The Myth That Would Not Die

So I wake up this morning and the first thing I see in my newsfeed when I open up Facebook is an article posted by Steve Kenson that talks about sexual harassment, rape culture, how pervasive it is here in the United States and how not enough is being done to protect women.

And surprise, surprise, not only does the article not once mention male rape victims, what the article does talk about is basically "teach men not to rape" and "teach men not to be aggressors".  The usual "men are animals that can't be trusted not to abuse women" message.

I've spoken on this topic before, and feel compelled to talk about it again.  So here goes.

We don't live in a rape culture.

We just don't.

I've shown why in previous posts:  no society that reacts with such anger and horror over rape as ours does could possibly be called a "rape culture" by anyone of reasonable mind, unless that mind has a personal agenda that benefits from the existence of such a myth.  I find it sad and pathetic that, once upon a time, the term "rape culture" referred to the trivialization of prison rape; the fact that rapes in prison were the subject of jokes and comedy.  The term has been suborned by people with a financial and social stake in convincing America that we live in a culture that normalizes, encourages, and trivializes the rape of women when the truth is we simply don't.

As I've said elsewhere, the mere accusation of rape can and will destroy the life of the man who suffers such accusation, even if that accusation isn't true.  Such a man instantly becomes a pariah, even by the people who prior to the accusation would never even consider that the man in question could possibly commit such an act.

Many Feminists like to quote the statistic that "1 in 4 women have been or will be raped" (or 1 in 6, or 1 in 3, or 1 in 5... the precise number changes depending on the speaker, and sometimes changes with the same speaker, depending on what day it is).

This "statistic" comes from a study performed by Dr. Mary Koss, professor of psychology at Kent State University.  This study was funded by the National Organization for Women and the publisher of Ms. Magazine.  The results of the study, the methodologies used, its processes, and its standards were never once submitted to peer review, were never published in any of the peer reviewed journals, and not once subjected to the same standards as every other psychological study.  On the contrary, this "enlightening" study was first published in Ms. Magazine.

Which as we all know is a well-known scientific journal.

Since the study was published, Professor Koss has openly admitted that 73% of the women that she classified as "rape victims" did not, themselves, believe they had been raped and did not, themselves, consider themselves rape victims.  43% of the women she classified as victims had, in fact, gone on to form long-term romantic relationships with their "rapists".  The editors of Ms. Magazine tried to explain this away by calling these women victims of Stockholm Syndrome.  But folks, Stockholm Syndrome simply cannot account for a percentage that high.  It simply can't.  There's just no way.

The logical conclusion, therefore, was that Professor Koss was intentionally cooking her books to support a predetermined conclusion.

When you remove the women who didn't believe they were raped out of Professor Koss's numbers, you find out that the statistic goes from 1 in 4 (or 1 in 3, or 1 in 5, depending on which day of the week it happens to be) to about 1 in 70, or about 0.14%.  Not 25% (or 33%, or 20%), but 0.14%.

Which, coincidentally, is the same percentage of prison inmates who have suffered rape.  How about that.  Men in prison are raped just about as often as women are anywhere!  Which means both suffer rape at about the same rate.  Funny how you never hear anyone talking about that.  But I digress...

It seems that it isn't society at large that is trivializing rape.  No, the people who are trivializing rape here are the Feminists.  When you constantly use a statistic that purposefully over-represents the number of rape victims, you are broadening the definition to include things that are not, in fact, rape.

Combine purposefully overstating the problem (and rape is a problem, don't get me wrong) while simultaneously promoting an anti-rape message that, one:  completely ignores the fact that women commit rape just like men do and , two, implies that the natural state of a man is that of a rapist, and its clear that the whole point of the "rape culture" message isn't so much preventing rape as it is demonizing half of the human race based on the gender of that half.  The "teach men not to rape" message is not only horribly wrong, but is utterly demeaning, sexist, and cruel.  "Men" don't need to be told that rape is wrong.  "Men" know that rape is wrong, which is why the overwhelming majority of men don't ever commit a single rape during their entire lifetime.

And trust me, we don't spending our entire lives thinking, "Rape is good" until someone tells us otherwise.  We just don't.  Most men don't even think the word "rape" unless some jackass tosses it into our face (usually by telling us how we're all horrible rapist monsters).

What makes it worse is that its an utterly useless message.  The tiny percentage of men (and women, for that matter) who are sociopathic and thus are willing to rape won't listen to it, because its not something you can educate someone out of.

A rapist is a rapist and will always be a rapist.  They're not going to listen to your "don't rape" internet meme, so the only thing you accomplish with your sexist bullshit is demonizing men who would never harm a hair on your head and who would never even think about raping you.

Its a hateful message.  Utterly hateful.

There is no justification for spreading this message.  At all.

So please stop spreading it.

If you want an example of a rape culture, please, look to the Middle East where women are literally being executed because they were raped. That is rape culture, and that is not our society.