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I thought I’d seen every variety of rape apologism known to humankind. But this is a new one for me: Fantasy author and garbage human Vox Day (aka Theodore Beale) has decided that all claims of rape directed at white guys are suspect because … white guys don’t rape.
No, really. That’s his actual argument:
White American men simply don’t rape these days. At this point, unless a womann claims it was committed by a black or Hispanic man she didn’t previously know, all claims of rape, especially by a college woman, have to be considered intrinsically suspect.
His, er, source for these claims? A post from the website Women For Men — founded by familiar names Suzanne Venker, Helen Smith and Christina Hoff Sommers — about a video of unknown provenance of a shouting match that involves a white woman accusing a presumably white man of rape. (There are no details on the alleged incident, and it’s not clear from watching the almost literally unbelievable video what exactly happened or if the video is even real.) Needless to say, even if the video is 100% real it doesn’t actually provide anything even remotely approaching evidence for Vox’s racist claims.
Which isn’t surprising given that they aren’t, you know, true. When it comes to rape, of course, whites and blacks are overwhelmingly — roughly 8 out of 10 times — victimized by members of their own race. And in most cases, as is well-known, rapes are committed by people the victim knows, not the proverbial man hiding in the bushes.
Vox continues on, pulling more “facts” from his posterior:
No one believes that women don’t lie about rape anymore. Even the average feminist is now rolling her eyes when a college woman comes forward and cries rape. This was the inevitable result of creating St. Rape Victim, now every attention-seeking young woman wants to have been raped.
One of Vox’s commenters puts the cherry on this shit sundae:
It’s a sad state of affairs when women have to resort to these tactics to get attention. And even more sad state when they are the ones who put themselves there in the first place by embracing everything that makes them unattractive to men.
Back when Vox was expelled from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, you may recall, he purported to be outraged that people were calling him racist.
I’m so sorry bina and M. the Social Justice Ranger that happened to you. Hugs and kisses if you want them.
I made this awhile ago it’s not perfect but it was pretty fun to make I hope everyone enjoys it.
http://imgur.com/6qJ9YhV
This is pretty much my reaction and I’m glad that it didn’t take up a whole page
Fruitloopsie, thanks! Gratefully accepted. And I love the ragecomic, too.
Honestly, minus the sarcasm tag, this IS how they really think.
They are beyond repair.
Turning into a smiling rainbow kitty at the end is perfect, fruitloopsie. 😀
Perfect, fruitloopsie! 😀
I have nothing to say except that I hope this racist, homophobic, rape apologizing child murder advocate gets eaten by a mountain lion in the near future.
Pack of Spotted Hyena’s would be good too, and possibly a more poetic fate.
I wouldn’t wish such an inevitably terrible case of indigestion on a beautiful mountain lion, but a pack of spotted hyenas could probably handle it.
Hyenas are too good for him. I propose the All-Powerful Sarlacc.
Hyaenas would be perfect, considering that they’re a truly matriarchal society.
… and reputedly they have very strong stomachs, which would be requirement #1.
In a way Johnny Bravo was the most realistic pick up artist ever, he was a moron and it hardly ever worked.
I’ve always been curious about the stereotype that Roma or any other group can curse people, surely if anyone could do that they wouldn’t put up with the shit we heap on them. Of course racism never makes sense.
Turkey vultures are really good at that stuff.
@Zolnier: I think a big part of it is that over the last century and a half or so science has been able to explain a great many things that were mysteries before them. People — or animals — sickened and died without any comprehensible reason, storms suddenly appeared with howling winds and lightning and thunder, and nobody understood why. In that situation curses and such were as plausible explanations as any that could be come up with. Hatred is a powerful emotion and it is not totally irrational to believe that someone who hates you might be able to do you harm. We are still dealing with the vestiges of beliefs that have been disproved but never totally eradicated.
If you want evidence of the process, just look at all the theories that developed about the missing Malaysian airliner.
What we don’t understand we fear. When we fear we look for a culprit.
@Zolnier
THIS.
