You Tell Those Rape Victims, Blag Hag

Blag Hag had the following to say about women complainants of rape in a blog post titled This Needed to be Said About Rape Allegations

This is just one of the many reasons why I think it's so important to get more women to be skeptical thinkers. Questioning does not make us a "tool of the patriarchy" - questioning is empowering.

You tell 'em, Blag Hag. Those dirty rape victims are so needy, aren't they? Needy of our attention. Needy of our trust. Needy of justice. Fuck them, preferably without their consent. I agree with her on one thing. Questioning the veracity of a rape victim's claim is empowering, sort of like jumping a Kindergartner on the playground and stealing her prescription shoes during your lunch break.

Victims of sexual assault are already at the mercy of bystanders, family, police, the justice system, and society at large if they ever want to get their lives back. The people who they need to confide in are in a position of privilege. Without their trust, rape victims are victimized again and again, until they give up on fighting and join the patriarchy lock-step or commit suicide. So it's really big of Blag Hag and other rape apologists to be skeptical, isn't it? It's so much easier to do nothing than to show a shred of humanity and at least pretend to give a shit. This isn't being skeptical about global warming or the existence of God. We're talking about women and children all over the world who are already vulnerable, because they are in a position in society in which they are not to be believed.

Vietnamese Acupuncturist Discovers Male Hymen!

An acupuncturist in Vietnam claims that red spots on a man's ear means he's a virgin. She used her amazing discovery to free three convicted rapists, including one who was sentenced to 16 years in prison for being involved in a gang rape of a 20-year-old. Isn't that crazy? A guy getting a 16-year prison sentence for rape? Sixteen months, if he were in America.

Stranger still, she threatened to light herself on fire if the rapists' cases weren't reopened. If I were the president of Vietnam, I'd have sent her some lighter fluid and matches and wished her a happy Independence Day. But the real president of Vietnam reopened the men's cases, and the men were subsequently freed.

I'm wondering why one acupuncturist has more power than the rule of law, or the women who were raped by these "virgins."

I Know Rape Apology When I Read It. Rape Apologists Don't

My absence has been long, but I know somebody has lurked here in the meantime (more on that later). Unfortunately, my grand return isn't going to be one of those funny posts that I usually do. The frequency of my funny entries is entirely subjective, but I assure you, this is one of the posts that better fits my recently created subheading.

Nobody asked, but one of my biggest pet peeves is rape apology. If that's not liberal elite enough for you, perhaps you'd rather drop the term "rape apologia" at a party. For those who don't know, rape apology is speech that takes the side of the perpetrator in spite of the victim in rape cases. In essence, the rape apologist is apologizing, or explaining away, the especially heinous crime of rape (seriously, who doesn't watch Law & Order: SVU?). It is damaging to all women, not just victims of rape, but survivors who are subjected to this vitriol can really be hurt by this.

It all started with this post at Her Authority, a blog I highly recommend, written by ProChoiceGal. Actually, it started with this post at some other blog that I don't really care about. On Twitter, the author of the blog that I don't really care about tweeted a link about the 11-year-old pregnant Mexican girl who was raped, allegedly by her stepfather. The title of the article was 11-Year-Old 'Rape' Victim Wants to Keep Baby (stay classy, FOX News). Even novice feminists see the problem with putting the word rape in quotation marks; it totally delegitimizes what happened to this girl. ProChoiceGirl replied, asking what's up with the quotes around the word rape. The author of the blog that I don't really care about doesn't see the problem and took it upon herself to write an entire post lambasting ProChoiceGal about the fact that she did not report her rapist to the police. Here's only the second most offensive part of the post:

@ProChoiceGal wrote an entire blog post on “Anti-Choicers and Rape Apologists” [my side note: please read it!]. But I think she overlooked the real rape apologist, herself. She is so engulfed in her role as the victim; she totally ignores the bastard that raped her. Is he in jail? If not, why the hell not?

