Question for Pierce Harlan, the guy behind the False Rape Society blog: Do you really think this is the best way to fight false rape allegations?
The real problem here isn’t that he’s recycled an old rape joke; it’s that he’s pretending that rapists are somehow a species apart from ordinary men. His big complaint is that the PSA in question “passes off a criminal deviant as a typical guy.”
Pierce, what do you think rapists look like? They’re not villains out of some silent-movie melodrama, twirling their whiskers and cackling with glee. They don’t have giant R’s tattooed on their foreheads. No, they look like “ordinary” guys. Exactly like them. Rape prevention — and crime prevention in general — would be a lot more effective if criminals could be easily identified at a glance. But the world doesn’t work that way. Most criminals look pretty ordinary, actually.
But the problem with Harlan’s stance here go beyond that. The fact is that most rapists aren’t sinister strangers hiding in an alleyway; the overwhelming majority – something like 70% — are people known to their victims. As someone who writes regularly about rape, Pierce is presumably aware of this, which means either that he’s being completely disingenuous, or that he’s simply pretending that date rape (and non-stranger rape in general) doesn’t exist.
The PSA in question is far from perfect. Aside from the terrible acting, the main problem with it is that it it’s victim-blaming. Its depiction of a rapist as an ordinary-looking guy – and a friend of the victim — is the one thing it gets right.
To get an idea of the sort of person who reads (and agrees with) The False Rape Society blog, here are a couple of comments on the, er, “controversy.”
Here’s a comment from YouTube, posted by someone who obviously got there from Harlan’s blog (it appeared after the video was linked at the FRS; before the recent batch of comments, the video hadn’t had a comment for three years).
So the message is that if a guy is being helpful at a party, he’s probably a rapist? This is not a fair psa. It did better than some though, by highlighting the fact that the female friend ditched her.
Apparently, in this guy’s mind, trying to remove the clothes of a woman almost completely incapacitated by alcohol is just a way of being “helpful.”
Meanwhile, on the FRS blog itself:
Anonymous said…
Wow- just like TV- apparently the only people on earth who ever do ANYTHING wrong are white males- preferably fat ones to give feminists a little extra to hate.
While we’re on the subject of false accusations, here’s a strange bit of paranoid word-salad on the subject that I ran across recently from a Reddit Men’s Rightser.
Is it really possible that anyone – including the author and the people upvoting the comment — could actually believe this nonsense? If so, what a strange, sad world they must live in.
EDITED TO ADD: Holly Pervocracy just wrote a great and highly relevant post on what she calls “Slavering Beast Theory.” As she explains:
In the Slavering Beast Theory, there are two kinds of men. Two species, nearly. … There are ordinary guys and there are Slavering Beasts. And they are very, very easy to tell apart. They act different, even look different, to the point where any adult should be able to distinguish them in any casual social setting. …
This dichotomy is how someone can simultaneously believe that women shouldn’t go out after dark because rape is such a big problem and believe that tons of rape accusations are false. It makes perfect sense if you believe there are Slavering Beasts out in the dark, but if an ordinary guy is accused of rape, there must be more to the story. It explains why people are angered by rape prevention tips aimed at men–those are insulting to ordinary guys, and Slavering Beasts won’t listen. And it justifies the belief that abuse victims had it coming: either they were abused by a Slavering Beast and should have known better, or they were abused by an ordinary guy and must have done something terrible to provoke him.
“Women should act exactly as men as a whole and individual men say they should act.
Men will tell you what hurts our feelings and you will comply.
Men will tell you how to act.
Men will tell when you’re speaking offends us.
Men will tell you what you can think.”
*burst out laughing*
Good luck enforcing that, you sad little boy!
AntZ: False rape accusations are common and devastating.
[citation needed]
The mewlings of the MilkBoy are, as per norm, not quite so well structured as a brick with no straw, dried in the blazing sun of a Seattle winter.
I can’t decide if this more hilarious or pathetic. Are men going to get together and create a referendum on his women should behave? Do you imagine that other men agree with you on the fuckability of eight year old girls? Do you think that men who don’t lay pitifully in the ruins of their own lives will buy into your fantasies of slave women. Do you believe that your raging insecurity and desire for a daughter that you can raise and turn into a wife is a universal desire among men? Will you tell the women at your next family gathering that they are all whores and that, hence, they are to obey your every whim and command as is their place as women? And also, please pass the gravy?
You are such a sad, ridiculous man. Get started on building that “…as a whole and individual…” consensus among men, NWO. Tell us how it goes.
Just a reminder, people.
Stupid iPhone: “…on how women should behave…”
And don’t think it’s just us manginas that you have to worry about. My father, brother and uncles are all pretty conservative, and I can’t think of a one of them who wouldn’t push your teeth back down your throat if you started talking this kind of shit in their vicinity.
