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id="change_Powered">Change.org</span><a>|</a><span id="change_Start">Start <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://www.change.org/petition" target="_blank">Petition</a></span></div> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834js_/http://www.change.org/widgets/content/petition_scroller_js?width=160&causes=all&color=412a22&partner=355-69"></script> <br/> <div class="adboxes"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://web.blogads.com/advertise/the_liberal_prose"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834im_/http://www.blogads.com/advertise/the_liberal_prose/logo" border="0"></a> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://web.blogads.com/advertise/liberal_blog_advertising_network"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834im_/http://www.thickbook.com/images/misc/advertise_liberally.gif" border="0"></a> <a 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href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/shorter_gop_tax_breaks_for_everyone_except_those_pregnant_teenage_rape_vict/">Shorter GOP: Tax breaks for everyone, except those pregnant teenage rape victims, the dirty whores</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C23/">Crime</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C32/">Reproductive Justice</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834im_/http://www.thesource4ym.com/images/sad-girl.jpg" align="left"/>HR3, misleadingly named the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act”, is a perfect storm of everything that’s nasty about the modern, hyper-conservative Republican party.  It’s dishonest, since women who have federal health insurance are already banned from using that money for abortion care.  This bill is actually an attempt to <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://mediamatters.org/research/201101240022" title="shut down abortion coverage through all private insurance">shut down abortion coverage through all private insurance</a>, including employer-provided insurance, which means that it’s beyond even the dreadful Stupak-Pitts amendment/executive order.  Some “small government”.  <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/" title="As Rachel Maddow documented">As Rachel Maddow documented</a>, this bill is just the most egregious example of how the GOP basically hoodwinked the voters.  They ran on “creating jobs”, which they clearly have <b>no</b> intention of doing, since they’re going to be too busy looking for ways to put the screws to everyone they hate, a long list that includes poor people, people who read a lot, gays, and basically all women, but especially the most vulnerable in our society. </p> <p> Which is why they rushed out this bill, which I’d call the “Economic Crisis Is A Good Time To Rain Hell On American Women In Need Act”.  In fact, John Boehner called this bill a “top priority”.  We have 10% unemployment, but making sure that abortions are only a privilege for those who can pay out of pocket on a moment’s notice is the GOP’s top priority. </p> <p> Sadly, the mainstream media (outside of a handful of awesome fighters, like Rachel Maddow, Nicholas Kristof, and Bob Herbert) has gotten inured to relentless attacks on women from conservatives, and subsequently fail to properly understand that a bill like this is pure misogyny, with a giant side dose of class warfare.  They’ve failed to cover the nefarious workings of Rep. Chris Smith from New Jersey, who competes regularly in the heavy competition in Congress for the title Biggest Misogynist, and who has made a special pet project out of trying to shut down any foreign aid that would include contraception, and who<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/17/AR2010091705303.html" title=" has accused Secretary Clinton of being a friend to child rapists"> has accused Secretary Clinton of being a friend to child rapists</a> because she believes child rape victims should get medical care.  But as you’ll see, Chris Smith is actually the worst enemy in Congress a minor victim of rape could have, starting with the fact that he seems to believe they’re lying sluts who need to be punished.  </p> <p> Smith’s egregious misogyny is why this bill, HR3, has a strong chance of getting more media attention and political pushback than we initially thought it would.  See, on top of the usual routine of denying abortion services to the most vulnerable, exploiting a terrible economic situation to make people’s lives even worse, and straight up lying, Smith also decided to wedge one more pet project into this bill, which is rape apologism.  And that is what finally broke everyone’s capacity to put up with this shit anymore. </p> <p> See, HR3 has---like the Hyde Amendment---a provision in it that carves out an exception for rape, incest, and the health/life of the mother. But because anti-choicers like Smith are such ruthless misogynists, they tend to believe the misogynist stereotype that all women, especially those who claim to be ill or victims of crimes, are lying whores until proven otherwise.  Or just lying whores, regardless of the evidence they produce.  And so, to make sure those lying whores don’t get their hands on those delicious, orgasm-inducing uterine scrapings, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/01/republican-plan-redefine-rape-abortion" title="the bill has language in it that">the bill has language in it that</a>, in essence, assumes that 70% of rape victims weren’t really raped.  The exception is only for “forcible rape”, which is vaguely defined, but in practice tends to mean that anything short of getting your ass beat down means you weren’t “really” raped.  Even if you’re a 13-year-old who was impregnated by a 30-year-old.  Also, if you happen to get pregnant by your abusive, rape-y father on your 18th birthday, you will get no funding to make sure you don’t give birth to your own brother.  Consent is implied if you’re female under these guidelines, and consent to sex with your male relatives is implied the second you turn 18.  </p> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/shorter_gop_tax_breaks_for_everyone_except_those_pregnant_teenage_rape_vict/">Read All...</a> </p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 08:20 AM • (22) <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/shorter_gop_tax_breaks_for_everyone_except_those_pregnant_teenage_rape_vict/">Comments</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/shorter_gop_tax_breaks_for_everyone_except_those_pregnant_teenage_rape_vict/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center">  <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <div class="date"> Tuesday, January 18, 2011</div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/whos_uncomfortable_with_the_truth/">Who’s uncomfortable with the truth?</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C23/">Crime</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C38/">Science for Choads</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834im_/http://img.slate.com/media/1/123125/2093564/2280618/2281135/110113_SCI_rapeTN.jpg" align="right"/>This weekend, there was a minor kerfuffle over yet another poorly sourced assertion that people evolved in just such a way as to uphold the meanest, ugliest, most essentialist gender roles the patriarchy ever produced. This time, it was over the shoddy theory that <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://www.slate.com/id/2281138/" title="men and women evolved to constantly be in a violent struggle">men and women evolved to constantly be in a violent struggle</a> over the vagina, with men trying to force sex on women and women trying mostly to avoid getting pregnant by rapists (though, bafflingly, being more cool with rape when they’re not ovulating). The article reinforced tired, disproven ideas about rape, the most disturbing being that it’s an act of horniness instead of violence, when the more established research shows the opposite.  <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://scribe.doublex.com/blog/xxfactor/not-time-month-again" title="Emile Yoffe">Emile Yoffe</a> and<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://scribe.doublex.com/blog/xxfactor/rape-likely-not-genetic-adaptation" title=" I addressed the flaws in this article"> I addressed the flaws in this article</a>, so I’m not going to rehash the science issues here. </p> <p> What I do want to talk about is the emotional reasoning for why something “feels” true.  Often, the evidence for the truth of a reactionary claim like, “Men are programmed to rape,” is that the very discomfort it provokes makes it true, or at least makes the objections to it false.  Jesse Bering, the writer of the original piece, plays this card: </p> <blockquote><p>Thornhill and Palmer, Malamuth, and the many other investigators studying rape through an evolutionary lens, take great pains to point out that “adaptive” does not mean “justifiable,” but rather only mechanistically viable. Yet dilettante followers may still be inclined to detect a misogyny in these investigations that simply is not there. As University of Michigan psychologist William McKibbin and his colleagues write in a 2008 piece for the Review of General Psychology, “No sensible person would argue that a scientist researching the causes of cancer is thereby justifying or promoting cancer. Yet some people argue that investigating rape from an evolutionary perspective justifies or legitimizes rape.”</p></blockquote> <p> This is a facetious analogy, because it doesn’t acknowledge the truth, which is that not everyone is as anti-rape as they are anti-cancer.  Or, should I say, as anti-rape culture.  A lot of rape apologists aren’t so much pro-rape as they are supportive of a culture that makes rape common, which is an important distinction.  (See: Wolf, Naomi.) The fact that the topic makes some people uncomfortable isn’t proof that the objections to it are somehow more emotional or ideological than the support of it.  On the contrary, I would say that the supporters are the ones whose emotional investment in this being true is clouding their judgment.  </p> <p> Think about the perceived benefits to many if rape is programmed into men, and a function of horniness and biology and not of violence and misogyny.  Just right off the bat, it means that they can throw up their hands in the air, treating rape like it’s an inevitable problem and there’s nothing they can do about it.  But more importantly, they get an excuse to support the main benefit they perceive in rape culture, which is that it puts all responsibility for rape in the hands of the victims, and therefore used to shame and control female sexuality.  After all, the argument here is that men are naturally disposed to rape and women are naturally disposed to protect themselves.  Therefore, the responsibility is shifted towards women, the only gender who has been given any control.  This, in turn, can be used as an excuse to restrict women’s movements and choices, and to, a la Naomi Wolf, say they had it coming if they engage in casual sex.  