Calling a rape survivor a rape apologist for not reporting the rape? This person considers herself to be pro-life, by the way, and proves that women can be just as sexist as men. I agree with ProChoiceGal when she says that this is how anti-choicers react to pro-choicers who call out bullshit. They get scared and refuse to think about how their words are perceived by others. Speaking of which, I called that rape apologist a Grade-A 100% piece of dog shit. I thought long and hard in crafting that insult, and I'm pretty proud of it. After ProcChoiceGal explained why she didn't report the rape, the rape apologist said this, and it really set me off:

How many other young women has this guy raped because he wasn’t put in jail? For generations, perverts have been allowed to attack their victims, and NOTHING is done to them. They get away with it, and do it again, and again. This is what has to change.

I don't have to explain why this logic is problematic and pure rape apology, right?*But that's exactly what the author of that gem wanted me to do, in 140 characters or less, at that! So, the rape apologist came to my neglected blog to check out my Twitter feed in order to talk about me.

@Justsnapd8 #uncovertheculprit UN @funnyfeminist aka FEMily posted the comment http://twitpic.com/1ia19a Apology expected! #prochoice #prolife

Since when do I belong to the UN? I don't have my own country, yet.

@Justsnapd8 @FunnyFeminist Why would you call someone you don't know, an asshole, and a piece of dog shit? Did I do something to u? #prolife #prochoice

Not just to me, to all of womankind. I didn't say why, because I think metacognition is important. Doing her thinking for her just rewards laziness. I told her to read the comment she left for ProChoiceGal over and over until it clicked in her mind that she was indeed engaging in rape apology. She came back to me five minutes later, totally not getting it. I told her to spend more than five minutes thinking about it. I checked my feed every few minutes to see what she had to say, and was impressed that nearly an entire half hour passed without a response. After all that waiting, she said:

@Justsnapd8 @FunnyFeminist I refuse to let a person w/ little or no real life experience, attempt to belittle me this way. Goodbye Emily

I think it's funny that she believes 25 years, 7 months, and 7 days isn't enough life experience to engage in a serious conversation, but she'll fight to the death for the pretend rights of zygotes, who are -9.5 months old, no matter how much it belittles the human rights of women. Maybe her affinity with zygotes is due to the fact that they never talk back, unlike those bitchy educated Latinas.

I told that poor woman that her hostility toward metacognition will ultimately be her downfall. And I didn't say that just to sound highfalutin. I did it because I'm genuinely concerned about people who refuse to think about their thinking. That's exactly how rape apologia, and other types of hate speech, spread unchecked. So when you're called out on your bullshit, just check it. It's really eye-opening and makes you a better person.

*In case I do have to explain it, this kind of logic is rape apologia, because it makes the victim, rather than the rapist, responsible for other women's suffering. It is thinly veiled in the common sexist belief that women are the morally superior sex, and is therefore responsible for the well-being of every person in the entire world, a burden that nobody else is expected to carry. This belief, possibly in a contradictory way, has been used to argue against suffrage, abortion rights, education equity, and basically every other civil rights fight that women have been engaging in since the beginning of time.

Take Action Monday

Most of the petitions I received asked that we thank our Representatives for voting for the healthcare reform bill. But since it has the Stupak Amendment in it, I don't think I'll be doing that.

Tell President Obama to demand that reproductive rights be included in the final healthcare reform bill.

Urge the United Nations to make ending rape a top priority.

Ask your Representative to sign the Wolf-Capuano letter to President Obama regarding Sudan.

Protect polar bears from developers and global climate change.

Take Action Monday

Or buy them a discount mattress.

Urge your Senators to include immunosuppressive drug coverage in the health care bill.

Help protect the Florida Panther.

Tell the UN to appoint a special representative to hold countries involved in gender-based violence accountable. Tell the European and African Unions to do the same.

Support the Foreign Assistance Revitalization & Accountability Act of 2009.

Help the U.S. strengthen its toxic chemicals standards.

Stop the Ken Lewis (Bank of America) bailout.

Thank the workers who eliminate pollution.

