RawStory has a piece up highlighting The top 5 rape apologist reactions to the Steubenville rape verdict. It’s well worth reading. As the author of the piece, Emily Mullen, notes:
The Steubenville guilty verdict spawned nearly as much rape apology as the original news of the case did, highlighting the point — made by feminists like Zerlina Maxwell and Jaclyn Friedman — that America has a long way to go before it gets past blaming victims and sympathizing with rapists.
I haven’t yet run across any reactions in the Manosphere to the verdicts, but I’m sure we’ll see some in the next few days. If you run across anything especially awful, in the Manosphere or outside of it, please let me know.
Men’s Rights Redditors, currently silent about the verdicts, were up in arms the other day because Reuters was identifying the accused — now the convicted — rapists, while not identifying the victim. Or, as MRAs prefer to put it, the “alleged victim.” Now, as RawStory points out, she is getting death threats.
EDITED TO ADD: More victim blaming online, as catalogued on the Public Shaming blog: First post, second post with more.
Below, Several examples borrowed from Public Shaming. TRIGGER WARNING for rape apology.
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“Taking advantage” of someone, by the way, is my least favourite euphemism for rape. You take advantage of lucky opportunities that arise in your life, like when that sweater you’ve wanted for a month goes on sale. Or you take advantage of your friend’s good mood when deciding when to ask her for that favour you’ve been wanting. You don’t “take advantage” of someone being drunk and passed out, like it’s some sort of happy accident that’s happened to you. You make the conscious decision to assault and rape them.
*Not intended at all as a criticism of you, lumi, you just reminded me. It’s being used all over by apologists.
You know, viscaria, I never really thought about that phrase before. It does get icky when you think about it. Of course, from the point of view of a rapist, it is sorta like winning the lottery – ew, sorry, I’ll pay for everyone’s brain bleach.
Cloudiah, the LA Times reported on what the victim’s mother said, here.I’m not sure if that’s all of her statement.
Of course, someone is being horrible in the comments.
Oh FSM, why did I click on that LA Times link after clairedammit warned me.
[vomits]
But I am so glad that her mother has her back. I wish there was a way to show our support and let her know that things will get better for her.
New evidence that a lot of people not only think men are evil monsters who rape at any opportunity, but are willing to say so in public.
I feel ill.
I need kitties.
Livestream of kitties: http://new.livestream.com/FosterKittenCam/TheCosmoFosters
That’s it. Salt the earth, we’re done here.
Sorry to be so morbid, I just find these tweets and the people behind them revolting.
Looking for references people made to the Ohio rape case? This one is a little older. He’s not a MRA but the video is shocking and he is frequented by MRA’s on YouTube. Ramzpaul is a conservative commentator who in this video makes the assertion that the rape happened because people no longer slut shame. Sorry in advance for this link.
Reblogged this on grumpyWhiteBoy and commented:
The story this links to is jaw-dropping. Rape apologetics give me the fucking creeps!
It doesn’t matter if it’s a bunch of the same arguments every time – I never get used to rape apology.
I’m just going to leave this brain bleach here.
Wait, AGH! IGNORE PREVIOUS POST!!! For some reason it linked a different video! (I don’t know if David could remove the link? The video is not terrible, but DEFINITE problematic elements and NOT brain bleach)
[NOTE FROM DF: I deleted that last comment for you.]
Damn it. I don’t know. David? Any chance you could delete those links? Really not appropriate for this thread, I don’t know why my link is going to the wrong place.
Sorry folks.
You are a good man, David. Thank you.
Every fucking time. Whenever some college football players do this, the vast majority of the people are like this. You’d expect some people to say that shit, but the vast majority? And famous political analysts even? Why don’t they do this for any other crime? Like, whenever anyone’s talking about home invasion, why doesn’t anyone say about how some people lie about home invasion to collect insurance money? And believe me, that happens a HELL of a lot more than false rape accusations.
Also, David, I just want to know, is Diogenes posting a whole bunch of angry comments knowing only you are going to see them?
The thing that struck me about that first Twitter David quoted- “most people”.
Yeah, no. For starters, “most people” are not rapists.
Also, it seems Twitter guy thinks most people are guys. Guys who are rapists, evidently.
Twitter guy might want to take a step back and ask himself why he hates other guys so much he believes they are rapists looking for targets. Because,really, “most people” do not walk through their days looking for people to hurt, or rob, or rape, or kill. It’s not actually the default setting for humans.
