Zerlina Maxwell challenges rape culture on Fox News, receives rape threats on Twitter.
I’m still officially on my Man Boobz staycation, but I felt I needed to mention yet another example of a woman saying that men can stop rape … and getting rape threats in return.
Political analyst Zerlina Maxwell went on Sean Hannity’s show on Fox News earlier this week and made the terrible mistake of suggesting to a hostile audience that men aren’t really doing any favors to women by telling them to arm themselves against rapists. Instead, as Salon notes, she said this:
“I don’t think that we should be telling women anything. I think we should be telling men not to rape women and start the conversation there.” She told Hannity, “You’re talking about this as if it’s some faceless, nameless criminal, when a lot of times it’s someone you know and trust,” adding, “If you train men not to grow up to become rapists, you prevent rape.”
Indeed, increased rape awareness has contributed to a dramatic decrease in rape over the last thirty years.
But apparently a lot of men were shocked – shocked! – that a woman would suggest that their patronizing advice was less likely to prevent rape than rape prevention education aimed at the demographic group that is responsible for the overwhelmng majority of rapes. That is, men.
So, naturally, the angriest of these men decided they would show Maxwell just how wrong she was … by threatening her with rape on Twitter.
Here’s just one example:
Rape culture in action.
Maxwell’s supporters have stepped up to defend her and her remarks, and have started a hashtag — #TYZerlina — to continue the discussion. If you’re on Twitter, join in .
Here’s the Fox News segment in question featuring Maxwell:
Posted on March 8, 2013, in harassment, hate, irony alert, men who should not ever be with women ever, misogyny, rape, rape culture and tagged #TYZerlina, fox news, rape culture, Zerlina Maxwell. Bookmark the permalink. 701 Comments.
I’m a little leery of the “teach men more empathy so they don’t rape women” line.
How about we teach two, much simpler things: women and girls are FULL human beings, just like men and boys are FULL human beings. You don’t rape or abuse human beings.
Do we have to have huge discussions about feelings when we teach boys not to commit premeditated acts of murder?
The one good thing about guys like Roscoe is that every time they show up it reminds me how great my Dad is. I mean, even without a point of comparison he’s pretty awesome, but when you compare him to these guys he looks like a cross between Superman and the Dalai Lama.
CassandraSays, I have the exact same thought about Beloved.
I think “just because you’re horny that doesn’t mean that other people’s feelings don’t matter” would be a good lesson for all kids.
Yeah, every time I talk to an MRA I consider nominating Mr C for sainthood.
I think Beloved would be pretty offended if I tried to hand him a medal for being a decent human being.
Evveryone likes to be appreciated, but when the comparison is an MRA, that’s no compliment.
These guys make a 17th century misogynist look like a proto-feminist.
Like the guy earlier who was all “I don’t want to rape my daughters – cookie now?”. No, no cookies for meeting the minimum standard for basic human decency.
He posted some stuff that made more sense on the other thread – I’m not sure what was going on with that arglebargle, bad wording or what, but I’m not sure we’re talking troll with that one. Not yet, anyway.
Not a troll, I don’t think, just not very bright and a bit anti-feminist.
Seems likely.
Argh, it’s 1am. I think I’d best drag myself to bed. Eyelids vs Gravity: gravity is winning! Niters, all.
http://jezebel.com/5924069/hey-lets-make-a-video-game-so-we-can-beat-up-a-female-critic-of-video-games?tag=anita-sarkeesian
People harassing Anita Sarkeesian?! Nooooo!!! I love Anita Sarkeesian!!!
No man rapes women because he thinks there’s nothing wrong with it. The entire “teach men not to rape” is simply idiotic. If these geniuses haven’t figured it out yet: They’re doing it on purpose.
Ahahahha: “all of the images are attacking my gender or presumed sexuality and rely heavily on pre-existing sexist stereotypes”- Anita Sarkeesian using her analytical superpowers to analyze her harassers into dust. This woman is the bomb.
Saying that women should carry guns to prevent rape is the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard.
It’s never going to be a conversation we have in the UK for obvious reasons, thank god.
