How do I know we're have sex tonight? I'm stronger than you.

[6souls]

David Hookstead, a junior majoring in political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, recently penned a letter to the UW-Madison Badger Herald student paper with this provocative headline: "'Rape culture' does not exist."

As the title indicates, in his column, Hookstead makes a case that "rape culture" is a fiction that "aggressively paints men as dangerous and as the root of evil."

While acknowledging he will be criticized for his views, Hookstead begins with the premise that evil and criminal behavior are features of every current and historical society. Rape, like murder, is a horrible thing that people have always done to one another, he argues, yet we don't blame murder on a "murder culture." Therefore, if we're to remain consistent in our judgments, we shouldn't blame rape on a "rape culture."

A glaring problem with Hookstead's argument is that we do, of course, often blame specific murders on a broader murder culture, so there's nothing intellectually or morally problematic about ascribing rape to certain societal norms that should be changed, as people do when they talk about how rape culture plays a role in specific sexual assaults.

But if the flimsiness of his argument isn't bad enough, Hookstead digs a deeper ditch for himself with the way he closes the piece:

A woman drugged a close male friend of mine, who was a superstar athlete, so that she could assault him. There was little outrage, but could you imagine if a superstar athlete drugged a random woman and raped her? It'd be on the national news by morning.

This last part is likely going to blow up my Twitter feed with hate tweets.

It is unfortunate that some women feel the need to exploit anything that may be rape for publicity. Not everything that is claimed to be rape is actually rape, and false accusations only take away from the credibility of real victims.

For example, I've heard many women tell me they regretted having sex with somebody, and that if anybody asked them they'd just lie and say they were too drunk to remember. It's people like them that are huge problems. Why are women so desperate to demonize men that they'll lie about being raped?

Let's focus on those that truly need our help, and let's stop evil people when we can.

As you'd imagine, Hookstead's victim-blaming column went over about as well as the Hindenburg over New Jersey. Here's a sampling of some of the reaction:

Spoiler: show

http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2...youd_think.php
http://badgerherald.com/oped/2013/11...oes-not-exist/

In his defense, he did save a woman from sexual assault (at a great risk to himself)

David Hookstead, the UW-Madison student who penned the controversial "'Rape culture' does not exist" letter to the editor we covered earlier today, has been responding to his critics on Twitter throughout the week.

Suffice it to say that despite the weakness of the argument he tries to advance (see the above article for our critique), Hookstead isn't interested in backtracking. He also apparently believes he's in a uniquely privileged position to opine about rape and rape culture since he (according to him) once actually saved a woman from being sexually assaulted and put himself at risk of great bodily harm while doing so.

In a series of tweets published Monday, Hookstead explains how he once came to a woman's rescue:




With that out of the way, Hookstead turned to defending his letter to the editor from critics, some of whom have called for him to be expelled from UW-Madison.

http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2...om_assault.php

Rhetoric continues;

Spoiler: show

[Blubbartron]

I didn't go to UW-Madison, but I do live nearby. I'm glad he's willing to point out the fallacies and tyranny held by some modern feminists. It's pretty easy to tell which side isn't thinking rationally when they react to the plainly stated and obvious fact that false claims decrease credibility of all victims with "stop blaming victims." It's kind of unfortunate that feminism has slowly morphed from the equality-driven origins into this monstrous "protect all women from all men" movement. Individuals still identify as feminists, and while most individuals are good, egalitarian-focused people, the movement as a whole is being controlled by some fucking nutbags. I'll go one further and say that any movement which boils down to buzzwords like "rape culture" or "patriarchy" has completely thrown away the ability to have a rational, thoughtful discussion.

That said, what's your opinion on the article/reaction to it?

[ronin sparthos]

The pushback against the radical feminist strains is almost as grating and misguided as the radical feminists themselves.

Edit: All these rape threads makes BG seem like it wants a General Rape Discussion section.

[ronin sparthos]

Apparently the mods don't look fondly upon that. But since the general shitstew in the Think Progress thread, rape keeps popping up everywhere.

[Blubbartron]

The pushback against the radical feminist strains is almost as grating and misguided as the radical feminists themselves.

Edit: All these rape threads makes BG seem like it wants a General Rape Discussion section.

It's a tough issue. I don't think there's enough to discuss to warrant an entire section, but certainly a thread for discussion.

