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| I’m walkin’ here! |
Pierce Harlan of the False Rape Society has broken past the limits of mere logic, arguing that the fact that a small number of guys at a couple of events have put on women’s clothing to raise money for women’s causes means that rape culture doesn’t exist. That seems to be the main message of a post of his today with the baffling title “Boys in bras, boys in heels, boys in pink — all to raise money for women’s causes: Is this the ‘rape culture’ we hear so much about?”
Harlan, posting as “Archivist,” complains about several recent campus events, in which college guys have literally put on heels (to raise money and awareness about sexual assault) and bras (to raise money for breast cancer research). Harlan isn’t thrilled about the causes themselves: he has sneeringly derided sexual assault awareness as “a supposedly good cause” and, while acknowledging that breast cancer research is theoretically a good thing, he’s evidently tired of hearing about it.
But he seems even more hot and bothered about the cross-dressing by guys he calls “chivalrous clowns,” describing the bra-wearing as “creepy” and deriding the guys “prancing around in high heels.” Apparently, as Harlan sees it, these fellows are just doing it to impress the chicks:
young men will do pretty much anything to help, to curry favor with, and to be admired by young women.
It is heinous to suggest that attitudes of sexual aggression and dominance over women are normalized, rationalized, and excused by the alleged beneficiaries of “patriarchy” in our culture. In point of fact, the foolish young buffoons in heels and bras are far more representative of young masculinity in our culture than is the young rapist.
There’s not a lot of logic in this, er, argument, but in an earlier posting Harlan elaborates on the distaste he feels towards the “Walk A Mile In Her Shoes” event, which was held at the University of Montana (clearly a hotbed of radical feminism).
It would be downright shocking if this or similar events ever prevented a single sexual assault from occurring because: (1) prancing around in high heels and similar useless stunts has nothing to do with preventing sexual assault; and (2) the vast majority of young men who strutted their stuff and who participate in such events are highly unlikely to ever rape a woman. …
If we want to curb sexual assault, we need to teach our young people the truth, but the truth doesn’t jibe with the current rape meta-narrative that holds only one gender responsible for stopping it. …
Young people generally do not understand that women experience much greater after-the-fact regret than men do. Sometimes feelings of regret are translated into feelings of “being used,” and sometimes feelings of “being used” are misinterpreted or purposefully misconstrued as “rape.”
Asking the police, a judge, or a jury to sort out what happened in an alcohol-fueled tryst based on a “he said/she said” account puts an impossible burden on our law enforcement and judicial apparatuses. …
There is no “rape culture”; there is no “rape continuum.” Rape is committed by social deviants, not the nice boy next door. It is almost a certainty that none of the charming young buffoons who strutted around in women’s heels yesterday will ever rape a woman. …
The sad, politically incorrect fact of the matter is that young women have far more power to stop rape than innocent young men by not putting themselves in situations where rape is more likely to occur.
There’s a lot of bullshit condensed into these short paragraphs. There’s victim-blaming, of course: do we regularly attack murder victims for “putting themselves in situations where murder is likely to occur?” There’s his weird complaint that actually investigating and prosecuting date rape puts an “impossible burden” on police and the judicial system: should we simply stop enforcing laws against all crimes that are hard to investigate or prosecute? And there’s his unwillingness to accept the simple fact that rapists all too often do look exactly like the “nice boy next door.” As for his complaint that these events target the wrong people, see here for an argument as to why it makes sense to raise awareness specifically amongst those men who are NOT likely to rape women.
In the past a few MRAs have asked me why I put the False Rape Society blog in my “boob roll” — and formerly in my “enemies list.” This is why. Spreading blatant misinformation and blaming victims: these are not exactly good ways to actually reduce the number of men falsely accused of rape.
And here’s another thought for the MRAs reading this, Harlan included: if you are truly as concerned about testicular or prostate cancer — or any other male malady — as you so often and so loudly claim to be, take a few moments away from your constant complaining about feminism and/or women, and actually hold a fund raiser yourselves. In a comment on his latest post, Harlan writes: “My problem is this: how about an event to raise funds for male suicide, etc. once in a while?” You know how events like these happen? PEOPLE ORGANIZE THEM. There is nothing stopping MRAs from organizing such an event on their own. How about it, guys?
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>@e-string, actually, the social attitudes in regards to prison rapes fit very well with my theory. Prisoners are of low social status and are seen as having little social value. Hence rapes and sexual assaults of prisoners are treated by many as acceptable. Note how well this fits-those who engage in rape apologism wherein the victims are prisoners rarely to never argue or believe the victim actually consented, what they believe is that these rapes are acceptable. The solution to prison rape is not to take other rape accusations less seriously, but to take rape accusations with prisoners as victims more seriously. Rape apologism does not help victims who are raped while incarcerated. The fact that you tacitly condition rape of prisoners being serious on their being "innocent" disurbs me. A person being a guilty prisoner not justify allowing or encouraging people to rape them. Innocent or guilty, no prisoner deserves to be raped. No one deserves to be raped.