But sticking to the idea of them preventing stranger rape, if someone comes up behind me and pins my arms to my sides how am I going to get at my gun? If they hit me over the head with a brick to knock me out how do I get at my gun? What if he grabs the gun off me and uses it to threaten me?
And what happens if I shoot I guy who I thought was going to rape me and it turns out I was mistaken?
What you’re going to see is women being dragged into court on charges of murder and manslaughter because they shot men who they thought were a threat to them.
Women get enough shit when they refuse to be merely polite to men who they consider a potential threat.
Remember women are supposed to be polite and sweet to all men but magically known when they are definitely about to murder and rape us and then and only then can we exercise caution and defend ourselves. And if we didn’t magically know that this guy was about to rape us then we have only ourselves to blame.
And as anyone with a modicum of intelligence and common sense knows, the vast majority of women are raped by people known to them. Are you telling me that women should keep a gun in their holster while in their own home and be prepared to use it against their boyfriends, husbands, fathers, friends? Should we keep them on us while we are engaging in sexual activity? While we are in bed asleep?
It is all a load of bollocks.
Bad Marie is commenting before she finishes reading the thread.
Anyway.
@quantumscale
I didn’t know people stopped their daughters from getting the HPV vaccine so they wouldn’t have sex O_o All that happened when I got it (had to get three shots total) was my mom and doctor talked to me about it and asked me if I wanted it, and they just tacked it on to appointments we went over for there anyway. (I go to the doctor a lot…)
@roscoe
Nobody wants your protectiveness. There are only two dudes I’d trust not to hurt me (dad and brother, and that’s just because I have relatively decent family relationships) and only one I’d actually debate trusting to protect me (sort of), my dad.
Has it ever occurred to you that you’re not the kind of person women would want “protecting” them? We aren’t helpless, we’re adults, and we can take care of ourselves. I don’t want your condescension.
/rant
@pillow in hell
:( That’s horrible (I mean, it’s good that you weren’t, but that it was so common).
@pillow in hell
QFT
@cassandrasays
Compared to roscoe my dad looks like a feminist :p. I mean, at least my dad seems to get that women can take care of themselves. His main problem is he has an ingrained case of girly things=bad.
John the Otter weighing in on this, or something. It’s quite a rant. http://www.avoiceformen.com/feminism/why-yes-i-am-a-little-angry/
Of course the outrage over the ‘absurdity’ of the idea that just telling people not to do something will cause it to end doesn’t extend to premarital sex. Because if you tell kids not to have sex, and tell people not to have sex before marriage, well that’s the only way to prevent teen and unwed pregnancy, am I right?
Comment on the gun thing:
When I was taking a martial arts class, I was taught that at close range, a gun is much easier to counter than, say a knife. A gun is unidirectional, whereas a knife, if your wrist is grabbed, you can flick around and cause damage.
So this “guns will prevent rape” thing is double confusing, because if someone is close enough to be raping you, they’re also close enough to redirect the gun in your hand away from them, or simply take it away. Even a jumping out of the bushes rapist would still be in arms reach.
Of course, I’m sure Pecunium can correct me on this.
Male protectiveness of women is useful when it is aimed at *other men* to change their actively harmful behaviour, rather than to change the not hurting anyone behaviour of women.
Rather than telling a woman not to get drunk, how about you tell the guy who was thinking about going in and raping her while she’s having a nice lie down that it’s not fucking on and, yes, it is actually rape-rape, not just a prank.
Where did this post get linked to bring these “oh so reasonable. we just care so much” ignorant mansplainers out of the woodwork?
gah, that was poorly phrase. It is past my bedtime.
should be “to change men’s behaviour at times when it’s actively harmful, rather than the behaviour of women, at times when it’s not hurting anyone.”
Really, this line of …”gun advocacy” doesn’t surprise me. I haven’t been paying much attention to politics back home. It’s a luxury, given the relatively toxic stalemate that has been status quo. However, I can detect a hint of something that is almost logical in it.
Republicans have had a difficult time appealing to many women for, at a bare minimum, the past few years. This past election, unless I am really messing up the post election analysis, that problem has been getting worse.
