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:
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:
Less an adorable bird and more a gorgeous one, but I was inspired to search for cats and peacocks by a weird friend earlier today and the findings have all been fun. 🙂
@Some Gal:
I just wonder what a reduction you can reasonably expect. With child abuse you don’t have to bother with stuff like ‘gray rape’, rape threats etc. . It’s utterly condemned by society but it’s in no way controlled. We don’t rely on educating child abusers, we also teach how adults can protect children and children how to protect themselves.
@katz:
Do you know about the sex offenders registry? The draconian laws that accompany it? The residency restrictions? The idea that people who commit sex offenses are not normal people permeates the whole thing. (sarcasm doesn’t work with fringe opinions).
@The Kitteh’s:
Exactly the same thing is going on at CP communities (no, I never visited them, I only read about them, 100% legally.). It’s even more disturbing than Paraphlia forums: they not only justify their crimes (“It doesn’t hurt children. CPS destroys families and brainwashes them to feel abused.”), they encourage themselves.
@drst:
I didn’t say that. 😉
For the record, this is my favorite adorable birdie video: http://youtu.be/lfbTPc4_7uo
Durnit
http://youtu.be/lfbTPc4_7uo
How about a wee sandpiper?
@Poxy
There is a lot wrong with what you just said. Plenty of child abuse is not condemned by society. Rape culture hurts children, too.
@emilygoddess
Here are About.com’s 10 Cutest Birds. They don’t have parakeets listed, but there is an adorable little hummingbird.
Birdie brain bleach? How about Marley and Tiko:
http://youtu.be/sbHhw9pFa0Q
or Ziggy:
http://youtu.be/iCGZ70etmZ8
It’s getting closer to that, but we’re not all the way there yet. Do you remember that case in Texas with the 11 year old girl? From here:
I find it hard to believe that all 20 men accused in this case have a pedophile orientation. These are likely the kind of men that could be reached by education.
ewww. I hate people like that.
Also the:
god! those poor teenage sons! getting horny! so horny they should…rape someone? HORMONES DO NOT WORK THAT WAY! *barfs*
This made me lol:
http://youtu.be/xITL62e2u-4
@ Marie & Kim
Roscoe has been here before. Read some of his previous comments and you’ll be even less keen on the idea of him “protecting” you.
Hey drst, this was great:
“You’re not wrong for wanting the people in your life to be safe. You’re wrong for demanding that women relax their vigilance, which they undertake for their own sanity and self-protection, because it hurts your feelings and disturbs your comfortable mental image of yourself as the valiant protector. Which makes your personal fee-fees more important than the feelings and actions of the women around you. If you can’t see how shitty that is, you should spend the rest of your life walking on LEGOS.”
On the topic of painful things that can be stepped on, remember those lamps with the long glass filaments that lighted up at the ends that were a thing in the 80s? We had one of those, until I managed to get multiple little pieces of glass that had broken off embedded in my foot (I was the only person in the family who walked around barefoot). My Dad pulled the pieces out with tweezers. It hurt worse than the time that I fell on a balance beam and landed (on the beam) right on the small of my back. I think feet are just really sensitive.
My immediate, very cynical, thought was that since society takes the rape of children more seriously than it takes the rape of adults (though still not seriously enough), it makes sense that the people who actually get caught and convicted for raping children would be of less than average intelligence. Unless we have corresponding data for pedophiles who’ve never been convicted I’m not sure that the data on those who are convicted tells us anything about intelligence in pedophiles, it may simply be telling us that smarter people are more able to avoid detection and/or game the criminal justice system more effectively.
Also, low IQ correlates with low socioeconomic status (and not in the way that conservatives think). Imagine joanimal’s pedophile doctor being in court, versus a guy who worked at a convenience store, or someone who was homeless. Which person do you think is more likely to be convicted?
This is why I’m not sure that particular data set tells us what it initially appears to be telling us.
LMAO at the one where the black and white cat swats the gray cat, so it turns around and attacks the orange cat.
Wow, the dude who was filmed talking at the Reddit panel at SXSW. The fact that one of the panelists is trying to ask a question? Who cares, just talk over her. The fact that you’re not the only person waiting for the mic? Who cares, you’re more important, they can wait.
