All those fighting for women’s liberation are aware that sexual assault and domestic violence are among the most damaging manifestations of women’s oppression, the world over—they are inextricably linked to women’s low social status and the sexual objectification and dehumanization of women’s bodies. Yet legal and law enforcement systems, university administrators, and so-called “conventional wisdom” in capitalist society are all predisposed to disbelieving women when they say they have been raped or sexually assaulted. In contrast, feminists and socialists are predisposed to believing women who make accusations of rape and sexual assault.

This article examines the phenomenon of sexual assault from a Marxist perspective—that is, analyzed in the context of capitalist social relations. Like imperialism and war, oppression is a necessary byproduct of the rule of capital. Exploitation is the method by which the ruling class robs workers of surplus value; the various forms of oppression (such as sexism, racism, and homophobia) play a primary role in maintaining the rule of a tiny minority over the vast majority, on a global scale. This approach allows Marxists to understand not only the root causes of oppression but also which strategies can most effectively combat it.

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There are still many aspects of rape and sexual assault that we do not yet understand or for which dependable research is lacking. Much of our understanding of pedophilia and of sexual assaults among the LGBTQ population, among people with disabilities, and among homeless people remains anecdotal rather than scientific. Nevertheless, we know that the strict and binary gender definition of rape and sexual assault as perpetrated overwhelmingly by (heterosexual) male rapists against female victims is obsolete. The distortion of sexual relations under capitalism affects not only heterosexual relationships and the treatment of women by men, but also same-sex relationships. Indeed, no one is immune from these distortions and the violence and abuse they create. This has many implications: for example, pedophiles are neither heterosexual nor gay, but are child predators. Hopefully, new research will help to both deepen and broaden our understanding of rape and sexual assault in contemporary capitalist society.

Researchers are beginning to understand more fully the ways in which sexual assault is a more comprehensive product of capitalist social relations than most activists realized before. Capitalism relies not only on the alienation of labor and not only on explicit discrimination: it also produces personal alienation and the suppression of sexuality. In the absence of class and social struggle on a mass basis, individual people develop themselves in the “dog eat dog” mentality that the system produces. Some people—not all, but some—of those in a position to physically overpower, intimidate, or coerce others into sex sometimes do so, at the expense of those who are overpowered, intimidated, or coerced into sex. One or more individuals can physically overpower another; someone in a position of authority can intimidate or coerce another person—a prison guard over a prisoner, a teacher over a student, a priest over an altar boy, or an adult over a child. The experience of sexual assault is extremely traumatic for all who survive it. All of them deserve the unqualified support of Marxists and feminists.