By David Futrelle
In the hands of a skilled obfuscater, academic jargon can make even the most ridiculous arguments seem almost reasonable. When the obfuscater in question isn’t quite so skilled, you get something like this pretentious bit of pseudo-academic bullshit I recently found via a link on the Men’s Rights subreddit.
The post in question, by an anonymous contributor to a blog called “Cultural Analysis & Philosophy,” purports to explain “Why Feminists Enjoy Rape Fantasies.”
As it turns out, the title of the blog post is pretty much the only part of it that is written in clear, comprehensible English. The body of the post is basically a congealed mass of pseudoacademic drivel that seems deliberately designed to obscure just how completely ridiculous its central premise is.
What is that central premise? The author takes a whack at a thesis statement in the first paragraph. After asserting that feminist women are REALLY REALLY into rape fantasies, our anonymous author says that he (or she, but I’m guessing he) will
evaluate the hypothesis that rape fantasies and feminism are causally connected unconscious compensatory responses of the female psyche to the conflict between the Enlightenment ideal of human equality irrespective of gender and the primordial domination/submission schema of sexual reproduction that pervades the animal world (Janicke 2016; Terranova 2016).
In plain English, what the author is suggesting is that women pretty much all want to be dominated, but can’t admit this to themselves because they mostly also purport to believe that men and women are equal. So their deep, dark desires to be dominated slip out in their sexual fantasies.
But the post actually gets much worse than that. The author implies, without every quite saying so explicitly, that female rape fantasies only arose after the advent of feminism, declaring that “[n]o practitioner or researcher has reported such fantasies prior to 1940s.” Never mind that “scientific” sex research is a relatively new phenomenon and that women may have been reticent in talking about these fantasies with dudes in white coats — if these dudes even asked the right questions to begin with
No, as the author sees it, female rape fantasies happen because of the alleged conflict between women’s desire to be dominated and a world in which women aren’t being dominated as much as they secretly need to be. Because of the Enlightenment and all that equality stuff that came along with it.
A plausible explanation could be that the biological predisposition of females to surrender produces rape fantasies only under certain conditions, for example, if a relevant set of biologically conditioned needs of a female are not satisfied in a given social-environment.
It may be hypothesised that the high prevalence of eroticised rape fantasies is the result of cultural changes that originated in the Age of Enlightenment: the idea of universal value of humanity and the essential equality of sexes.
Eventually, after taking the Enlightenment Pill, societies even start to question “the culture of male dominance and aggression,”ultimately leading “to the rapidly declining testosterone levels in the male population.” Which is the polite way of saying that the Enlightenment made the real men who built Western Civilization into a bunch of soyboy cucks.
And so women not only turned to rape fantasies; they also conjured up feminism, not because they wanted more equality but because they wanted less of it. Feminism, the author suggests, is basically a convoluted (and mostly unconscious) strategy to provoke real men into taking charge again.
Naturally, the blog’s author eases us into this incredibly dumb argument slowly, using bland and evasive academic jargon to try to disguise what exactly they’re doing.
The conflict between the conscious ideology of female empowerment and the unconscious libidinal predisposition to select for a dominant sexual partner may have prevented conscious realisation of the problem. On this picture, contemporary feminism could have evolved not because women were excessively dominated but because in some critical respect they were not dominated enough.
So how do these secretly domination-desiring women get the amount of domination they really secretly want? With some “unconscious libidinal provocation.”
In other words:
The female psyche may have driven those women who are the most psychically conflicted about dominance/submission to continuously escalate the feminist rhetoric, making increasingly bold and even unjust demands in order to elicit a corrective response from the opposite sex.
So there you go: our anonymous author is seriously suggesting that feminism pushes ridiculous “and even unjust demands” that are designed to “provoke” men into a backlash that will put women back in their place, which is where they really want to be anyway. Even if feminists are too confused to realize that this is what they’re doing.
After this assertion, the author backs up a little and spurts forth several paragraphs of evasive academic jargon that seem to be designed to give them wiggle room if anyone ever wants to challenge their ridiculous “hypothesis.”