Funny Videos (No Homo)

Bryan Safi"s latest -- no homo -- on the no homo use (or maybe no homo overuse) of "no homo." It's like the new "you know what I'm sayin'?"



Secretary of State Hillary Clinton uses her diplomacy skills to resolve the Mayor Cory Booker/Conan O'Brien conflict.



Roman Polanski on To Catch a Predator. Not really, but at least we don't have to use our imaginations anymore.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
The Gay After Tomorrow
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Ron Paul Interview

Jon Stewart thinks President Obama should finally repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Maybe he will this weekend at the pride march in Washington, D.C.

So Not Funny, Russell Brand!

The big story about MTV's Video Music Awards Sunday night was the Kanye West/Taylor Swift affair. The event that isn't getting much play is Russel Brand's rape joke that he made against Megan Fox:

“She has admitted she is a little bit cuckoo upstairs and I have trained in psychiatry. So Megan, if you do have a little dizzy spell love, I could probably drop you a little pill. You can go and have a lie down in my dressing room. You might get some crazy dreams about being visited by a scarecrow, a perfumed weirdo leaning over you. But let me tell you, that’s a common side-effect. Megan, take your medicine.”

Rape isn't funny, and joking about it is even less funny. And if that's not bad enough, he made a joke about the rumors regarding Lady Gaga's sex. I couldn't find a direct quote of what he said first, but here's my rough summary of it. He said that the rumors about Lady Gaga's sex were sexist; people thought that because of her comfort with her strong sexual expression, she must really be a guy. Good on you, Russell Brand, for calling it how it is. Oh, wait, this is still Russell Brand we're talking about, so he had to say something disgusting.

“And if I pull her leotard to one side and find something a little extra there, I will just make it stiff and hang my hat on it.”

Ugh. Either put the rumors to bed, or don't discuss them at all. Don't send mixed messages about them. What does he expect the audience to think now? Even though Brand correctly stated that the rumors were sexist, he reignited them by saying they might be true. That damages Lady Gaga and the entire intersex population (and the thought to be intersex population).

Joking about rape and delicate sexuality issues -- so not funny, Russell Brand.

Take Action Monday

Happy Labor/Labour (Canada) Day!

Urge your Senators to pass a clean energy bill.

Support freeing sex trafficking victim from a life sentence without parole.

Help end discriminatory health insurance practices.

Support a public health insurance option.

Tell Secretary of State Clinton to help restore democracy and accountability for human rights abuses in Honduras.

Support humanitarian aid in Sudan.

Take Action Monday

Tell Rite Aid CEO Mary Sammons to stop stalling union negotiations.

Urge President Obama to protect us from nuclear weapons.

Make ending gender-based violence a priority in U.S. foreign policy.

Tell your Representatives that you want healthcare reform this year.

Choose the new slogan for Save Darfur.

End human trafficking in the U.S.

Take Action Monday

Support the global eradication of polio.

Thank the legislators in Vermont who support marriage equality.

Help reverse the effects of rising mercury levels on seals.

Support clean water for women everywhere.

Tell China to stop the executions of Tibetans.

Ask Congress to support energy efficiency.

Support prison system reform.

Stop sexual assault in the military.

Tell Iowa to support marriage equality.

Defend Michelle Obama's organic garden from pesticide lobbyists.

Take Action Monday

Help get the Dalai Lama a visa to enter South Africa.

Urge your Representative to pass comprehensive hate crimes legislation.

Ask President Obama to regulate carbon emissions.

End "corrective rape" of lesbians in South Africa.

Ask Secretary of State Clinton why the U.S. continues to supply weapons to Israel.

Demand that medical errors be publicized and prevented.

Tell Foreign Affairs Chairman Howard Berman to make foreign aid more effective in fighting poverty.

Take Action Monday

Here comes post number 100!

Support Barack Obama in his decision to close Guantanamo.

Protect America's farm workers.

Tell Barack Obama to mention fighting global poverty in his inaugural address. Tell him to make healthcare a priority too.

Encourage your Congresspeople to sign a letter to Barack Obama telling him to support a strong international affairs budget.

