I once heard some young men and women arguing about whether men and women can be ‘just friends’. The women all said yes, but the men disagreed. As one put it ‘Anytime a man pays attention to a woman, no matter how brotherly he acts, in the back of his mind he wants more than just friendship. Sooner or later the male beast will break loose’.

Many women claim this ‘ungovernable male beast’ notion is just an excuse to justify male transgressions. And they’re partly right. “I’m sorry honey, I just couldn’t control myself” is the world’s second oldest excuse after ‘It wasn’t me’.

But Zorba the Greek spoke for all men – “God is merciful and forgives many sins. But there is one sin He will not forgive : when a woman calls a man to her bed and he does not come”. There are saintly exceptions. But even the most dutiful mate is virtually powerless to resist temptation if he finds a female attractive enough and she’s willing and he thinks nobody will find out. When it comes to women, nearly every man has his price.

Male sexual weakness is laid bare in strip clubs where men regularly blow their paychecks on naked women, curse their folly afterwards, and then do the same next week. Clearly the unclothed female body can temporarily render the male brain inoperable.

Which brings us to Herro Blair’s assertion that ‘skimpy clothes attract rapists’. It’s hardly an original claim, but it’s created a mini furor in our sexually obsessed society. The politically correct response is that rape is more about domination than sex and so Bishop Blair is talking nonsense. But as Garnet Roper asked in the August 15 Sunday Herald, can the precise mindset of rapists be determined? Are they interviewed after conviction? If so, do they speak the truth? And may they not have multiple motivations?

Let’s be clear. All forms of sexual assault are deplorable. But don’t mix apples and oranges. Rape means penetration of the vagina or anus by an erect penis without consent. And a penis cannot become erect if the owner isn’t sexually aroused. That’s why women cannot rape men. A hard penis is proof a man wishes to have sex, a soft one a sign he does not. You can’t push on a string. And as many a man has found to his chagrin, you cannot will an erection. So even if it’s true that rape is primarily about domination, there must be a sexual component.

As one young woman said to me “Of course Bishop Blair is right. The only reason we women wear sexy clothes is to attract men. And everyone knows the skimpier you dress the more attention you get. That’s why you have to keep things within bounds. Because some men might get overexcited and decide that if they can’t get what they want willingly they are going to take it by force.”

Yes, women should be free to wear whatever they wish. But a scantily clad woman who gets into the wrong situation with the wrong man and gets raped is like the driver of a small car who refuses to back off when he’s ‘bad driven’ by a tanker truck and gets crushed. As the old joke goes

“This is the grave of Johnny Day

Who died maintaining his right of way.

His right was clear, his will was strong.

But he's just as dead as if he'd been wrong.”

Evolutionary psychologists say humans are only a gene's way of making another gene, and that our primary biological goal is to pass on our DNA. Unfortunately history shows that whether or not nice guys finish last, nasty guys definitely finish first in the gene race.

The record for most offspring fathered is 888 by the Moroccan ruler Moulay Ismail the Bloodthirsty, an evidently ungentle soul. While genetic studies show that the man with the greatest number of direct male line descendants is Genghis Khan, the Mongol ‘scourge of God’. His tender credo was "The greatest happiness is to scatter your enemy and drive him before you. To see his cities reduced to ashes. To see those who love him shrouded and in tears. And to gather to your bosom his wives and daughters."

In “A Natural History of Rape: Biological Bases of Sexual Coercion” Randy Thornhill and Craig T. Palmer argue that rape is a genetically developed strategy sustained over generations of human life because it is a successful reproductive tactic for men with no other access to fertile women. They buttress their case with US statistics showing that the vast majority of rape victims are in their peak reproductive years. For were rape only about control, victims would be spread evenly by age.

True some rape cases - and these noticeably generate a special horror - involve post-menopausal woman and prepubescent children. But this does not disprove the authors’ thesis anymore than the existence of non-reproductive sexual distortions like pedophilia, homosexuality and bestiality change the fact that most men copulate only with sexually mature females.

Man is indisputably at least partly biologically driven. And mammals like lions, chimpanzees and dolphins are known to use rape as a genetic strategy. Why should the naked ape be any different? Is Genghis Khan not the human equivalent of a male lion killing the former dominant male, taking over his pride, killing his offspring, and then impregnating the pride females?

Still, most men would never force themselves on a woman in any circumstances. Or so we hope. Which of us can be sure how we would react if we had been deprived of sex for say a year and came across a vulnerable and attractive female?

It would be wonderful if men were always logical and non-violent. But wishing has never made it so. And no matter how many layers of civilization it may be buried beneath, the male beast exists. In Joseph de Maistre words, “I do not know what the heart of a rascal may be: I know what is in the heart of an honest man; it is horrible.” changkob@hotmail.com