Now a recent topic has been gun control, and it happened right around the time that the VAWA was shut down by republicans. So, their solution to bad pr and chronically failing to see the point – combine their problems into a sandwich of epic stupid.
And, I can imagine that the line to sell it is like, “See women, we care about your safety. We want to empower you to protect yourselves,” I haven’t really tuned in to much news lately, but I have heard the talking points before to have a guess where their debate is headed. It’s an easier route than reevaluating the policies and positions of the party.
Have I said I glad I am to be overseas at the moment?
@Argenti Aertheri I think you nailed it, actually. We do control the behavior of toddlers, because they can’t possibly know better, so we put the bleach behind locks. Adolescents can be told not to touch the bleach, and can understand that if they do they can get burns or be made sick by drinking it, etc. Grown people can be trusted to handle bleach carefully while valuing it for its usefulness because, after all, it’s just a chemical. A dangerous but useful chemical that stays in its place next to the washing machine or under the sink. It’s not as if the bottle of bleach were just sitting and waiting for a chance to dump itself in our eyes or down our throats.
And that’s the thing that so many people like Roscoe seem to miss. Rapists have agency and make choices. Women’s behavior (or children’s behavior, or even the behavior of “protective” men) makes no difference because rapists are predators who are going to find someone to prey on if they can get away with doing so, and nothing is going to stop them except knowing that they will not be permitted to get away with it. And all the talk about dressing or behaving “properly” to avoid danger, or placing ourselves under the protection of some authority figure, contributes to creating a context where we are evaluating everything (anything) other than the rapist’s choices and actions.
Rapists prey on the vulnerable, and there will always be vulnerable people. Sure, we (adult human beings of all gender identifications) ought to look out for those among us who are vulnerable and try to help keep them from harm, but we do that because we are human beings, not because our gender identification gives us some automatic privilege or authority.
@Cassandra Yeah, the whole “Teh wimminfolk need to respect mai benevolent, protective authoritay sos I can keep ‘em safe and clean” kinda made me throw up in my mouth a little.
I completely agree. Any opposition to dehumanization is, in effect, an opposition to rape culture.
What unique qualities? That men are, of average, larger and stronger than women? Because that is the only one I can think of and, frankly, I find the idea that I should pick a male partner based on his ability to beat other guy’s up absolutely disgusting.
My grandfather is very protective of me (he helped raise me) and he doesn’t let that protectiveness interefere in how I live my life. He also, being in his nineties, probably would fare about as well as I would in against a physical attack, and I would fare pretty badly. So, is my grandfather lacking this unique quality of men?
What are the other qualities?
The only other thing that I can think of is that men are in unique position to help put an end to rape culture. That isn’t really a quality of men, though, it is a quality of a society that privileges men above women.
Otherwise, what are men that women are not? Please tell me as I would hate to go another day without knowing that some random person likely finds me not feminine enough and the boyfriend not masculine enough.
Today in trollspotting, I found a BuzzFeed article on the SxSW panel on Reddit that quotes Anthony Zarat:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/jwherrman/reddits-victim-complex
Uh-oh. I think one if our curses worked too well.
Whenever I hear our lego curse I think of a scene in the Kate Daniels series (which is an urban fantasy series) when Curran says that the wolf alpha can’t be there because he was injured tripping over a LEGO on the stairs.
LEGOs: strong enough to take down werewolves.
@moreorlessdan – a couple of state-level Democrats have also put their feet in their mouths over the gun issue when it comes to rape, which gave the Republicans an opening. IMHO both Democrats were attempting to be realistic, that rape is usually a crime perpetrated by someone known to the victim and carrying a gun wil not help, but they mangled what they said badly.
@Roscoe – let me pose a question. Say you’ve got a daughter. What do you teach her about drunk driving? “Don’t do this ever. You could hurt someone, even kill them, or yourself.” Right? The message is telling her not to engage in that behavior because it’s wrong and dangerous. That’s a logical piece of “protective” advice to give a kid. Your message is not “Don’t ever drive around after dark, and don’t ever drive down a street where there’s a place that sells alcohol, because someone could be driving drunk, and if you go there you’re asking for trouble.” Because that would be ridiculous right?