>EWME: Man convicted on expert testimonyOne guy was executed.Things like the Innocence Project would not exists but for the fact that people are frequently convicted on testimony alone.
>Not to be a futilist or anything, but I suspect prison rape is going to be tolerated by the people that matter as long as it is seen as a natural enforcement of manly hierarchy. That is something they believe in a lot more deeply than any moral issues involved.
>Naturally, but that's why feminists want to get rid of the manly hierarchy altogether.
>Well, duh. It can oppress men just as it does women, which makes it that much easier for the ones who play by the rules to advance in the hierarchy.
>A couple more examples for EWME's perusal:http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/Stephan_Cowans.phphttp://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/William_Dillon.phpIn both cases these unfortunate fellows were convicted due to faulty eyewitness testimony. Rape, it seems is not the only crime you can be arrested for "on an accusation alone." You can get slammed with a count of murder if some fool who can't see well in the dark tells somebody you look kinda like a guy kinda near a crime scene.Now, I don't believe false accusations of rape are an "insignificant" problem. People who say they are disgust me. On the other hand, I not very fond of the general MRA meme that male-on-female rape shouldn't be taken seriously (or is "meaningless" or "shouldn't even be a crime" or whatever). I hope the above articles demonstrating false convictions of murder based on not much more than accusations (from faulty eyewitnesses and such) help you see why.
>Now, I don't believe false accusations of rape are an "insignificant" problem.They are.People who say they are disgust me.I'm comfortable with that.
>They are.How certain are you? In one corner of your mouth you say a significant number of rapes are not tried, and out of the other spews claims that false rape convictions are insignificant. It seems you're speaking more from dogma than deduction.
>I'm comfortable with [disgusting people].You seem comfortable with a lot of views and prejudices the general public is not. It's troubling that you want to impose your opinions on others.
>You guys. What do you want, really? Do you just want more latitude to practice Game, or do you really feel it's your birthright to brutalize the babes? Are you just a knot of self-justifying butthurt in a paranoic echo chamber, or do you really intend to draw swords against womankind for the sake of the man to the left and the man to the right?
>It's troubling that you want to impose your opinions on others.Eh, I don't think so, honestly. Out of respect for our host, I won't go overboard with some ad hominem attack, but a simple glance at the "freelance writing" part of his blog is enough to tell me he doesn't and probably never will have enough influence to "impose" anything on anybody. He can't really do much besides make a nuisance of himself on other people's blogs. Just ignoring him is the best course of action, IMO.That said, I think my point still stands–while it's indeed a terrible injustice that people are falsely convicted of rape based on such flimsy grounds, people are also falsely convicted of murder on equally flimsy grounds. If we want to take rape less seriously because of this, we'd also have to do the same with murder.
>@thevagrantsvoice – I agree with you on the murder case, actually. I would not word it as "less seriously" necessarily, but we have a consistent paranoia about shootings and strangers' mental states which often infringes on the autonomy of others. While suspicious or foreboding behavior warrants intervention, the definition has been expanded to include a broad swath of the male population. I believe this perception of men as potential murderers and rapists is one primary cause of social anxiety in teenagers and young adults. Tragically, social anxiety will in some cases serve as a catalyst for these tragedies, which increases paranoia. The cycle is self-perpetuating.Your post is insightful, and the fact that erroneous murder convictions exist to be overturned is very much an issue to men and those who love them.
>While the bits of sympathy from those who agree that I was raped are not unappreciated, the fact is that absolutely zero harm came to me. IF, on the other hand, she had gotten pregnant and I was complaining about having to pay child support to a woman who raped me, I somehow doubt I would get one iota of sympathy from feminists. I certainly have yet to see ANY opposition from feminists to the strict liability theory of child support.
> Google provides me with: http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article1027927.eceAccording to the details of that case she was convicted because she initially claimed that she never did anything sexual to the guy, and that claim was refuted by DNA evidence. So, at that point she said it was consensual but she had already damaged her own credibility beyond repair. I am 99.9% certain that had she not been ignorant of DNA and claimed from the very beginning that she performed oral sex on him with his consent, she would not have even been prosecuted. I am also 100% certain that had the genders been reversed, the man would have received a longer sentence than nine months in jail and his name would have been released.
