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]Ā 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.
Go, Hank!
The funny thing is, I can totally imagine Hank saying something like that in-show. Does Dean Norris have the exact same personality as Hank Schrader in real life? Because that would be really awesome if he does.
@Sideliner
Maybe it’s just my cynicism about sports culture (and men in general /misandry), but given that he didn’t punish them and tried to cover it up and just generally failed to be a decent human being around this, I kind of wonder if he didn’t do some of the same shit in his glory days. Plenty of athletic golden boys do.
@Gillian
publicshaming.tumblr.com
Right now, it’s even worse than David’s posts on Steubenville, so GIANT TRIGGER WARNING.
That terrible Michael Crook guy has taken his Twitter account private.
@Viscaria – September’s a pretty good time to visit the UK in general. That’s when I was there all three visits. It’s the shoulder period for prices, but not as frantically busy in the touristy spots, much easier to get a decent hotel or whatever, and the weather’s still reasonable. Definitely don’t do Scotland in winter; apart from anything else, opening hours of tourist places (castles and such) are much shorter, or they may be closed altogether. Plus of course there’s much less daylight for doing anything!
Re: Manboobz Island: I live in Vancouver (the city) and while I love the weather here (it hardly ever snows in winter except that one year a few years back which I contemplated moving south because it just wouldn’t stop!), it’s not for the sun loving crowd. I just hate snow and, being Canadian, I decided Vancouver was my new home, rather than Toronto (where I used to live) because I just hate snow that much (I do miss aspects about Toronto though).
Viscaria, my mum and I are heading off to Scotland in August this year (her birthday is in August). My grandma was from there and mum wants to go to see where grandma was born and do a bit of looking into family history.
And to those who offered hugs and lotion infused tissues, thank you. This is an awesome and tremendous community and I’ve learned a lot from all of you. Thank you for that.
@Pecunium, I figured you’d be better informed than geographically lazy me. I think the myth they were spruiking was that there was no big mountainy things in the way and that Edinburgh and Siberia are on the same latitude? It’s one of those things we tell tourists along with stuff about 3 legged haggis.
@Viscaria, May and September are the best times to go, the weather is usually pretty good and the days are a decent length. In summer, the sun is out by 3am approx and down by about 11pm (we are talking full on daylight at 10pm). In the winter, it’s pitch black until 9am and dark again by 3pm. I imagine some of the North American Manboobzers experience the same but Aussies generally react in shock to that info.
@bengalcatmum….August means the Edinburgh Festival Fringe! Best time to be in that city (apart from zillions of tourists and inflated prices)
@BigMomma: Here in Tennessee, in the depths of winter the sun might rise at 7:30 and set by 5:30, while in the summer, it’s usually up around 6 and lingers until 9 pm for a couple of days at the latest.
This is all so incredibly gross, although I wish I was more surprised by it all…
OK – back to reading from behind the lurker shadows again!
@kate: Thanks so much for your conscientious, kind response. This clearly doesn’t excuse my thoughtlessness yesterday, but in retrospect it’s clear that I was super triggered and didn’t realize it, and so I was doing my usual defensive technique and intellectualizing in a really unhelpful way.
I talked to feminist friends, I watched that video where the beagle really wants the cabbage, and that plus your accepting of my apology have caused me to think about things more clearly and avoid it in the future. Thanks again; this community is cool.
Yutolia — we have hard misandrist chairs, matching bath towels and SCENTED MOTHERFUCKING CANDLES, available by delivery via female (whore) penguins in spanx, should you decide to stick around! We like our delurkers!
O_O wow… Very enlightening comparison. I hate rape apologists >:(
Meh, I’m really late to this so probably not saying anything that hasn’t been said.
But where the hell were this girl’s friends that night? There wasn’t one single person at that party who intervened to stop this. She had to rely on a group of anonymous internet hackers to have her voice heard because her entire community turned on her. That part’s upsetting me nearly as much as the assault. More than two people need to be brought to justice for this š
I feel so bad for her if she has to keep on living in this place for another two years, if she’s only 16. Seems like her ordeal isn’t going to be over for a while yet.
Ugh, and NO. Getting off-your-face drunk does not magically turn otherwise decent people into mindless rapists. These vile, entitled little shits had been led to believe by this community that they could get away with whatever the hell they wanted, and the tears came when they realised that they are not above the law. He was not crying for her.
Welcome, Anna, if you haven’t posted before!
And what you said can’t be said too often.
Hello! I post very rarely (mostly I lurk), but I haven’t been around for months. Sometimes I just feel like it’s better for my mental wellbeing to not read about this crap at all, you know? Even if it’s being mocked hilariously.
Thanks for the welcome though š
I do miss the fact that it’s light out till so late in the summer in Scotland. Not enough to deal with having to wear a coat in May, though.
Understandable, Anna! I tend to skim the posts and head for the comments a lot of the time. Especially when the magnificent non-troll derails are under way. š
Clearly, Manboobz Island needs to be a magical floating island with teleporters.
I mean… duh!
But of course!
Ha, wrote this comment last evening and just left it sitting in the comment box XD.
@BigMomma:
Huh! I am so terrible at geography that I automatically assumed my home town would be north of most of Scotland, but nope. I appreciate the warning!
I’m so so so excited though. I hope you are too, bengalcatmum, for your trip!
Welcome Anna! Well, welcome to commenting more. Please do stay, people are awesome here.
And I hope you enjoy Scotland, my Father is Scottish so I’ve been up there a fair bit visiting family.
And if any other Manboobzers are thinking of visiting the UK can I recommend York?
I’m biased as I’m living there for University but it’s full of history, Roman, Medieval, Georgian, Victorian, right up to the 20th century.
It’s also gorgeous and has really great shops and restaurants etc.
Oops, that comment was partly aimed at Viscaria!
Way late, but the rather crass comparison between the Steubenville sentence and what hackers get has been going around on twitter because of a recent Anon sentenceā¦people are bitter in other words. Trust me here, Cthulu’s Intern wasn’t pulling rape apologia, but bemoaning the BS of DMCA and similar. Epic story short, this sentence and one for hacking related crimes came down basically at the same timeā¦the later is longer, and that’s fucked because fucking clearly rape is worse.
Am I making sense pre-coffee? Point I’m trying to make is that it’s fucked up when sentences go rape < hacking, when severity wise rape > hacking. And Anon and friends are bitter over both sentences and probably not being as clear as possibleā¦sorry if I’m not explaining any betterā¦
Footnote: they should be getting the decade+ that Aaron Swartz was facing.
@Argenti
I think Marie was hating the attitudes toward rape that lead to shorter sentences, not accusing the person who made the comparison of being a rape apologist.
Ok, that makes more sense. Particularly now that I have coffee!
Sorry for my misplaced comment then! Because yes, longer sentences for hacking/piracy than rape are bullshit.
Actually, piracy law is bull in its own right, but that’s neither here nor that, and a personal opinion for umā¦personal reasons!