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antifeminism mansplaining men who should not ever be with women ever misogyny MRA oppressed men playing the victim rape rape culture

James Taranto of the WSJ: Drunk women who are raped may be as guilty as their rapists

James Taranto, saying something annoying
James Taranto, saying something terrible

Wall Street Journal columnist James Taranto is probably the closest thing to an authentic Men’s Rights Activist there is operating in the mainstream media today, by which I mean he regularly puts forth “arguments” on gender issues that are breathtaking in their backwardness.

His latest, er, contribution to the gender debate? A column in which he suggested that drunk women who are raped on college campuses by drunk men are as guilty as their rapists. No, really. Here’s his argument, such as it is:

If two drunk drivers are in a collision, one doesn’t determine fault on the basis of demographic details such as each driver’s sex. But when two drunken college students “collide,” the male one is almost always presumed to be at fault. His diminished capacity owing to alcohol is not a mitigating factor, but her diminished capacity is an aggravating factor for him.

Huh. I’m pretty sure we determine the victim of a rape not on demographics but based on WHICH PERSON RAPED THE OTHER PERSON. Much in the way we would charge a drunken person who shot another drunken person with shooting that person, rather than simply throwing up our hands and saying, well, they were both drunk, so no harm no foul, right?

For a longer take on the issue, check out this piece over on Media Matters.

Media Matters has also assembled a nice, and mercifully rather brief, media montage of some of Taranto’s other pronouncements on gender issues. See if you can make it to the end without pulling out all of your hair.

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Bina
Bina
10 years ago

Pube terror? Is this anything like the panic that allegedly broke out over War of the Worlds? Because that one turned out to be a terror in a teacup…

Ledasmom
Ledasmom
10 years ago

“Tarantosaurus sex”.
Sure. I can see that. “I’d like to give you foreplay, baby, I just can’t reach your clit with my tiny useless forelegs.” Waves said legs, roars.

Kiwi girl
Kiwi girl
10 years ago

Yep, because I would want those teeth anywhere near my genitals.

LBT
LBT
10 years ago

RE: vaiyt

What if the man is being compelled to get the woman drunk by a Venusian mind-control entity,

AAAAAH CHRISTIAN GREY (sorry, in-joke)

RE: Sam

Citation please.

…I don’t even know what you’re wanting a citation FOR. Me being raped, me being male, or me being ignored?

RE: Diogenes

I’ve had sex while blackout drunk.

Had I seen her sober I wouldn’t have done it, but I don’t consider that instance rape.

I am very sorry that happened to you. It should not have happened.

RE: Octo

I’ve never actually seen it applied on the erasure of female-on-male rape, not even by the ethically challenged or the biology knowledge challenged.

I have. My Sexuality professor back in college. He defined rape as being penetrated, and so he figured unless a woman used a foreign object, she COULD NOT rape someone. I tried to call it out, but being a shaky rape survivor who wasn’t in control of my emotions, I lost that argument and he got to think I was just a hysterical little child. So oh, I assure you. It exists.

Also, I think “phallocentric” is one of those terms that give ammunition to those people ridiculing feminism…

Long as you define it so everyone knows what’s being talked about, I don’t see the problem, except as a general issue where jargon and academese infests social-justic talk. And really ‘phallocentric’ is just a drop in the ocean of that shit.

Argenti Aertheri
10 years ago

LBT — “Thomas: Hey, there’s kinky sex, and then there’s MEETING HIS MOM.”

TRUFAX!!

Seriously, if my pharm student can make pecunium’s wedding, THAT’S the part that worries me. Not the wedding, not the hotel chaos, not me dealing with A Those People at his wedding, not it being way to warm in May for a turtleneck and having to deal with visible bruises, nope. It’s my pharm student meeting my parents (and brother!! *pulls hair, gnashes teeth*)

/totally OT randomness

Octo
Octo
10 years ago

@LBT This reminds me that unfortunately, it seems to still be defined this way legally in a lot of jurisdictions as well :/ . It’s still a dicking thing to claim or say for anybody… But anyway, yeah, I admit, you and Ally have a point.

leftwingfox
10 years ago

Long as you define it so everyone knows what’s being talked about, I don’t see the problem, except as a general issue where jargon and academese infests social-justic talk. And really ‘phallocentric’ is just a drop in the ocean of that shit.

Yeah, I ran into that a little while back. My brother and his wife are both academics who are strongly in the academic social justice fields. He started talking about “Eighth-wave feminism” and my response was basically ‘lolwhut’.

LBT
LBT
10 years ago

RE: Argenti

Well, I hadn’t figured out kink back then, but I know that banging my husband was way less scary than introducing him to my folks. And that’s even WITH rape triggers and such holding me down!

RE: leftwingfox

He started talking about “Eighth-wave feminism” and my response was basically ‘lolwhut’.

Uuuuugggggh what the fuck. I don’t understand what it is about folks that they feel the need to make their topics so fucking inaccessible, but I wish they’d stop.

Brooked
Brooked
10 years ago

I noticed LBT slyly linked to the MSTed 50 Shades of Grey at Loony-Brain, which should be read by one and all, because it’s very, very funny. Just a Public Service Announcement.

LBT
LBT
10 years ago

Indeed! And if anyone wants the whole damn thing, here’s the index.

Samantha
Samantha
10 years ago

James Taranto asks whether she wonders why he is not married? Well, I can certainly imagine why no woman would want him…Bleah! What he knows about women would fit, with plenty of room to spare, on the head of a pin. His unsubstantiated and delusional assumptions, on the other hand, would fill the encyclopedia Brittanica.

Just ickiness!

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