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Zerlina Maxwell challenges rape culture on Fox News, receives rape threats on Twitter.

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I’m still officially on my Man Boobz staycation, but I felt I needed to mention yet another example of a woman saying that men can stop rape … and getting rape threats in return.

Political analyst Zerlina Maxwell went on Sean Hannity’s show on Fox News earlier this week and made the terrible mistake of suggesting to a hostile audience that men aren’t really doing any favors to women by telling them to arm themselves against rapists. Instead, as Salon notes, she said this:

“I don’t think that we should be telling women anything. I think we should be telling men not to rape women and start the conversation there.” She told Hannity, “You’re talking about this as if it’s some faceless, nameless criminal, when a lot of times it’s someone you know and trust,” adding, “If you train men not to grow up to become rapists, you prevent rape.”

Indeed, increased rape awareness has contributed to a dramatic decrease in rape over the last thirty years.

But apparently a lot of men were shocked – shocked! – that a woman would suggest that their patronizing advice was less likely to prevent rape than rape prevention education aimed at the demographic group that is responsible for the overwhelmng majority of rapes. That is, men.

So, naturally, the angriest of these men decided they would show Maxwell just how wrong she was … by threatening her with rape on Twitter.

Here’s just one example:

Screen-Shot-2013-03-07-at-9.45.15-AM3

Rape culture in action.

Maxwell’s supporters have stepped up to defend her and her remarks, and have started a hashtag — #TYZerlina —  to continue the discussion. If you’re on Twitter, join in .

Here’s the Fox News segment in question featuring Maxwell:

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The Kittehs' Unpaid Help
The Kittehs' Unpaid Help
11 years ago

LOL indeed about the food threads!

Yeah, I think they were. The strawberry was pretty much overwhelmed. I’d actually been after some of their plain strawberry gelato, which is delish, but they didn’t have any. They were pushing this as “Big Love” gelato … I was sorely tempted to ask if it was Mormon.

The only Turkish delight I’ve eaten prolly doesn’t count – I suspect any real Turkish confectioner would not want to know about the stuff you get in Cadbury’s Milk Tray. I don’t care for it.

Gad, I think I’d really better get to bed! Niters all!

thenatfantastic
thenatfantastic
11 years ago

My kitchen smells of Indian food at the moment and it’s making me so damn hungry. This is a problem because we polished off all the food in one go last night 🙁

I am now trying to think what I could actually cook for you Kittehs! Not in a ‘I will change your mind’ way, in a ‘I like cooking for people and it’s interesting to see how I can accommodate people who don’t/can’t eat my usual stuff’.

thenatfantastic
thenatfantastic
11 years ago

Ah, MRAL, the gift that keeps giving.

Did we keep the receipt?

BigMomma
BigMomma
11 years ago

Night night, Kitteh, heading that way myself.

BigMomma
BigMomma
11 years ago

@thenat…I think Kitteh likes French and Italian?

*goes to search in the important paperwork basket for receipt*

Viscaria
Viscaria
11 years ago

I mean FWIW I actually think it was Om Nom, but like, whoever it was is one of a truly astonishing number of people who have come here, done something unforgivable and then were told to leave; who then reacted to this news by saying “how can I get around the firmly-stated boundary by the blog’s owner that is backed up by the readership? How can I sneak in and try to hurt them some more?” And, I dunno, that’s a pretty horrible way to react to other people declaring they don’t want you around.

Viscaria
Viscaria
11 years ago

I guess what I’m saying is, if you’re still reading this, Poxy, we may or may not be right about you being MRAL; but we are definitely right about you being a terrible, toxic sort of selfish human being who derives pleasure from upsetting and violating others. So, you know, gross. Stay away next time.

hellkell
hellkell
11 years ago

Ah, MRAL, the gift that keeps giving.

Blogular herpes. Virulent and incurable.

PoxyAl: you should really sit and have a think about your life choices. Is this really the kind of asshole you want to be?

joanimal
joanimal
11 years ago

@BigMomma

I had a quick look in my Indian cooking bible and a first glance gave me Badaam vaali Palak. It’s spinach quickly cooked with panch poran, ginger, garlic, and chilli.The spinach is first quickly wilted to glaze it with the spices and then dried.

Thank you. I will check this out. Even if its not the exact same thing, it still sounds wickedly good.

The Kittehs' Unpaid Help
The Kittehs' Unpaid Help
11 years ago

thenat – that would be an interesting challenge! I was about to say “Good old English cooking” then remembered you’re vegetarian and thought, well, that wipes out egg, bacon and soss or the Roaste Beef of Olde Englande, among other things. 😀

(Yorkshire Pudding … drool)

BigMomma
BigMomma
11 years ago

OK, I have a foolproof Yorkshire pudding recipe.

@joanimal, I will post my recipe if you can’t track it down. I have a truly fabulous Indian cookbook.

Can trolls be cured with a round of penicillin?

