In his must-read GQ story on A Voice for Men’s conference last summer, Jeff Sharlet detailed an unsettling encounter between his friend Blair and AVFM’s “collegiate activism director” Sage Gerard, who, Blair told Sharlet, crudely propositioned her and gave her “the most unconsensual hug I have ever known.” (I wrote about it here.)
Now Gerard has offered a rebuttal of sorts to Sharlet’s article and, well, it’s nearly as creepy as the incident itself. Gerard admits that he was indeed flirting with her and that, yes, “[m]y talking to her included a reassuring knee pat and a hug.”
He also claims that Blair was literally hired by GQ in order to flirt with men at the conference and lure one or more of them into raping her.
Gerard starts off by declaring, with no evidence whatsoever, that Blair was a “plant hired specifically to flirt with men and get GQ a story.”
Then his accusations get even uglier:
Blair’s job was to get raped.
Jeff [Sharlet] wanted that to happen, not MHRAs [Men’s Human Rights Activists]. Blair would play Seven Minutes in Heaven if it got Jeff a rape story. She was there to confirm a presumption that MHRAs, MGTOWs or other red-pill folk are incapable of self-control and are ready to rape at a moment’s notice.
Happily for Gerard, he writes, he was able to see through this subterfuge in time, I guess, to keep from raping her.
Unfortunately for Jeff, I have an ability to detect manipulation, and I do not think with my dick. He calibrated his bear trap to clamp shut on a hug-trigger, which meant he could try to make me look like a pervert even with totally appropriate physical contact. Since he was obviously desperate to catch prey, his trap misfired and merely ripped my jeans without biting me to a standstill. Having narrowly evaded pseudo-journalistic “capture,” I can easily show you that Blair was, indeed, a trap.
He then proceeds to “show us” absolutely nothing that backs up this accusation. After briefly describing his conversation with Blair, which (aside from the “reassuring knee pat” and unconsensual hug) dealt with a friend of Blair’s who claims he’s been falsely accused of rape, he wrote.
I never intend to sleep with strangers, but Jeff framed this interaction as me using Blair’s pain as an excuse to eat her out.
I have no idea where that last bit came from either.
He follows this with a bunch of rape jokes I won’t bother to quote.
I’m not quite sure how Gerard expects that writing this creepy-as-hell post will somehow make him seem like less of a creep.
Bruce H – I think it’s related to other-blaming. As in, the dudebro who wonders why all his girlfriends ‘go psycho’ after a while – why are they all like that? The idea that the common factor is him is too threatening to conceive, much less articulate.
@Bruce H:
I think chances are very high that Sage thinks it is unspeakably unfair for anyone to label him “creepy” for what he did—but I don’t think that he is blissfully unaware of his own creepiness. I think he knows full well that his actions can/probably will creep people out (hence the “I hope it’s okay if” and “I’m sorry for”, even though he never gave her a chance to object). But I think he just feels entitled to not being called creepy.
In other words, he has decided that because he is just practicing Game, what he does somehow shouldn’t qualify as creepy. If a woman is uncomfortable with that, that’s her fault. If she calls him out, she’s mean. Because to him, “creepy” only gets to be defined by the self-proclaimed motives of the creeper, not by the feelings of the person being creeped-out.
He doesn’t think he never comes across as creepy. He just thinks everyone else should redefine creepiness to exclude his behavior.
I really like your blog and I’m glad someone is standing up to MRAs etc. but would appreciate it if you didn’t flippantly use the word r*** in your headlines and blog posts. Really the words “sexual assault” gets the point across without being exploitative and clickbait-y. Thanks.
How is it “clickbait-y” to quote someone’s actual words?
What? How are we supposed to talk about rape and rape apologia without using the word? I get that it could trigger some people, but it says right at the top of the page that this isn’t a safe space. We can’t really talk about the awful things they say without quoting those awful things.
I don’t agree that ‘sexual assault’ works just as well. Sexual assault could mean groping. Rape is unambiguous.
Rape is sexual assault. Don’t try to downplay that. It’s a hideous thing to do. It isn’t David who is lacking in ethics here. It’s you.
I’m reminded of mainstream media calling rape “non-consensual sex”.
I’m sorry my comment implied sexual assault wasn’t as serious or wasn’t as bad as rape. I’m don’t know what I was thinking.
Just jumped in to add, in some (United) states the legal definitions of rape and sexual assault are interchangeable, and in some states it’s different.
For example in Texas all forms of rape are classified under sexual assault: https://apps.rainn.org/policy-crime-definitions/index.cfm?state=Texas&group=3
Whereas in Idaho they have separate categories for female rape, male rape, and rape of spouse…but none for sexual assault: https://apps.rainn.org/policy-crime-definitions/index.cfm?state=Idaho&group=3
You can go to https://rainn.org/statelaws and look up each way every state defines rape and sexual assault.
In Georgia male rape is only listed under “sodomy/aggravated sodomy”. In New York, all of the language is gender neutral.
It was quite the revelation for me when I discovered it. It’s no wonder America has such trouble with progressive, anti-rape dialogue. We’re not even using the same language or working off the same definitions.