This can apply to penetrative acts in specific, but I'm more discussing the whole class of 'sexual assault' which can include simple fondling, or in the case of men being raped, they may be forced to penetrate something.

We also have to take into account that in some cases of non-sexual assault, there can be penetration. In all cases though, I suppose they would be 'assault with a deadly weapon' including edged weapons and bullets that penetrate the body.

In a rape, you can also try to curl into a ball or run away. Obviously there is additional trauma involved, due to our unique responses to sex. I'm not going to take the whole 'it's society's fault for glorifying sex' which is far too similar to 'peeing in public shouldn't be traumatic' line of accusation from that whole school bus LG incident discussed in a previous thread.

But... I think it does somewhat discriminate against people who were assaulted in a non-sexual fashion, and how badly that can affect you. I think responses to either tragedy vary a great deal. For example, if I didn't value my sexuality at all, and even though I didn't consent and didn't want sex, just gave in to it, and there was no injury from the act, I might not be as badly traumatized as being viciously attacked and injured.

In many cases, the trauma from rape could be more due to a response to the attacker's frame of mind, their intentions in doing so. If you view their intentions as less malicious (as in, a stupid animal giving in to carnal urges) then it would not be as traumatic as say, a person beating you to a pulp out of pure coldblooded contemplated malice.

Frame of mind in attacker could play a role in how traumatic an assault is. If someone beat the shit out of me because I slept with their girlfriend, I would feel hated and pissed off and want revenge, but I wouldn't feel demeaned or violated. In actuality, being attacked, being hated for something real, can even validate someone's view of themself. Whereas, if I was a black man being viciously beaten by a mob of KKK, who want to 'smack that nigra' then I would feel demeaned and violated.

The social stigma of rape victims is a product of society, and not of the act, so it doesn't seem quite fair to punish based on it. If anything, it's the ignorant asses who said 'you asked for it' who should get their asses kicked.

In some cases, assault can carry a stigma too. Like rape, it can often depend on who the attacker is, and the setting. Someone might say 'you coward, you started the fight and then sued him for it' or 'damn wuss, crying to the cops' or 'you're barely even hurt' or 'you're faking it for the insurance money'

Rape doesn't carry a stigma usually when there is obvious physical injury, the instances that receive the disdain are usually where no injuries are apparent. People assume that if you didn't fight something off with tooth and claw, you consented to it, which is horrible since people are very often petrified with shock, or fear to resist for fear of violence, or they are drugged, or they may be in the middle of intercourse and decide to stop, or they may have begun relations but said where the line was, and then the line was crossed against their will despite their objection prior and during.