Last night, a regular commenter in the Men’s Rights subreddit — inspired by a thread on 4chan — posted a link to an online form on r/mensrights under the headline “Feminists at Occidental College created an online form to anonymously report rape/sexual assault. You just fill out a form and the person is called into the office on a rape charge. The “victim” never has to prove anything or reveal their identity.”
This headline is not only inflammatory but untrue: Yes, Occidental College has an online form that allows victims of or witnesses to sexual assault to report the incidents to the school. But, as a statement at the top of the form makes clear, the point is to collect data on how much sexual violence there is at the school, who the victims are, and so on.
If the person reporting the crime names the alleged perpetrator,
a member of the Dean of Students Office will meet with that person to share that the person was named in an anonymous report, review the Sexual Misconduct Policy, and inform the person that if the allegations are true, the behavior needs to cease immediately. Information shared in this form alone will not result in anyone going through the grievance process.
I’ve put the last bit in bold to emphasize a point: No one will be charged with anything based only on information gathered using this form. As would be clear to anyone who thought about the matter for more than a few seconds, it’s rather difficult to investigate, much less prove, a rape if you don’t actually know who the victim is.
Somehow this rather elementary fact eluded the OP, and virtually all of those who left the hundreds of comments on the popular post.
Indeed, a host of Men’s Rights Redditors were so convinced of the innate evil of the online form they all had the same bright idea: let’s flood the school with false reports of rape and break the form. Here are some of their comments. (There are more in the thread.) Note the number of upvotes each of these suggestions got. (Click the images to see the comments in context on Reddit.)
While a few commenters stood up to point out that in fact the school will not charge anyone with anything as a result of anonymous information gathered by the form, they were outnumbered by Men’s Rightsers gleefully reporting that they in fact had reported false information. Among them:
![froggymorning 46 points 15 hours ago (59|13) I've already filled one out. permalink source parent save give gold hide child comments [–]Muffinizer1 6 points 7 hours ago (9|4) Was kind of fun. I swear to god though, if they track us down it would be terribly ironic, however it's mildly likely.](https://i0.wp.com/www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/froggy.png?resize=546%2C171&ssl=1)
It’s one thing to criticize an anonymous reporting system because of its potential for abuse; this is something else entirely.
The post has been up for 17 hours at this point, with more than 700 net upvotes, and some of the calls for “breaking” the form have been up for nearly as long. The moderators of Men’s Rights have done nothing to stop their subreddit being used to interfere with a school’s attempt to assist rape survivors — including men.
“Breaking” a school’s rape reporting mechanism is apparently a form of Men’s Rights activism.
BOOM! Sorry, that was just me, lighting a candle rather than cursing the stinky darkness.
Nobody talks to Little Big Man. He does all the talking himself. Having to take a talking-to is MISANDRY!!!
Golly, that’s quaint…nobody does that anymore. These days, they just send in the infiltrators and the flash-bang grenades. Mind you, they do that with legitimate protest movements that actually stand a chance of changing something for the better, not MRAs.
Well, I mean, if rapists were scolded in a sufficiently firm tone they might feel bad, and even feel inhibited next time they’re thinking of raping someone. What kind of evil misandrist culture would be OK with stifling a man’s self-expression in that way?
Soooo. Again, if a person is named, that person is brought to the Dean’s office, informed that they have been named in this report, then given a lecture about how rape is bad, and asked to stop raping if they have been raping, otherwise, nevermind, just go on your merry way. And that is the extent of what they will face. Period. End of story. No one’s going to jail based on these forms. No one is getting placed in some “database.”
What is happening, is these bozo MRA’s are flooding the school with false rape reports, in attempt to break a system put in place to gather information about the extent of sexual violence on campus. MRAs, who believe that false rape accusations is the social problem of our time, making false rape accusations. Who are also spreading misinformation and downright lies about the purpose and use of the online form.
Yup. The Riot Act was passed in 1715 and repealed in 1967. It was for breaking up gatherings of twelve or more people.
MRA gatherings wouldn’t make the numbers to need it.
Not to worry; they’re still covered by drunk and disorderly.
By that token, Jesus and his disciples would have been a riot.
And that Act has been dead for as long as I’ve been alive? Pity.
If someone made a false accusation against me through that anonymous form, I would definitely be upset, but 1) I won’t actually be assumed to have guilt 2) none of this information is allowed to be shared anywhere else and 3) accusers are often assumed to be lying, “crazy”, etc. anyway so I’m not likely to be automatically assumed to be guilty.
The form is merely intended to help the many victims who don’t report to the authorities. Yes, it can be abused. But MRAs and their ilk use the same exact reasoning to argue for difficult standards for convicting rapists; they think that the presumption of innocence is a necessary safeguard against false conviction that can never be abandoned. Arguing against this anonymous report form just because some people can abuse it is exactly the same as arguing against sending rapists to jail because some people are falsely convicted of rape.
And the argument is especially absurd when you consider that, beyond the leniency inherent in this anonymous report system, a false accusation through the anonymous report form can’t possibly be as harmful as an actual false allegation of rape.
Also Creating a Public Nuisance
The Romans thought so!
… Suddenly I have an image of John Cleese as the Centurion standing reading the Riot Act.
Oooh, wouldn’t it be cool if every feckin’ PUA trying his shit on got charged with Creating A Public Nuisance? I know, I know, total fantasy, but I love the idea.
To clarify what I’m saying, compare this:
“We must always respect the presumption of innocence, even if it leads to some assailants getting away with their crimes.”
