So you may have seen the story yesterday about the University of Vermont fraternity that was suspended for sending out a charming little survey that allegedly asked, among other things, “If you could rape someone, who would it be?” (FWIW, the frat now says it was the work of an individual frat member, not the chapter.)
Reading about this incident, I’m guessing that you probably didn’t ask yourself: “I wonder how the guys at the False Rape Society will use this news to push their own agenda?” Heck, I didn’t even think to ask myself that question. But while doing the rounds of the MRA blogs I’ve discovered the answer to that question, and here it is: FRS head honcho Pierce Harlan described the survey as “perhaps a poke at feminism’s fascination with rape,” then denounced it as “indefensible,” then ranted about the evils of false rape accusations. I guess that isn’t really shocking at all.
First, Harlan offered this take on the “who would you rape” question:
I assume the survey was sick humor, a crude satire of the fratboy culture, and perhaps a poke at feminism’s fascination with rape.
Yes, because any time men make rape jokes it’s probably because, you know, feminism, and its wacky obsession with rape.
Then Harlan went on to suggest that rape was no laughing matter – especially when it comes to rape that doesn’t happen:
Whatever it was intended to be, ultimately it is indefensible, because trivializing the word “rape” is no laughing matter, whether it’s a joke about the rape of male prisoners, or the fantasy “rape” of women, or a false rape claim intended to get a guy in, or a woman out of, trouble.
Well, that was quick. Let’s not talk about the trivialization of real rape. Let’s talk about the epidemic of “false rape accusations” that Harlan has convinced himself is the real problem here.
With nary a pause, Harlan moved on to complain about hypothetical feminists making a big deal out of this survey instead of joining him on his crusade:
There most certainly will be an outcry in the feminist blogosphere over this isolated incident
This what incident?
and it will be cited as proof positive to support the myth that ours is a “rape culture.”
Yeah, I wonder why casual jokes about rape would possibly be considered as part of “rape culture.”
A “rape culture,” of course, not only would tolerate but would condone such a puerile survey. Our society does neither. The only “rape” jokes our society condones concerns prison rape — and that’s because society actually encourages prison rape as a sort of “added bonus” punishment for any hapless male who lands in prison. It is ironic that actual prison rape does not garner the outrage that this this sick fratboy humor is generating. Go figure.
This from a guy who doesn’t seem to have ever even bothered to mention the leading anti-prison rape organization, Just Detention, on his web site. (See here for more on the issue on Man Boobz.) Though he does offer three links on his main page to information about the statute of limitation for rape charges, in case anyone reading is worried about getting caught being falsely accused for something they did didn’t do a long time ago.
Meanwhile,rape jokes — and not just prison rape jokes — are everywhere. Harlan, I assume you are at least somewhat familiar with a little site called Reddit, where people not only laugh at rape jokes – they laugh at actual rape!
Meanwhile, in the comments on Harlan’s article, some False Rape Society readers don’t even bother to pretend that the “rape survey” bothers them. According to the commenter called “bad,”
We should be celebrating young men who stand up against misandry. We should be celebrating the frat that said “no means yes” and we should be celebrating the frat that created this survey, if it’s a real story.
An anonymous commenter takes it a step further:
I do not condemn this action,
in fact, I wish I’d thought of it.
It is a brilliant and very appropriate response to the way young men are being treated by college campuses.
When the answer to “who would you like to treat like a rapist” is “all college men”, I think that asking them who they’d like to rape is more than fair.
But it is Harlan’s response to these comments that is the most revealing:
By the way, I read the reaction of Bad and others as a natural backlash … against the unconscionable PC culture of misandry on campus. I happen to disagree with those who suggest this was acceptable, but their remarks should not be construed as evidence that we live in a “rape culture.” Like Steve, I read their comments more as an affirmation that we live in a false rape culture–a culture that more and more men are finding intolerable.
I, on the other hand, doubt that these young men have the first clue about misandry, feminism, or how colleges run roughshod over the rights of young men. I am always amazed when we hear from falsely accused people who “had not idea this goes on.” My guess is they were just being being “funny.” I would, frankly, love to find out I am wrong, and that not only would they never call for a woman to be actually raped, but that this was a protest against the pendulum swinging too far. In that case, I am still not sure I could find it acceptable but it would initiate an entirely different dialogue.
So the survey is “indefensible,” yet a totally understandable reaction to, and protest against, an “unconscionable PC culture of misandry.”
Got it.
EDITED TO ADD: Harlan has written a response, of sorts, to this post. It is a bit — what’s the word I’m looking for here? — zany.
