Now if that isn’t a way to come back after a hiatus.
For the most part I’ve made it a point to stop getting so frustrated over politics and the news. Back in 2008 I became pretty emotionally involved in the elections. This was due in some part to the fact that my job had me driving a lot. This meant that I spent a lot of time listening to talk radio. Your personal politics aside, how can you hear Michael Savage and not agree that this is the best voice in radio? The guy will talk about his little dog or cooking spaghetti and yet you feel compelled to listen.
Recently I’ve taken some steps back from getting emotionally involved in politics. I fail often, but the less emotionally involved I become the happier I generally become. But lately my fire is returning.
The big craze right now is talking about our “rape culture”. Following the Steubenville rape, people have donned their armor and bravely come out against RAPE. They do this boldly as if rape is somehow acceptable in our society. Misogyny, I can see an argument for, but really, rape? Yet, the battle is on, and just as a police officer needs to convince himself that arresting and ticketing those damn potheads is making him the protector of society, so too must people attempt convince us that there is in fact a rape culture needing them to cure it. The opening paragraph to this Huffington Post article sums it up well:
On Sunday, Trent Mays and Ma’lik Richmond, two football players from Steubenville, Ohio, were convicted of raping a 16-year-old girl and sentenced to serve time in the state juvenile system — Mays for at least two years and Richmond for at least one. Shockingly, in the press coverage of the event, the media chose not to focus their attention on the horrendous acts that were committed, but on how the convicted rapists — with “such promising futures… literally watched as they believed their life fell apart.”
Now that I’ve beat around the bush long enough, here’s the problem with everyone: identity politics, a lack of consistency, and one-upmanship. I agree that these boys should see jail time. Hell, I think they’re punishment should have been harsher. However, it IS sad to see such potential go to waste. Yet everyone has to show they’re more against rape than the next guy by ignoring the fact that these two boys have lost a great deal. They aren’t evil. They KNEW their behavior was wrong, but they lacked the moral courage to do the right thing in the face of peer pressure and a culture that trivializes non-forcible rape. If you imply that their fate is sad, the immediate response is, “Yeah, well what about the victim?” What about her? I’m not talking about her. It’s clear that what happened to her is terrible. Why belabor the obvious? Why? Well, to show that you’re MORE against rape than the next person.
Same goes for the implication that getting drunk and passing out around drunk horny boys might have this result. Take a moment and read that last sentence again because the vitriol is already pouring out your ears. If you suggest that placing yourself in a bad situation may have a bad result, you’re immediately chastised as someone who is saying that she DESERVES it. Hardly. A woman should be able to pass out in a room of drunk men full on naked and talking dirty in her sleep and not have an inch of her body touched. But because you’re a woman, you know that your behavior must never be scrutinized when the topic of rape comes up. And as a man, you know that you must immediately smack down such implications, else people won’t know just how against rape you REALLY are.
Such head in the sand behavior damns our daughters to continued danger.
But there are two things that need specific attention here. First is this picture, which is making the rounds to prove our rape culture:
If you buy this poll, you’re an idiot. You’re dealing with a bunch of high school kids who are being asked the stupidest question possible, “Is rape okay?” The fact that they would make light of it is indicative of a genuine cultural issue that led to the behavior in Steubenville, but NO ONE THINKS RAPE IS OKAY. The only question more absurd would be, “When is it okay to eat babies?” with options ranging from when they’re alive to when they’re covered in A-1 steak sauce. The percentages would surely be similar.
And secondly is this video:
No, this isn’t a needed response. Again, NO ONE THINKS RAPE IS OKAY. NO ONE. And the fact that people, in this case a 16-year old high schooler for the HuffPo article, and a college sophmore for the video seem to think that it is a needed response shows a deep failure in our culture to have the bravery to face down real challenges, instead patting ourselves on the back as we reach for low-hanging fruit, convincing ourselves of our value and valor. What a sad waste of productive and capable minds.
And when men join in this, they might be fooling the women, but they aren’t fooling the men. Many of them are showing their “respect” for women be patronizing them in the hopes that it’ll help them get a girl, but surely they’ll lack the moral courage to admit it.
Real men DO treat women with respect. They don’t treat them like incapable children needing their protection and patronizing support.