Yep. Most men don’t walk around just waiting for an opportunity to rape someone to present itself. This is because most men are not predators. When people start in with the “any man would have done the same” stuff, you know what they’re really saying? “I would have done the same.” So hey, thanks for letting everyone know that you’re predators, guys. Now stop pretending that everyone else is as horrible as you are.
I wonder about that too (well, I don’t wonder because we know why, but it comes to mind). There are all kinds of tempting reasons to lie about being robbed (don’t want to admit you dropped your phone in the toilet, for instance), and still most of us don’t assume that’s what people are doing.
@Deoridhe – I love the stretch kitty. I haz yoga!
@augochlorella – Hadji used to do the exact same thing as that begging cat! We called it praying. Wish I had video of it.
(I can’t bring myself to read the stuff about Steubenville, so prolly won’t be making comments relevant to that. I take comfort knowing that kitties are always relevant.)
Between this and the massive county prosecutor failbag show, my confidence in our legal system is kinda low right now. Summer before last, MrB heard a woman screaming ‘he’s gonna kill me!’ He ran out, but was too late to see any faces. They finally got the guy, MrB was called to testify. We waited two hours for the prosecutor to interview the witnesses, during which the judge berated a mentally ill woman for not planning ahead (the woman took a plea and was willing to do her time, she just needed a couple of hours to pick up her kids and drop them off with her mom). Another gem: ‘You’ve lived in Michigan a few years? Your record here isn’t very extensive.’
MrB’s trial gets called, the only witness who actually saw faces was called (no one could find the victim). The whole thing was a fiasco. The DA ran with a bad case, the defense attorney was very sharp, and the judge (no jury) said that people often shout loudly during ‘horseplay’ and found him innocent. (tho horseplay may have been a reference to consensual kink, but I have a hard time believing that kinksters would want non-particapting bystanders to get involved, it just seems rude to me).
tl;dr: bad week, faith in justice system at all time low. gonna listen to Neverwhere and get some sleep.
So, I made a meme today that i had been thinking about making for a while. It’s rather relevant, I think, though perhaps you have to be 35 to really get the snark.
http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/3teped/
Only women are responsible for things that are done to them and other person’s decisions – drunken or otherwise. SHE ruined the rapist bastards lives when THEY decided to assault her. Yeah, faith in humanity gone.
Every news source is going on about the poor teenagers ruined future, but nobody is talking about the girl who suffered in their hands AND has police watching her house because the community just won’t fucking leave her alone and blame her for what was done to her.
As for hateful commentary, http://officialblog.michaelcrook.org/2013/03/travesty-of-justice-in-steubenville.html
The Kitteh : I’ve read enough, it made me so sick to my stomach that I can’t anymore. My post apparently got stuck in limbo, at least for now, but I know that besides that I’ll be avoiding this bile from now on, at least for some time.
I need comfort. Kitties always work.
I’m so glad to have a few safe spaces to talk about this in (Pharyngula had a thread up as well). This case has haunted me. First, I’ve heard people make the claims that Diogenes tried to claim above (the favorite word choice used is “fondling” — she wasn’t raped, she was just “fondled,” what’s the big deal?) To me that is such a big illustration that we are still soaking in rape culture. And FYI, yes, penetration with any instrument against a person’s consent is rape according to the law.
A woman travelling with her husband in India was gang raped by five men. A schoolteacher walking to work in New York was dragged off the street at gunpoint by a cop and raped (and HIS first trial ended in a hung jury because the jurors didn’t believe the victim could honestly recall how she’d been penetrated). When I was three, I was molested by my daycare provider.
All of those assaults happened under different circumstances. The only static component in all of them is the presence of a rapist. And yet, our culture continues to police the choices and actions of the crime victim rather than the criminal. It’s beyond fucked up. And anyone worrying about Mays and Richmond, or calling them innocent, really needs to re-evaluate their morals and values.
Internet hugs if you want them, Catfish and blitzgal. 🙁
Have some pinwheeling Scotties:
http://youtu.be/FDguOMIwuwc
A repeat,but always popular: Sharky, Max-Arthur and the Roomba.
http://youtu.be/vf9wHkkNGUU
And it’s not just average people on Twitter; the mainstream media continues to fuck up how they report on these stories. CNN’s Candy Crowley focused solely on the rapists and how this conviction is going to negatively affect THEIR lives:
http://gawker.com/5991003/cnn-reports-on-the-promising-future-of-the-steubenville-rapists-who-are-very-good-students