Have you seen the new series, Constantine? I’ve watched it, and enjoyed it, but twice now (that is to say, two episodes), he’s made these assumptions about g*psy magic, and specifically uses the term g*psy, too, and talks about how powerful their magic is, and all that, and I just want to slap the guy.
I didn’t always know it was a slur. In fact, I only found out it was a slur during the past year. I now have some serious re-writing to do, because of it, although now it brings the term “g*psy-mazed” (used as an insult) into even sharper relief for me, so it’s a positive thing for me. My characters will react differently to being called that, than they did before, and it will change several things.
For that reason, this has really struck me hard, and I see that show, and just… It really bugs me. I guess, I see my “baby” being denigrated and slurred on-screen by this guy, so when he’s talking about some character on the show, I’m thinking about my heroine and her family. And yes, if they *could* curse the people who hurt them, they wouldn’t be living in the conditions they have to endure.
Incidentally, my favorite curse that I would very much like to inflict on a few people is to make them perfectly healthy and long-lived, and quite fat. And no matter what they do, the weight stays put. But they are PERFECTLY HEALTHY. In fact, this curse of mine would cure any diseases they already had.
And like Cassandra of old, no one would believe them.
BWAHAHAHAAAAAA!
Yes, I’m evil.
I maintain that that title goes to Harold Lloyd in Girl Shy. He’s afraid to talk to women but he wrote a seduction manual about all his imaginary love affairs.
@Michelle C Young
Sounds like Bizarro Thinner.
@Grumpyoldman
This reminds me of the witch-hunts in Germany. There were, in fact, entire towns where every woman was killed as a witch. Much worse than Salem, but for some reason, not as publicized.
Now, in Germany, there is a particular weather event (Foen – I’m not quite sure of the spelling, but that was how the word sounded to me, when I heard it) which happens from time to time, that has some interesting effects. The air comes over the mountains in such a way that it changes the barometric pressure quite a lot. The air is much clearer, and you can see for miles. It’s absolutely beautiful. It’s not just that you can see for miles. Things very far away look much closer. I remember seeing the flowers in the window-boxes of houses that were ten miles away, and it looked like they were only a block or so away. So amazingly beautiful! And the mountains! In Muenchen, in the suburbs, I couldn’t even see the mountains on most days, but during Foen, it looked as if the alps had been teleported right into the heart of downtown.
However, during this beautiful clear weather, people get loads more headaches, suicide rates skyrocket, and surgeons have learned that it’s best not to operate unless it’s literally life or death. Also, insurance companies tend to simply pay the claim, if it happened during this weather event, because there is so much that is so inexplicable. Add in a full moon, and you’ve got all sorts of messed up stuff happening.
I only experienced a few times, but yes, it was weird. Everyone acted juuuust a bit out of their normal character. And did I mention the headaches?
Imagine, if you will, that the majority of the population were having their period at the same time. That was my experience with Foen. LOTS of crankiness, lots of people trying to push down the pain, and lots of people thinking “WHY? Why do I feel this way? It’s not FAIR! It’s not RATIONAL!” which just makes it all worse, somehow. You can’t fix it. You just have to wait it out.
Once upon a time, they probably blamed witches. Now, (OK, 20 years ago) they blame the weather. Some people have theories about why the weather affects people the way it does. I’m not sure how many of those theories hold any water. But one this is for sure. In that region, the people have at least noticed the timing, and said that, even if they cannot explain the why of it, they can recognize the fact of it – Stuff HAPPENS during Foen. They could look to blame it on someone/something, or they can just accept that it is what it is, and deal with it.
I’m so glad they chose to deal with it, instead of witch-hunt.
I have heard there’s a similar thing in California. Santa Ana winds, or something like that.
Has anyone else had any experience of something like that? Something that we see as a natural event, although possibly unable to explain the reasoning behind the effects, but that historically led to actually people being blamed?
Mind you, I’m no historian, and I cannot definitively state that the German witch hunts had anything to do with Foen. It’s just my pet-theory, because I have to blame something, and I’d rather blame the weather.