CassandraSays
11 years ago

Foolproof Yorkshire pudding recipe? I would like to see that! My mum made them really well, I never bothered to learn, and now I have no idea how. Teach me, Obi Wan.

From the last few comments I’m guessing the Raid didn’t work? FWIW, I think it’s Om Nom this time.

CassandraSays
11 years ago

RE Rose flavored things – Kittehs, do you like rice pudding? That’s an easy (and very traditional) way to sample rose flavors, just add a few drops of rosewater at the end.

And yeah, what Viscaria and hellkell said – doesn’t matter which of our boomerang trolls it is, we have several, they’ve all been both banned and told to bugger off by the rest of the commenters, so if/when they come back they’re being all kinds of creepy and obnoxious. Banned trolls, we don’t care which one of you it is – we don’t want to talk to any of you.

Kim
Kim
11 years ago

There is a news story breaking here in Australia about a rape and murder of the “stranger in an alley” variety. An admission from the accused:

“(Bayley) stated that it was due to the argument that he had had earlier in the night with his girlfriend, that (Bayley) had an angry and aggressive demeanour which he transferred onto the deceased.”

Just another brick in the “it’s about violence and hating women, not sex” wall.

Kim
Kim
11 years ago

Whoops, meant to include my source

The Kittehs' Unpaid Help
The Kittehs' Unpaid Help
11 years ago

TW for rape and murder:

Bayley’s trial is just starting, hence the renewed coverage. The scum has pleaded guilty to raping Ms Meagher but not guilty to her murder – how he figures that when he strangled and buried her I don’t know. He also has two-three other rape charges against him, a reminder that rapists seldom have one victim.

He said something at his interrogation about “she flipped him off and he was angry because he’d been trying to do the right thing”. WTF? He accosts a stranger on the street and somehow it’s her fault when he rapes and murders her? That doesn’t go with his oh-noes-I-am-so-bad-I-hope-they-bring-back-capital-punishment carryings on later.

Kim
Kim
11 years ago

And also a reminder that you can’t tell a rapist just by looking at him. In that photo of him from Facebook, he looks like just a regular guy.

Some Gal Not Bored at All

@Kim

That is so horrible.

Some Gal Not Bored at All

(The story, I mean. It is horrible that rapists look normal, but in a totally different way.)

BigMomma
BigMomma
11 years ago

Will post Yorkshire pudding when I get home from work. Alternatively, it’s Nigella Lawson’s recipe from How To Eat.

The Kittehs' Unpaid Help
The Kittehs' Unpaid Help
11 years ago

Time for brain bleach:

http://youtu.be/EYL-H8Q5f5U

http://youtu.be/MxwH9RbQzJ0

http://youtu.be/y2r0nIoECw8

The pup in the last clip had been scared of going up and down steps.

thebewilderness
thebewilderness
11 years ago

Yorkshire pudding is pretty much your basic crepe recipe poured into extremely hot pan drippings and baked. Delish!

pecunium
11 years ago

Kant thought wanking is evil. Therefore Kant is refuted.

Wow… the classic ad hominem in the wild.

But if they violate means/ends here, I would say that’s not enough for a reductio ad absurdum of Kant.

Good thing I didn’t say it was. I said Kant was problematic because the dipshittery which juvenile thinkers who dabble in philosophy do with the apparent contradictions in Kantian Ethics (while not grasping the nettles of the real problems in his ethical rigidity and his insistence that right thinking is both required, and absolutely exculpatory when predictable harms of mindless application of principles are applied).

And I see that it was MR. vARpole Butthorn SteAL. The portions on Kant are still relevant, and that he resorted to pure fallacy is precious. I was pretty sure it was a blast from the past. I’ll refrain, lest he learn from his mistakes, in saying what it was in the open.

Argenti Aertheri
11 years ago

So…Kant! Because I still don’t feel like I have a sufficient grasp on his point, just the obvious complaint about utter rigidity versus situational…versus the situation being important.

pecunium
11 years ago

Ok…. Kant.

Let’s say there is an ax murderer in town; and you know he wants to kill your mother. He shows up at your door, ax in hand, and asks if your mother is home.

If you say yes, he will come in and kill her. What is the moral thing to do?

According to Kant you must tell the truth.

If you don’t, you have committed a moral failing. If you do, and he bursts in and kills her (as you expect) you have done nothing morally wrong.

It gets better. If you lie, and he leaves, but your mother hears him at the door, and slips out (afraid he will burst in and kill her) and he sees her on the street and kills her; you are morally responsible, because your lie caused him to leave, and so see her.

The scary thing about that example is that this is actually Kant’s stated position when another philosopher posed that problem to him.

Another aspect of Kant; any reason for doing something apart from doing it merely because it is the right thing to do, means it’s not really a moral act. Morality is all about intent.

It’s the main failing in actual Kantian Ethics, as opposed to Kant’s principles of moral rightness; which work fine if you allow for conditional response.