The Public Shaming blog and Twitchy.com have been doing the world a service by documenting some of the worst rape apologist nonsense that sprouted up on Twitter in the wake of the Steubenville rape verdict. I thought I would add some more screenshots to the growing pile.
TRIGGER WARNING for some really horrible rape-apologizing bullshit.
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Atheist author Michael Crook had many opinions on the matter, some already cited by Public Shaming. Here are some more:
For more of Crook’s awful thoughts on the case, see this terrible post on his blog. Let me put another TRIGGER WARNING on top of the TRIGGER WARNING I posted above; Crook is really a piece of work, and his post is one of the worst things I’ve read since I started this blog.
Someone calling himself Reality Talks had even more opinions on the subject:
Bill Peace III thinks the whole thing is hilarious — except for the part about the rapists being punished:
A fellow named Tyler figures that the victim “got [what] she deserved.”
A teenager calling himself Space Cowboy shows how the attitudes that define and perpetuate rape culture are absorbed at a pretty young age:
Amazingly, after being called out on his bullshit on Twitter, Space Cowboy seemed to realize that he had been wrong to blame the girl, and deleted his victim-blaming tweets. Assuming he wasn’t being sarcastic when he tweeted that “the girl is an angle, [sic] the boys are to blame entirely,” it’s a heartening development, and evidence that rape culture can be unlearned as well as learned. If he was being sarcastic, his deletion of the offending tweets at least suggests that he now realizes that blaming rape victims is not socially acceptable in all social circles.
The misnamed Truthwatcher, meanwhile, blames everyone but the boys, with his Tweets basically serving as a sort of Rape Culture FAQ.
These are just a few snapshots from the Twitter stream. There’s a lot more nastiness out there.
But these comments are really nothing compared to the crass tweets, and pictures, and videos posted by or otherwise passed around by the rapists and their accomplices and their enablers. Or the threats, some of them made in the wake of the verdict, against the victim from anonymous internetters — and, more to the point, by other students at her school. I can only hope there will be more indictments, not only of the students who participated in the victim’s ordeal but of the adults who knew and did nothing or even worked to cover it up. The whole thing just sickens me.
Those arrests are a hopeful sign, and the fact that apparently more charges are in the works.
I’m beginning to think the logistics of Man Boobz Island might be unworkable outside of my head, but inside of my head it is looking quite lovely between the aquariums and cakes and pools with plumeria blossoms…
What we need is an island with multiple discrete climates. If it was limited to Hebrides vs tropical I’d be going for Hebrides (as long as the heating worked inside).
Shoot. David, I was typing my post and didn’t refresh soon enough to see you were deleting ted’s comments.
Now my last comment makes me look more than a little weird, like I’m replying to someone who isn’t there! Ha!
@david
so glad there were arrests for that. I also hope it will especially be done against adults doing it.
@pillow in hell
Yay for embroiding! I love fancy pillows 😀
…there are different ways to make candles?/clueless
That would still be a bit cold, wouldn’t it?
(Someone described Vancouver as having lovely weather to me the other day and I nearly laughed, but then again he is from Beijing and it’s freezing there in the winter, and too hot to be comfortable for a lot of people in the summer.)
Take some hugs, Kate — and everyone who needs them.
I was born in that town. I went to school with the coach’s only daughter. Couldn’t wait to leave.
Every time I think about the case and the assholes apologizing for the rapists’ behavior I feel like vomiting.
Certain areas of BC have a semi tropical climate. Palm trees and bamboo grows pretty easy in those places, so I’m told. Never left ontario myself.
Manitoulin Islands is nice too, but then your talking Canadian Shield and up north, so bring your winter woolies.
Yes!
@cloudia How, oh how could you have forgotten the hard chairs and scented motherfucking candles?!?
Aren’t the hard chairs cunningly hidden under the soft cushions and girly throws?
