Over the last several months I
have read a lot of articles, blog posts, and assorted commentary on
rapeculture, SlutWalk, consent, “new” feminism, MRAs… you name it.
I’ve read commentary from the left, right,
and center, male and female.
But so far
most of the commentary I’ve read has been kept at an arm’s length.
Recently though, award-winning
rape-prevention posters (the “
Don’t Be That Guy” campaign) have been “parodied”
and posted locally, bringing the conversation roaring home to E-town.
Some of the slogans on the posters posted by
the Edmonton MRA include:
- “Just because you regret a one
night stand, doesn’t mean it wasn’t consensual.”
- “Just because she’s easy doesn’t
mean she shouldn’t fear false criminal accusations.”
- “Just because you regret it doesn’t
mean it was rape.”
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image found at: Leaderpost.com |
The MRA ascertains that they do
want rapists convicted, but they also want those who reported false crimes
punished as well. They want to take it
away from being a “gender issue”.
OK, let’s start there. The estimated
number of rapes (per the CDC) are 300K- 1.3 million… a YEAR. Estimated percentage of victims that are
male: 3%. Number of reported rapes that college
students assume are fake: 50%.
Percentage of claims that are actually false: somewhere between
2-8%. This last statistic does not take
into account the fact that police expect that 50% of rapes will never be
reported.
The fact is that the men in this
MRA, and the people that think like them (because many women are willing to
side with them as well) are annoyed.
They get annoyed by words like feminist, and consent, and rape, and slut
walk.
They are tired of being “the bad
guy”.
And so, tired and annoyed, they
want to do something about it.
But what
they are NOT is empathetic.
They don’t
have the compassion necessary to process that a person’s RAPE outweighs their
discomfort on the subject.
That their
squeamishness pales in comparison to the staggering statistics regarding sexual
abuse.
That it’s the sad truth that for
the most part, 97% in fact, the victims of rape are
women.
This IS a gender
issue.
It’s not a competition that women
are happy to be winning!
In regards to
the idea of false accusations: Karen Smith, the executive director of the
Sexual Assault Centre of Edmonton told the CBC “It just doesn’t happen.
Nobody would report sexual assault needlessly because it
is a gruelling process to go through.”