You know what is really upsetting is the idea of “false accusation,” which in MRA-speak is supposed to signify lies. But accusations, or the act of accusing, does not automatically transmit guilt, no? Yes, there’s a social stigma attached with forms of accusation, but not guilt. So, if these innocent young men who are, if we are to believe, accused by thousands are not guilty, why aren’t MRA’s saying they are against “lies?” Why slap the “false accusation” terminology to it? Heck, many MRA’s have vulgar terminology for everything else related to women, why try and put a shine on this idea? What MRA’s are really against seems to just be “accusations,” full stop. What they are against are women speaking about rape at all, in any capacity. It’s not just that women could (can’t underscore the tenuous nature of that could enough) “lie,” it’s an affront that they even speak about violence at all.
Also, the False Rape Society sounds like something from a bad Pynchon novel (which would then probably have the counter group False False Consent Consortium or something). Sigh.
NWOslave wants to have a slave he can rape with impunity. He has no business complaining about false rape accusations. He think he has a God-given right to rape women.
Apparently “zero-sum” is his phrase of the evening.
Probably because I added his misunderstanding of the term to the Book of Learnin’. When people point out that he’s wrong about something, NWO has this weird tendency to react by repeating the incorrect fact over and over, like if he says it enough times it’ll come true. The Title IX thing is an ongoing example, but he even does this with neutral facts in which he has no emotional investment: the meaning of the term “zero-sum,” the ethnic background of Ashkenazi Jews, whether Russian and Spanish use the same alphabet… I think he just hates the idea of learning something from another person, especially if that person is a lady type of the female persuasion.
NWO, a “zero-sum” game is one in which one person’s loss is exactly equal to the other person’s gain. Feminists like to say that male-female relations are not a zero-sum game; when women gain rights, men do not lose their own rights. So when you say, “It’s a zero-sum game, right?” a feminist will probably respond with, “No, it’s not, actually.”
Remember that in NWO’s mind, despite telling us he’d like to enable literal thought policing, feminists are the evil communists who are infringing on liberty.
Statement assumes facts not in evidence.
Figments, all.
Given that the best we can say is that they’re slightly more common than false accusations for other crimes, gonna keep doing what I’ve been doing: Supporting due process.
No. It hasn’t. You’ve confused Harlan for the Innocence Project. The Innocence project does excellent work. If I wasn’t a near failing student at any aspect of molecular biology, I’d like to think I’d offer to help. They also don’t say an accusation of rape is false; only that the person accused didn’t do it. Extraordinarily different claims.
it’s ALWAYS the Duke Lacrosse case. One, two or ten cases equals epidemic for these freaks.
You mean the case that was thrown out of court, and the accuser was publicly shamed, the prosecuting attorney was disbarred, and the accused went back to their lives as well-off college athletes? Yeah, I can see how, through MRA goggles, that turns into men being thrown into prison for life without trial.
Yeah, I’m not really seeing a lot of evidence of the times a-changin’ in the way NWO describes.
Given that the best we can say is that they’re slightly more common than false accusations for other crimes, gonna keep doing what I’ve been doing: Supporting due process.
They’re actually slightly less common. There is no epidemic of false rape accusations, much less an epidemic of imprisonment on false rape charges.
@Holly Pervocracy
And now for the piece de resistance with our guest speaker, Hatin Holly Pervocracy and her timeless piece, Slavering Beast Theory.
Feminists have so many theories it’s difficult to grasp them all. But they all have the same theme, men are shit, women are angels. We’ll copy and paste fun little exerpts from her hate blog.
In Slavering Beast Theory she prattles on endlessly about the Slavering Beast men and how they are easily indentifible. Oh evil slavering beast men. So unevolved they are and pletntiful, yet there are a few men who aren’t. But beware, there’s a slavering beast in all men patiently waiting to surface.
——————-
In her own words…”If a person does not meet these criteria, they are not a Slavering Beast. Which means that they would never commit violence. Maybe if they were pushed to their absolute limit for a very good reason, but they would never be predatory. That’s a Beast thing.”
You see. One little push is all it’ll take.
——————–
Next….”This dichotomy is how someone can simultaneously believe that women shouldn’t go out after dark because rape is such a big problem and believe that tons of rape accusations are false. It makes perfect sense if you believe there are Slavering Beasts out in the dark, but if an ordinary guy is accused of rape, there must be more to the story.”
First is the stated fact, according to her, that rape is a big problem. We do have her word on this, so it must be true. But if a good guy, an honest guy, an honorable guy is accused of rape she believes in presumption of guilt. This must be part of slavering beast theory otherwise he’d be innocent until proven guilty.
———————–
Next…”It explains why people are angered by rape prevention tips aimed at men–those are insulting to ordinary guys, and Slavering Beasts won’t listen.”
And rightfully so it would anger an innocent man to be given tips on a crime he didn’t or won’t commit. But the slavering beast within men won’t listen.
———————–
Next…”Fighting this attitude without looking paranoid or accusatory (“any guy could be a rapist” seems to hit some ears as “every guy is a rapist”) is tricky. But it’s necessary. ”
Without appearing accusatory, women should be taught that within them lay a lying, conniving, treacherous, deceiving, vengeful, spite-ridden, manipulative, slavering beast. But it’s necessary.