@cloudiah, yeah. At the time I was just so flabberghasted, I didn’t even know what to say, but after having time to process I was like, “HAHA – NO. You of ALL people do not get to tell me when I’m over this.” Years, later, I’ve come to embrace too that “getting over” something doesn’t mean giving someone who wronged you a free pass. Just because I’ve dealt with it doesn’t mean thinking of it sometimes doesn’t make me angry and just because I’m not angry all the time doesn’t suddenly mean everything that happened is now ok.
@Marie, thanks 🙂
@kate, it was hard at the time, partly because I’d blocked so much of it out for so long, partly because bullshit advice like “go to confession” or “let go of your anger” was totally not helpful, but I’m in a much better place about it now, thanks.
And thanks to everyone else for the fluffy videos and hugs and such. I’m terribad at warm fuzzy stuff, so I know I don’t say this enough, but y’all tend to restore my faith in humanity, which is no small feat, especially in the face of bullshit like this case. I’ve avoided it a lot because as the tweets show, it is just SO rank with horrible, so believe me when I say I’m very glad to see the eloquent and witty commentary so many of you bring to it.
This case has been a really good reminder for me that one of the answers to the question “why do we still need feminism?” is “because there’s a big chunk of society that really hates teenage girls”. It’s kicked me into serious Mama Bear mode.
@Kate
Thanks. 🙂 That means so much. Thank you.
@Marie
I love your cake.
I want to live on Manboobz island. You all are great! I like snow in the winter though. :/
It is really nice to hear about arrests, but I so hope there are more.
…whoops, needed to keep reading there…
@cassandrasays
D’aww. As a (albeit older) teenage girl, I feel warm fuzzy that you went into mama bear mode. Idk if that makes sense…it’s just a nice thought.
(preemptive sorry if this comment came out wrong. I’m a horrible judge of my own tone today.)
@some gal
Thank you 😀
@ostara321
I’m sorry. (I knew I’d forgotten something. I’m sorry for that too.) Hugs if you want them and a kitty.
@some gal
*squees at cute kitty picture*
@some gal – no problem. Here’s a cute pony in a sweater for everyone http://www.visitscotland.com/cms-images/5×3-large/89285/shetland-ponies-cardigans
Scotland – where it’s so cold that even the cute fuzzy horsies need a cardigan. This is why I don’t live there.
D’awwww. OK, how bad is the weather there? Is it like upstate NY where I grew up with six months of winter and snow up to your asscrack?
Summer is that one day in July when it hits 70. My classmates used to put on swimwear and go lie on the grass covered in baby oil when that happened, much to my bemusement.
Those ponies are so cute. 🙂
One of the things I notice is the ways in which agency occurs in these comments. She “chose” to do things, and got raped.
They raped her, and “their lives are going to be ruined”.
It happens to them, and she makes it happen to herself.
That’s victim blaming, and rape apologia, in spades.
paul: Nobody can really say who’s to blame
I can… the rapist.
What croggles me (or should, but I’ve seen too much to be really stunned) is that the same people who go on about, “accountability” are now all up in arms that these guys are being held to account.
They committed rape.
I am of a mixed mind on sex offender registries, but that’s not the issue here. The law in Ohio says they are to be put on the register. They were convicted.
There is a simple way to avoid that; don’t rape people. If they had the decency to say, “whoa… she looks too fucked up to know what she wants,” this wouldn’t have happened. Even if (and I don’t) we accept the argument that guys who can’t get laid will rape the helpless, these are football heroes, in a football town. They don’t have a problem getting sex; so this isn’t even defensible on those (specious) grounds.
They raped her. They were convicted. They did the crime, now they have to do the time.
And no, them being drunk doesn’t excuse it. Get drunk and shoot someone… still a crime. Get drunk and drive… that in itself is a crime. Do damage when driving drunk and that’s a crime too; it’s actually exacerbated over doing the same thing when sober.
So you can take your rape apologism, fold it ’til it’s all points, and use it as a suppository.
Sorry if my being late to respond (I read/wrote some hours ago, but family, etc.) is muddying waters.