It also gives men cover to do a lot of abusive things that fall short of rape, saying they can’t help themselves, a freedom a lot of men would like to reserve for themselves.  (Such as, say, cheating while reserving the right not to be cheated on.) Of course, a lot of men aren’t willing to be portrayed as out-of-control beasts, but clearly some figure that’s a reasonable price to pay to get these benefits. </p> <p> And so I have to ask, who are the ones telling uncomfortable truths, that we must accept even if they make us uncomfortable?  I say it’s the feminists.  The fact that our truth, that rape is not inevitable, makes a lot of people uncomfortable doesn’t make it more true.  But it doesn’t make it less true, and more importantly, it doesn’t mean that we’re the only ones with an emotional investment in the outcome.  Our rape apologist opponents are invested as well, often more so. </p> <p></p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 06:21 PM • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/whos_uncomfortable_with_the_truth/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center">  <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <div class="date"> Wednesday, January 12, 2011</div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/environment_has_a_role/">Environment has a role</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C23/">Crime</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834im_/http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2011/01/12/us/12giffords_337/12giffords_337-popup.jpg" width="300" align="right"/>Conservatives are deep into denying that environment could play a role in pushing someone suffering from mental illness towards violence (except, of course, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201101120022" title="if they're suggesting that someone mentally ill might be just really angry about health care reform">if they’re suggesting that someone mentally ill might be just really angry about health care reform</a>), at least insofar as they need to in order to deny that someone with a mental illness who has an obsessive hatred of a politician could be egged on by living in a community where harassment and violent speech towards that politician had become commonplace.  (I can’t stop marveling at the fact that preserving that steady stream of harassment, lies, and violent speech is the hill they’re willing to die on.) So, I thought it would be useful to look at issues that fall somewhat out of the usual partisan brackets and ask if Loughner really lived in a bubble that had no relationship to the real world, or was he influenced by it? </p> <p> The knee-jerk wingnut defensiveness at this point is such that there was <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://www.newsrealblog.com/2011/01/11/feminist-left-blames-masculinity-misogyny-christine-odonnell-for-az-shooting/" title="knee-jerk anger at my suggestion">knee-jerk anger at my suggestion</a> that misogyny might play a role in the choice of a young man to shoot a powerful woman in the head after nursing a grudge because she was unimpressed with what he thought were brilliant ramblings.  I’m not sure what causes the knee-jerk reaction, since it seems that either you feel a defensiveness towards a man who killed six people, or a defensiveness of misogyny.  I’m going to give said jerker of the knee the benefit of the doubt and assume that it’s just a defensiveness of misogyny, and a desire to protect misogyny from accusations that it might play a role in violence against women.  </p> <p> Sadly, I fear that this hope that Loughner would not turn out to sully the name of woman-haters everywhere by being a woman-hater <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110112/ts_yblog_thelookout/loughner-being-alone-will-inevitably-lead-you-to-rape" title="has been dashed">has been dashed</a>. On the contrary, one of the things his internet postings make clear is he was burning up with a lot of resentment towards women, which is the least surprising news quite possibly of all time (unless you just have a knee-jerk unwillingness to take seriously any feminist suggestion that misogyny is real).  Most disturbingly, Loughner wrote a forum item justifying rape, and in language that isn’t all that indistinguishable from what you see on many of <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://www.manboobz.com/" title="your finer anti-feminist forums">your finer anti-feminist forums</a>. </p> <blockquote><p>The same day, he titled another post “Why Rape.” According to the Journal, it said women in college enjoyed being raped. “There are Rape victims that are under the influence of a substance. The drinking is leading them to rape. The loneliness will bring you to depression. Being alone for a very long time will inevitably lead you to rape.”</p></blockquote> <p> Now, you could try---I’m sure some will---to say such things have no relationship to messages in the world outside of Loughner’s head. If you do, you are so full of shit that you probably won’t be able to believe yourself long enough to get the words out.  And this isn’t a partisan issue, since rape apologism is engaged in by people on the left.  After all, we recently had a situation where people on both sides of the aisle, with regards to the Assange rape, basically said there are situations where men get to rape.  (Though the argument is more that we shouldn’t call forcing sex on women “rape” in some circumstances---which is to say, we shouldn’t call rape “rape” in cases where we think the guy had a right, or the woman had it coming.) What I’m seeing here is that Loughner, mental illness or no, completely absorbed society’s teachings about male entitlement and female sinfulness, that men have a right to have needs filled at women’s expense, and that women give up their rights to bodily autonomy if they do things deemed unladylike, like have sex or drink alcohol.  The influence of his likely mental illness is in that he was so blunt about it. </p> <p> The other thing I want to point out about the guy that conservatives would have you believe is a bubble boy is that he was really well-versed in firearms.  Again, this is a somewhat non-partisan issue, because the NRA has both parties by the balls right now.  It’s not surprising that a young man from Arizona would be intimately familiar with gun culture, since it’s one of the gun-heaviest states in the union.  Loughner clearly absorbed a lot of gun knowledge, since he not only knew well enough how to upgrade from the standard magazine that comes with a Glock to one that has twice the capacity, but it sounds like he was, tragically, a really good shot.  I do believe his magazine had 30 bullets in it and he hit 20 people.  This isn’t the behavior of some savant with weaponry, but someone who, as a friend of his told the NY Times, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/12/us/12loughner.html" title="was skilled with a gun">was skilled with a gun</a>. </p> <p> This all should be obvious, but with everyone bickering over whether something on a map looks like crosshairs or surveyor’s marks, or whatever other distraction is being offered up by wingnuts today, but just because someone has a mental illness rarely means that he’s completely unaware of the world around him.  Loughner’s ability with a gun or his thoughts on rape didn’t spring fully formed from his brain, but are the product of an individual interacting with a specific environment.  His paranoia about the federal government, like his skill with a gun, puts him pretty squarely into the culture of Arizona that he came from. It’s always possible that he was completely unaware of the over-the-top hostility that has been tossed by many in the community at Giffords for the past couple of years.  Still, I find it hard to believe that someone who, like Loughner, had an obsession with his target for over three years would be completely ignorant of messages being sent in the community that others shared his beliefs about Giffords.  I suppose we’ll see, but I wouldn’t really be so sure that someone who obsesses with hatred for a politician wouldn’t notice the gun imagery in the campaign against her, nor that someone who is paranoid about the federal government wouldn’t hear the paranoid rhetoric about health care reform being federal overreach, rhetoric that was tied back to Giffords. It’s possible he was completely oblivious.  It’s not a horse I would bet on. </p> <p></p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 02:08 PM • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/environment_has_a_role/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center">  <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <div class="date"> Monday, January 10, 2011</div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/the_mental_illness_gambit/">The mental illness gambit</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C35/">Conservatives</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C23/">Crime</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C37/">Health Care</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834im_/http://imagineannie.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/straight-jacket1.jpg" width="300" align="right"/>Holding the right responsible for <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://www.salon.com/news/gabrielle_giffords/index.html?story=/politics/war_room/2011/01/10/revolutionary_rhetoric" title="their paranoid, incendiary, violent rhetoric">their paranoid, incendiary, violent rhetoric</a> reminds me strongly of trying to put a cat in its carrier.  You know it has to be done, but you really don’t want to do it.  The cat is going to lash out.  She’s going to hide under the bed.  She’s going to hiss and scream.  She’s going to grab the sides of the carrier as you push her in, in a pathetic final bid not to go the carrier.  But you have the fight anyway, because you can’t just renege on your responsibilities the second they become a problem. </p> <p> Of course, the analogy doesn’t hold in all ways, mostly because holding right wingers responsible for cultivating a rhetoric of paranoia and violence that creates the environment where the Loughners of the world (<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://www.csgv.org/issues-and-campaigns/guns-democracy-and-freedom/insurrection-timeline" title="and Joe Stacks and Jim Adkissons and Richard Poplawskis and Joshua Cartwrigths and Scott Roeders.....">and Joe Stacks and Jim Adkissons and Richard Poplawskis and Joshua Cartwrigths and Scott Roeders.....</a>) is even more frustrating that putting a belligerent cat in a carrier ever could be.  That’s because you can forgive the cat for not knowing that it has to go to the vet, but right wingers know good and well what they should be doing (toning it down), but they don’t have the decency to do it. And when you’re stuffing your angry cat in the carrier, you rarely have to deal with a family member or friend standing over you saying, “Now, come on.  The cat has a point.  Have you proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that she absolutely needs to get a rabies shot?” </p> <p> I get it. I get the emotional urge to let it go.  No one likes stuffing a cat in a carrier.  I get why the siren call to shove off this hard discussion about right wing rhetoric has its appeal.  