Following a spate of gang rapes in India in the past several months, the Times Of India newspaper is running quarter-page ads imploring men to treat women with respect through the stark statement, “The true test of your manhood is how you treat a woman. All women. Any woman. Every woman.” I’m pleased the newspaper is questioning traditional aspects of toxic masculinity, like “rash driving” and “drunken brawls,” which some men do think defines their manhood. Yet I also think their conclusion about proving your manhood by behaving a certain way (even if it’s the right way) is problematic: “If you do not respect women, you are only half a man.” That’s the flip side of the same thinking that says guys aren’t manly if they don’t want sex all the time. Just like sexist expectations of femininity can imprison women, sexist expectations can imprison men, too. I’m all for eradicating rape culture everywhere. But the answer isn’t to tell men to act like “real men,” it’s to tell them to act like good human beings. [Our Mobile World]
Tag Archives: rape
Dude Politician Advises Against Walking Home In “Tight, Short Skirt And High Shoes”
- British politician Richard Graham, the Gloucester MP, is in trubs after he shared some safety tips for women with his local newspaper that toed the line between common sense and victim blaming: ”If you are a young woman on her own trying to walk back home through Gloucester Park, early in the morning in a tight, short skirt and high shoes and there’s a predator and if you are blind drunk and wearing those clothes how are you able to get away.” In a post on his own blog, Graham wrote, “I stick by these words,” but said he was trying to emphasize risks to women. Just last week, the British actress Joanna Lumley from “Ab Fab” made similar comments, warning women to “behave properly.” [BuzzFeed via This Is Gloucestershire]
- Egyptian protesters have been holding forth in Tahrir Square all weekend and at least 25 women have been sexually assaulted, including being stripped naked or raped. [Guardian UK]
- Ex-Feministing blogger Ann Friedman takes on the revival of the word “lady.” [New Republic] Keep reading »
Joanna Lumley From “Ab Fab” Warns Women: “Don’t Look Like Trash, Don’t Get Drunk”
Drunk Is A Feminist Issue
Why women everywhere should be concerned about binge-drinking. Read More »
“Don’t look like trash, don’t get drunk, don’t be sick down your front, don’t break your heels and stagger about in the wrong clothes at midnight. This is bad. It’s not me being a snob about it. It’s not me being an old woman talking to young women, its just standard practice for how our species should behave. Don’t behave badly. … I promise you it is better to look after yourself properly, which means behave properly, be polite, be on time, dress properly – I don’t mean dully – but don’t be sick in the gutter at midnight in a silly dress with no money to get a taxi home, because somebody will take advantage of you, either they’ll rape you, or they’ll knock you on the head or they’ll rob you. … I am now an old lioness, if I see my young ones getting out of order, I’ve got to be able to say to them this is not how lions behave. This is not right.”
– Here’s Joanna Lumley, who plays Patsy on “Absolutely Fabulous,” making comments to the UK’s Telegraph that have infuriated a lot of folks for victim-blaming. Newsflash, Joanna: women still get raped if they “behave properly” and “dress properly.” Believe me, I understand the concerns about young women and binge drinking — but these comments are pretty gross for all the “don’ts” they place on women alone. The problem is the robbers and the rapists, not women who dare to get drunk or wear a “silly dress.” [Telegraph UK]
New Mexico Lawmaker Introduces Bill Requiring Rape Victims To Carry Pregnancies Full-Term
A pregnancy resulting from rape or incest is evidence and having an abortion is “tampering with evidence,” according to a new bill introduced yesterday in New Mexico which would legally require a rape victim to carry a fetus to term.
Presumably Rep. Cathrynn Brown, a Republican, will also criminalize tampering with evidence by taking a shower after a rape, too? Keep reading »
UFC, FOX Pressured To Drop Quinton “Rampage” Jackson From Fight Over His YouTube Video About Attempted Rape
On January 26, FOX is set to air an Ultimate Fighting Championship fight with MMA fighter Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, who last April posted a video on the YouTube channel for FilmOn in which he jokingly attempted to rape a woman. He in the video, he advises viewers to use choloroform to “help her relax” and suggests purchasing zip ties. Also in the video, Jackson says he hopes the woman he attempts to rape “got low self-esteem.” A clip from the video shows Jackson dressed in all black, sneaking up behind a woman with her back turned while she’s opening her car door. Worst of all, this video is entitled “How To Pick Up A Gurl … Fast.”
