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.
@LBT: I vote that instead of you going into the corner, we make him sit on the naughty step.
Sam, so you are seriously arguing that two people who are so drunk that they cannot consent to sex because they are too impaired, and neithe one of them want to hav sex at all, those two people are just going to “accidentally” have sex? And then, of course, the woman’s going to “regret” it the next day and “cry rape.” Because women do that all the time, amirite, bro?
Fucking asshole.
We need a kiddy table that we can send people whose attitude towards sex is too immature for their opinions on it to matter to.
It’ll need chairs with potties, too.
They’ll just play with their faeces anyway, instead of doing it metaphorically.
Just read about Dallasapple. I’m sorry she’s so ill. I hope for the best and that we all see her around here again soon. 🙁 She seems like a lovely person.
@sam
Oh, you mean we’re talking about a hypothetical that barely ever happens? barely as in 0.6% of rape allegations (the prhasing on the article, not mine, but don’t know how else to phrase it. :/) And how your attitude affects a much larger number of women, men and non-binary people who have been raped and have been told they were making it up, or that it was just sex they regretted? Are we talking about that? Cuz that’s what we should be talking about.
And man, it’s been a while since I poked the trolls :p I feel like my link-digging up skills are all lost. I used to be so quick at it…
Sam, this is important: http://amptoons.com/blog/2009/09/15/sexual-assault-prevention-tips-guaranteed-to-work/. Just for you, I’ll add a number 11: if you think you might assault or rape someone while drunk, don’t get drunk (you can do this by not drinking or by having your buddy help watch your intake)
RE: Kiwi Girl
we make him sit on the naughty step.
What on EARTH is the naughty step?
RE: auggziliary
Sam, are you going to read anything anyone here wrote before? Because we’ve already addressed this.
Reading the comments is MISANDRY!
That’s really cute, asswipe. Tell that to all the women who’ve ever had their morality questioned because they were drunk (as were their assailants) when a dude raped them. You’ll find them on an awful lot of court dockets.
And the guys typically get off, just so’s you know.
Nynaeve, thank you for letting us know about Lana. Thinking all good thoughts in her direction. Let us know if we can help with donations.
In which Sam apparently thinks he’s the first person to come up with these brilliant arguments. Sam, sweetie, don’t bring your tired 101 bullshit into an upper-level discussion. If you want to learn more about the details of drinking and rape, please see pretty much every thread in the universe on which this topic has been discussed, including this one if you’d just bother to scroll up a tad.
“Succeptable”? I kind of like that new word. Not sure what it means though.
Oh no, I’m so sorry to read the news about Lana. I hope she can feel our prayers and thoughts and friendship. We’re all gonna be pulling for her.
Memory lane – back in uni, I went on a date with a likely lad. So long ago that the movie we saw was My Dinner With Andre. In retrospect, not really a date movie. Significant point – afterwards, in my room, I made my move. He looked at me with his big brown eyes and said, “Can’t we just be friends?” I was drunk AND high. So I looked back at him and said, “Well, certainly.”
It’s not all that hard, no matter how hard you happen to be. We did end up as friends, by the way.
@LBT:
Supernanny:
Sending good thoughts for lana/dallasapple and her loved ones. Thanks for letting us know, nynaeve.
http://www.dogshaming.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/shame-stair.jpg
So sad to hear about Lana/DallasApple! I’m sending good thoughts her way.
Thank you so much for posting, nynaeve. Please keep us updated. Probably the best place to post is in the open thread.
http://manboobz.com/2014/02/07/open-thread-for-personal-stuff-february-2014-edition/
Well clearly, if it was a corgi then there would be no need for a naughty step.
I was thinking corgi => cone of shame, but there’s a better name for what trolls should wear:
https://i.chzbgr.com/maxW500/4049970176/h86F1237D/
LOLOLOLOLOLOL at the picture.
Imagine what it must have looked like when Stoopid Kitteh tried to get out! 😀
Emilygoddess:
Kinda amusing OT, but I’ve seen some intellectual types claim, “I read National Geographic for the pictures”, because the articles are supposedly so fluffy. Now imagine if someone was hiding an NG between their Playboy…
Dvärghundspossen, speaking of hypotheticals:
I would think B is equally victim in scenario 1, but A might have diminished responsibility. Also, in scenario 1, everything goes both ways between A and B. (Assuming both parties initiate sex equally, everything else is equal etc.)
I actually think mutual rape is possible as a concept, at least if the definition of “rape” doesn’t require that the offender be in responsible state of mind. Probably it’s not worthwhile to prosecute either in scenario 1, while scenario 2 probably warrants prosecution on A.
And that’s enough academic wankery on my part.
Kittenserf:
Even Maastrichtian, very late Cretaceous! Why, that’s almost 80 million years more advanced than the gender views of Berriasian MRAs from the earliest Cretaceous.
I can propose outlandish scenarios too. What if the man is falling-down drunk and the woman is high on mushrooms? What if the man is being compelled to get the woman drunk by a Venusian mind-control entity, and the woman has the power to transfer the alcohol in the system to the closest person? What if he is actually an hyper-intelligent aubergine?