It’s perhaps not altogether surprising that a writer at Return of Kings, a site run by someone who has openly admitted to raping a woman too drunk to consent, has come out in defense of Jian Ghomeshi, the Canadian radio personality recently fired from CBC in the wake of serious accusations of violent sexual assault from an ever-growing list of women.
For most of those who have been following the scandal, the fact that numerous women have come forward with strikingly similar stories of abuse at the hands of Ghomeshi only increases the credibility of the case against him.
Over on Return of Kings, however, writer Blair Naso dismisses this as “a common pattern with celebrities in unconfirmed sex scandals.” And then he sets forth one of the creepiest defenses against rape allegations I’ve ever heard:
One woman claims something and then several other groupies hop on the media whore train. People claim Bill Cosby raped 13 women, but do they have any idea how hard it is to rape just one? Thirteen is a large rape notch count. Even if it was all consensual, how would Cosby hide that much adultery from his wife? He isn’t a sex symbol like some politicians are.
Emphasis mine. Yes, that’s right, he actually wrote “thirteen is a large rape notch count.”
Mr. Nasi, you want to know how Cosby might have managed to get his “rape notch count” so high, even though he’s “not a sex symbol?” Well, you could always fucking read what the women making these accusations have said. (Hint: he allegedly drugged them first.) Generally speaking, it is probably a good idea to actually read the allegations against someone before dismissing them as nonsense.
If Ghomeshi, or Cosby, or any celebrity accused of rape were facing accusations from “only” one woman, the Return of Kings boys would no doubt dismiss her as some crazy, lying slut. But when the accusations seem to be corroborated by other similar stories from other women who have also been victimized, well, gosh, raping that many women would be “too hard” of a task for one man to pull off.
What the fuck.
Most of the commenters at ROK, meanwhile, think that even if Ghomeshi is being railroaded he is still getting what he deserves — for being a “white knight” who previously gave lip service to the ideals of feminism.
No matter what side they’re taking in this controversy, in other words, the ROKers are doing it for the worst reasons possible.
@Robert
THIS.
I was reading “Your Fave Is Problematic” recently, and someone asked about their fave being problematic, and “Can I still be a fan?”
Basically, the response was that EVERYONE is problematic, in one way or another. You can admire someone’s work, and still realize that they have some personality issues. Some of the “faves” listed are more problematic than others. Some of the problems are more active and some are more saying rotten things, and some are just really, Really, REALLY problematic talented people.
No one is only an X or only a Y or only a Z. But for some reason, human beings still feel the need to categorize, anyway.
I can still recognize Bill Cosby’s talent, and enjoy the Cosby Show and his old stand-up routines. However, rape being HIGH on my list of problematic stuff, I can also say that I will not purchase anything NEW of his. I can enjoy what I have, but not give him any more money, at least.
And I am really glad that I never heard of this Jian guy before, so I’m not a disappointed fan.
Also, slightly OT, but still sort of connected, I’d like to issue a trigger warning for the movie “All’s Faire In Love.”
I watched it recently, and noticed quite a lot of rape culture, although the big “jokes” were that men were the victims, and women were the aggressors. The rape culture was still there and blatantly accepted by all, however, with victim-blaming and “why should I bother to help this guy being raped” and stuff like that. UGH!
Is there a resource where we can put things like this on a list, so we can quickly check out if the show we want to see is safe?
The stereotype of the “only true rape victim” is an 80-year-old nun with a dozen stab wounds. Otherwise, even babies in diapers are considered to be “asking for it”.
@Bina – I know. A relative of mine was molested as a small child. Her own MOTHER told her that she had somehow not only “asked for it,” but actively SEDUCED the 60-year-old man.
The thing is, though, that with serious injuries, the on-the-fence people are somewhat more likely to come down of the victim’s side.
The MRAs are not even in the same block as the fence.
This is probably pretty common… I remember from when I studied psychology that there are studies showing that people have a strong tendency to believe what they say to others, to the point where people often start believing what they say after a while even if they originally began saying it merely because they were paid to do so. Most people just don’t say one thing while silently thinking “haha, I fooled those suckers”. Or, I mean, people may do this in isolated instances, but not all the time. Constantly consciously fooling others is psychologically hard.
So yeah, most explicit feminists who still go around raping women probably manage to convince themselves that it’s not rape. After all, they have an entire rape culture to help them with that, so it’s probably not that difficult a stunt to pull off if you’re motivated to do so.
I wonder what his defense for Jimmy Saville here in the UK is – he abused hundreds, possibly thousands,
“I watched it recently, and noticed quite a lot of rape culture, although the big ‘jokes’ were that men were the victims, and women were the aggressors. The rape culture was still there and blatantly accepted by all, however, with victim-blaming and “why should I bother to help this guy being raped” and stuff like that. UGH!”
I hate to sound all “what about the men” here, but this reminded me of a comment thread on Facebook I just read about a 15-year-old boy being raped by an older woman. There were indeed a lot of comments trivializing the rape, saying that the boy “got lucky”, but noticeably they all came from the male commentators. In fact someone noted a gender divide between the reactions, with the women taking a more serious and critical attitude towards the act of rape.
In a certain sense the men’s rights activists are right that male rape victims aren’t taken seriously enough in our society. The problem is that it’s other men rather than those evil feminists who do most of the trivialization.
Not sure how I feel about this, TBH. Some serious mixed emotions…
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/printmaker-makes-point-with-jian-ghomeshi-shirt-1.2826989
He should have asked SOFIA House first, but for the tees themselves, I have no problem with them.
I think that’s what made me uncomfortable, too.
Of course, I own some splendidly offensive political t-shirts, so my own judgement on what’s acceptable is almost certainly untrustworthy.
LOL!
@grumpynurse – I’d like to see your collection
@ Kim – that’s not what my kids say!
Kids these days …
I wouldn’t say it’s “What about the men” at all; it’s a serious (and really fucked up) problem. I had the same discussion today on a random article about rape scenes in video games – which obviously aren’t as bad as real rapes, but #GamerGate won’t shut up – with one of the rapes being woman-on-man, literally “Submit or die.” I and the other outspoken feminists thought that it was nauseatingly horrific, while the outspoken #Gaters and MRAs were… Jealous of the victim. What the FUCK is wrong with people?