Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Rape is caused by.....

well, rapists of course, but does that mean everyone puts the blame on them, who happend to be men most of the time? No! We blame women! Now I have unfortunatly have gotten accoustomed to this phenomenon expecting it to occur rather then not, so I may be a little jaded, but the oh so wonderful Dr. Violet Socks pointed out that in this case we should send them an avalanche of angry letters. I agree.

The offensive article (this time) can be found at women's e-news (warning: badly written). The article starts off talking about Ladie's nights and then progresses into the number of date rapes that occur each year. Because those women should not have been out getting drunk at such a young age and after they got the men all riled up with their sexy dancing the men were going to explode if they didn't get to throw the woman over their shoulder and have their caveman way with her. Cavemen don't listen to yes or no, nor do they have the brain power to understand.

Wait a moment, that's not right. Men can understand yes and no, they can dance with someone "erotically" (I take my word choice form the horribly written article), they can decide that someone is too drunk to consent, and they, now this is the big one here, wait for it....theycan choose NOT TO RAPE SOMEONE.

Reread the last paragraph. Don't worry, I'll wait. Finished? Ok.

This woman, Liz Funk, apparently also writes a "feminist" blog (i shit you not, you can find it here.) For someone who read Against Our Will last year she sure did miss a huge point: that no matter how much you've been drinking (or for that matter how old you are) it's not your fault. Does she think that the women are also running around waving their arms in the air screaming rape me? Probably not, but saying that young women getting drunk leads to their rapes is about the same thing. I know plenty of people who have been raped while sober (including me), does she think that this means that women shouldn't be sober? No? Let's go through the list again, using Ms. Funk's strange troll logic to help wipe out rape:

Women are raped while drunk
Answer according to Ms. Funk: Women should stay sober.

Women are raped while sober
Answer according to Ms. Funk: Women should get drunk.

Most women are raped while wearing jeans or pjs.
Answer according to Ms. Funk: Women should not wear those rape inducing jeans or heaven forbid pajamas!

Women are raped by strangers
Answer according to Ms. Funk: Women should know everyone, all 6 billion of us.

Most women are raped by someone they know
Answer according to Ms. Funk: They should hide in their houses and know no one.

Many women are raped in their own home
Answer according to Ms. Funk: They should stay somewhere else.

Women are raped by their husbands
Answer according to Ms. Funk: They should not get married.

Women are raped by people not their husbands
Answer according to Ms. Funk: Women should get married.

Need I go on? This is insane troll logic that girls under 21 getting drunk=rape of said girls. I was drunk and not raped plenty of times when I was under 21. Mostly because the people I would go out with were respectful enough to know that no means no and that a woman being drunk also means no.

I hope it became painfully clear to those of you who aren't regular readers that the only way to stop rape is for the rapists themselves to STOP RAPING. The real answer to not being a target for rape is to not posess ovaries or a vaginal canal. Too bad that is also an unattainable solution. So let's write many many emails to Women's E-news and tell them we don't like this bullshit being published and perpetuating the cycle of victim blaming.

Send emails to editors@womensenews.org. And please note that the problem is Ms. Funk, who according to Amanda and Jill has a history of being a tad iffy on basic feminist understanding (that’s putting it generously). Womens eNews itself appears to be a very worthy publication.*

ONLY RAPISTS CAN STOP RAPE

*This line copied from Dr. Socks.

Read more here, here, and here

Now go write that email.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

good idea, will do. also, if you havent already, id recommend emailing this post to the Truth About Rape campaign people. http://www.truthaboutrape.co.uk/

Anonymous said...

oh yeh, and alyx did a piece recntly on rape myths too. http://www.madsheilamusings.blogspot.com/

all the best
v

sparklematrix said...

Violet has the obligatory....

"Will says:

My reading comprehension must be poor.

I just read the article and I didnt read what you read.

Perhaps you could quote the offensive part of the article"

He just doesn’t get it!


*SCREAM*

Anonymous said...

I didn't get it either. I thought the article was about how the clubs were exploiting young and, presumably, attractive women to draw more male patrons by trying to ensure a higher(and more intoxicated)female to male ratio. Male entitlement of an adequate of choice and willing (again, presumably, or at least not as able to resist, courtesy of the free or discounted alchohol)females. We should be pissed off at the club owners.
LMA

lost clown said...

LMA: I don't know how I can be any clearer with what the problem with the article is. Maybe it's the whole equating drunkenness with rape. I dunno, oh wait: THE WHOLE POST WAS ABOUT THAT!

Anonymous said...

Sometimes I am shocked that a person can be so devoid of common sense is this world. *enter eye roll here*

lost clown said...

taken from Reclusive Leftist:

… In this approximately thousand-word article, the word rape appears three times, and the words murder, homicide, abducted, and disemboweled appear once each. One of the section headers says, ominously, “70,000 Date Rapes a Year.” Those, I guess, are the “barroom risks” of which the article title speaks, as opposed to, say, the people who commit the acts—people who might also be drinking at “ladies’ nights,” in spite of not being ladies. The acts/risks are referenced abstractly, as if they are somehow eternal, like God maybe…

She was abducted and raped and she was found disemboweled in a dumpster, all because she had been drinking to excess and was walking alone while intoxicated. No trace of the person who actually abducted, raped, and murdered her anywhere. He is absent while his crime haunts the article like an menacing specter. Not to put too fine a point on it, but if you’re going to write an article about minimizing the “barroom risk” of assault against women, perhaps you ought to consider actually discussing the assaulters, too.

Anonymous said...

Violet here, just seeing if I can leave a comment as anonymous.

Mithel said...

"...can choose NOT TO RAPE SOMEONE."

Ye Gods, someone must inform the the Patriarchy, our secret is out!

L said...

I can't bring myself to read yet another bullshit victim blaming article arghhh. Let's hope Ms Funk takes some notice of all the emails/letters/sledgehammers around the head.

Christy Forrester said...

I am joining the ranks of voices. THANK YOU FOR THIS BLOG. I was raped last summer. I have started a blog too. Hear is to using our voices to bring awareness and change!!

http://www.anallegoryofthecave.blogspot.com/

lost clown said...

I'm glad that your blog exists, too. Thank you for being so strong.

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