Things that DO need saying

[cosmolinguist]

This talks about people's reactions to recent various high-profile idiotic comments about rape. I'm trying to be positive and I don't refer too specifically to those comments, but this topic may well be upsetting.

Has it really come to people using a hashtag to show they are against rape? Kind of thought it would be a given. I'm anti-murder as well.

It's from Twitter, as you can probably tell. Andrew retweeted it -- among others; it's an hour old and has been RTed at the rate of about once a minute so far -- and it's something he's been saying anyway; his blog post is tagged "things that shouldn't need saying" and he's told me how baffling it is that this should have to be pointed out.

"All that's necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing" is a cliche, but it's a cliche for a reason: people keep saying it. And they keep saying it because there's an element of truth in it.

In a reply to someone else, that Twitter person said "tweeting a hashtag isn't going to achieve anything, is it? Galloway et al won't see it and go 'ooh, I was wrong'." Yes, hashtags might not change George Galloway's mind...but even if they're ostensibly aimed at him, they're being read by tons of people, and who knows what effects it might have on them?

"This is not true" and "This is not acceptable" are messages that are getting more widely heard now, and hopefully not too many people think things as nutty as the headliners Akin and Galloway... but some people will have nutty beliefs that are challenged by, say, the clear and enthusiastic definitions of what really constitutes consent.

The U.S. Republican party's "war on women" this election cycle has made this an uncomfortable time to be an American woman -- even one thousands of miles away who can take for granted some of the medical help, scientific understanding and basic decency that is having to be fought so hard for in the U.S. It's a hostile time and place to be a woman (and so many have it so much worse than me, of course, thanks to systemic racism, LGBTphobia, ableism, the thorough fucking over of the poor, and so on)... so being surrounded all these messages rejecting their fuckwittery makes me feel a lot better. (The only silver lining is that I hope, by no longer continuing the ruse that they care at all about women, poor people, or anyone who isn't them, they will mobilize voters to rise up against them and say "Oh hell no!")

I love that friends, acquaintances, and strangers who just want a better society are speaking up. I love that misogyny and disrespect and fail are being mocked in The Onion and The Daily Mash.

I love it especially because rape and sexual assault/abuse are amongst the most under-reported crimes; the victimes/survivors are so often ignored, shamed, disbelieved, blamed, silenced and even further abused if they try to talk about what happened to them. I am lucky not to have been assaulted in any way, but I can imagine that I had been, and if people I know, blogs I read, friends of mine, are speaking up against rape and similar shitty treatment of people, I might be more likely to feel there are those people I can talk to who will show the kindness and sympathy that anyone in that state deserves. Being "anti-rape" is not "a given." We live in a rape culture. Say something. (But be considerate when you do; even positive things sometimes have negative effects on people if the subject is too traumatic for them.)

Yes, the fucknuggets ye shall always have with ye. We're unlikely to change the minds of the Galloways and Akins of the world. But it's still important to speak up, even about the things you assume everyone knows or should agree with.

Comments

[m-malcontent.livejournal.com]

I love the phrase "fucknuggets". These assholes don't think rape is a big deal, because, like the Taliban, they believe women should move straight from their fathers protection to their husbands protection. (And if the fathers and hubbies are the ones doing the raping, well women should grin and bear it..RESPECT THEIR AUTHORITAH!)

In Texas there was a close Gubernatorial election....but the Republican Clayton Williams was pulling ahead, and seemed certain to win. Then he made the mistake of comparing rape to bad weather saying "If it's inevitable, just relax and enjoy it"......Ann Richards won that election.

You know I would love to say if that happened today, Texas would react the same way....but no Democrat has been close in Texas lately...Obama pulled 43 percent....and I am guessing most of that was inner-loop Houston and Austin.

What worries me is individual candidates might go down from stuff like this...but the stuff in the party platform that is almost as bad passes unchallenged.

[haggis.livejournal.com]

Yes.

(*gets on soapbox somewhat*)

I think it's also important to talk about strategies around rape and how effective they are. There are classic safety strategies that people take as common sense that offer little protection while restricting people's freedoms. There are legal strategies to acquit defendants by using the slightest deviation from conservative social rules to smear victims. There are known strategies rapists use, such as selecting people who are unlikely to be believed or using alcohol/drugs rather than violence. There are easy response strategies (just hit them, just shout etc) that are much harder or less successful in practice. There are a lot of things that good people can do to prevent rape and support victims, instead of assuming it's all been done and it's up to rapists to play nice and victims to be more careful.

[andrewducker]

Yes.

We need to remind each other, regularly, that _other people support us_ in our beliefs that rape and murder are wrong. Because otherwise it's easy to get browbeaten into thinking that things aren't that bad, and there's nothing we can do about it anyway.