I’ve seen one wingnut go so far in her attempts to deflect as to try to make this about <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://twitter.com/#!/darleenclick/status/24314075844452354" title="her resentments of me">her resentments of me</a> for seeming to have more fun than she thinks I should get to have.  (Taking potshots about someone’s harmless lifestyle choices while the bodies aren’t yet cold. Classy!) Right wingers are endlessly maddening and childish, and like cats, willing to do whatever it takes to make this hard.  But it still needs to be done. </p> <p> Which is why we shouldn’t let the allure of “crazy” wash over us.  Oh, I know it’s so tempting.  Just write Loughner off as “crazy”, and no having to ask hard questions about the mainstreaming of right wing extremism, or the heavy amount of violent rhetoric expressed towards Giffords in the community that Loughner, crazy or not, lived in and was privy to. We can say, “He was crazy,” and punt this hard discussion down the road to the next angry white man who tries to kill a bunch of people after being hopped up on some level of the extremist right wing rhetoric that is being mainstreamed more and more all the time, and therefore blessed with more and more legitimacy.  And next time, maybe the right will offer another tantalizing way to weasel out of shoving the cat in the carrier.  Maybe next time we’ll be faced with a different excuse to put off this discussion.  Maybe the next guy won’t seem as insane---Timothy McVeigh, for instance, was pretty lucid right until the end---but we’ll grab onto one of the other gambits offered every time.  Maybe next time we’ll procrastinate by accepting the “he read a liberal book once, thus this isn’t political!” gambit.  Or we’ll accept the “left wingers were out of control in the 60s, therefore the right can fan the flames of violence to win elections until the end of time!” </p> <p> I don’t think “crazy” is irrelevant exactly---I wrote about how Loughner appears to have fallen through the cracks <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2011/01/09/giffords-shooting-raises-questions-rhetoric-health-care" title="for RH Reality Check">for RH Reality Check</a>.  But “crazy” is only the beginning of the discussion.  It’s not the end.  <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2011/01/09/on-mental-illness-and-crime/" title="I think Jill put it best">I think Jill put it best</a>: </p> <blockquote><p>Certainly, some people with mental illnesses do commit crimes — but that shouldn’t really surprise us, since people with mental illnesses are people, and some people commit crimes. I’m worried, though, that “he’s crazy” will end up being the easy card to pull in the particular case of the Arizona shooting, without recognizing that, mentally ill or not, Jared Loughner participated in the same society as the rest of us, and was undoubtedly influenced by the culture in which he lived — mental illness does not typically put one on an island all their own, totally unswayed and oblivious to everything around. We need to take a good look at the culture and sub-cultures we’ve built in the United States; “he’s crazy” is a cop-out, and it’s irresponsible, and it doesn’t alleviate us of our responsibilities. </p></blockquote> <p> If Loughner does turn out to be psychotic, then the person whose moral culpability is reduced in that case is his.  It doesn’t reduce the moral culpability of people who pour out a steady stream of paranoid, violent rhetoric when they know full well some people out there are, for whatever reason, unhinged or unconnected enough to act on it.  This is why I come down on 9/11 Truthers and anti-vaccination nutters so hard, even though they’re often on the left “team”, because I believe in my heart of hearts that spreading irrationality and paranoia incites violence, along with other inexcusable social ills.  If a 9/11 Truther does something violent, those of us on the left who indulged them are morally culpable.  That isn’t less true if that person has a mental disorder.  If anything, it’s more true, because we knew all along that mentally ill people have diminished capacities to tell the difference between indulgent fantasies and alarming truths they have to act on.  </p> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/the_mental_illness_gambit/">Read All...</a> </p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 03:24 PM • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/the_mental_illness_gambit/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center">  <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/gender_power_and_the_giffords_shooting/">Gender, power, and the Giffords shooting</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C23/">Crime</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834im_/http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/P1-AY966_LionTo_DV_20110109185629.jpg" align="left"/>One aspect of this whole discussion about violent language that’s going under-discussed is the role that anxious masculinity plays it.  Finally, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/jan/09/giffords-shooting-palin-guns-gender" title="Jessica Valenti broke out and talked about it">Jessica Valenti broke out and talked about it</a>.  I think part of the reason people are afraid to say it out loud is because people on the left, especially men, are nearly as afraid of being called a girl as anyone else.  I have no idea why there’s so much castration anxiety in America, but no other factor fuels the ridiculous aspects of our political culture more.  As I’ve said before, the three biggest base-moving issues on the right all have to do with anxious masculinity: squelching reproductive rights and the female control over female bodies they represent, squelching gay rights because they subvert the tradition of sex and marriage being acts of male dominance over women, and gun nuttery, which can be summed up as wingnut fears that Democrats (feminized in their minds) are coming to take away their phallic symbols. </p> <p> Unfortunately, it also means that violence is promoted, because it’s soothingly masculine. (<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/ns/msnbc_tv-rachel_maddow_show/" title="See Tim Pawlenty's attempts">See Tim Pawlenty’s attempts</a> to win base voters over by taking passive aggressive potshots at his wife and claiming he loves to relax by enjoying violence.) Of course, it creates a self-defeating loop, because right wing masculinity antics---resenting women for having sexual allure, bragging about how much you’d totally beat someone up, squealing about the gross dudes having butt secks---are things grown-ups leave in middle school.  Acting childish is unmanly, but the only way they can think of to “man up” is to redouble the violent posturing, homophobia, and misogyny.  Vicious cycle.  It’s actually sad seeing people---and believe me, women do it too, and then think they’re going to taunt me with it in Twitter---act like such morons when there’s a calmer, more grown-up path of letting this obsession with cowboy masculinity go.  </p> <p> Gender is an issue with this specific shooting.  Just as you can’t claim that shooting a congressperson and a judge at a political event is a non-political event, you can’t really just pretend there aren’t gender implications to a young man shooting one of the sadly too few women in Congress.  Barring straight up schizophrenia (and since the word salad of the videos came from <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2011/01/09/who-is-jared-lee-loughner/" title="a right wing nut that Loughner appears to have followed">a right wing nut that Loughner appears to have followed</a>, this may not have been a factor), I figured that gender would end up playing a role in why Loughner chose the victim he did.  </p> <p> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://sadydoyle.tumblr.com/post/2676587654/that-interest-might-have-triggered-mr-loughners" title="Sady">Sady</a> nabbed <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703667904576071191163461466.html?mod=wsj_share_twitter" title="a detail from the WSJ">a detail from the WSJ</a> that chilled me to my bones, simply because this kind of story is a mundane part of my existence and probably the existence of pretty much every woman reading this who puts forth an intelligent, opinionated persona.  Maybe at least young woman?  I don’t know if this gets better as you age.  Some background: there are many kinds of mansplaining, and all are irritating.  But by far, my least favorite mansplaining is the “How do you know what you know?” mansplaining. </p> <p> In my experience, this is usually how the interaction with this stripe of mansplainer goes.  Woman says something pointed, intelligent, and for whatever reason, threatening to the mansplainer. But he fashions himself too cool and worldly a gentleman to merely lash out at her.  And he doesn’t want to give her insignificant thoughts the courtesy of direct engagement.  So, he decides to treat the woman---who is inevitably better-read, more thoughtful, and often actually has a sense of humor, unlike the mansplainer---to a faux Socratic question that he thinks sounds really profound and philosophical and will totally boggle her wee girl brain and shut her up, but <i>actually</i> sounds like half-baked wankery that would embarrass even stoned college C students having a pseudo-philosophical bullshit session at 3 in the morning.  I’ve been asked, “How do you know what you think you know?” And, “Aren’t politics just a bunch of noise that doesn’t really matter/couldn’t be influenced by your voice?” There’s about a dozen variations, but all of them basically boil down to, “I think I have the perfect way to question the assumption that you have every right to speak your mind/hold power, and I think it’s going to blow your mind and shut your bitch mouth up permanently, though I’ll swear to the end of time that I’m all for women’s equality.” Since it’s inevitably a silly, half-baked pseudo-question, it’s almost always easy to put down swiftly, and this generally annoys the mansplainer, wanker division.  This breed fails to understand a) smart women get this <i>all the time</i> and b) women have to go through a lot of internalized sexism that’s probably more solid than your bullshit to get the confidence they have, so you aren’t going to take them down that easily.  It’s generally a failure to understand they’re batting out of their league, and the reason they don’t understand that they’ve internalized the cultural lie that women are stupid and men are smart.  Often, they may not even realize they’re operating with that assumption, but their behavior belies this. </p> <p> Which is why my blood ran cold when I read about how Loughner may have gotten obsessed with Gabrielle Giffords. </p> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/gender_power_and_the_giffords_shooting/">Read All...