeration: I have been simply floored by the trivialities for which I have heard and seen decent men criticized and even formally punished in this effeminate and feminist age. Such condemnation is properly known as sanctimony, it is widely found in both women and men, and if my observations are any guide, it is much more common than serious male sexual misbehavior.
10 comments
Maybe the term “sexual predator” was promoted with the purpose to dehumanize non-beta males. A rapist is a despicable human, but a predator is something inhuman that instinctively devours humans.
1960s feminists may have been looking for a term that carried the greatest shock- and propaganda-value while also being vague enough to be widely applicable and hard to argue against with precision.
Part of the general political weaponization of language?
There may well be something to this, but in my experience it is traditionalists, not feminists, who really go for the term “predator.” Feminists seem to prefer the late Susan Brownmiller’s neologism “date rape.” But it is the the similarity of intent between feminist crazies and traditionalists that most bothers me: behind the differences in vocabulary, both groups want to depict ordinary young men as virtual criminals.
I agree it is mostly traditionalists that use the term. Often when talking about dangers for young women, older men will say ‘after all, we remember how we were when we were young men’, suggesting ‘predatory’ animal sexual appetites. I presume this is a device used by an insecure man to exaggerate one’s past sexual activity. I’ve been guilty of that myself.
Enjoyable piece. It brings to my mind the judge or senator that claimed, about pornography, that he couldn’t define it, but he knows it when he sees it. Predator I feel is simply a way to make the accused seem even more threatening than a rapist. It seems most common when dealing with great age differences for the man and child of either sex. While the gay community doesn’t frown on man/boy relationships, the heterosexual community generally does. A stalker could quite literally be seen as a predator up until they decide whether to strike or not. Is a peeping tom a predator? Is calling someone a perv or pervert shorthand for predator?
There is one title I wish was dumped into the ashbin of history and that’s terrorist. It makes them sound almost heroic when they are accurately described as murderers. Let’s call a spade a spade.
Conservatives likely use the term to insult the men they feel threatened by because they are competition, and feminists use the term to mean men who are threatening, but unattractive.
“I have never seen anyone attempt to define it.”
Even at SCOTUS level, weak individuals will always aim to deflect as much potential accountability for behavior as possible. They won’t even define “woman.” Their definitions constantly change so they can always use the one which most benefits them.
To my mind, “sexual predator” frequently involves child grooming (by coaches, teachers, camp counselors, frequently gay parents of adopted kids) or taking advantage of the mentally retarded. There are many predatory pedo female school teachers these days, perhaps because there are so few male teachers they’re overloaded with many women. I do wonder about what *long-term* effect such activity has on young adolescents students. Female sexual predators often receive a slap on the wrist for what would be jail time for a male teacher). It seems like the female predators build out-of-bounds, emotional phony friendship/relationships with these kids, ongoing drinking/smoking weed, as if these crazy women are 16 years old & trying to be the most ‘popular’ girl in class. Liberals are much less likely to observe the traditional notion that adults are authority figures, and that it’s inappropriate to socialize with children who are not on their same maturity (& adult legal) level.
“To return to the term’s literal sense, we note that the relations between a lion and a gazelle are, let us say, rather lopsided: the lion chases down the gazelle, kills it, and eats it.”
I think a better animal analogy might be a cat & a mouse. Even cats who are well fed, will stalk, chase, & often seize, mice & birds. Cats are natural predators for sport, & not just for food/survival.
Ironically “old-fashioned jumping-out-from-behind-the-bushes rape” is certainly more animalistic, than building rapport to try to convince people to snap nude pics of themselves. <— I believe this is predatory; but I’m old school.
“And there are many other types of sexual misbehavior in which men can engage.”
One of the worst, imho, is gay (or “bi”) men who marry heterosexual women.
