Tag / rape culture

by Cicci

“These boys are exactly what they’ve been raised to be: rapists.”

More Steubenville and more rape culture.

This is an especially great video from a man about what we as a society need to teach young men.Because blame should always be placed where it belongs, with the rapist, not the victim. But we can’t act like all rapists are gun-wielding mad men who assault women in parks, because almost none of them are. But boys and men today aren’t taught that it’s unacceptable to touch, have sex with or shout at someone just because you feel like it. They’re taught it’s ok and what they should be doing to be “manly”.  And however hard it is for me to admit this, we cannot teach young men that they’re entitled to women’s bodies and then start yelling loudly when they act on that, because they simply didn’t know better. We need to act much, much earlier than that by teaching everyone, boys and girls, about their right to their own bodies, and the fact that you never, ever have a right to someone else’s body, unless they consent.

This is why sex ed is so important, y’all.

Now go watch the video:

by Cicci

“Among American women, 1 of 8 will be diagnosed with breast cancer; 1 of 4 will be sexually assaulted.”

In light of the Steubenville rape case and the brutal gang rape in New Dehli, Washington Post published the following picture:

rapist_visualization_01

Source: Washington Post

As usual when one tries to discuss rape, there is always a large cry of “won’t somebody think of the poor men, falsely accused by witchy women?”
Can we end that myth now, please?

Edit: The graph is originally from The Enliven Project.

(On a completely different note: the title quotes will from now on (or last post, I think) be the first tag in each post.)

by Cicci

“I find it hard to believe many little girls grow up wanting to shoot people.”

Dear Lord…
I’m sorry, but there are a lot of idiots in the world.

Like Thomas Pascoe who blogs for the Telegraph.

He wrote a post today called “Sweden’s insane anti-discrimination laws have created a generation of lost women” so I’m sure you can tell what kind of man he is… (*cough* sexist bastard *cough*) and in the post he gives us lovely lines such as:

the result of stripping women of their social roles as mothers has not been the development of a new balance in society which still respects women, but rather a sexual nihilism with which most women are instinctively uncomfortable

and

we see a rise of a tits-and-ass culture that emphasises the physical because there is nothing else left

and my personal favorite:

No boy grows up dreaming of being a princess. I find it hard to believe many little girls grow up wanting to shoot people.

And why, you ask, did he write this blogpost?

Because he’s upset that Toys R Us’ Christmas catalouge is gender-netural this year. In it, little boys occasionally push stollers and little girls play with toolkits. Gasp, sigh and the world is obviously ending.
Not only does Pascoe seem to lack any sort of analysis capabilities or abilities to look at broader social movements, he is also abysmally bad at statistics.

He claims, for example:

Women face the highest rate of rape in Europe and a high rate of domestic violence

But he doesn’t stop to think about what he’s actually saying. In fact,  Sweden has a much broader definition of rape than most countries, since a law change in 2005. Immediately afterwards, rape statistics increased.

He also seems unaware of the fact that 75-95% of rapes are not reported to the police, either due to fear of reprisal or because of shame. One reason that more rapes are reported in Sweden might simply be because of those “insane discrimination laws” making it easier for women to escape the social stigma of rape, and actually daring to report the rapist.

But apparently, women in Thomas Pascoe’s world are empty, meaningless shells because society has taken the mother role from them and little boys grow up wanting to shoot people.

I think I’ll stay in my world, thanks.