"The sexual assault of sleeping women" - Guardian article

[SmiteTheeWithThunderbolts]

Article in the Guardian today:

www.theguardian.com/society/2021/jun/15/the-sexual-assault-of-sleeping-women-the-hidden-horrifying-crisis-in-britains-bedrooms

"A recent survey suggested a shockingly high proportion of women have been sexually assaulted by a partner as they slept. Now more and more are speaking out"

[HollowTalk]

“One [sex worker] told me that she had customers that she really trusts so she has let them drug her so they can go ahead.”

That is one of the worst things I've heard.

[Phoenixrising2020]

I sincerely hope that they do. It is so often ignored or rationalised and leaves the woman upset, violated and very likely to be disbelieved.

[Phoenixrising2020]

Pressed too soon. Of course the perpetrators have the classic excuses such as sleeping, fantasy or misremembering. It is despicable.

[YouWerePrettyIWasLonely]

It crops up frequently on the relationships board, woman wakes to find her partner touching her.

[HollowTalk]

There have been several who've been videoed while they sleep, as well.

[EmbarrassingAdmissions]

@YouWerePrettyIWasLonely

It crops up frequently on the relationships board, woman wakes to find her partner touching her.

Yes - it turns up with distressing regularity on AIBU as well as relationships (hard to track as sometimes the OP is upset when respondents describe this as rape so asks for a thread to be deleted).

[SmiteTheeWithThunderbolts]

Quotes from the article:

"... for some men, seeking sex with a sleeping woman is an active preference, a fetish known as somnophilia. Svein Overland, a Norwegian psychologist, is one of the few to have studied it ..."

"Overland believes somnophilia is part of the wider growth of what he calls “one-way sex”. His research into online porn showed a steep rise over the past decade in categories such as “sleeping sex”, as well as other forms of sex that are based on unresponsiveness, on only meeting your own needs."

" "These preferences overlap with porn itself, says Overland. “With one-way sex, with porn, with masturbation, there’s no dance, no seduction, no interaction and no pressure to perform,” he says. “The more I looked at this area, the more you see that a lot of men are afraid of having sex. Society is becoming more pornified but, at the same time, many studies show that people are becoming less sexually active. We have young men buying Viagra, unable to keep an erection.”

"A sleeping woman is no threat – she’s absent, an object, a receptacle."

[Thelnebriati]

Didn't there use to be a Reddit that shared video's of this? If its been banned I expect their community just moved elsewhere.

Part of the attraction is the lack of consent, and not having to take the other person into consideration. Its part of the culture o0f othering and dehumanising women.

[EmbarrassingAdmissions]

Wasn't there (allegedly) a somnophilia phenomenon of men giving women insulin to produce a near-death like sex experience (the women were comatose). It even ended-up in some dramas but portrayed as a consensual activity to which the wives/girlfriends consented in order to keep their man?

I know Law and Order had an episode based on the practice/paraphilia:

www.imdb.com/title/tt0629437/?ref_=tt_urv

[Coconutmeg]

I remember Julian Assange’s own statement could have had him charged for this in Sweden where he saw nothing wrong with it.

[StayCalm99]

eughgh, so depressing.

[CardinalLolzy]

This is so appalling! why are some people so casual about rape? I feel sick

[MerryDecembermas]

"A sleeping woman is no threat" ?!

What sick gaslighting is this

[DerbyshireMama]

My husband's brother (now almost ex-husband) did this to me many years ago. I couldn't acknowledge it until almost 10 years later. Just completely blanked it from my mind. Then I felt with so much guilt as if it was my fault for not stopping him or speaking out. His family said it was my fault for leaving it so long. Really fucked up.

[MondayYogurt]

This is the influence of porn, again. They aren't getting these ideas out of the blue.