If It Isn't Sexual, Why Call It Sexual Assault?

Welcome to another episode of Unpopular Opinions R Us:

Look, I truly do get why it's important to pry the sexysexy titillation off of rape and sexual assault. People's brains get all cloudy and distracted when you introduce the sexysexy into a subject, and I'm sure that doesn't help focus the conversation about how society should better deal with sexual assault. But the received, platitudinous talking point that rape, sexual assault, and sexual harassment are only a product of the will to power and control and not a product of sexual desire at all is just nonsensical. If that were true, you wouldn't see drops in the reported rape rate where prostitution is legalized. You would, statistically speaking, get the same percentage of rapists among asexuals as among the general population. But that's not the case. (My own suspicion? There's probably a spectrum, akin to the Kinsey Scale, along which the ratio of power motive to sex motive (and who knows what other motives - human beings being complicated) increases as you move along it.)

The claim that there's no sexual component to sexual assault is a bit ridiculous on the face of it. Check the name. And the fact that we make it a separate crime from assault. Making ridiculous claims undermines the rest of a message. Lying about your cause degrades the credibility of your other statements about it, and your credibility as an advocate. It didn't work for the Refer Madness folks and it seems to me unlikely to work here either, except when preaching to the choir.