In my reading, I have come across the description of gold-digging women as “predatory”, in their search for a weak-willed man of fortune, or just useful to them, to “capture” in some way that would not benefit the man at all. This is sometimes found in pre-politically correct fictional works, which is the only fiction I read. A device used in Victorian novels has a young, pretty scheming female marrying an much older, preferably very old, rich man with the designs of speeding him on to his great reward (usually via poison) so that she can then be a young, pretty and rich widow!
One man I know, whose behavior I would describe as predatory, engages in a behavior of seeking out the psychologically weak, for the purpose of “toying” with them, through manipulative behavior – showering the individual with favors and attention, and then “punishing” (his word) them by turning off the spigot, so to speak, for his own amusement. Another of his behaviors is attempting to weasel his way into the lives of the underage females in the families of his close acquaintances. So, I don’t know. Maybe this was more social vampirism than predation, but it would seem a very fine line.
Feminists use the term “sexual predator” in the most absurd ways.
For instance, a man who engages in traditional courtship and marriage with an adult woman considerably younger than himself will be called a “sexual predator”. Male attractiveness seems to peak in the mid 30s, while female attractiveness seems to peak in the early 20s. Feminists, especially single feminists in their mid 30s, hate seeing a man at his peak attractiveness marrying a woman at her peak attractiveness.
Also, there is the bizarre phenomenon of people hating so-called “incels” (involuntary celibates). Men who have no sexual encounters of any kind are viewed with suspicion and disdain, as if they’d done something dirty. In a weird inversion of reality, they are viewed as “sexual predators” precisely because they don’t have sex! In previous eras of world history, men who were “unlucky in love” evoked pity or even compassion, but now “incels” inspire burning hatred and revulsion.
Apparently there is a trend of women dressing provocatively and posing provocatively at gyms, often deliberately positioning themselves in a place where the eyes of men were already pointed before they showed up, and setting up cameras to catch any man who so much as glances in her direction, then taking the video online to “expose” the “sexual predator” who glanced in her direction. How “creepy” of him! (Men would be well advised to avoid any gym with female members – just do pushups at home to stay fit.) There is a Youtube channel “Joey Swoll” with many examples of this phenomenon.
Finally, there is the “me too” phenomenon. If a man gets mired in a genuine scandal, all the women he has been involved with in any way over the years will suddenly reinterpret their interactions with that man. Innocent interactions, which both sides treated as completely innocent at the time, are retroactively re-imagined as somehow “creepy”. Consensual interactions are re-imagined as somehow “coerced”. Woe to the man who falls afoul of female mob mentality! This happened to Judge Kavanaugh when he was appointed to the Supreme Court in Trump’s first term.
Men who marry women younger than themselves, men who don’t have sex with anyone, men who instinctively glance in the direction of a woman’s butt when it is shoved in their face, and men who are targeted by feminist hate mobs – all these types of men are sexual predators.
A literal predator is an animal that lives by feeding off other organisms. We call them parasites around here but that’s a different essay. A real rapist is always a negro beast, a muslim, or a jew against the most vulnerable, especially children. But #metoo gender studies girl always shuts the fuck up about actual colored rapists as do their “allies”, while ruining the life of a socially awkward college kid just trying to meet a girl. It mirrors our civilizational death spiral everywhere else of rewarding scum and destroying the innocent cause we’re ruled by enemy jews and parajews like that bitch tammy bruce. You wanna see a Predator? kimberly guilfoyle without its mask and plasma caster. “Racist” is to blacks what “rapist” is to a lying feminist, what “antisemite” is to jews, what the phobias are to rainbows. Their hiding place, a “safe space”.
I have become cynical, and skeptical when I hear the accusations of sexual predator, and serial killer. Yes, there are some predators, and killers out there, but the only ones we ever hear about are white men, rarely do we hear about the nonwhite perpetrator, and then only in passing. My thesis is that the phenomenon of sexual predation, and serial killings is much higher in nonwhite populations, though we will never hear about it. Sadly, fear of unfounded accusations have just become another tool to control the white man. 🙃
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