It’s like watching Brandon or Diogenes in meatspace!
katz, that one had me LMAO too! Poor orange kitty – “What’d I do?” and black and white kitty sitting up there all innocent.
Some Gal if you’re around – we had more Cat Offensiveness just now. Went out to bring in washing, by the time I came back to the door it was blocked by Madam looking like she’d been lying there for hours.
@The Kittehs’
I got sleepy, but it is a cute story to wake up to. 🙂 Our cat seems to have decided that the clock change means that she should try to wake us up even earlier so she’s been kicked out of the bedroom. I am waiting for her to realize I am awake because that is when the pitiful crying will start.
“I am waiting for her to realize I am awake because that is when the pitiful crying will start.”
You too? My mother’s cat must not have made that realization yet, or I’d have howling at my door — she’s not allowed in here unsupervised cuz someone can’t learn not to harass the fish (and currently I’ve got a DIY CO2 unit set up, I really don’t want that knocked over)
Oh and stepping on the nail wasn’t too bad actually, most annoying part was carefully pulling my sock off inside out so I could see it to remove it. I’d had a tetanus shot only a few months before, so it really was just a mild annoyance…either that or Legos hurt so bad that it seemed mild in comparison…
Nettles are the winner in my book, mostly because Legos are mad easy to remove, whereas those are more like hoping to a water source because every step makes your foot scream.
Regarding pedophile arrests and IQ, does anyone remember the study of the percent of male college students who’d admit to rape if the word rape wasn’t used (eg “I’ve had sex with a partner who was too drunk to walk” type questions). They’re college students, so IQ and SES were sort of controlled for by the privileges required to attend college at all, and that percent had to be higher than the conviction rate just based on the conviction rate being fucking abysmal. So after about 3 assumptions here, I’m guessing that yes, SES and thus IQ have an affect oh who ends up in jail for, really, most crimes, but particularly sexual ones, since again, the conviction rate is abysmal.
@poxy – dude, you said right there “I don’t know about this complex and difficult topic you guys are discussing.” I suggested that instead of saying that you should think “Hrm, I don’t know anything about this topic so maybe I should keep my mouth shut.” It’s not that hard.
@Argenti
The study I found tried to control for referral source (lawyer, parole, probation, etc. vs. other sources), but I can’t tell how decent a job they did on that because I don’t have access to the full article. Sometimes I really miss being a student. (Although, if it is a study that really interests me, and that I would likely use at some point, I still have my ways. Muahaha.)
I am sure that SES (and so, as you point out IQ) makes both arrest and conviction more likely.
“Although, if it is a study that really interests me, and that I would likely use at some point, I still have my ways. Muahaha.”
Muahaha indeed, the not-an-ex is a grad student 😉
Glad your study tried to control for referring course, I’d love to see it, but if the source looks good and the abstract says that, I can trust that it’s accurate enough. And assumptions aside, it seems logical that SES in particular would affect arrest and conviction rates. Not because people of lower SES commit more crime, but because people of SES can afford better lawyers if arrested, and that’s if it isn’t settled without an arrest record.
And fuck, even that ignores that an arrest record makes it harder to find a job, particularly a good one. But now I’m ranting about the failure that is the US justice system.
@Argenti
My source is a friend who married an academic librarian, so I am careful not to ask too much, but they’ve always been very nice when I have asked.
Here is the study. It’s the same one I posted for Marie. It sounds good, but that is half the point of an abstract. 🙂
Not only the better lawyer, but the prosecutors will likely be a bit biased in the direction of higher SES = better person. It would be hard for them not to be, particularly as they are less likely to come from low SES groups.
*sigh* the rest sounds good, but this? “phallometric testing” please just don’t — if nothing else, at least back it up with their reported preferences (which, at least for “prefers adults” should be a pretty high correlation between “person reports attraction” and “person’s penis goes up”)
Sorry, I find phallometric testing questionable at best. Especially without any other measure backing it up. Argh, *conflicted* part of why it’s questionable is that people can pretend to be viewing something else, eg when shown a young girl, picture a nun or something. But I’d imagine that skill is better formed in people testing at higher IQ — visual memory is one of the test factors.
Hot mess of intertwined variables right there. You want me to email a request for the full article? Ze’s at work currently, so idk how soon I could get it, but I can probably get it.
The points about access to lawyers and judge/cop bias stand though.