</a> </p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 08:51 AM • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/gender_power_and_the_giffords_shooting/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center">  <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <div class="date"> Monday, December 27, 2010</div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/gack_im_wearing_you/">Gack: “I’m wearing you”</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C23/">Crime</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p>I’m still in travel mode for at least today and tomorrow---hopefully, the blizzard will let us get home on time.  I may be lucky enough to post more later today, but right now, I have no time.  But I did work all the way until early evening on Christmas Eve!  I taped this Bloggingheads with Moe Tkacik about rape and Wikileaks, as a response to<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/daskrapital/2010/12/23/julian-assange-the-girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo-and-the-swedish-approach-to-sex-crimes/#more-819" title=" her post here"> her post here</a>. </p> <p> <embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834oe_/http://static.bloggingheads.tv/ramon/_live/players/player_v5.2-licensed.swf" flashvars="diavlogid=33186&file=http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/liveplayer-playlist-ramon/33186/00:00/82:14&config=http://static.bloggingheads.tv/ramon/_live/files/offsite_config.xml&topics=false" height="288" width="380" allowscriptaccess="always" id="bhtv33186" name="bhtv33186"></embed> </p> <p> I was ready for a fight, but Moe’s stance on both Wikileaks and the rape case changed considerably after that post, which also strangely includes ruminations on “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo”, as if you can really extrapolate much about Swedish culture from a single exploitation series that has a sort of feminist message buried in a bunch of unsettling rape imagery. But the chat was amicable, and we agreed on most things, and I think it was really interesting.  <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/33186" title="If you go to the link">If you go to the link</a>, you’ll get it broken into smaller chunks if you just want samples. </p> <p> Moe’s not talking about how Sweden is hysterical because they believe that you should have consent before you fuck someone, but<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://jezebel.com/5718817/" title=" guess who is"> guess who is</a>! That’s right, Julian Assange, who is fully committed to the “bitches are crazy” defense, which doesn’t surprise me, as that’s the defense in 99% of rape cases where the defendant was actually dating the accuser.  </p> <blockquote><p>“Sweden is the Saudi Arabia of feminism,” Julian Assange has said in a recent interview. “I fell into a hornets’ nest of revolutionary feminism.” And there’s something the Guardian left out of its report on the accusations against him.</p></blockquote> <p> The notion that full consent should be required for sex to happen is hardly my idea of “revolutionary feminism”, or a “hornet’s nest”.  Indeed, what I call the concept is “how people with empathy and a spirit of camaraderie about sex conduct themselves.” Indeed, I was reading old Savage Love columns (no link, sorry---maybe I can find it later---but it was not through the internet) while waiting to get on the plane on Christmas, and Dan Savage, hardly a “revolutionary feminist”, suggested that slipping the condom off during sex without a woman’s consent is rape.  </p> <p> Also reported at the Jezebel link: </p> <blockquote><p>According to the paper — presumably drawing on unpublished portions of the police report — when she woke up to find him penetrating her, she asked him if he was “wearing anything.” He allegedly replied, “I am wearing you.”</p></blockquote> <p></p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 10:38 AM • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/gack_im_wearing_you/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center">  <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <div class="date"> Sunday, December 19, 2010</div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/moore_and_me_continues/">Moore and me continues</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C23/">Crime</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p>I was going to be lazy and not post anything today, but I was so moved <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://tigerbeatdown.com/2010/12/18/mooreandme-four-days-outside-the-tower-im-scared-im-tired-im-crying-and-i-wont-stop/" title="by Sady's post">by Sady’s post</a> about the way she’s been stressing herself out with the <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://search.twitter.com/search?q=mooreandme" title="#mooreandme">#mooreandme</a> campaign, that I had to say something in support. This isn’t, for me, about Michael Moore posting Julian Assange’s bail.  Or coming down affirmatively on the subject of Assange’s guilt.  I’ve maintained, in the face of great pressure to be stupid about this, that we can be intelligent people who can handle the thought that Interpol being ridiculous doesn’t mean that the accusers are lying.  (I’ve also often pointed that O.J. was framed, and he was guilty.  You can plant evidence on a guilty man, and often the police do because they get upset that someone guilty might go free.) We can do it!  We can believe that Assange is being targeted for something other than the actual rape charges, and that it’s still wrong to engage in standard issue rape apologist crap aimed at the accusers.  And that, by the way, is the main problem with Michael Moore---not that he posted bail. (Which is good, imo, because Assange was being badly treated in captivity, if for no other reason.) <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://kateharding.info/2010/12/18/why-im-on-board-with-mooreandme/" title="He went full blown rape apologist">He went full blown rape apologist</a>, including dismissing the charges with “the condom broke”, which is not the charge and, contrary to what right wing British tabloids say, it’s not a crime to have a truly accidental contraception mishap in Sweden. </p> <p> Anyway, obviously what’s happening with #mooreandme now is that it’s being flooded with rape apologists---some only whipping it out for this occasion, but many who just automatically support accused rapists and denounce rape victims.  And I have no doubt that Michael Moore, along with Keith Olbermann, are waiting this out, letting the overt woman-haters and rape-supporters wear down the feminists keeping #mooreandme alive. So there’s another black mark against Olbermann and Moore---they’re playing the patriarchal game of letting the overt misogynists do their work for them, so they can feel good about themselves while benefiting from sexism.  Ironically, this is basically the way rape works in the real world.  Few misogynist men are rapists, but those who aren’t rely on rapists as a threat to keep women in line, such as when<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://theothermccain.com/2010/12/06/unintentional-hilarity-feminists-ask-if-julian-assange-committed-rape-rape/" title=" RS McCain made it clear "> RS McCain made it clear </a>that he supports rapists as a vigilante force punishing women who are sexually liberated with men that aren’t RS McCain. </p> <p> This situation has other parallels that Sady talks about eloquently and angrily: </p> <blockquote><p>That’s why Ben Roethlisberger walks free today. His accuser eventually refused to go forward, and her lawyer’s letter said that it wasn’t because the accuser hadn’t been raped, she still maintained that had actually happened to her and he had done it, it was because pursuing the case, no matter whether she got a conviction or not, would be so dangerous and so traumatic for her that it just wouldn’t be worth it. </p></blockquote> <p> Read the whole thing, but she makes a good case the shutting women up about the injustice of rape apologism is paralleled to the shutting of women up about actually being raped.  It’s all about using sexist stereotypes and lies against women to wear them down until they’re forced to decide between justice and self-preservation. </p> <p> Ironically, this is how the powers that be are trying to shut Wikileaks down---by making people involved choose between self-preservation and justice. </p> <p> The people who try to force this choice often justify it to themselves by suggesting those clamoring for justice need to just get over it, as if the reason people clamor for justice is simple revenge or about creating karmic balance.  In reality, it’s much more pragmatic than that.  I had a relatively easy go of it when it came to pressing charges against the guy who assaulted me---I had supportive family and a supportive boyfriend, the police and prosecutors believed me, there was an eyewitness---and even then, pressing charges was at least half the reason the whole situation was so traumatic.  In the best of circumstances, a rape victim will be accused of lying and will lose friends, because people find it unpleasant to be around someone who is trying to rectify an injustice instead of just letting it go.  In worse circumstances, the victim will have no allies and be completely alone.  So why do people push forward?  Vengeful harpies, or is there a rational reason? </p> <p> Since I start with the assumption that women are people, I’m going to go ahead and suggest that the vicious stereotype that women are vengeful harpies should be set aside, and that there is an entirely rational reason to seek legal recourse against a rapist. (Though I will point out that few would be upset with a man pressing charges against a friend who robbed his house because it’s so unpleasantly revenge-oriented.) It’s so he doesn’t rape again.  For me, the only thing that pushed me into picking up the phone and calling the cops was being reminded that rapists who aren’t stopped will rape again.  Because rapists rape because they enjoy the act of rape.  What made me pick up and keep going when I was feeling beat down was thinking about the next woman who was rape-available that crossed his path, and how she might not be as privileged as I was in terms of having support and safety.  </p> <p> Rape apologists may not be rapists (though I have to point out that statistically, many pretty have to be), but they nonetheless are why rape happens.  By making the price of speaking out too high for the majority of victims, they make sure that no one holds rapists accountable.  Which is basically blanket permission to rape.  Which is why rape is so damn common.  Sady isn’t doing this because she’s got some overwrought sense of vengeance.  It’s because as long as every rape victim who speaks out knows she will meet a sea of rape apologists that will grind her down, then many won’t.  And if they don’t speak out, there are no consequences for raping.  And so the rapists who go unresisted will just rape more.  And while not resisting rape apologists doesn’t mean it’s your fault if they keep making the world safe for rapists, it doesn’t feel that way.  Just as I knew that if I kept silent about my own sexual assault, and then the guy who assaulted me went on to rape someone else, I would feel that this was, on some level, my fault.  And I couldn’t live with that.  So, at the end of the day, it’s self-preservation vs. another kind of self-preservation.  