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Spearheaders: Prison rape is just fine, if the prisoner is Hugo Schwyzer

Prison rape jokes help to perpetuate rape culture
Prison rape jokes help to perpetuate rape culture

One of the issues that many Men’s Rights activists profess to be Very Concerned About is prison rape. This alleged concern translates into essentially zero actual activism beyond the occasional indignant reaction to someone making a terrible rape joke about men in prison. But then they’ll turn around and make similar rape jokes themselves.

That’s right: MRAs don’t only joke about rapes in which women are the victims. Like many Americans, sadly, quite a few MRAs seem to think that rape is an appropriate — and even sort of hilarious — punishment for men they don’t like.

For evidence of this, one needs look no further than a recent discussion on The Spearhead, in which WF Price’s followers fantasize about disgraced “feminist” and confessed almost-murderer Hugo Schwyzer being raped in prison.

In his post, Price notes that Schwyzer, if convicted on felony DUI charges for a recent incident that left a woman seriously injured, will be facing time in prison. He takes the opportunity to speculate, with evident relish, on the possibility of Schwyzer being beaten by other prisoners for being, well, less than a real man, in Price’s eyes.

Noting that prisons have “sensitive needs yards” for those who might be at risk for being attacked by other prisoners, Price writes:

These special prisoners include gang snitches, celebrities, physically frail prisoners, child molesters and homosexuals. …

Although I’m not an expert on this, I’d assume Hugo Schwyzer would fit the sensitive needs profile. As a feminist, liberal white male with bisexual tendencies, I can imagine that many of the general population inmates would quite enjoy giving Hugo a beating, for the entertainment value if nothing else. There’s nothing that screams “hit me!” quite like a snarky, passive-aggressive white nerd in prison. If he is effeminate on top of that some form of violence is a near certainty.

Price’s remarks are merely the opening salvo. In the comments, various Spearhead regulars are much less circumspect about expressing their desire to see Schwyzer physically harmed — and, specificaly, raped — in prison. They don’t even seem to care much about his actual, confessed crimes; they want him to be raped for being a feminist. (Note: The comments quoted below may possibly be triggering, so proceed with caution.)

Dannyfrom504, who apparently has served time, starts it off by writing that

he’ll be happy to know there are in fact feminists in prison, but they dono’t call them feminists. they call them, “my bitch”.

Geographybeefinalisthimself hopes that Schwyzer gets raped so as to “set an example” for people like, well, me:

As for me, I hope that Hugo does NOT get special treatment when being incarcerated to set an example for all other male feminists (and I stand by my position that all male feminists are like Hugo, including Futrelle). …

I’d give anything to know Hugo dropped the soap in prison and got sodomized so often that he contracted HIV or an incurable STD and lost bowel control because of how many times he had been repeatedly sodomized. After all, why should his not being raped be more valuable than that of any ordinary inmate who doesn’t denigrate almost all other men for not being feminist enough?

Rotten jokes that

Maybe Hugo Schwytzer will come out of prison with a real understanding of Rape Culture.

And a commenter with the ironic name Ethical praises Price for writing such a fair and balanced post. No, really:

Despite Schwyzer’s habit of ridiculing issues affecting men who’ve suffered cruelly at the hands of misandrist laws, this article very admirably took the high road, refraining from wishing evil on the man. Incredibly magnanimous, given Schwyzer seemed to entertain himself heaping scorn and ridicule on men in the meat meat grinder of false accusations, paternity fraud, or alimony or child support slavery, even at the same time that more than a few of those men were being driven to commit suicide.

And then takes an even lower road himself:

While I admire the high mindedness of this article, I also believe that if Schwyzer does find his way behind bars there would be some justice in him being surrounded by at least some of those unfairly jailed for child support, false rape, or other causes he might have implicitly or explicitly ridiculed. As high minded as it is … articles like this can only help identify the man to a demographic that could not easily be more hostile to his contemptuous liberal self. And his identification can only increase the likelihood that one way or another, his sins will be very harshly addressed.