>There. How's victim blaming working out for you NOW , assholes?Oh Amused, when are you going to learn to actually do some research before spouting nonsense and making a fool of yourself? Here's an article on The Spearhead advising men on how to avoid becoming victims of false rape accusations. Unlike feminists, MRAs aren't so divorced from reality as to think that being reminded of their own agency constitutes "victim blaming".
>Link was eaten, here it is again:http://www.the-spearhead.com/2011/02/18/do-you-feel-lucky-punk-aka-profiling-the-perpetrators/
>Here is an article a friend posted on Facebook regarding the myth of "she is asking for it."Unless someone has actually claimed that some women wear short skirts because they specifically want to get raped, this is a strawman argument. For the linguistically challenged, the expression "asking for trouble" doesn't mean that a person is literally asking for trouble or going out of their way to get in trouble; it means that they are foolishly disregarding the reality of a situation and acting in a manner that is likely to bring unwanted trouble upon them.
>Oh for the love of God, does this guy ever get to his actual point?
>He can't really do much besides make a nuisance of himself on other people's blogs. Just ignoring him is the best course of action, IMO.The fact that I don't like you doesn't make me a nuisance on Manboobz. You're welcome to ignore me, but you're doing a pretty poor job of it.
>I'm comfortable with [disgusting people].Note that this is not in fact what I said.You seem comfortable with a lot of views and prejudices the general public is not.And? That has pretty much no effect on whether I'm right or wrong. Charles Manson held a lot of views that the general public wasn't comfortable with, as did 19th century abolitionists. The general public's approval doesn't have much to do with anything.It's troubling that you want to impose your opinions on others."Wanting to impose one's opinions on others" is called politics. Yes, I want my opinions to be reflected in policy. However it's my position that my opinions are less restrictive on personal freedom and self-determination than existing policy or the policy proposals of MRAs, especially when it comes to gender rights.
>However it's my position that my opinions are less restrictive on personal freedom and self-determination than existing policy or the policy proposals of MRAs, especially when it comes to gender rights.Do you think a man should be able to abort his financial responsibility during the same period of time that a woman can abort their future child? Do you think that we need strong-armed legislation and bribery (tax deductions, etc.) to force businesses to hire more women? Do you believe universities should be forced to finance women-only sports teams, regardless of the economic viability of such organizations?
>e491, thank you for your response–the fact that you can acknowledge the same reasoning in regards to murder as to rape speaks well to your honesty. I still think it's problematic even from an MRA standpoint, however. Remember, as many MRAs point out, violence is a male issue–most victims of it are male. Most men are better off being suspicious of other men, because statistically, they're more likely to be killed by another man than a woman is. Thus, by taking murder "less seriously" (forgive the wording, it's the best I could think of at the moment), while you may be improving things for men accused of violence, you may be making things less safe for the victims of violence, who are primarily men.
>"Do you think a man should be able to abort his financial responsibility during the same period of time that a woman can abort their future child?" Men actually have no financial responsibility during that period. They do not have to pay the medical bills (the cost of delivery in a hospital in the US, without complications, is 9-17 thousand), food bills, lost wages, etc. of pregnant women. So, when you are calling for men to pay half of pregnancy expenses, get back to me on this one and we can discuss physical burdens taken by the pregnant person as well. Also, take note of the fact that bio mothers do not have more rights than bio fathers during pregnancy. Surrogacy cases demonstrate this well. It is the surrogate, not the bio mom, who can choose to abort, even when it is absolutely certain the bio mom will be the custodial mom after birth. The pregnant person is the one with the right to abort, it is pregnancy status and not being the egg provider that gives one that right. We know you are devastated over not having a womb, but that is no excuse to try and control pregnant women.
>A woman can give birth to the child, at which point it is outside of her body and so no biological distinction can be made between the nature of her parenthood and that of the father, and then get rid of it under safe haven laws, thus abdicating all parental responsibility. Men don't have this option. That's a massive inequality and there is no way to argue around it. Not only that, but any attempt to argue around it is going to stink of misandry.
>@Cold, nothing you just said relates to your abortion position. You are now discussing custody after birth, which is a different subject. Stay on topic here.On safe have laws: These laws do not exempt the person from child support should the other parent take custody (or financial payments to the state during state custody http://www.hhs.state.ne.us/children_family_services/SafeHaven/GovernorColumn.pdf). They are also gender neutral, men may drop infants off at safe havens and be exempted from abandonment charges/relinquish custody just like women. These safe haven law are also rarely used. Lousianna, one of the poorest states in the country, reports only 12 cases in a 6 year period (http://www.dss.louisiana.gov/index.cfm?md=newsroom&tmp=detail&articleID=278). So hardly a "massive" issue by reasonable useage of that word.