That said, I will happily point out the irony that a thread with a title that could be interpreted as pro-rape/anti-woman (if you're trying very hard to interpret it that way) was immediately locked down and had its title changed, whereas this thread with title that is trying to demean a man who referred to the quote as the "worst/funniest pickup line" he had ever heard is still open for business. This strikes me as an effect of feminism. If you can relate something to being anti-woman, it gets shut down immediately, but anti-man is somehow ok. I don't begrudge the moderators from locking the other thread, because it would have turned into a shitfest. However, this one is just as likely to become a shitfest, and probably deserves equal treatment.

[Callisto]

The pushback against the radical feminist strains is almost as grating and misguided as the radical feminists themselves.

This is the issue. The answer to 'all men are rapists' is apparently 'rape is just something make up to get back at men' with both sides being mind-numbing to listen. To Hookstead's credit he at least points out that calling rape on everything creates some serious issues for those legitimate victims when they try to come forward, but I think he's greatly overplaying the instances where a guy is falsely accused of rape as revenge/cruelty/whatever, especially compared to the number of real rapes that go unreported. That and the I SAVED A WOMAN'S LIVE bit screams of "I'm not racist, I have black friends!" to me.

[Blubbartron]

This is the issue. The answer to 'all men are rapists' is apparently 'rape is just something make up to get back at men' with both sides being mind-numbing to listen. To Hookstead's credit he at least points out that calling rape on everything creates some serious issues for those legitimate victims when they try to come forward, but I think he's greatly overplaying the instances where a guy is falsely accused of rape as revenge/cruelty/whatever, especially compared to the number of real rapes that go unreported. That and the I SAVED A WOMAN'S LIVE bit screams of "I'm not racist, I have black friends!" to me.

No, that's the thing. You're downplaying the fact that he really is right. Rape is a real and horrible thing, but false accusations are also a real and horrible thing. No one can say for sure whether there are more real rapes than false accusations or vice versa. These are simple facts that he was stating, and the reaction to his stating them has been venomous (even you have subtly associated him with racism). At no point did he even insinuate that rape wasn't real, or that it didn't have lasting and tangible effects on victims. Feminism isn't trying to unite people in equality - it's more tribal-based division of people. "If you're not with us, you're against us."

[Mertron]

Everyone knows women are the root of all evil, biting apples and shit.

[Blubbartron]

Everyone knows women are the root of all evil, biting apples and shit.

Nah, just Abrahamic religions creating justification for their treatment of women.

[Mertron]

Nah, just people on the forum creating justification for their hatred of men.

[Callisto]

I don't have a black-and-white disagreement or picture of him, I don't believe 'rape culture' is as prevalent as many make it out to be, in that there aren't hordes of men who are perfectly okay with rape and would not stand up against it. Saying it doesn't exist at all is disingenuous to me though, especially if the guy wants to play the high-profile news angle to back up his false accusations claim; as I recall more than one recent story where rapes by young men would have gone unpunished, and furthermore had adult males in power actively helping to cover them up, but for the intervention of a bunch of basement-dwelling internet vigilantes, which is a pretty sad state of affairs.

[Charismatic]

Nah, just Abrahamic religions creating justification for their treatment of women.

Nah, just people on the forum creating justification for their hatred of men.

Both true.

[Mertron]

I don't have a black-and-white disagreement or picture of him, I don't believe 'rape culture' is as prevalent as many make it out to be, in that there aren't hordes of men who are perfectly okay with rape and would not stand up against it. Saying it doesn't exist at all is disingenuous to me though

This is exactly the problem though. It does exist, but it does not always exist.

[Blubbartron]

I don't have a black-and-white disagreement or picture of him, I don't believe 'rape culture' is as prevalent as many make it out to be, in that there aren't hordes of men who are perfectly okay with rape and would not stand up against it. Saying it doesn't exist at all is disingenuous to me though, especially if the guy wants to play the high-profile news angle to back up his false accusations claim; as I recall more than one recent story where rapes by young men would have gone unpunished, and furthermore had adult males in power actively helping to cover them up, but for the intervention of a bunch of basement-dwelling internet vigilantes, which is a pretty sad state of affairs.

I don't believe there is such a thing as "rape culture", period. I believe there's a disconnect between how feminists define rape and how other people define rape. I also intensely disagree with any attempts to create a negative connotation to a culture that believes evidence is required to convict people of crimes, or that all people are innocent until proven guilty. This is a good article, written by an anti-feminist (my words, based on what I've read) woman.