Once again I present to you: The greatest human rights movement of the twenty-first century.

Schwyzer, who has confessed to the DUI as he earlier confessed to almost killing an ex-girlfriend, deserves to spend time in prison. He does not deserve to be raped. No one does.

Anyone concerned about the appalling epidemic of  rape in American prisons should visit the website of Just Detention International, an organization devoted to ending this barbarism.

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kittehserf
11 years ago

Michael – dunno if there’s a “how the comments work” except to read them first, like most places, I guess. Though that applies more to trolls who want to snipe about stuff than to regulars who’re adding. 🙂

serrana
serrana
11 years ago

We are all ninja’d here at one time or another. It’s a rite of passage, like being eaten by the blockquote monster.

titianblue
titianblue
11 years ago

Damn, @serrana, I’d forgotten just how bad Ruby was.

serrana
serrana
11 years ago

Michael, when I was reading your piece, I was thinking “This would be so cool if it were true.” And then I was sad too. So I think it works very well!

As far as commenting here goes, we don’t have a particular style. No one is going to give you a hard time if you @ somebody or just use their name, or use quote marks or HTML for quotes or whatever, as long as you’re sincere. People here are only assholes to the trolls.

baileyrenee
baileyrenee
11 years ago

I also have no idea what “ruby” refers to.

And Michael Farkness, wow… that was sad actually 🙁 You did a great job though. To be honest, I wouldn’t be surprised if AVfM fell for the article and wrote a piece on this new organization (maybe in support of them, but more likely calling them a bunch of manginas).

I hope so hard that happens, just for the thought of them being told that it was making fun of them. What a beautiful fucking moment in time that would be.

Michael Farkness
11 years ago

kittehserf, thanks, I didn’t know if there was an actual “reply” button or tag of some sort and I just wasn’t seeing it. Going to play some Skyrim and/or Diablo 2, will see you folks in a bit XD

ignotussomnium
ignotussomnium
11 years ago

God. These people are just vile.

Michael: Lovely, well-written article. If only it were true!

CassandraSays
CassandraSays
11 years ago

Wow. I thought that “I hope you get AIDS” was an insult only used by poorly brought up teenagers, but here we are with middle-aged men throwing it around.

BTW, Mama Sita? Yes, you are alone here, and if you intend to keep making those kinds of comments I’d suggest you go be alone somewhere else.

Michael Farkness
11 years ago

serrana and baileyrenee, thank you both very much. Yes, I would love for it to go viral at r/mensrights or find its way onto Elam’s screen, honestly whether they believed it or not (but hopefully they would believe it, lol). And it is very sad that it isn’t so. But, I’m feeling glad I wrote it. 🙂

baileyrenee
baileyrenee
11 years ago

Oh yikes, just read about Ruby. I could have sworn that when I was a lurker I saw her around. Never knew she said those things O.o

And yea, %1,000,000 not okay with prison rape. Prison is shit enough without rape, and raping a rapist doesn’t un-rape the first victims.

kittehserf
11 years ago

There was one good moment in that linked thread about Ruby: someone mentioned her feeding her “Onanistic fire” and Captain Bathrobe said “Onanistic fire: when you reach for the lube and grab the Ben-Gay.”

CassandraSays
CassandraSays
11 years ago

Basically the problem with “X deserves to be raped” is that it reinforces the idea that rape is a thing that people can deserve, which is deeply messed up (and yet very common in many cultures).

baileyrenee
baileyrenee
11 years ago

That’s one of the sickest parts about the whole thing to me too auggzillary; the whole “justified rape” thing.

Ugh ugh ugh no.

I mean… I actually went to school with at least two guys who ended up in prison, and a really sweet friend of my family’s son has been in and out for years. These guys have their issues, but they don’t deserve to be raped, ever. They are all in for drug related things and maybe some theft. Doing time without sexual assault is more than enough punishment for them.