This phenomenon happens just about wherever there are mountains — as an air mass passes over mountains, it loses a lot of its moisture, so that it comes down the lee side of the range much drier and warmer. It is usually spelled “foehn” when used in English text. In the Rockies and northward it is called Chinook; the Santa Ana is somewhat similar but has a different process, since it originates in a desert rather than a moist coastal area.
A lot of feminist scholars believe that the anti-witch slaughters were at least in part the result of an attempt to drive out older native pre-Christian religions (today often called Wicca), in many of which women were much more powerful than in Christianity. It sounds like it could well have been that way, but I can’t vouch for it.
@Katz – Thanks for that video! Loved it!
You know, those old silent movies had some real gems.
Have y’all seen Buster Keaton’s “The General”? It is hysterical! I showed it to my niece and nephew (a pre-teen and child, at the time), and they loved it. I had to read the dialogue cards aloud for them, and it took them about five minutes to get used to that, and then, it was just a great time, laughing.
@Zolnier – is that the movie where the fat man offended a Roma woman, and she cursed him to become thinner and thinner and thinner? I saw previews, but never saw the movie. I’m afraid, though, that he couldn’t survive for very long. Eventually, he’d be too thin to live.
My curse would make him fat (not progressively fatter, just pick-a-large-size and stay there, fat -probably BMI 40-45), and he’d stay that way for the rest of a very long, healthy, and annoying life. And he’d have to deal with people throwing their fat-hatred at him, and food-policing him, and telling him to exercise, then *while* he’s exercising, telling him to exercise, but also telling him that they don’t want to seeeeee that, and get off the treadmill, that’s for “fit” people, and he should exercise at home, with the curtains drawn, and then give him a trial gym membership as a Secret Santa gift, because they are “concerned” for his health, and since they don’t seeeeee him exercising, they don’t believe that he actually does exercise. Also, he’s clearly lying in his food journal, or sleep-eating or something.
Holiday meals and parties would be particularly fun. “Now, sweetheart, you don’t need those mashed potatoes. Aunt Verna made some lovely celery sticks, just for you! Isn’t that sweet of her?” or “I love this time of year! There are treats in the break room every day! Mallory brought in some delicious Christmas cookies today! Dude. Don’t go in there. You don’t need it.”
I say, “He,” but there are definitely a few “mean girls,” on my list. Mostly men, though.
“A lot of feminist scholars believe that the anti-witch slaughters were at least in part the result of an attempt to drive out older native pre-Christian religions (today often called Wicca), in many of which women were much more powerful than in Christianity. It sounds like it could well have been that way, but I can’t vouch for it.”
That’s mostly considered to be pseudohistory today. The biggest witch hunts were in the 1500s/1600s and by that point there isn’t much evidence there were any pagans still around. Plus most of the Pagan religions from Europe that we do have written records for don’t really seem to be more woman friendly then Christianity either (Zeus for example was a serial rapist).
Speaking of pagan religions and women, interestingly enough many of Hera’s worshipers were mistresses and prostitutes. You may remember that Hera is most famous for killing Zeus’ lovers/rape victims and their children. What’s likely is that there were other stories where Hera showed kindness to women in those situations that haven’t survived into the present.
As for witch hunts, many of them were more thinly veiled attempts to acquire the victim’s property rather than the result of genuine fear.
And that is devious Young. Personally if I had magic powers I’d just become a superhero, or villain depending on the mood.
I am a fan of a curse one of my friends mentioned a long time ago; “May all doors you attempt to close always remain just slightly ajar! May your IKEA furniture lack precisely one neccesary bolt! A slight, persistent draft upon your House!”
Incidentally, Finnish uses “föhn” colloquially for hairdryer. This usage very likely originated in German.
It’s interesting to see everything you’ve written about the effects of the foehn, Michelle, because Chinooks don’t have any of the same negative associations for us except for the headaches — migraines, really. Perhaps any ill effect on mood is counterbalanced by our joy at getting a reprieve from the harshness of winter.
Boyfriend and I were in Orlando last week (Harry Potter says hi!) and a Chinook came in so strong back home in Alberta, Canada that it was warmer there one day than it was in Florida. We laughed.