When it comes to rape and sexual assault, though, that’s what you teach your daughter. You teach her how that it’s her responsibility to avoid becoming the victim of someone else’s decision to engage in a criminal act. Even if you do that out of genuine desire for her not to get hurt, because it’s the only thing you know to tell her, it’s not protective. It’s 1) completely ineffective and b) insulting to your daughter.
The entire point Zerlina Maxwell was making was that we have to stop teaching women how to avoid being the victims of crime and instead teach the perpetrators of those crimes not to do it. Men are vitally important to that work, so I’m not sure where you get the idea that men don’t have a role.
Or if you’re attempting in that pile of words to ask “But shouldn’t men remind the women they care about of how dangerous the world is and try to protect them?” No. THEY KNOW. I guarantee you, the women in your life already know far, far more than you do about how dangerous the world is. They do not need you to educate them on what it’s like to be a woman in this world. If you genuinely care about them, shut up and listen to what they tell you rather than trying to assert your narrative about your protection over them.
If your point was “I don’t like feeling like I’m wrong for wanting the women I care about to be safe” – okay. It’s an understandable desire. We all want the people we care about to be safe. Here’s where the problem is: you’re demanding an exception be made because you know in your own mind that you genuinely care about a woman’s safety. So do all the other guys who get mad when women talk about how careful we are around men. 70% of rapes are committed by someone known to the victim. Those guys do not have a giant R on their foreheads (if only). They look just like you. They talk like you, they act like you. They work in the same office as you, they shop in the same stores. RAPISTS ARE INDISTINGUISHABLE FROM THE REST OF THE POPULATION. That’s what makes them so dangerous. Women need to exercise constant vigilance because of this, because if we don’t and it turns out Dude X is in fact a rapist, the first thing everyone including you will do is start blaming her for not knowing that. And guess what? We don’t know for certain that you’re not a rapist until you don’t rape us. Until that moment, we have every right to protect ourselves
You’re not wrong for wanting the people in your life to be safe. You’re wrong for demanding that women relax their vigilance, which they undertake for their own sanity and self-protection, because it hurts your feelings and disturbs your comfortable mental image of yourself as the valiant protector. Which makes your personal fee-fees more important than the feelings and actions of the women around you. If you can’t see how shitty that is, you should spend the rest of your life walking on LEGOS.
Which is, according to some statistics, what happens to 70% of people who buy guns for home or personal defense. Gun advocated will argue that these people need better training, and I agree to a point, but it’ll still be a stupid and ineffective idea for rape prevention.
And I wonder if the “protect yourself with a gun” crowd realizes that if their plan is effective, more people will die. In their heads, the guns will only be used on dangerous criminals who deserve to die, which makes it OK. Don’t get me wrong, I am pro-women defending themselves against rapists, but (1) I would prefer it if we didn’t have to and (2) I don’t think adding to the body count is the way to solve rape.
When you tell people in this culture to arm themselves and be prepared to kill, you end up with a bunch of George Zimmermans and the rest of us pray we won’t be the next Trayvon Martin. I don’t want to live there, thanks.
@wordsp1nner
Is there anything Legos can’t stop? :) My sister and I had a large Rubbermaid tub half-full when we were kids and we would take over half the living room with them. I don’t think anyone ever attempted to walk through it more than once. (People were not so careful with our carefully arranged Barbie “houses.”) Dollhouse furniture is probably about as painful as Legos, but you lose the furniture in the process.
(I mentioned the Lego curse to my mom and she responded with a long list of equally painful children’s toys. I feel a little bad for her feet now.)
In my house, it is sewing machine bobbins, which one of my cats likes to chase. They are clear plastic and very small and they break when you step on them, sending the ragged edges up into your feet.
@emilygoddess
Their list of people who deserve to die doesn’t look at all like mine. I find the idea that it is right to kill someone as soon as they enter your home without permission terribly frightening. (I have accidentally gotten off on the wrong floor and tried to enter someone else’s apartment. If their door had been unlocked, I probably would have stepped in before figuring it out. I don’t think I should have been shot for that. And, of course, if they missed, there are a lot of other people a bullet can hit in an apartment building.)