[Cairthenn]

in that there aren't hordes of men who are perfectly okay with rape and would not stand up against it

That's not what rape culture states though. "All men are rapists" is saying "any man is a potential rapist" because there's no one particular profile for a rapist. Compound that with the fact that it's 'logical' for a rapist to choose someone they could overpower, and it makes sense to be cautious.

[Mertron]

Compound that with the fact that it's 'logical' for a rapist to choose someone they could overpower, and it makes sense to be cautious.

HAS THE PLANET GONE MAD

[Callisto]

I don't believe there is such a thing as "rape culture", period. I believe there's a disconnect between how feminists define rape and how other people define rape. I also intensely disagree with any attempts to create a negative connotation to a culture that believes evidence is required to convict people of crimes, or that all people are innocent until proven guilty. This is a good article, written by an anti-feminist (my words, based on what I've read) woman.

That's not what rape culture states though. "All men are rapists" is saying "any man is a potential rapist" because there's no one particular profile for a rapist. Compound that with the fact that it's 'logical' for a rapist to choose someone they could overpower, and it makes sense to be cautious.

My concept of 'rape culture' is one where rape is condoned and/or encouraged, rather than one where every man is a rapist or potential rapist, so there may just be a semantics issue; but there are clearly institutions in place where someone can be raped while the perpetrator can go without being punished; at times because someone is actively making it so(i.e. local authorities helping to cover things up or make them go away, victim-shaming, etc.), and that's in the US; and in just the mainstream news, not even getting to things like migrant farm workers. You definitely cannot just predispose to guilty verdicts without hard evidence, but people shouldn't dismiss the notion that there doesn't exist mechanics for males to get away with rape any more than that there are those in existence that let a woman call rape and do significant damage to a male's life without evidence.

[Aksannyi]

I don't hate men and I'm not a bleeding-heart feminist, but the way people (not necessarily here) downplay rape is disgusting to me.

I realize that there are shitty women who make false rape accusations instead of owning up to their own stupid actions. Have I had shitty one-night stands I regret? Yep. Did I make anything out of it? Nope. Those women piss me off, probably more than they piss off men, because the last thing I want is another stupid girl who made a poor decision making it harder for women who are legitimately attacked to come forward.

But part of the problem is the way women are treated for being promiscuous or having a regrettable night. Why do women feel like they have to lie? Because they don't want to be called sluts and whores. It's very hard for a woman to openly enjoy sex the way that men do and be respected - why is that? Why can't women enjoy sexual encounters? For men, waking up after a drunken night with a girl is a conquest, for women, it's something to be ashamed of. Why? This makes no sense to me. I hate to break it to you guys, but I'm 32, I'm female, and I enjoy sex. There was a time when I enjoyed sex with multiple people (not at the same time, though if you're into group sex, have fun). Why do you hold up the number of men I've slept with as a badge of shame when that same number next to a man is a badge of honor? This is a huge problem, something that needs to change.

But do I think that makes it right to lie? Hell to the motherfucking no. I absolutely do not. But do I see why they do? Yeah, kind of. And then you have women who are actually raped being strung through the wringer - being told they were asking for it. Being told "Well you shouldn't have X." As if they don't already have their own regrets about any and all of their actions of the day/night it happened. People - men and women included - need to stop with the victim blame game. Am I saying that all people do this? Of course not, but it's become prevalent enough.

Rape has become something hilarious to joke about on the internet, and it disgusts the ever-living hell out of me. It's not funny. Yes, I absolutely do think it's wrong for girls who were just out having a fun night and made a regrettable decision to cry rape. But it's just as bad for people to downplay it and try to make legitimate victims feel worse.

Yeah, this thread kind of pissed me off, so there's my two cents. /soapbox.

[Blubbartron]

That's not what rape culture states though. "All men are rapists" is saying "any man is a potential rapist" because there's no one particular profile for a rapist. Compound that with the fact that it's 'logical' for a rapist to choose someone they could overpower, and it makes sense to be cautious.

Is there any consistent, concise definition for the term rape culture, though? Every place I've ever read about it is some ridiculous list of "this is rape culture, and this is not rape culture." This is why I view the term as a buzzword. It's the shibboleth of feminists.

[Cairthenn]

Well, it encompasses a vast degree of behaviors and norms, so yes, that's part of it as well.