NWO, there are four teenage girls sitting at my dining table playing monopoly. They’re all dressed in tight jeans and t-shirts, but my husband has no desire for any of them. Not even the one wearing makeup! It’s almost like normal adult men don’t sexualize little girls.
Let makes that clear.
You, NWO, is upset because of my harsh words.
I’m not upset because of any harsh words. Sometimes I get offended by, you know, offensive stuff. In which case I don’t mind the number of dirty words but the intent and the meaning.
If the video had shown the girls thinking about attacking the poor boy but one of had said “fuck this bullshit. Let’s go rent a fucking movie, I’ve heard [insert movie name] is kicking ass, and then later we could go buy sexy clothes for Friday’s party. Shit, I forgot my coat I’ll be back in a minute.” it would have been better. Not worse.
Repeat after me, class: violence on children is a bigger issue than dirty words.
NWOslave, would you be *less* offended by the video if all the women in it had been wearing baggy, shapeless clothes, but still ripped the boy’s clothes off?
NWOslave can’t even read that we’ve *said* it’s harassment. He’s just going off because we don’t agree that the unseeable events *before the video was shot* didn’t happen in exactly the way he said they did.
Well Arks, you’re almost right. Most women don’t experience PMS or PMDD– those conditions are not just “feeling kinda gross” around your period, they’re a distinct cluster of pretty severe symptoms. PMDD is the one that causes noticeable mood changes and it can be pretty debilitating. And yes, it is an excuse to deny women “accountability” but in the sense that they’re being denied proper agency w/r/t to their actions. Women typically aren’t the ones who use “PMS” to dismiss their own behaviors, it’s men who want to chalk up a woman’s anger or assertiveness to “hormones” or whatever.
Also periods really aren’t very fun– feeling sick and having abdominal pain and bleeding out of your crotch for a week is enough to make any person a little testy. The irritability is usually not noticeable though by other people unless you actually have a premenstrual disorder.
For what it’s worth, I have pretty severe depression/anxiety and I can tell when I’m about to have my period by the fact that my mood sharply spikes downwards about two days beforehand. I didn’t actually track my period until recently, and my menstrual cycle is a little bit irregular, so it wasn’t a placebo effect since I didn’t actually know when I was about to have it. (I started tracking it actually because of that, as a part of my treatment for depression/anxiety, so I can prepare for and understand my mood changes better.)
I also usually have a migraine headache sometime immediately before or after my period (sometimes both), which is not uncommon for migraine sufferers w/a menstrual cycle. Hormones is wack!
I’m amused that the trolls think they can rile us up by denying PMS exists when they’re doing stuff like apologizing for rape and trotting out strange conspiracy theories. The other stuff you’re writing is going to get WAY more attention, guys.
@KristinMH
I can quote her slavering beast blog if you like.
if I say the massive amount of women who falsely accuse men aren’t slavering beasts, they’re the girl next door.
If I say all men who are accused of rape should be supported socially 100% of the time.
Would I be a misogynist?
If that’s the case, since all of you agreed with her post. Everyone of you is a misandrist. It can’t be otherwise. She, most definitely is a misandrist for having written the post.
The only reason none of you were talking about what those girls were wearing in the video is your continued denial of any sexual accountability by women/girls. A complete refusal to believe women/girls are motivated by anything but altruism.
First we only have your word that you harrassed.
Second harrassment is whatever any woman feels at any point in time. I could walk up to one woman and say, “nice legs” and she could be genuinely flattered and say, “Thank you!” I could walk up to another woman ans say, “nice legs” and she could scream, “hollaback, that’s sexual harrassment.”
Third, since virtually all women/girls have dressed in very little to get sexual attention, women now get treated as sexual objects always. You might have been dressed in a parka at that moment, but you’ve been dressed in far less on other occasions. No?
You might have been wearing a parka on that day, but the other 364 days of the year you weren’t. Would it have been “OK” to “harrass” you, whatever that means, on those other days when you were most definitely were not wearing a parka?
This is the world you advocate for. You advocate little girls to dress and act sexually. You must want to sexualize little girls. No man can sexualize any woman/girl. Women/girls sexualize themselves.
I said it before, you can choose to teach girls at a young age to dress and act sexually responsible. Modern women have chosen to teach girls to act sexually all the time.
Testing.
Who the hell wears bikinis to the mall? What planet do you live on, exactly?
Once again, NWOslave seems to think arousing someone is equivalent to raping or assaulting them.
NWOslave, so your erections hurt you? If so, seek help.
*do your
@Holly Pervocracy
And that’s the problem Holly. You don’t blame women/girls for acting sexually in public.
