Ugh. No jokes this time, just an appalling little exchange on Reddit’s Men’s Rights subreddit. First, a Redditor called xbyiu offers some unsolicited, and pretty pig-ignorant, thoughts about SlutWalks. The basic thesis:
Personally, I think a lot of feminists just don’t care about rape victims. They’d much rather see women as a whole being a victim of the patriarchy and fight against that sort of abstract idea then deal with the reality of rape, which can be fought against with simple tips on how to protect yourself.
Hold on; it gets worse.
To this the r/mr regular EvilPundit replied (in a comment that, last I checked, had gotten three times more upvotes than downvotes):
I’d go even further, and say that many feminists love rape. For them, it’s a perfect way to demonise men in general.
If rape didn’t exist, feminism would invent it. In fact, feminism does invent a lot of rape, with its imaginary statistics such as “1 in 4”, and so on.
In other words, feminists don’t really want to prevent rape. But most rape is imaginary. So feminists are trying to not prevent something that doesn’t much happen anyway. Brilliant.
A note on the “1 in 4” thing: EvilPundit’s insinuation that it’s an “imaginary statistic” is a common MRA talking point. It’s not imaginary, but it’s not quite accurate either. The one-in-four number comes from a study conducted in the 80s by researcher Mary Koss: based on a detailed survey of college women, she found that roughly one in four of her respondent had been a victim of rape or attempted rape since the age of 14. This is often simplified – and distorted – into “one in four female college students are raped while in college.”
In fact, Koss’ survey found that one in eight college women answering her survey, not one in four, had been the victim of completed rape. Other studies have reported numbers not far off from this. The National Violence Against Women Survey, for example, found that roughly one in six of female respondents reported being the victim of rape in their lifetime.
The fact that some people have misrepresented Koss’ study doesn’t mean that her findings are “imaginary.”
I’m not even sure why I’m writing all this, given that as a feminist I presumably don’t care at all about rape.
Pic above taken from here.
EDITED TO ADD: EvilPundit’s comment has gotten some downvotes since I posted this, but it still has more upvotes than downvotes.
<blockquote. I’m imagining him at a Slutwalk or Occupy Wall Street with this on a sign, held high.
Not, um, too high though. You know.
If they’re anything like your typical modern white woman, they’ve likely had gallons of semen passed through their legs by the age of 20.
Annnd–math time, go!
The average ejaculation contains from 0.1 to 10 milliters of semen; i.e. 0 to 2 teaspoons. Suppose 1 is average.
There are 768 teaspoons in a gallon.
Statistics show that the average female U.S. teenager becomes sexually active sometime between their 17th and 18th birthday.
“Gallons” is plural; thus, it is at least two.
Thus, we calculate that the “typical modern white woman” has sex from their sexual debut until age 20 at least once every 0.6 days. Every 1.2 days, if every single man having sex with them is at the tip of the bell curve in seminal volume.
Are these numbers plausible? No. Hell, no.
Nice try, Nugganu, but it don’t add up.
Erl: I dunno, all he said was that those gallons of semen “passed through” our legs. Perhaps we all just go down to fertility clinics, fill basketballs with semen samples, and then engage in some fancy dribbling. I know that’s how I spend every Saturday night!
(Note: I do not actually spend my Saturday nights filling basketballs with semen. I feel I should spell this out in case one of the “women are after our precious bodily fluids” types reads this post and gets ideas.)
(Also, by the laws of the internet, I think I just created someone, somewhere, with a fetish for semen-filled sports equipment. I’m sorry, universe.)
Hmmmm… According to our new troll, as a white woman, I spread my legs for every man who walks by. But since I don’t, that must mean… I’m not white? I kinda figured that my Dutch/English/Irish ancestry made it a bit of a moot point, bu, if trollboy says so, it must be true. I am now a really, really pale non-white person. Go me!
As Men’s Rights Space Pope, I implore the government of Manboobz not to take MRAL off of moderation.
Haec Dixit Spatio Papa
@Polliwog-
So basically what you’re saying is white women are the Globetrotters of semen-filled basketball? I don’t know, I don’t find that plausible. More likely a smaller subset of white women are the actual Jiztrotters, and white women in general cue up to be props for the Jiztrotters’ trick passes.
@Erl,
Mebbe he thinks that pr0n is like “Reality TV”, and the average ejaculation contains approximately one quart of semen.
At least tips for avoiding bear attacks are actually useful. If it’s a brown bear you do one thing, if it’s a black bear you do another, and if it’s white you make your peace with God because you’re about to get ate.
Yeah, here’s the thing. All of that semen passing through their legs is being ejaculated by penises that belong to the men they are having sex with. You guys are a riot. Women are dirty for having sex, but the men they have sex with are not.
Aw, MRAL making demands is like watching my kitten hiss. It’s adorable.
I would love to see an MRA explain this delightful double standard.
“Petite, young-looking women with pink hair are actually men according to MRAs?
The more you know, etc.”
I am not an MRA, never will be- for fuck’s sake. I was just pointing it out so that the information can be corrected. And that person IS a he, a teenager. Here’s the Slutwalk NYC tumblr post: http://slutwalknyc.com/post/10992083819/image-a-teenaged-boy-at-slutwalk-nyc-he-has
So yeah, pointing out a mistake so it can be fixed makes me an MRA?