And with Sady, I think Michael Moore might have found someone who has quite a bit of the latter in her.  </p> <p></p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 12:31 PM • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/moore_and_me_continues/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center">  <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <div class="date"> Tuesday, December 07, 2010</div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/cmon_we_can_do_this_acting_like_grown_ups_thing/">C’mon, we can do this acting like grown-ups thing</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C23/">Crime</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834im_/http://msmagazine.com/blog/files/2010/12/Julian_Assangege.jpg" width="300" align="right"/><b>Update: </b><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/08/world/europe/08assange.html?_r=2&hp" title="Julian Assange has been arreste">Julian Assange has been arreste</a>d.  Again, I must point out that if we treated rape seriously even when the accused aren’t people that are embarrassing the U.S. government, rape would probably be far smaller of a problem. </p> <p> When I was in junior high school, one of my classmates got pregnant on accident.  The rumor spread quickly---who knows if it was true---that she was having sex with her boyfriend, the condom broke, she begged him to quit and he wouldn’t.  Even at the tender age of 13 years old, I knew that there was no way on earth that this was morally acceptable, or even close to it, and the proof was in the pregnancy that she (purportedly) begged him not to inflict on her against her will.  Again, this was a rumor.  No way of knowing if it was true.  But what I do know is that my friends and I who were horrified were 100% right.  What is amazing to me is when grown adults can’t wrap their minds around what childish virgins understand, which is that it’s wrong to fuck a woman who has withdrawn her consent, no matter when she does it.  It’s assault.  It’s rape, even if it’s not legally rape. </p> <p> Interpol is using a rape accusation that resembles this one to put <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://articles.cnn.com/2010-11-30/world/sweden.interpol.assange_1_wikileaks-founder-julian-assange-interpol-swedish-court?_s=PM:WORLD" title="Julian Assange on their most-wanted list">Julian Assange on their most-wanted list</a>.  <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://bigthink.com/ideas/25295" title="As Lindsay points out">As Lindsay points out</a>, this is just silly.  Sex crimes are never actually taken this seriously---we feminists wish!---and I’m annoyed to see rape used in this way, considering that rape apologists are already eager to suggest that rape accusations are about some evil bitch with ulterior motives.  Indeed, as Lindsay notes, the usual rape apologist tropes are being employed, this time by people who should know better.  <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2010/12/06/some-thoughts-on-sex-by-surprise/" title="Jill has more on wh">Jill has more on wh</a>y forcibly fucking a woman who has withdrawn her consent because the condom conditions weren’t met is in fact rape, and it should always be legally treated as such.  The key here is “consent”, which was withdrawn.  That means that the woman was non-consenting.  Having sex with a non-consenting person is rape. This shouldn’t be so complicated. </p> <p> I don’t know if Julian Assange is guilty, of course, but I’m deeply disturbed by the people who aren’t content with suggesting that Interpol is politicizing a crime that shouldn’t be politicized, but instead slurring the victims with the usual course of rape apologist tactics, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://www.counterpunch.org/shamir08272010.html" title="including accusing">including accusing</a> a victim of the high crime of being a “radical feminist”.  I suppose we should find this evidence against her, instead of evidence that Assange has sex with other people in the community of political radicals to which he belongs. I’m sorry, but why on earth is it so hard to believe that Assange is the kind of guy who power trips on women by promising to use a condom and then slipping it off during sex?  This is one of the most common kinds of sexual assault there is, and a favorite way for guys with power issues to get cheap thrills at the expense of women, who they often feel are contemptible and weak.  Are we to assume that someone who clearly gets a rise out of making the most powerful nation on the planet scramble around in a chickens-with-heads-cut-off manner <i>doesn’t</i> have a tendency to ego trip?  Are we to assume someone who risks life and limb for this isn’t the kind of guy who might get smaller kicks out of smaller, less internationally interesting power trips?  Why are we to assume that? </p> <p> I’m not commenting either way on the Wikileaks documents and what they mean and how important it is that they’re released.  I’m just annoyed at people’s black-and-white thinking---believing that because they support Assange’s actions in this one case, that means that his motivations must be pure as the driven snow and he must generally be above reproach.  It doesn’t work that way.  If anything, my experience says to me that men on the radical political fringes are quite often big assholes with power issues that they take out on women.  I’ve definitely seen with my own eyes the way that anti-war demonstrators who devote their lives to the cause often have the women in the kitchen making sandwiches while the men sit around on their asses bullshitting.  And I’ve heard more than one story about anarchist communes and how the women are, despite all the lip smacking about radical politics, relegated to very unradical gender roles, which are, in turn, justified by some high-falutin’ rhetoric.  Certainly in punk communities where there is contempt for state power, you often see women treated like shit in ways that exceed how badly they are treated in less radical spaces.  I’m not saying everyone or all the time.  Just noting that it’s completely silly to think that leftists, especially in the fringe, aren’t capable of being massive dicks about women’s right to things such as bodily autonomy. </p> <p> We can be grown-ups here.  We can entertain the idea that Wikileaks is performing a valuable service while acknowledging the strong possibility that Julian Assange is himself an asshole who treats women like they’re objects he can exert his massive power issues on.  We can criticize Interpol for treating these alleged sex crimes more seriously than they ever treat sex crimes and maintain sympathy for women <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2010/12/06/condomgate-for-wikileaks-founder/" title="who reportedly were quite afraid">who reportedly were quite afraid</a> they had been exposed to unintended pregnancy or worse.  Maybe we can even do one better than that, and accept that more than a few men who consider themselves liberals or even leftists---or may even claim to be feminists---still act like women’s concerns should be dismissed and our rights can be transgressed with ease.  I’m not accusing Assange of anything, but I seriously think it’s silly to think the accusations couldn’t be credible.  </p> <p></p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 06:45 AM • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/cmon_we_can_do_this_acting_like_grown_ups_thing/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center">  <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <div class="date"> Wednesday, October 27, 2010</div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/when_it_comes_to_violence_full_throated_condemnations_work/">When it comes to violence, full-throated condemnations work</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C18/">Choads</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C23/">Crime</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C7/">General Election</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p><object width="420" height="245" id="msnbc1308b2" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834oe_/http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=10,0,0,0"><param name="movie" value="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640"/><param name="FlashVars" value="launch=39859746&width=420&height=245"/><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"/><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/><param name="wmode" value="transparent"/><embed name="msnbc1308b2" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834oe_/http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640" width="420" height="245" flashvars="launch=39859746&width=420&height=245" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"></embed></object> </p> <p> I will note that <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/but_there_are_two_weeks_left/" title="I said just recently">I said just recently</a> that just because we’re so close to the elections doesn’t mean that we’re not going to get a steady stream of Tea Party candidates doing evil, headline-grabbing shit.  Granted, holding a woman down and stomping on her head isn’t something that Rand Paul <i>did</i>, but being a weasel about it (as evidenced in the video above, which also features an excellent interview with Lauren Valle, the stomping victim) is grade A wingnuttery.  I’m as annoyed as anyone by the routine calls for this to be condemned by a candidate or that, but I do make an exception when it comes to the actual followers of a candidate engaging in violence or hate speech.  In these cases, when a candidate issues a full-throated condemnation, it can go a long way towards dissuading violence.  Violent, hateful thugs believe that they have the quiet support of leaders and their community, and if you issue half-hearted condemnations, they read that as support. Which can incite more violence. </p> <p> If you want a classic example, check out how <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/10/kentucky-stomper-wants-an-apology-from-woman-he-assaulted.php#more" title="the stomper himself is behaving">the stomper himself is behaving</a>.  Sure, he was dismissed from the campaign, but clearly he feels that his community has his back.  <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://barefootandprogressive.blogspot.com/2010/10/david-adams-teabagger-friends-she-got.html" title="And that's because they do">And that’s because they do</a>.  Getting a solid dose of shaming early on from Paul would have probably squelched this, but now it’s out of control.  The stomper is now demanding an apology from his victim, which is the logical result of the wingnut “look what you made me do!” mentality.  Which, I would like to point out, is basically the standard issue mind fuck that wife beaters and child abusers play on their victims, issuing a beating and then demanding an apology from the victim for driving them to it.  