And again, even if they were in for something worse, like murder or sexual assault, prison is punishment enough and raping them wouldn’t solve a fucking thing.

sparky
sparky
11 years ago

Michael Farkness: I think that was wonderful. I wish that’s the way it was too. As far as “help with comments” go, I’ve found it helpful to click on the “Notify me of follow-up comments via e-mail” whenever I make a comment. It helps me follow along with what everyone is saying.

Mama Sita:

I’m just feeling the water but am I the only person who doesn’t care if a rapist is raped? Ignore the Hugo focus of their topic but for those who have been convicted of raping I have zero sympathy when they’re assaulted.

No, I don’t think this. I am going to try to organize my thoughts here (and sorry if it’s long):

1. Rape is horrible. And I don’t want to tell rape victims how to feel/think about their rape (and if I am please tell me), but from listening to rape victims and reading what rape victims write, it seems like rape causes, for many people, psychological and emotional pain that outlives the actual physical rape. Sometimes for many years. And no, I wouldn’t wish that kind of torment on anyone, no matter how vile they were, just as I wouldn’t wish death on anyone. It’s morally wrong.

2. It upholds rape culture: Because its saying some people deserve to be raped. And, yeah, we can specify just rapists, but it really is a small step from “just rapists” to “all bad people” to “sluts.” I think it’s a slippery slope that I, for one, am not comfortable setting foot on.

3. It minimizes rape: By using it as an insult, as “just deserts,” it takes away from the horror and wrongness of the crime.

4. It’s hypocritical: Really, wishing rape on someone or not caring if they are raped, no matter who the person, really just makes us as bad as them.

5. It doesn’t solve anything: Wishing rapists get raped? Doesn’t actually do anything to stop rape.

I understand your ire at rapists. But I don’t think wishing they’d get raped, or looking the other way if they are raped, is right.

freemage
11 years ago

Moma Sita | November 13, 2013 at 5:21 pm
I’m just feeling the water but am I the only person who doesn’t care if a rapist is raped? Ignore the Hugo focus of their topic but for those who have been convicted of raping I have zero sympathy when they’re assaulted.

Moma Sita: As I said earlier in this very thread, I do understand such feelings. Schadenfreude aimed at those who perpetuate such violence is, indeed, a human reaction, and speaks of empathy for their victims. So I’m not going to tell you that you’re a horrible person or anything like that.

But as Brooked touched upon, there’s a vast, vast difference between that reaction and condoning the institutional conditions that permit such a thing.

For starters, prison rape doesn’t just happen to rapists–it happens to petty thieves, contempt-of-court convicts, and just-out-of-school teens who got caught up in the War on Drugs. So even without empathy for rapists, it’s obvious that permitting prison rape is pretty much a non-starter.

Stuffed Fantod
11 years ago

@freemage: VERY well said!

CassandraSays
CassandraSays
11 years ago

What Hugo actually deserves is to have everyone he encounters in the future know exactly what kind of person he is. That’s not only the most appropriate fate to wish on him, it’s the one that will bother him most too.

WeeBoy
WeeBoy
11 years ago

I just… I can’t. There are people I love who have HIV. One is dying, right now, of AIDS. And these people, who claim to be all about supporting men, want someone to get this horrible disease because they don’t agree with what he says.

hellkell
hellkell
11 years ago

I’m just feeling the water but am I the only person who doesn’t care if a rapist is raped? Ignore the Hugo focus of their topic but for those who have been convicted of raping I have zero sympathy when they’re assaulted.

Yes, you are alone. Stop being fucking evil. Failing that, fuck off.

Weeboy: hugs.

cloudiah
11 years ago

More hugs, WeeBoy. That’s rough.

AND NO ONE DESERVES TO BE RAPED. THIS IS NOT IN QUESTION HERE.

serrana
serrana
11 years ago

Hugs from me too, WeeBoy. That sucks.

hellkell
hellkell
11 years ago

That’s our PaulE, never letting things like dates and shit get in the way of his rageboners. I’m sure he thinks current news is for manginas.

Ally S
11 years ago

Empathy is for manginas.

@WeeBoy

Hugs if you want them. =[