I don’t think they deserve any wiggle room whatsoever. If you’re going to say something this stupid, own it outright, and say it in clear English. No amount of academic jargon is going to make what you said any less ludicrous.
The “Cultural Analysis & Philosophy” blog claims, amazingly, to be an “ideology-free zone” devoted to “objectivity” and “scholarship” and “non-partisan political analysis.” But if you want to see the sort of person that this kind of “philosophy” appeals to, all you need to do is to read the comments — all two of them — that have been left in response to the post so far. One of the commenters simply jokes that they would have expected a post with this title to have gotten more pageviews.
The other, well, let’s just say he doesn’t hide the true nature of his opinions in academic jargon. “I think you’re over shooting,” writes J.
I’ve dated feminists, and all of them had rape kinks, but I think it’s more just an issue of narcissism. Women hate men because men accomplish more than women can. It’s that simple.
Come on, J, tell us what you really think!
Women hate that men are more than them, so they invent fantasies about “glass ceilings” and female oppression to explain why women cannot match men in most fields of human endeavour. And the result is that women learn to enjoy hating and abusing men as a way of compensating for their feelings of inferiority. Those feelings will never abate, since they come from within, not without. Therefore until humanity is willing to be honest about the fact women are not equal to men, the whole thing will go on until we are all completely destroyed.
J may be an altogether reprehensible human being. But at least he’s not trying to disguise his hate in pseudo-academic doubletalk.
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Ninja’d by Rabid Rabbit.
Until a few minutes ago, I sure didn’t know Spencer was married or that he had two kids. The details of his abuse are, like the man himself, stomach-turning.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/talalansari/richard-spencer-divorce-abuse-wife-allegations
Huh, I’d heard that all MRAs secretly hated being part ofa make dominated society, and really just wanted to be lead around on leashes by powerful, confident women. The whole”men’s rights” nonsense is justa way to provoke a corrective reaction from less egalitarian women in order to bring their desire future about.
Something something Oedipal something libidinal rhetoric.
I swear the predictive text on Android has got worse. Not helped by my posts randomly takinga few minutes to appear and so miss the edit window s well.
David this actually came from a right wing Australian ‘magazine’ called Quadrant written by Michael Kowalik.
https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2018/10/feminists-enjoy-rape-fantasies/
@Lisa
The webpage David linked is Kowalik’s own blog. He tends to post his overwrought tripe there first (back in June for this one) and then submit them to various Aussie far-right sites later, or just spam links to it in the comment sections of Rebel Media network sites.
As an Ozzer I apologise for Quadrant, a formerly CIA backed publication…
@Cyborgette
Can’t speak for other people, but I know fine well a lot of my interest in kink comes from being sexually abused. For me, part of it is because it’s a way to process and play out emotions and scenarios in a “safe” environment (with a partner I can trust)
This is why I don’t ever have casual sex. Who knows if you can trust some random. The idea makes me want to hurl (not shaming anyone else’s choices by the way, this is my very personal reaction and I’m well aware casual works for a lot of people)
I know this is a bit off topic, because I’m quite frankly sick of seeing this meme shared on facebook. https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/1182659-did-you-just-assume-my-gender
I do not know who this angry person is, and I think sharing memes of them and taking the piss out of them is harassment, it’s long past being funny. I think it originated on 4chan, but I don’t know the origin of the image or the person’s identity, but I think they are angry about #metoo or Trump or being sexually abused and I don’t think it’s funny. Apparently, its me who has no sense of humour as I don’t think its right to misquote people and share their image without permission.
I suppose as a SJW that makes me fair game.
Rant over :/
@Pie:
Golden Age Etta Candy and the gals from Beta Lambda will be more than happy to oblige:
http://www.hoodedutilitarian.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/beatuppsycho.jpg
@Full Metal Ox:
Please give some context for that image. I’m imagining far too many explanations, and I want to know if my imagination is more or less demented than whoever created that.
@Rabid Rabbit:
Good luck winning a Wackier-Than-Thou contest with William Moulton Marston; this panel comes from Wonder Woman #5. The context is that the Beta Lambda sorority of Holliday College (Wonder Woman’s fan club and Irregulars, run with an iron fist by Etta Candy) have captured Dr. Psycho, a villain using his mesmeric powers in the service of the Amazons’ arch-enemy Mars, and are preparing to deliver him a good old-fashioned paddling.