If a group of big ass men who gang up on a much smaller woman and curb stomp her think that they’re so justified in their actions that she owes them an apology, that’s creating an environment conducive to further violence. </p> <p></p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 09:17 AM • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/when_it_comes_to_violence_full_throated_condemnations_work/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center">  <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <div class="date"> Tuesday, October 26, 2010</div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/both_sides/">Both sides?</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C18/">Choads</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C23/">Crime</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p><script type="text/javascript" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834js_/http://www.fox41.com/global/video/videoplayer.js?rnd=596417;hostDomain=www.fox41.com;playerWidth=400;playerHeight=340;isShowIcon=true;clipId=5229652;flvUri=;partnerclipid=;adTag=News;advertisingZone=undefined;enableAds=true;landingPage=http%253A%252F%252Fwww.fox41.com%252Fglobal%252FCategory.asp%253Fc%253D163829;islandingPageoverride=false;playerType=POPUP_EMBEDDEDscript_EMBEDDEDscript"></script> </p> <p> I’m sure everyone reading this has already seen <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/10/male-rand-paul-supporter-stomps-head-of-female-moveon-member-outside-debate.php?ref=fpb" title="this story">this story</a> about what looks like at least three Rand Paul supporters grabbing a MoveOn activist who was handing out fliers/doing political theater outside the Paul/Conway debate last night.  They grab the woman, carefully hold her down, and start to curb stomp her when someone waves at the guy doing the stomping and calls him off after he stomps her the first time.  It’s not a full-blown skinhead-style curb stomp---the woman was able to talk to reporters before she was taken to the hospital, and she has all her teeth and everything, and I’m sure she’s okay---but god only knows how bad it would have gotten if they weren’t called off.  They are, if you watch the video, being very deliberate about it, carefully holding her down and positioning her. </p> <p> Which all makes <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2010/10/woman-stomped-outside-rand-pau.html" title="the Paul campaign's reaction">the Paul campaign’s reaction</a> worse: </p> <blockquote><p>We understand that there was an altercation outside of the debate between supporters of both sides and that is incredibly unfortunate. Violence of any kind has no place in our civil discourse and we urge supporters on all sides to be civil to one another as tensions rise heading toward this very important election. </p></blockquote> <p> This is sniveling, cowardly, and frankly sick.  There were no “both sides”.  There was a group of large men that support Paul that attacked a single, much smaller female MoveOn activist.  She was not being violent towards them.  Handing out fliers and doing political theater at a <i>debate</i> can’t even really be called “annoying”.  The word is “expected”.  I expected an immediate and routine disavowal of any responsibility for the violence, but trying to play it off like it was “both sides”?  That’s some sick shit.  It’s cowardly.  Of course, I wouldn’t expect any less of Rand Paul, who has above all other things during this election, proven himself to be a whiny crybaby, a coward who acts like he has convictions and then whines and runs the second anyone argues with him, and a childish brat who probably hasn’t grown up a day since his Aqua Buddha years. </p> <p></p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 08:19 AM • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/both_sides/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center">  <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <div class="date"> Thursday, October 21, 2010</div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/its_pathetic_that_this_is_controversial/">It’s pathetic that this is controversial</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C23/">Crime</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p>A number of people have written in and asked me to comment on this incident at Yale where a bunch of douchebag frat boys yelled a bunch of pro-rape stuff <a href="”http://www.salon.com/life/violence_against_women/?story=/mwt/broadsheet/2010/10/15/yale_fraternity_pledges_chant_about_rape”">around housing where a lot of young women</a> live.  It’s obvious to me this is as classic as it gets when you’re talking about the homosocial support for rape.  While it’s unlikely that all, or even most, of the frat members who did this enjoy raping women, someone thought it was just a great idea to remind the women of Yale that this threat is ever-present.  You don’t have to rape to exploit the fear that rape instills in women.  </p> <p> Now you’re getting the usual excuse-mongering, particularly with <a href="”http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2010/oct/18/the-womens-center-must-continue-to-break-the/”">this editorial that was run in the student paper.</a> It’s tedious in its predictability---sexist language that paints the frat boys as “boisterous” but claims the women’s center was having “histrionics”, all but saying that boys will be boys.  In addition, they pulled the same tricks of expressing surface disapproval of rape promotion while actually performing the work or a rape denialist, pretending that there’s nothing pro-rape in having a bunch of frat boys express overt support for rape to potential victims.  It’s funny, because in any other context, the notion that frat boys occasionally rape college girls isn’t taken as preposterous---not when young women are being warned not to go to frat parties, not to drink, not to go anywhere without a bunch of people around, not to explore their sexuality for fear it could get ugly.  Just when a bunch of dudes obnoxiously own <a href="”http://www.alternet.org/reproductivejustice/148460/shocking%3A_college_rapists_almost_always_get_off_the_hook/”">their privilege to rape</a> without much fear of paying the price for it.  Again, most men don’t rape.  But a small percentage do, and when they’re exposed to behavior like this, it validates and emboldens them. </p> <p> This isn’t just about “sensitivity” or “histrionics” or “inappropriateness”.  This is about a very ugly reality. This isn’t just about what people say, but what they do. Research shows that about 5-6% <a href="”http://yesmeansyesblog.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/meet-the-predators/”">of college men</a> have, by their own admission, raped someone.  In this survey, 63% of the rapists were repeat offenders.  The repeat rapists really enjoyed raping, with an average of 6.3 victims per rapist.  Which means that if there were 20 frat boys yelling about rape, statistically speaking, at least one has or will commit rape.  And if there was a rapist amongst them, he’s 63% likely to be the kind who rapes a lot of women before he’s stopped.  If there was a rapist or two in this group---which is, statistically speaking, quite likely---then he was emboldened by this activity, justified in his belief that rape is something that he enjoys social support for.  If he gets caught raping a woman during his college tenure, the fact that he and his fellows made this rape “joke” together might have the effect of increasing the likelihood---already high---that his frat brothers will support him instead of his victims. </p> <p> And that’s just with the people who played this “joke”.  What about their targets?  We’re meant to assume that it was just words and that no one is really hurt, and the main problem is that it was inappropriate.  And that any young woman who takes an event like this to mean that she’s being threatened with rape is a hysterical baby.  </p> <p> Well, the problem with that is there were almost surely survivors of sexual assault who were put in the way of this, women who know for a fact that rape is more than an abstraction, but a thing that can really happen to you.  The percentage of women who say they’ve been raped varies wildly depending on who’s asking and how they ask, but according to RAINN, <a href="”http://www.rainn.org/get-information/statistics/sexual-assault-victims"">14.8% of women</a> suffer from a completed rape in their lifetime. So, if only 6 women heard this, then they’ve added insult to injury to the trauma of rape that at least one, statistically speaking, will suffer in her life.  The women targeted by this were mostly freshmen, but that doesn’t make the picture much better, since 44% of rape victims weren’t yet 18 when it happened.  That means if only 15 young women heard this, statistically speaking, one of them is already recovering from a rape.  </p> <p> Speaking as a rape survivor myself, I can say that while the emotions that victims can feel are really, truly all over the place, one of the most common reactions is to feel like the rug has been pulled out from under you.  The world starts to look like a meaner, darker place.  You really see from the inside how this sort of predatory masculinity is widely tolerated in our culture, with only half-hearted law enforcement efforts after the fact to work to check it. When you see men celebrate rape, even if they’re “joking”, that makes you feel very much like they don’t see you as a human being much at all.  In a lot of cases, you experienced what amounts to a hate crime against women.  </p> <p> So of course the school is right to discipline these guys.  If they marched in support---no matter how “jokingly”---for gay-bashing, lynching, or any other hate crime, I would also support disciplining them.  Otherwise, you’re sending the signal to the targeted group that you allow intimidation tactics tell them they’re not welcome on campus.  <br/> </p> <p></p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 03:15 PM • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/its_pathetic_that_this_is_controversial/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center">  <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <div class="date"> Monday, October 18, 2010</div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/tenthers_and_the_problem_of_violence_against_women/">Tenthers and the problem of violence against women</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C23/">Crime</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834im_/http://blogs.e-rockford.com/applesauce/files/2009/09/secessionists.jpg" width="300" align="right"/>So here’s <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/19/us/19bar.html?_r=1&src=twr" title="an interesting story">an interesting story</a> from the docket of strange Supreme Court cases.  </p> <blockquote><p>The woman, Carol A. Bond of Lansdale, Pa., was at first delighted to learn that her friend was pregnant. Ms. Bond’s mood darkened, though, when it emerged that her husband was the father. “I am going to make your life a living hell,” she said, according to her now-former friend, Myrlinda Haynes. </p> <p> Ms. Bond, a microbiologist, certainly tried. On about two dozen occasions, she spread lethal chemicals on her friend’s car, mailbox and doorknob. </p> <p> Ms. Haynes, who managed to escape serious injury, complained to the local police. They did not respond with particular vigor. After checking to see whether the white powder on her car was cocaine, they advised her to have it cleaned. </p></blockquote> <p> Luckily, federal prosecutors, aided by the post office, were able to prevent Bond from killing Hayes.  </p> <blockquote><p>When it came time to charge Ms. Bond with a crime, federal prosecutors chose a novel theory. They indicted her not only for stealing mail, an obvious federal offense, but also for using unconventional weapons in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993, a treaty aimed at terrorists and rogue states. </p></blockquote> <p> She got 6 years.  Her attorneys are suing under the 10th amendment, saying that the feds were outside of their jurisdiction.  This is an interesting issue insofar as it can give us insight into how the justices view the 10th amendment, and of course there’s lots of blathering about Tea Crackers and their crackpot theories.  But I want to point out that this should be interesting to feminists from the angle of looking at the continued disinterest some law enforcement has in domestic violence. </p> <p> I suppose you could say that this doesn’t seem like the usual kind of domestic violence, and you’re right.  But I do think that you have to look at it through the same lens.  The victim in this case is the same boat that you often see when women suffer sexual assault or domestic violence, only to have their calls for help ignored by people who clearly <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/consistently_misogynist/" title="think they had it coming">think they had it coming</a>.  It seems the victim in this case didn’t have a lot of options when it came to protecting herself.  </p> <p> Cases like this point to a need for there to be another layer beyond just the local when it comes to fighting violence against women.  It’s so routinely accepted in some communities that you pretty much have to have federal legislation to help women out.  Take, for instance, federal laws regarding the safety of abortion clinics.  In really conservative areas, you could easily have law enforcement unwilling to stop harassment and violence against clinic workers, and without the federal law, people have no recourse.  It’s little ways like this where you really start to see the ugliness behind the wingnut obsession with “states rights” and the 10th amendment.  If their ideas really came into play, the basic rights of individuals who happen to belong to oppressed groups would be even less protected than they are now.  </p> <p></p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 05:13 PM • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/tenthers_and_the_problem_of_violence_against_women/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center">  <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <div class="date"> Wednesday, October 13, 2010</div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/consistently_misogynist/">Consistently misogynist</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C23/">Crime</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C32/">Reproductive Justice</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834im_/http://www.salon.com/life/broadsheet/2010/10/12/ken_buck/md_horiz.jpg" align="right"/>There’s a tendency on the left to praise hard line anti-choicers for their “consistency” when they oppose abortion even in the case of rape or incest.  “At least,” people say, “they’re being consistent with their claim that an embryo is a real person.” It’s not like all folks who say this disagree that said anti-choicers oppose abortion because of deep-set fears about human sexuality and misogyny, but they are trying to be fair and award some sort of karma points to people whose rationalizations are more coherent. </p> <p> I’ve long maintained that opposition to abortion rights even in the case of rape or incest is indeed consistent, but with overt misogyny.  It’s an expression of belief that what goes on in a woman’s head <i>never</i> matters, not even in cases where more tender-hearted people might give women a break.  It’s consistent in the way that arguing that you should get to sexually abuse animals because you can eat them is consistent.  It just makes you an even uglier person.  It also is, irrevocably, mixed up with a general unwillingness to take rape seriously as a crime.  For example, Christine O’Donnell is running a new ad that exploits an already ugly situation---<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://likeawhisper.wordpress.com/2010/09/04/on-feminism-liberals-black-folks-and-antione-dodson/" title="where a man's fear and anger after he fought a rapist off his sister is turned into an internet joke">where a man’s fear and anger after he fought a rapist off his sister is turned into an internet joke</a>---<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://jezebel.com/5662316/christine-odonnell-compares-opponent-to-bed-intruder-rapist" title="to compare being taxed to being raped">to compare being taxed to being raped</a>, but in a jokey way that makes it clear they don’t think the original attempted rape is a real problem.* Or, to make a long story short, I think a lot of people who say “no exceptions” for rape or incest say so because they don’t think rape is a real problem, and they believe most victims brought it on themselves. </p> <p> Which brings me to the Ken Buck situation.  <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://www.salon.com/life/broadsheet/2010/10/12/ken_buck" title="As new details emerge">As new details emerge</a> about the rape case he refused to prosecute, we’re beginning to get a firm picture of his attitudes towards women and about rape, and how they inform his stance against abortion rights, even for rape victims.  And that picture is of a man who believes that once a woman has ceased to be a virgin, she loses all rights to bodily autonomy: she can and should be forced to partner with a man against her will, have sex with a man against her will, and bear children against her will.  </p> <p> Whether or not you prosecute a rape case should depend on whether or not you think an actual crime has been committed.  In this case, the victim got her attacker to admit on a recorded phone call that he raped her.  But the facts of this case---whether or not a man forced himself on a woman---were less important, it seems, than whether or not the victim deserved to say no.  <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://coloradoindependent.com/63491/bucks-refusal-to-prosecute-2005-rape-case-reverberates-in-u-s-senate-race" title="Ken Buck was skeptical">Ken Buck was skeptical</a>.  To make it worse, he laid blame for his attitudes on an imaginary journey, suggesting that they’d believe she just had “buyer’s remorse”.  And I guess they probably would, if even the prosecutor is a believer that women are generally evil and suddenly, after having sex with someone repeatedly, they decide that they’d enjoy spending the next year or so of their lives wrapped up in legal proceedings for the hell of it.  But more importantly, Buck was obsessed with the fact that the victim had (gasp!) been sexually active before, and with the accused rapist.  I guess once he’s stuck it in you once, you belong to him forever.  </p> <p> But this is what’s really weird and telling: </p> <blockquote><p>The suspect in this case had claimed that the victim had at one point a year or so before this event become pregnant with his child and had an abortion, which she denies, saying she miscarried. The suspect’s claim, though, is in the police report, and Buck refers to it as a reason she may be motivated to file charges where he thinks none are warranted. </p> <p> “When he talks about the abortion as the reason she wants charges filed, that has nothing to do with the law or this case,” Forseth says. “That is his personal bias coming into play. He’s bringing his own personal beliefs and judgments to bear on this case, when he should be acting as a victim’s advocate.”</p></blockquote> <p> A prior pregnancy and abortion/miscarriage is irrelevant, if you believe that a woman has a right to terminate a relationship with a man and a right to say no to sex, even if she’s not a virgin.  But if you see pregnancy as a symbol of a man’s conquest over a woman, then both abortion and rejecting a relationship or sex with a man who has previously impregnated you are against the rules of the patriarchy.  </p> <p> But what I really want to draw attention to here is how Buck understood the relationship of abortion and rape. Even though the supposed abortion happened before the rape, Buck seemed really sure there was a relationship between the woman supposedly lying about the rape and having gotten an abortion, that she was somehow trying to justify something.  Or maybe just that she’s an out-of-control rejector of the right of men to control and dominate her.  Either way, you get a clear picture of why he’s opposed to exceptions in an abortion ban for rape and incest, and it really is consistent---consistently misogynist. </p> <p> *Or maybe her campaign only thinks rape is some big joke if it’s happening to people who live in low income housing.  </p> <p></p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 08:01 AM • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/consistently_misogynist/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center">  <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <div class="date"> Tuesday, September 28, 2010</div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/shooter_at_ut_austin_no_one_hurt_but_the_shooter/">Shooter at UT Austin; no one hurt but the shooter</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C23/">Crime</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C71/">Guns</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834im_/http://alt.coxnewsweb.com/cnishared/tools/shared/mediahub/09/16/00/slideshow_1001692269_copsinhall.jpg" width="300" align="right"/>This morning, I was putting the finishing touches on <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://www.doublex.com/blog/xxfactor/finger-quotes-haunt-republicans" title="a post about Sharron Angle">a post about Sharron Angle</a> at XX when Marc messaged me to tell me that there was a shooter at the Perry-Castañeda Library.  It took me a second to register what he was saying.  The PCL is the library that is across the street from my old office at UT Austin, when I worked in the business school there.  My routine at lunch was often to go to the library to drop off/pick up books, go to Jester to grab a salad from the cafeteria for lunch, and then go back to the business school to eat at my desk while reading blogs before getting back to work.  The very picture of everyday, peaceful living.  The specter of a gunman turning loose in a crowded area is such a frequent occurrence nowadays, but picturing it actually happening in my old stomping grounds was almost unimaginable.  Some guy, reportedly in a ski mask, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://abcnews.go.com/US/shots-fired-university-texas-austin-cops-hunt-gunman/story?id=11744405" title="shooting off an AK-47 at the library">shooting off an AK-47 at the library</a>.  