“We’ve constructed seemingly infinite incentives for victims to keep silent (you drank too much, you wore too little, you’ll destroy the family, you’ll ruin the fun, your entire sexual history will be dredged and questioned and vivisected … in front of your grandma) and pretty much no compelling reasons to report, nor functional support systems in the aftermath.”
I’ve just posted at Feministe about the latest developments in the skeptosphere’s Deep Rifts TM. For those who’d rather discuss the ongoing cyberstorm that began with Elevatorgate here, this is the thread for you. Links to other people’s posts especially welcome.
[Content Note: discussion of graphic rape threats and links to posts that quote them]
the way you personally feel about rape threats is irrelevant. What’s relevant is how you behave when they happen. When you support and promote the work of someone who makes rape threats, you are tolerating rape threats.
From today’s West Australian: School bans sex victim from ball … but offender can go: “A private high school has banned a former student from attending its senior school ball because a boy who had sexually assaulted her will be… Read More ›
What do these two pieces of popular culture have in common?
(TW: references to violence (including sexual violence) against women)
As part of following PZ Myer’s account of a campaign against him on campus from the editor(s) of a right-wing student newspaper, I have learnt what chloroform smells like, and it smells like something present in every office and classroom and most private homes.
Then I searched online for a bit more information about chloroform…
Education campaigns dispelling the traditional ignorance perpetuating rape myths that allow rapists to get away with making “commonsense” excuses work. Victim-blaming doesn’t work.
So. $25,000 donated to RAINN by Kickstarter, a new Kickstarter policy banning “seduction guides,” and an apology from Hoinsky along with a commitment to work with anti-violence organizations while rewriting his book.
Not bad!
I don’t know how else to say this: Internet activism matters. The next time someone tries to give you shit for “just blogging” or “just signing petitions,” point them to this and dozens of other examples of small things adding up to make a big difference.
Content note: child rape.
Didion at Feminéma, who has just become my new favourite person, has written a response to comments made by Roman Polanski at a press conference at the Cannes Film Festival, where he continues to be welcome.
When people scoff at the message that we need to teach people not to rape they make the assumption that the lesson goes: “Rape is bad. Don’t do it.” That is not what the lesson looks like. The lesson, once it is adopted, will be that every single person out there, regardless of any defining personal characteristics, is a human being of value, and with a right to make their own decisions about what bodily contact to have with others.