The more you know, ect.
I’m pretty sure it will be something along the lines of the “If a key opens lots of locks, it’s a master key. But if a lock is opened by lots of keys, then it’s a shitty lock.” analogy.
Because apparently, vaginas natural purpose is to…uh, lock something away? I guess?
I never got that one.
But then again, I assume that the guy who made the analogy up never saw a real woman naked, so it’s no surprise.
Yeah, he’s a guy according to the slutwalknyc post which seems to be where the original image came from. It says [image: A teenaged boy at Slutwalk NYC. He has short pink hair and is wearing jeans and baggy grey tshirt. His jeans are ripped at the knee, but are otherwise unremarkable, and his tshirt has some sort of maroon logo. He is looking directly at the camera, and holding a large white sign. His sign reads: THIS IS WHAT I WAS WEARING. TELL ME I ASKED FOR IT. I DARE YOU.]
Welp, I apologize for my “never saw a real woman naked” line, it was kind of uncalled for and inappropriate. I just hate that analogy with the power of a thousand suns, arrrgh >:C
@americanlink
Thank you for the link!
If I remember correctly, the SlutWalk is open to male survivors as well, so that makes sense.
He is very brave!
What hateful shit have I been spewing? That’s patently bullshit.
I think you may wish to edit your edit, Dave– now it says “woman guy”.
MRAL: How’s the weather in lala land?
Oops. Woman is supposed to be crossed out, but formatting doesn’t work in captions for some reason.
MRAL, oh, let’s see, I’d say the constant references to women as “gashes” and “Her Holy Highness bitches” and so on; all the “fuck yous” — that sort of thing. You really think I’m going to take you off moderation when most of your comments in recent days have been too tiresomely obnoxious to let through?
Yep, it appears that the pink-haired person is a boy. A brave one too – how many people would have the nerve to turn up in the clothes they were wearing when attacked?
Also, “gashes”? Gee, MRAL, I have no idea why women might be avoiding you. Do you think the undercurrent of rage that you exude from every pore might have something to do with it?
PROTIP: Bigoted slurs are offensive! THE MORE YOU KNOW ^_^
Christ, a friend of mine is getting a PhD at BC, and I hope you stay far, far away from her. She’s a 50 year old Japanese woman though, so even though she is appallingly beautiful, you’ll probably think she’s an old hag or something.
I think you’re completely confused.
You say rape is incredibly common and you say rape cases are handled in a bad way and they don’t care about rape.
BUT:
You mock MRAs how deviant they are (e. g. when they downplay rape) and that they luckily aren’t representative of men in general.
You say that we have to teach men, that how a woman dresses doesn’t give them the right to rape her.
BUT:
You say the way one dresses does not effect the chance of being raped anyway.
You say that regular sex doesn’t decrease the chance for a man being a rapist.
BUT:
You’re scared of “incels” that feel entitled and get bitter and blame women that they don’t get sex.
I can’t make a sense out of all this.
It’s so self-contradictory, so full of insinuations and emotional arguments… maybe you need a reboot and clearly state why you think sexual violence is one of our major problems, what the causes might be and the solution.
Since you aren’t able or willing to do this, how can you say “MRAL is wrong, we’re right”, maybe he just has a different system of values.
I’m tempting to think this is just human hubris, probably rooted in a denial of our roots. Other primates like chimps don’t have such a harmonious relationship between the sexes, too.
Why should humans be different, maybe it’s just meant to be that way.
We just fear it because “becoming” a wild animal is offensive to your humanist prejudices.
Anyway, I write you off as romantic dreamers.
Your paradise must still be defended by conventional power and it’s not only threatened from all sides, it’s already programmed to fail. It will get nasty: The “postindustrial” (now constantly lauded as “better suited to women”) US pseudo-economy that imports all it’s goods, which the Chinese have not yet figured out how to produce, and the geriatric Europe that has to pay the debts of generations of mismanagement simply aren’t sustainable models.
Deep down this simple fact bothers you all the time and that’s probably the reason for the strange cuddly closeness to like-minded members of the military here (who fight for preservation of the Sharia law… or even it’s introduction, like in Libya), it’s not pride, respect or admiration, no it’s just as you wanted to say: “See, we can be tough, too!”
I can’t believe this shit. I realize that I am a bit late to the party but WTF!!!I read the reddit post further where they go on to say that rape is a political issue! Who is/are these people and why can’t they be stopped. I am so sick of stupid people being allowed to poison our society or perpetuate their stupidity. Bravo to MB for continuing to call out the retarded stuff people say for what it is…retarded!
I just thought I’d spell this out for MRAL – even though it’s probably not going to do anything. I’m procrastinating, whatever 😉
Calling women ‘gashes’ involves two hateful elements. First, you conflate women with their vaginas. This is messed up because equating anyone with their genitalia is belittling and hateful, plus not all women have vaginas. Secondly, vaginas are not wounds. If you didn’t hate women, you would not equate vaginas with wounds – they’re a complex organ that can give and receive lots of pleasure.
I don’t hate women.