Surreal. </p> <p> Thankfully, no one was hurt but the shooter, who killed himself on the 6th floor of the library. </p> <p> So I did what people do nowadays and opened up Facebook to see a stream of updates from friends back home, most of whom actually were on campus when it happened.  One friend in particular was in the shit---he’d been trying to get breakfast and was outside at the corner where the library is, and was hustled by law enforcement inside the business school.  He frequently updated about being shuffled around.  The picture above is from another person inside the business school, and I’m using it because it’s so surreal to me since I used to walk down that hallway basically every day.  Being a classic smartass, said friend was cracking jokes about not being able to eat in peace, but over time, even his updates were more spooked than joking after awhile. The entire building was being swarmed by cops and dogs.  They were looking for a potential second shooter because they had differing descriptions from people who saw the guy walking down the street with an AK-47, but luckily there wasn’t one. </p> <p> My thoughts right now are scattershot.  I’m glad everyone’s okay, and that the shooter’s wild shooting off of his gun didn’t result in any injuries.  </p> <p> This all happened within a stone’s throw of the first school shooting in the nation, when Charles Whitman climbed the UT tower in 1966 and started firing.  Many of the people who died were not <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://img.coxnewsweb.com/B/02/49/63/image_4663492.jpg" title="but a block">but a block</a> away from this incident.  People still claim that you can find some of Whitman’s bullet holes on campus; now there are more scars from gun violence added to the landscape.  I’m not comparing the two incidents in magnitude, by any stretch, but just to note that there’s a cultural context that makes this whole thing even scarier than it already was.  </p> <p> Darkly funny observation that I picked up from Twitter: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://www.utexas.edu/know/events/business/20100928/e11861" title="Conservative groups on campus were supposed to have a speaker come tonight">Conservative groups on campus were supposed to have a speaker come tonight</a> who wrote a book called “More Guns, Less Crime”.  Even though they no doubt flew the writer John Lott in already, I imagine his speech about how we can stop gun violence by having even more guns available will be canceled.  Not that it will stop any of the people who invited him from bullshitting today that it would have been just great if there had been civilians carrying guns around when this maniac showed up on campus, because what you really need right then is more bullets flying around.  </p> <p> Like I said, I’m just mostly so relieved that no one else got hurt.  Now we’ll just wait and see what the police find out about this shooter.  </p> <p></p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 12:35 PM • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/shooter_at_ut_austin_no_one_hurt_but_the_shooter/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center">  <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <div class="date"> Wednesday, September 08, 2010</div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/why_driving_adult_services_off_craigslist_is_a_bad_idea/">Why driving “adult services” off Craigslist is a bad idea</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C23/">Crime</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834im_/http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/39/2010/09/340x_craigslist_censored_9-7.jpg" width="300" align="left"/>Oh, Craigslist.  Why do you have go causing <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/maggieshiels/2010/09/craigslists_stand_over_adult_s.html" title="all this controversy ">all this controversy </a>about your “adult services” section?  </p> <p> Actually, thank you, Craigslist, for this much: This is the first time I’ve read a discussion about sex work and sex trafficking in feminist circles where everyone is able to be calm and forthright.  Now, I haven’t seen the discussion at every blog or on every corner of Twitter, but I’ve seen a lot of discussion about this, and most of it involves neither hysterically claiming that all prostitutes that work through Craigslist are trafficked or downplaying the fact that trafficking is real.  I haven’t seen any pro-sex work people make disturbing arguments downplaying the horrors of sex slavery, or doing a bunch of hand-waving to distract from the fact that there’s a whole world of prostitutes that aren’t trafficked in the classic sense of the term, but are still being basically held as slaves by their pimps.  So far, most discussion I’ve seen admits that a) pimps are a real problem and nothing to sniff at b) trafficking is a widespread issue and a major, possibly the major source of modern day slavery in the U.S. c) Craigslist is being used by pimps to sell trapped women and minors to men who are truly the scum of the earth and d) that most of the women selling themselves on Craigslist aren’t trafficked.  </p> <p> That’s a lot of agreement!  I’m really proud of people.  Now that the facts are coming into focus, I think that the solutions are becoming much more obvious.  Whatever you think of consensual prostitution, I think it’s probably important to join up with the people who are protesting the war on Craigslist. </p> <p> The main reason is simple: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/danah-boyd/how-censoring-craigslist-_b_706789.html" title="Craigslist helps prostitutes stay away from pimps">Craigslist helps prostitutes stay away from pimps</a>.  Not all, by any means, but for a lot of women, having to go without any intermediary at all allows them to avoid the clutches of men who are in this to exploit them for profit and the thrill of owning women.  As Danah Boyd---who is an anti-trafficking activist---explains: </p> <blockquote><p>Censoring Craigslist will also create new jobs for pimps and other corrupt intermediaries, since it’ll temporarily make it a whole lot harder for individual scumbags to find clients. This will be particularly devastating for the low-end prostitutes who were using Craigslist to escape violent pimps. Keep in mind that occasionally getting beaten up by a scary john is often a whole lot more desirable for many than the regular physical, psychological, and economic abuse they receive from their pimps. So while it’ll make it temporarily harder for clients to get access to abusive services, nothing good will come out of it in the long run.</p></blockquote> <p> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://www.alternet.org/story/148099/hypocritical_legal_crusade_against_craigslist_will_not_solve_violence_against_sex_trafficking_victims?page=entire" title="And as Melissa Gira points out">And as Melissa Gira points out</a>, those who actually want to help women who are trapped in prostitution would not arrest and charge those women with crimes, making it hard to impossible for them to get non-prostitution jobs if and when they feel ready to make the move out of sex work.  I don’t like the way she uses scare quotes around “bad men” when describing the at least deeply unpleasant men who get involved in the sex trade as johns and pimps, but her points are valid.  Going after Craigslist is about going after an easy target in lieu of actually doing the hard work of fighting traffickers.  As Danah Boyd points out, what this does is suggest that the main problem with trafficking, in the eyes of the law, is that it’s visible.  Which, in turn, tells pimps all they need to do is stay out of the public eye and they can create rape for pay schemes all the livelong day.  </p> <p> As I’ve made it clear here before, I’m not a fan of prostitution.  Or specifically, I’m not a fan of men who think that they’re entitled to buy sex. I don’t have a problem with women who freely choose to sell it in the slightest---a lot of them are good people, in my experience.  I don’t buy most of the apologies made for johns, however.  I’ve made it clear that I think that the myth that men buy sex because they “have” to, because no one else will fuck them or fuck them the way they want, is just that, a myth.  (And one that implies that only men have sexual needs that have to be met through commerce if no one is volunteering.  People making these excuses rarely have love for women who are hard up.) I tend to believe people make sexual choices because that’s what they specifically want, and the act of buying sex is the turn-on and not incidental to the transaction.  </p> <p> But the solution to this problem is cultural change that would make it so the demand for purchased sex dries up.  Attacking the women who do sex work---or worse, creating situations where other men can abuse them without consequence---sure as hell isn’t the way to bring an end to prostitution.  On the contrary, I think that the men who use prostitutes and the men who pimp them out and the men who make a big show out of making life hard for prostitutes, legally speaking, are all playing the same game, and the people who end up holding the shit bag are prostitutes themselves.  Anything that drives prostitution underground doesn’t do much for prostitutes, but it sure does help out pimps and johns by giving them a shadowy world to work in, where they don’t have to pay the price if they abuse prostitutes because no one cares and no one’s looking.  While I do think that Boyd may be overstating her case of how Craigslist can help bust traffickers, I do think she’s 100% right that the only result of driving prostitution out of clearly marked pages for it is that it goes into the shadows, where all the more evil can happen. </p> <p> Further reading at <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://feministing.com/2010/09/08/5-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-craigslist-adult-services-censor/" title="Feministing">Feministing</a> and <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://jezebel.com/5631669/why-the-craigslist-adult-services-crackdown-wont-change-much" title="Jezebel">Jezebel</a>. </p> <p></p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 04:21 PM • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/why_driving_adult_services_off_craigslist_is_a_bad_idea/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center">  <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <div class="paginate"> <span class="pagecount">Page 1 of 11 pages</span>  <b>1</b> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/C23/P15/">2</a> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/C23/P30/">3</a> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/C23/P15/">></a>  <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/C23/P150/">Last »</a> </div> </div> <br class="spacer"/> </div> </div> <br class="spacer"/> </div> <script src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110130234834js_/http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript"> </script> <script type="text/javascript"> _uacct = "UA-4601490-1"; urchinTracker(); </script> </body> </html>