Women's Erotic Rape Fantasies: An Evaluation of Theory and Research (Report‪)‬

Sexual fantasies or daydreams can range from brief thoughts or images to stories with detailed plotlines. They may deal with actual past experiences, purely imagined experiences, or a mixture of both (Leitenberg & Henning, 1995). Although psychology has emphasized the study of overt behavior, the investigation of fantasy may provide unique contributions to the field. As sexual fantasies are relatively unconstrained by social consequences, they may reveal underlying psychological processes, motives, and predispositions more clearly than does overt behavior (Ellis & Symons, 1990). In the realm of sexual fantasies, the area that almost certainly has posed the greatest conceptual challenge for researchers is that of "rape fantasies." Women's rape fantasies exist as a psychological enigma. As Hazen (1983) articulated, "It does not seem normal that a person should want to imagine rape. The true mystery is why anyone does" (p. 23). Although people often daydream about events that they do not want to happen, rape fantasies differ in key respects. For example, one could fantasize an extramarital affair. For some, an affair would be exciting, both as fantasy and in actuality, but they may not want to engage in actual infidelity because of negative consequences to the marriage. In contrast, rape would be avoided not only because of unpleasant consequences, but, more importantly, because the experience of the rape itself would be abhorrent. And although fantasies about unpleasant events, such as a feared performance evaluation, are not rare, these fantasies are not pleasurable. In contrast, fantasies of forced sex are often exciting, pleasurable, and sexually arousing (Kanin, 1982).