Ya know rape isn’t the only sexual crime. Wanton sexual teasing is just as bad.
Would you cook a steak and place it in a dish on the floor and then beat your dog every time he took to it?
Yet you have no problem with women purposely sexually teasing men and beating them down.
Perhaps they sould do a little experiment. Take male animals and continually expose them to female animals in heat, but deny them the act of sex. My guess would be those male animals would turn very violent to the point of insanity. Of course in nature, female animals go in heat at specific times of the year to signify readiness.
In the modern human world, women signify readiness every day of the year, yet men are denied the sex. I wonder what the outcome will be? My guess of course is when all women lack sexual control, eventually all men will lack control as well. What do you think?
I actually prefer “Cute people are around and I’m not having sex” to “no cute people are around and I’m not having sex.”
…Then again, none of these cute people are fucking ELEVEN.
I really want to believe NWO is fake. It’s like, I know people like that exist, but part of me can’t believe that I’ve talked to one.
Of course my above assumption is that men and women are different.
Since there is no way without modern technology a woman could possibly reproduce with out arousing a man, a woman must arouse a man in order to reproduce. Which of course this means a womans sexuality is completely contingent on her ability to arouse a man.
Do let me know if I’m wrong in my assumption?
Yeah, see, the thing about that is, it’s not.
Seriously, would you rather be teased or raped?
I think the Slavering Beast Theory post really, really got to NWO. He really cannot fathom not raping when aroused, from everything he is saying.
You might have been dressed in a parka at that moment, but you’ve been dressed in far less on other occasions. No?
This may be my new favorite NWO argument ever. Women, if you have ever worn a swimsuit, taken a shower, or even just been naked in between taking off one baggy, concealing outfit and putting on another baggy, concealing outfit, you are all dirty sluts FOREVER. If you go to sleep at night next to your husband wearing lingerie even once, all men everywhere are entitled to harass you from then on!
(I think most men are really glad that women don’t follow this rule, not least because I’m sure we are more pleasant company when we smell like people who get naked and soapy on a regular basis, and who do not wander around in snowsuits in July.)
Sometimes I’m naked in the shower.
*assaults men with her uncontrollable sexuality*
NWO, you just compared all men to incontrollable horny dogs. You really don’t get how some male could find it somewhat offensive?
….
fuck. 🙂 (god probably just killed a puppy for that)
In fact that’s a good question for the manboobz crew.
Say it’s a coupla hundred years ago. If women weren’t able to arouse a man, how would they reproduce? The only way I can think of is by cutting off a mans balls and basically inseminate yourselves. Which doesn’t seem like a very good way to reproduce for humans, and not very likely to happen.
(I hate my keyboard sometimes. Mistake on the address sent me back in moderation)
NWO, you just compared all men to incontrollable horny dogs. You really don’t get how some male could find it somewhat offensive?
….
fuck. 🙂 (god probably just killed a puppy for that)
@Bostonian
“I think the Slavering Beast Theory post really, really got to NWO. He really cannot fathom not raping when aroused, from everything he is saying.”
Women can’t fathom not arousing any man on a whim and disreguarding their actions.
Again I ask, how could women reproduce without modern technology if they couldn’t arouse a man?
Is a womans sexuality her ability to arouse a man?
Bostonian – I’m pretty sure the only things NWO even read in the Slavering Beast post were the title and the last line. He still thinks it’s literally a post calling men slavering beasts.
I think it’s one of those things that just stuck in his head and now it would be failure to HOLD THE LINE, MEN! if he ever let it go. He has a lot of those things.
Also, yes, he thinks it’s very unfair that anyone should ever arouse him and not go through with it, which is extra unfortunate when everything arouses him.
“Oh, it’s sexualized now because you say so? I’m a perv when I say that, but you’re altruistic and pure. They didn’t decide to dress sexy that day, they dress like that everyday. Even a father, if he’s allowed or to, has any contact with his daughters can’t tell them how to dress/act lest he be accused of trying to own their sexuality. They have their beloved sexual agency.”
Stupid or just trolling? What say you, fellow commenters?
It’s sexualized because they pull his clothes off, NWO, not because the girls themselves are just so seductive in their tight pants that they obviously intended to use their 14 year old asses to taunt both grade schoolers and middle aged milking machine technicians.
“You might have been wearing a parka on that day, but the other 364 days of the year you weren’t. Would it have been ‘OK’ to ‘harrass’ you, whatever that means, on those other days when you were most definitely were not wearing a parka?”
Unfortunately I have forgotten who it was that first brought up being harassed while wearing a parka, but if you wore skimpy clothing “the other 364 days of the year” you must have been COLD!