Marston and his partners (he lived in a polyamorous arrangement; his wife Elizabeth Holloway Marston and their partner Olive Byrne collaborated in the creation of Wonder Woman) firmly believed that The Power Of Love included the power of kink, and one of Marston’s numerous areas of Author Appeal was sorority initiation rituals, particularly when they included BDSM elements:
http://www.hoodedutilitarian.com/2012/05/william-marston-on-sorority-baby-parties/
(Since I couldn’t get this in under the edit wire: I love the title of Marston’s treatise: Emotions of Normal People, anticipating Trekkie Monster’s rallying cry to fans of internet porn in Avenue Q: “HEY, NORMAL PEOPLE!”)
It seems to me that rape fantasies were more common as an outlet for repressed sexual desire in religious conservative society, when it was drilled into women that their sexuality was something to be ashamed of, constructing scenarios where they can explore their lust while circumventing their guilt against actually desiring sex. There are whole books about how the vampire was born out of Victorian repressed eroticism. The taboo around female sexuality still exists to the point many women can’t acheive orgasm due to mental block.
As a sexually uninhibited modern woman who has no qualms or embarrassment about initiating, getting off with or in front of another person, I really have no use for rape fantasies. Heck, I don’t even like my bondage that rough, I’m more about the sensory experience of feathers and whatnot than the psychological aspect of submission. Oddly enough, despite being very sex positive and having a high libido, I don’t seem to really have much use for sexual fantasy at all. I used to have them often when I was inexperienced and sex was mysterious and novel, but those days are long gone.
That is not to say that I don’t have fantasies and desires. I’ve noticed that a strong emotional ride-or-die bond with unrequited sexual and romantic tension is the most common theme in my wistful fantasies and not-so-wet dreams. This rarely plays out to the point of sex or even kissing, and if it does, it’s mutually enthusiastic and intimate. If I had to analyze why that is, I would say it probably stems from a frustration with this modern age where people are operating on a level of being too distracted and busy to accomodate the organic development of a deep connection.
Jordan Peterson talked about this, too. He said the reason Western feminists haven’t spoken up more on behalf of abused women in Muslim-majority countries is because they have an “unconscious wish for brutal male domination.” Wow. And millions of people think this guy is the smartest guy in the world. https://www.resetera.com/threads/jordan-peterson-feminists-support-muslims-because-of-desire-for-brutal-male-domination.18620/
Nothing makes my clitoris flaccid faster than thoughts of being raped.
I have had fantasies about being the rapist.
Tying a man to a chair, blindfolding him, handcuffing him, making his body respond while he has no idea what kind of person is touching him.
But that’s just me!
I have had fantasies about deeply connecting with a particular man or two, but gave those up in favor of the dreams about simply violating them. I don’t need the oxytocin messing with my judgement anyhow.
@jone
Um, what? Am I missing something? Because I’m pretty sure that’s bad. Like, really bad. Like men-aren’t-safe-around-you bad.
Could I get some other people’s opinions, please? I hope I’m just overlooking some context, but… :/
Jone sounds like a possible troll or agent provocateur. Otherwise, I think enjoying rapist fantasies doesn’t necessarily mean you’re a sexual predator, but bringing up those fantasies in this style on a forum like this is bad manner, if not outright comments rule violation.
Anyway, there’s a point that while some women might really have rape victim fantasies, who says some other women don’t have rapist fantasies? These are kinks, not applicable to women generally.
@Lumipuna
The final paragraph of jone’s post definitely did seem a bit trollish…
Hmm…
It never occurred to me a fantasy like that could be acceptable, whatever gender you are. Though, calling a person’s fantasy “unacceptable” is probably its own big issue.
Anyway, thanks for responding. I appreciate it!
If we’re held morally responsible for our sexual fantasies, I’m definitely guilty of thoughtcrime.
So I was probably being very judgmental of other people’s fantasies, wasn’t I?
I’m sorry 🙁
I do think the bringing it up here without a warning part was bad, though.