“(I mentioned the Lego curse to my mom and she responded with a long list of equally painful children’s toys. I feel a little bad for her feet now.)”
Avoid stepping on matchbox cars! (And similar toy cars I’d imagine) I mentioned this Lego curse to my mother, she replied by telling me how she stepped on one of my cousin’s matchbox cars, snapped an axel and the thing skewered her foot.
Also, those metal toy planes? Do not leave them outside over the winter, they can end up wing up sticking in mud and holy fuck did that hurt. Mind, I once stepped on a nail and thought it was a Lego lance because they’re that bloody painful.
/recounting of toy injuries
Sorta on topic, ish, I fell up the stairs last night, I have a lovely green line on that not-knee bit just below the knee. Stupidity should be painful right? >.<
@wordsp1nner
We have Perler beads everywhere and they aren’t that painful to step on the first time, but they stick to your foot and you get to step on them again in the same spot. (And if you don’t realise what has happened, again and again.) Luckily, our cat finds them completely boring so they mostly stay under the chair I work from. Some roll though and then travel by foot all over the apartment.
And what about the bathroom? Am I safe when in the tub or should I keep my gun close at hand there too in case someone bursts in on me? When did life turn into a Western? Do I get a good soundtrack?
@Argenti
No it shouldn’t! My sympathies on your knee-area injury. That area is a particularly bad one to injure ime. (Not like there are good areas to injure, but there are less bad ones.)
@Some Gal – I hope it’s clear I don’t think all “dangerous criminals” deserve to die! I just want to make that extra-clear.
@emilygoddess
I understood and think you were prefectly clear. I was just pointing it out more explicitly. (Especially how much the “just shoot them” attitude fails if you live around other people, which most people do.)
I know one. “It promotes promiscuity” was his exact phrasing. His daughter is 7, so maybe he’ll come around in a few years. We can only hope.
@drst “I guarantee you, the women in your life already know far, far more than you do about how dangerous the world is. They do not need you to educate them on what it’s like to be a woman in this world. If you genuinely care about them, shut up and listen to what they tell you rather than trying to assert your narrative about your protection over them.”
*applause* Beautifully stated!!
My mother wouldn’t let me get the vaccine for the same reason. Two years later she let me get birth control though, so… yeah. I think if Fox News hadn’t been ranting about it at the time, she would have let me.
(I ended up getting it by myself. Hooray for young adulthood.)
…But birth control was okay? That must have required some serious mental gymnastics.
@ katz I was really confused when she let me get birth control too, but mental gymnastics are my mother’s specialty. I love her very much, but I’d never have believed the amount of cognitive dissonance she could function with if I hadn’t grown up with her.
@katz, I’ve been meaning to ask for quite some time. Awhile back one of the MRAs posted a rant someplace about women’s makeup being the equivalent of war paint. Would you ask Pierre what is the official Canadian policy about women’s deceptive face paint?
It’s funny that Antz is achieving such notoriety on the internet, but sadly for him he seems to be more infamous than famous. Speaking of the HPV vaccine, I remember once here I pointed out that it actually protects boys too and Antz thought that was hilarious. He immediately went over to AVfM and made a comment about how a manboobzer thought boys could get cervical cancer. And then some poor lurker on AVfM actually replied to point out that boys could in fact get other kinds of cancers from the virus and should be vaccinated as well.
You want a comic about that?
@katz, why not? There must be a policy in such a civilized country to protect men from evil face-painting savage women on the prowl in their war paint, seeking to prey on their wallets and spermjack them, eh?