———————–
Next…”And it’s necessary to punish rapists–to break down that mental barrier protecting Julian Assange and Roman Polanski and umpty-zillion sports players, the one that says “a likeable person who’s done good things can’t possibly commit rape.”
Well lucky us, there’s a article about feminism and Julian. Here are words from a feminist in power in the very bastion of feminism, Scandinavia.
For example, she is known to have said that when a woman says she has been assaulted by a man, the man ought to be detained because it is not until he is in prison that the woman may have the peace to consider whether or not she has been mistreated. Ms Ny has stated that she believes that imprisoning the man has a positive effect, “even in cases where the perpetrator is prosecuted but not convicted”. It is also informative, in regards to the presumption of innocence, that she uses the term ’perpetrator’ rather than ’defendant’ or ’suspect’ in discussing criminal investigation in rape cases.”
“It is only after the man is behind bars, and when the woman has the time and peace to get a little perspective, that she has a chance to realise how she has been treated.”
Oh how nice, men imprisoned on a womans word. Women apparently have peaceful time when contemplating a mans fate. It helps put everything onto perspective.
———————–
Here are feminists gloating
“We are the biggest militant organisation in Sweden today with approximately 7,000 members. And one can easily say that represents a lot of power. So we’re really a militant organisation and we’re opinion makers and we’re a feminist movement and we’re not going to be silent. – Ireen von Wachenfeldt 2005”
A military organization within the State of Sweden. I wonder how many of them there are today? There was some little discussion about State slavery. I forget how it went. Be that as it may, heres a link to the entire article.
http://www.swedenversusassange.com/Gender-Politics.html
———————–
Hatin Holly’s entire blog goes along in the same vein. Oddly enough, the hatred will be praised, as it already has by the manboobz gang.
You folks have yourselves a fine evening. And as always, continue with your hatred.
That depends. IIRC, the evidence does indicate that there are more accusations of rape that are willfully wrong than other crimes, but not by much.
However, this is only accounting for accusations that go to the police, and counts for victims the police shook down to recant, which is only slightly nicer when done by the police than when done to galileo. And, this is the kicker, notice I said “Only accusations that make it to the police”. If every single incident of rape yielded a police report, then the rate of willfully wrong reports would drop somewhat below the rates for other crimes.
So yes, technically, there are more false accusations for rape than other crimes, but it’s a misleading statistic in the extreme.
This. Exactly this. They always get angry when anyone talks about rape like its, you know, a bad thing. They pretend its a non-issue. They frequently victim blame. They always assume the accuser is lying and shame them for it when they don’t even know the whole story. They act as if obtaining consent is impossible and get angry when rape is defined as something other than violent sex where the victim is screaming and crying. To them, there is no other form of rape or sexual assault. Having sex with someone passed out drunk or just drunk period is not an issue for them.
This is their agenda. Its not about reasonable discussions on how to prevent both false accusations and actual rape. Its about silencing discussions on rape, rape awareness and rape prevention. Its making those who want to put an end to rape an enemy.
Don’t forget the accuser is remembered as a lying slattern and stripper. The reality distortion fields they possess would be pretty awesome if they worked, but I’d use them to move to a happier world, not a funglass mirror version.
@shaenon
“They’re actually slightly less common. There is no epidemic of false rape accusations, much less an epidemic of imprisonment on false rape charges.”
Are all feminists psychic? How do you know who is lying in a he said/she said accusation where no violence took place?
NWO, are you missing the point of the Slavering Beast post on purpose, or are you really that stupid?
Come to think of it, given the amazingly misleading nature of that statistic and the reality you have to ignore to make it meaningful, I suppose I shouldn’t say it’s correct at all. It’s not as if MRAs behave in good faith *ever*; why should I pretend they aren’t lying through their teeth. They think it means most ‘so-called victims’ are lying, not that actual victims are frightened off in such great numbers that the false ones appear more common (and certainly not at epidemic levels, in any case). My bad entirely.
NWOslave doesn’t understand that Holly’s post was about how rapists don’t look like easily identifiable “slavering beasts.” He instead thinks that she is indeed calling all men “slavering beasts.” He’s an idiot.
NWOslave also believes that all women should be slaves. Don’t forget that.
NWOslave believes that all women, including his own mother, should be slaves to men.
NWOslave believes that his own mother deserves to be raped.
@Spearhafoc
NWOslave doesn’t understand that Holly’s post was about how rapists don’t look like easily identifiable “slavering beasts.” He instead thinks that she is indeed calling all men “slavering beasts.” He’s an idiot.
Spearhafoc doesn’t understand that my post was about how false accusers don’t look like easily identifiable “slavering beasts.” He instead thinks that I am indeed calling all women “slavering beasts.” He’s an idiot.
——————-
“NWOslave also believes that all women should be slaves. Don’t forget that.”
A little dose of your own medicine and you get all riled up.
“NWOslave believes that his own mother deserves to be raped.”
Quoted for absolute truth.
Spearhafoc believes that all men, including his own father, should be slaves to women.
Spearhafoc believes that his own father deserves to be falsely accused and imprisoned on a womans word.