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Would you consider castration or penectomy for sexual assault to be overly harsh?

Sharad9

Scribe
This world historically consider males to be the more "inherently violent" sex, more prone to aggression and acting on impulse. This stigma has existed very early in humanity's history. As such, they are traditonally kept out of the highest positions of leadership, such as politics. Although this has begun to change recently in various nations, cultural traditions and biases are still prevalent.

One of the ways some nations generally deal with violent, dangerous men who commit sexual crimes is through castration, in which the testicle are removed, or penectomy, which is the full removal of genitals. This would largely depend on several factors: severity of the crime, repeat offenses, number of victims, etc. It is used as a way to "neuter" individuals who pose a threat to society in order to prevent further crimes, deter others, and as a source of public shaming.

In your opinion, does this punishment fit the crime or does it go too far?
 

TheKillerBs

Maester
I see a different issue. Aren't eunuchs better regarded than whole males in this setting? Why would you make the punishment for a violent crime be inclusion to a group of higher standing?
 

plasticroyal

Dreamer
I'd say if it's a believable response in that culture then go for it. As long as it fits in with the culture and their view on such crimes and measures for similar offences.

I mean, you could even go further and have a society where most men are neutered to play it safe but select lines are kept for breeding. It's fantasy, you can do whatever as long as you write it well.
 

TheKillerBs

Maester
This is regarding a different setting. Nothing to do with that one.

Alright then. I see no issue with it then. I mean yes it's cruel and excessive but there are societies that even now have cruel and excessive punishments. To Western sensibilities anyway
 

Russ

Istar
To ask a group of modern people whether such a punishment is cruel or excessive or not, without any storey or cultural context strikes me as a rather useless exercise.
 

Annoyingkid

Banned
Of course it's too harsh. It's cruel and unusual punishment. If you portray it as just and fair overall, the audience won't agree. It's also one of those crimes that is very difficult to prove unless overt violence is involved.
 

Viorp

Minstrel
I think that castration should be the punishment we have for rape IRL.

In a historical setting though... hmm... depends who rapes who.

peasant on peasant - probably resolved by vigelante justice, probably murder and killed by family of victim
noble on peasant - nothing happens
peasant on noble - probably publicly castrated and executed
 

plasticroyal

Dreamer
Of course it's too harsh. It's cruel and unusual punishment. If you portray it as just and fair overall, the audience won't agree. It's also one of those crimes that is very difficult to prove unless overt violence is involved.

I don't think it's too harsh a punishment at all, fits the crime IMO. I don't think adult fantasy readers will have much trouble digesting it in all honesty.
 

Devor

Fiery Keeper of the Hat
Moderator
I don't think most readers would be too put off by it, but it all depends on the context. I mean, are you trying to sell readers on fairness in a harsh setting, or are you trying to pitch it somehow as a fair in a real world context? Literary fairness is a different standard.

Bear in mind, though, what you're talking about is often, maybe even usually, a death sentence. It was pretty common to bleed out and die just from the process.
 

Viorp

Minstrel
Nah, you would basically never bleed out. They'd just burn the wound whut with a hot iron.
It is a death sentence as now the whole city/town knows of your deeds.
You can be sure that some thugs will feel justfied beating the guy to death.
 

Annoyingkid

Banned
The thing is the fact that the OP is asking about if castration of males for sexual assault is fair and this is a different setting to the one where the women are seen as superior and wield crystal powered golem mecha over the men as I recall. If I read two novels with different settings from an author where women were portrayed as so blatantly in charge and superior to men I could see feeling uncomfortable over it. Because one couldn't help but think that the writer genuinely believes it.
 

A. E. Lowan

Forum Mom
Leadership
My first impulse is to say, "Nope, it's perfectly fine." After all, the victim's life is forever changed, why not the perpetrator's? But the question lends itself to questions of gender and power dynamics within the story's setting. It's complicated. It's not a question of whether or not the punishment is overly harsh. It is not. It is a question of whether or not it is plausible, given the setting.
 

Horus

Scribe
I see no problem here. In context, it seems fair, and even in our world there are a great deal many who would see it as a fair punishment. Now as many have already stated, are you trying to sell this society as being a fair one? Or are you trying to sell it as being a harsh and at times unreasonable one.

If it the first one, you have no problems. If it is the latter, well you'd best go realistic with the implications of this. Unless magic or modern medical practices are involved, the person will have a high risk of dying. People can die from the process, not just by bleeding out, but also from infection. Also without anesthetics, the person can die of shock rather than bleeding out. In a low tech setting, castration (unless done by someone highly trained), will end horribly.
 

Bruce McKnight

Troubadour
When I think of castration as a penalty for sexual crime, I immediately draw the correlation to chopping off a hand as a penalty for stealing. At first glance, it feels like a logical progression, but I think the deeper question is if it's realistic and that depends on who is in power.

People in power are usually rich, which means they don't need to steal. So they can make a law that cuts the hands off thieves to deter poorer people from stealing from them - no skin off their nu... you get the point. On the flip side with sexual crimes, I don't know if castration would be put in place as a punishment by rulers who were men. Now, female rulers? Castrations all over the place. Male rulers? I don't know... Males rule most places in our real world and there are some areas that use female circumcision as punishment, but I'm not sure there's a lot of places with castration punishment.

I guess the real issue is hypocrisy. Maybe people aren't as hypocritical in your world or maybe the rulers (or at least the lawmakers) are female. I think that or some other differing factor would need to be present to make it realistic.

So, to your original question: I don't necessarily think it's too harsh, I just think you need to have a good reason for it to be believable.
 

plasticroyal

Dreamer
By the same logic, would you say cutting off people's hands for stealing is not too harsh either?

We're talking about the believability factor of such a measure in a fantasy context - not my personal views on excessive punishment. In the context of a fantasy world I wouldn't even blink at mention of a thief losing a hand, or indeed as we're discussing here, a man losing his junk for crossing a well-established societal boundary/redline.
 
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