@katz, or anyone else who’s watched the Sarkeesian video: What did you think? I thought it was good, but I know so little about games and gaming that I’m not a good judge. Just curious…
@ drst
Most recently I lived in Missouri during the fallout from Sandra Fluke and Todd Aiken. I am not used to there being that many state level democrats. I agree that stupidity knows no political affiliation, and that anyone can put their foot in it. I am just very used to hearing Limbaugh-esque talking points regurgitated as though they were close to intelligent conversation. Such as Limbaugh’s defense of how Republicans don’t hate women, they take them out to dinner and buy them nice things. That one made my skin crawl. (And believe it or not, there was a time when I’d vote a split ticket. However, over the past few years I have found the republican party to be increasingly offputting.)
I would be curious about what the democrats said, so that i had more context. As i have said, I have only been skimming the news back home so i miss parts of it.
As for the more general subject of rape ….. I don’t have lot that I really feel I can contribute. The closest I have to a valid memory is from some time ago. Two women asked me to walk them to their car at night. I was confused. I am a nerdy wimpy guy. I pointed out that if someone attacked, I would be useless. Also, there were already two of them going. They responded by saying that the mere presence of a guy would deter a rapist and that women can be attacked even in groups. I walked them to their car, but still really don’t understand the fear they felt that night. for the record, I am agoraphobic. I am afraid of everyplace that is not my house. I can’t use my kitchen when one of my flatmates is in it. I still have no concept of what my friends’ fear of being raped felt like.
I have since studied sociology, and know more about the theoretical concepts involved. I know, that as many have pointed out, that they information they gave me was not really correct. I can approach it intellectually, and cite studies. Still, I can’t really approach the subject of rape as something that I feel on a personal level because I have not ever been afraid of being raped.
So, if I am more interested in the political posturing of the situation it is not that I am uncaring, I am afraid I would stick my foot in my mouth, as I at least realize that I have nothing personally to add of any real depth.
Here is a question to the group: What are the appropriate ways for men to oppose rape culture? Conversely, are there times where guys were well-meaning yet still bungled the discussion? I would appreciate feedback in how to participate in future conversations more productively.
Somehow my mind censored that bit out :/ Though I’m really not sure what unique qualities men would have, besides “identifies as a man”
owwwwwwww….. sympathy wince
owowowowowowowow. I really should stop reading everyone’s painful toy stories. More pain story time, though, my brother once stepped on a toothpick that skewered his foot.
that sounds pretty painful :( My only weird foot story was when I went walking in the woods barefoot (yes, I am brilliant) and ended up with thorns all over the bottom of my feet, but it looked more painful than it was, because mostly they were just stuck in the callouses.
@argenti artheri
I hope your knee feels better soon.
@katz
:( Hopefully there’s someone else there (mom, other dad, however their family works) to help. Like, idk how could anyone think getting (forget what Cervical? cancer) is a good way to stop promiscuity? Do they not care about their kids? ugh. And why does he even care that much about his daughter’s future sex life? it’s like really, dude?
/sorry for the rant.
@cloudiah
what are the affects of HPV on boys? I’ve never heard and kind of curious. (if you know).
(sorry again if I’m butting in. For some reason whenever I comment I feel like I’m butting in XD)
I was also in a bathroom when a man attempted to assault me — in the shower. My college was in a small town and had the TERRIBLE PRACTICE of leaving our dorm buildings unlocked during daylight hours, which lead to lots of attempted rapes, rapes, burglaries, etc. For the record, our bathrooms had curtains to the showers. We couldn’t lock them if we wanted to. I was lucky — my attacker chickened out when I screamed at him. But several other women on campus were not so lucky when they were attacked by a different man. The college didn’t even inform us that people were being raped until he’d assaulted three different women. And they only locked the dorm buildings for a few weeks after that before they were leaving them unlocked again.
And of course those are just the stranger rapes. I can’t count the women I knew who’d been assaulted by their boyfriends, by their supposed friends, etc. And colleges continue to hide the incidence of assault on campus, conduct bogus “administrative hearings” rather than take these CRIMES to a court of law, and generally make it extremely difficult to be a woman going to college.
Prevents oropharyngeal (well, any parts of the mouth and throat) and genital warts and cancers in boys.
I’ll add it to the queue. Are we thinking another embassy call inquiring about makeup laws in Canada, or maybe he runs into one ranting in the makeup section of a pharmacy or something?
@ marinerachel
was that for HPV?