To this:
“We must allow victims to anonymously report their victimization to the school, even if some people are falsely accused.”
Based on Romer LJ’s judgement In Attorney General v PYA Quarries Ltd. (1957) 2 QB 169
I think it could be argued …
Ah yes, that reminds me…Ayn Rand talked like that, too. And, interestingly, her inspiration was a rape-murderer who “died yellow”.
I just LOVE the Guy Fawkes mask this new hemorrhoid is using. REVOLUTION! Using the sign co-opted by Anonymous! Only anonymity gets nothing done because SYSTEMIC ABUSE.
You didn’t think this through very hard, did you?
Disturbing the Peace could definitely be argued. These guys have openly declared their intention to “Fuck Their Shit Up”; just ask Paul Elam.
Ony Her Majesty’s subjects – teach those colonials to go having revolutions. 😉
The joke with using the Guy Fawkes mask is that he was about as much a failure as a revolutionary can be. Didn’t blow up Parliament, was captured and tortured and suffered a horrific execution. Catholics in Britain not only weren’t restored to power or helped in any way, they had centuries more of persecution in store.
Yeah, really encouraging image to use. (I know it comes from V for Vendetta in the short term, but Fawkes? Really?)
OTOH, the smugness of the facial expression on the mask seems appropriate.
It looks like he overdid the moustache wax and now can’t lose the rictus grin.
Ah, but see, Kittehs, people STILL burn Fawkes in effigy to this very day, PROVING that he spread his revolutionary word and has many followers! Just like the MRM. Or something.
“You could say MRAs gaslight themselves. The gas in their cases being of the intestinal variety.”
Ok, having a gaslighting ex, can we not treat it as a joke? I mean, I totally get you were just going for a chance to make a fart joke at the expense of MRAs, but yeah.
Of course, being in one of those revolution having colonies, all I have to say is PFFFFBBBBT!!
Of course, nobody in a Guy Fawkes mask has a fucking clue who he was or why we’re remembering him, or even whether we’re supposed to be remembering him in a good way or a bad way.
Sorry, Argenti. Intent fail – I wasn’t tryilng to trivialise gaslighting, I meant it in the sense of them lying to themselves, following the “delusional” conversation. The fart joke was tangential. Won’t do it again.
I finally finished GWW’s typically overly long and off-point comment on the Business Insider article. GWW sure loves anecdotal evidence, everything she writes starts with some half-remembered random Canadian news story that she uses to lay the groundwork for one of her grand theories about male suffering and female supremacy. Someone should hip her to the fact that “a case in Nova Scotia” doesn’t exactly have global implications.
I’d like point out that she doesn’t discuss the Occidental College story or rape in general until the 10th paragraph of her post. FYI, she’s against online form because having reporting a rape anonymously gives “women victims a deceptive band-aid”, when they should be morally upright and report it to the police. So, she blames “women victims” for letting men get away with rape and ignores the existence of “men victims” entirely. She’s a gem.
@Titan blue
Eh. eh.
First of all, I wanna be clear here.. I think his story was false in some manner.. either he made it up, Or he embellished details to make himself look good, Or he outright lied about what happened Or he let his own world-view color his perspective of the event to make him look like the good guy. We on the same page there?
That all being said, I Still think you read too much between the lines from a paragraph long comment, and in particular,The assumption that the ‘psycho girlfriend’ simply walking into the living room with the weapon is her trying to get away from him. It could be her trying to take his property, or make a point about her potency in the situation, Assumign she really was the problematic abuser in this situation.(Though I digress, I probably give too much credit to him. the story is probably complete bs.)
However, you are right that his story falls apart after this point, and I do give you credit. I had kind of failed to note that, even within his context, she called the cops first.. which means that either he is spouting the usual ‘false accusations’ crap MRA love to pretend is an epidemic, Or she WAS trying to get out of a situation. So you got me there. And you are right of course.. Red flags are a natural, especially if his story IS a real event, since if it has ANY resemblance to reality, then more likely then not, he was just all around a horrible person making many many many worse decisions, considering how poorly his story seems to stand up under any level of scrutiny.
Also, Id like to apologize. I hadn’t meant to sound like I was saying you WERE biased, just that it felt too close for my comfort, Though the difference isn’t comforting I suppose.
Also, I guess this is what I meant when I say I have a bad habit of empathizing, even with those who don’t necessarily deserve it. Here I am, arguing from the theoretical standpoint of a probably whole cloth fabrication, even if I point out how utterly unconvinced I am of its truth.
I should probably stick to mocking MRA. lel.
@gaslighting conversation
Also, Gaslighting has got to be one of the worst things that can happen. I have never experienced it personally. Closest I have to experiencing gas-lighting is just the cultural sort of general confidence undermining, and that can be bad enough. ((“Girls are emotional and get craaazy! so don’t argue with them!” Made it hard for a long time to even state an opinion. How much worse would it be if I was the specific target?))
@Argenti
She, usually.(though I do have occasional ze moments) And if you did your usual introduction, I probably missed it, for whatever reason, since I don’t recall this. nice to meet you either way!
Also, good info on the gun stuff. honestly, I don’t know much of anything about them, and I try to stay faaar from them. So I guess thats yet another potental failing in this already hole filled story.
@Bina
It seems like I was using the word ‘delusions’ properly, but only from a certain context. Still, It borders too close to being insensitive, so I will avoid using it. (I do find it interesting however, how well the MRA movement fits that particular Word, or atleast the half they manage to be closer to.)