ABSTRACT
The association of rape with murder, and of serial murder with implicit sexual desires to kill, has been a fundamental aspect of the stranger rape narrative in psychiatric, legal, and popular discourse. Sexualizing violence becomes possible when crimes are considered within the realm of psychology and psychiatry where overt behaviours become secondary to mental states and desires. The issues related to sexual violence and gender nonconformity appear to have been addressed separately, there are, of course, many areas of overlap. The abhorrence of 'paraphilic rape' is not directed towards the behaviour, but the 'unreasonableness' of that behaviour; significantly, it represents a feminization of masculine sexuality. Psychiatry's focus on 'unreasonableness' rather than sexual violence reveals an interesting contrast; aggression and sexual conquest are congruent with hegemonic masculinity discourses and psychiatric constructions of normal masculine sexuality. In this way, psychiatric constructions of 'paraphilic rape' further pathologize gender nonconformity through its reinscription of hegemonic discourses of both masculinity and femininity.