It’s very well done, but I think in one sense she’s not taking the most effective approach. Gamer dudes who watched the video who haven’t already acknowledged the problem aren’t likely to be swayed by a lot of examples; they’re either going to yell “Samus exists! Your argument is invalid!” or hand-wave with “all gamers are men” and evo psych (ie, they’re either going to insist that there’s no inequity as long as they can think of one example that goes against the trend, or they’re going to insist that there’s some reason that the inequity isn’t a problem). (I ran into both the same objections when I did my quantitative analysis of gender in film last year.)
So a part of me thinks that, to be actually persuasive, Sarkeesian ought to address those objections, stupid as they are, because as is, her series is primarily preaching to the choir. But another part of me thinks that there’s no addressing those people; they’re just idiots and even if they comprise the majority of gamer dudes, there’s no point in trying to engage them. In any case, her videos are going to be a valuable resource for conversations on this topic.
@Marie
You are always welcome and never butting in. :)
@blitzgal
The way colleges handle rape is indefensible. My college (women-only) was really bad about notifying us about a man who was sexually assaulting women in the area, but at least they kept everything locked all the time!
AFAIK, that college did nothing other than tell its students to be more careful when rapists operated at nearby co-ed schools.* If they had policies to help students who had been raped, they weren’t anything I ever heard about and I should have been in a position to know. (The fact that the school was very big on enforcing their strict anti-underage drinking rules probably prevented anyone from coming forward.) If only I knew then what I know now….
*I never heard about any rapes on-campus, but it wouldn’t surprise me.
Drones for domestic violence. You can’t make this stuff up. http://www.the-spearhead.com/2013/03/09/drone-dealers-suggest-using-drones-for-domestic-violence-scenarios/
So, rape awareness = education?
How much of the decrease do you think can be explained by that? It would be interesting to see the details. The dramatic decline in violent and property crime in the early 90s is a well studied phenomenon and often increase in the number of police and the rising prison population are cited as causes.
@katz
Great analysis. Your comments section made me sad and tired. (Well done there, too, though.)
@Poxy
Yes, rape awareness is education (and activism). What else would it be? Also, if you have a point please make it.
(I have a feeling I know where you are going, and it is a very stupid place that one can only go if they either have no knowledge of the history of rape and rape laws or if they are ignoring that history. Which one are you?)
@some gal
Thanks :) Hopefully I get less shy soon
@scarlettpipstrelle
I’m curious what that article is about, but kind of afraid to read it.
I’m kind of sad roscoe and the first guy who posted didn’t actually come back and read everything people responded. maybe then they’d learn something :/ (or not.)
^the ‘how dare you accuse me of wanting to rape my daughers (that’s totally what you were doing!)’ guy, too lazy to check his name. Not the first poster, I don’t remember who that was
@Marie
Shyness is really hard to overcome. I got very anxious in social situations up through college and it only got better by forcing myself to do things anyway, which is unpleasant (to say the least). If I am not helping, feel free to tell me to stop, btw. I won’t be offended.
@Some Gal Not Bored at All:
Ermm.. not sure what you mean. It’s just that there are even studies that outlawing lead gasoline made violent crime fall, so I’m just skeptical.
@some gal
You’re fine. I’m just a little high-strung when I’m getting used to new places.
I feel like my shyness has been better (if that makes sense) recently, since I feel like I can articulate my feelings more, but I’ve also been avoiding busy places a lot, so not many places to get shy. :)
(except my dad’s getting married in june and he said it’d be small, but his idea of small and mine are very different! oh well it’s his wedding…still not looking forward to all the relatives. /rambling)
@katz, my first thought was embassy, but the makeup dept works just as well. I should probably go back through the Boobz archives and find the original rant. It was pretty funny, about how deceptive makeup is and how it simulates sexual arousal in women to fool men into thinking she wants them. Vintage MRA idiocy.
And that didn’t take long: http://manboobz.com/2013/01/29/mgtower-wearing-makeup-turns-women-into-darth-vader/
@Poxy
So you are JAQing off? No point at all? Not sure that is any better, really.