Let me remind you again: FOX and UFC want to put this guy on TV.
Notre Dame Finds Fake Dead Woman Easier To Talk About Than Real Dead Woman
As many have noted, the mass hysteria over Notre Dame football star Manti Te’o’s fake, dead girlfriend makes now a good time to remember Lizzy Seeberg, the real woman who committed suicide after reporting her sexual assault by another Notre Dame player in 2010. Speaking with Melinda Henneberger, who covered the case for the National Catholic Reporter, Seeberg’s parents, friends, and therapist suggested that Seeberg, then a 19-year-old freshman, would still be alive today had she not been intimidated by the accused’s teammates for “messing” with Notre Dame football. Read more…
Man Tattoos An Underage Girl’s Vagina, Faces Rape Charges
Topping the list of things that are wildly inappropriate for a grown man to give a girl for her 15th birthday: a tattoo of his name on her vagina. Thirty-year-old Matthew Abram Rader of Oregon is facing charges of 3rd degree rape, sodomy and second degree online corruption of a minor. In Oregon, sex with a minor under the age of 16 is considered 3rd degree rape. I’m not sure what charge the vagina tattoo constitutes.
The victim, whose identity is being withheld, informed police that Rader had given her three tattoos: a butterfly with a skull on her neck, a clover, and his name “near her vagina” as a birthday gift. Authorities believe that two had a sexual relationship, beginning when the girl was 14, based on explicit messages and requests for nude photos, which were uncovered during an ongoing Facebook investigation. Keep reading »
Indonesian Judge Says “In A Rape Case Both The Rapist And The Victim Enjoy It”
Well, here’s an offensive and insensitive comment about rape victims that truly takes the cake.
An Indonesian judge who is a candidate for the Indonesian Supreme Court was asked whether the death penalty was a fitting punishment for rape. Here is how Muhammad Daming Sanusi answered the question, according to CNN:
“Consideration needs to be taken thoroughly for the imposition of death penalty for a rapist because in a rape case both the rapist and the victim enjoy it.”
Men In Bangalore, India, Protest Spate Of Rapes — In Skirts
Fed up with the idea that women are somehow inviting rape by wearing “immodest” clothing, a group of men in Bangalore, India, have taken to wearing skirts in protest. Their protest comes right after the recent gang rape and brutal beating death of Jyoti Singh Pandey, and the men wanted to show solidarity. The protesters are also wearing signs that say “teach your sons not to rape” and “men, don’t skirt the issue — speak up, support women.”
“The point of this protest isn’t to rally or shout slogans, but rather show how wearing a skirt is just normal and that a piece of clothing cannot invite rape,” said Samarpita Samaddar, one of the protest’s organizers. After weeks of nothing but horrible news coming from India, it’s inspiring to hear these men stand up for women. [CNN]
New Sensitivity Training Helps GOP Understand That Rape = Bad
"Legitimate Rape" Song
Find out if you've been raped according to Todd Akin with this song. Read More »
It’s been an abysmal few months for women, thanks to the many, many members of the Republican party insisting on allowing comments about rape to pour out of their faceholes. Every other day during election season, there’d be some guy from Missouri or Indiana or Pennsylvania (that’s Todd Akin, Richard Mourdock, and Rick Santorum, to be clear) trying to explain why a woman who was physically and emotionally violated wasn’t as important as the unborn child she might be carrying. There was Iowa Representative Steve King, who said that he had never “personally” heard of a woman getting pregnant from rape or incest. And Washington Representative Steve Koster, who famously said:
“Incest is so rare, I mean, it’s so rare…But the rape thing– you know, I know a woman who was raped and kept the child, gave it up for adoption, and she doesn’t regret it. On the rape thing, it’s like, how does putting more violence onto a woman’s body and taking the life of an innocent child that’s a consequence of this crime—how does that make it better? You know what I mean?”
It appears that yes, the Republican party has a rape problem, and can’t even follow Mitt Romney’s campaign directive: “If you’re about to talk about rape as anything other than a brutal and horrible crime, stop.” So, they’ve brought in an organization to give them rape sensitivity training! Keep reading »