Help sexually assaulted women in the military find justice.

Tell your Senators to keep women in mind when trying to heal the financial crisis.

Support veterans with severe combat-related injuries.

Sign the Love and Equality petition.

Tell the UN Security Council to fully deploy peacekeepers in Darfur.

Keep the U.S. a save haven for refugees.

Important Question, John Oliver!

In a more gutsy than funny move the other night, John Oliver of The Daily Show asked this important question:

Governor Palin brought up Joe Biden's quote about us raping the ocean floors this evening. Does Governor Palin support the ocean paying for its own rape kits?

Probably.

Take Action Monday on Sunday

I already know that I won't have time to post this tomorrow, so I'm posting it now. It's the post of tomorrow . . . today!

Encourage USAID, the World Bank, and other organizations to make aid better.

Stop the rising costs of healthcare.

Sign MoveOn.org's "Birth Control is NOT Abortion" petition (and get your FREE Obama button, if you fancy that).

Tell Condoleezza Rice to protect Darfuri women from rape.

Ask Barack Obama and John McCain how they're going to secure America's financial future.

Tell Barack Obama and John McCain to say no to offshore drilling.

Urge your Senators to reject Senator Hutchinson's "6-month rule" version of the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.

In light of the 6th farm worker to die of heat stroke in the last 3 months, tell California legislators that this needs to end (even if you're not from California, since the whole country buys the fruits of their labor -- literally).

Show your support for WOZA.

And because loud commercials are soooo annoying, sign this petition in support of the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act (CALM).

Take Action Monday

August 9th was my one-month bloggiversary, and I missed it! So I'll sing myself the Happy Bloggiversary song now. Happy Bloggiversary to me/Happy Bloggiversary to me/Tra-la-la humity-hum-hum/Happy Bloggiversary to me. I should think of actual words for that song. In the meantime, here's some take action stuff. I'll think of something funny to post soon, I promise.

Take the National Women's Law Center's "What Do Women Want?" poll.

Show the athletes of Team Darfur some support.

Tell President Bush to speak out against China's role in the atrocities in Darfur and Tibet.

Let Congress know that you hate those invasive scanners at the airport that virutally strip-search you.

Support ONE.org's Platforms Against Poverty.

Tell the presidential candidates that they need to include everyone in their plans for affordable healthcare (John McCain has an affordable healthcare plan?)

Help bring justice to all survivors of rape.

So Not Funny, John McCain

John McCain is a regular comedian. Can you believe he's been doing this for 20 years? He has so much material! Bombing Iran, being a president that'll help women, and even rape. Here's a joke he made during his Senate campaign in 1986 (via Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion, with the original article here):

Did you hear the one about the woman who is attacked on the street by a gorilla, beaten senseless, raped repeatedly and left to die? When she finally regains consciousness and tries to speak, her doctor leans over to hear her sigh contently and to feebly ask, ‘Where is that marvelous ape?’

Are your sides splitting? Neither are mine.

So Not Funny, Moe and Tracie

This is kind of old news, but it's still relevant. Moe and Tracie of Jezebel were recently on Thinking and Drinking, and they showed up smashed. Whether the sexist jokes about rape were due to the drink or whether they were actually trying to be funny -- well, you decide. Here's some of what they said.

Moe: I don't know if this (rape) has happened to me or if I just drink too much...
Tracie: I once paid someone to rape me once... Well, I didn't pay for it, I had a magazine pay for it.

Tracie (responding to Lizz's questioning about why she doesn't think rape is something that women like her should worry about): I live in Williamsburg, there aren't very assertive men there
(and on why she hasn't been raped): I think it has to do with the fact that I am like, smart"

Moe (on being raped): The third guy I ever had sex with, date raped me, and I got very mad at him, but I wasn't gonna fucking like turn him in to the police and fucking go through shit...
Lizz: Why not, you see that's the problem, why not, I am just curious?
Moe: Because it was a load of trouble and I had better things to do, like drinking more.

So not funny! This prompted Jessica Valenti of Feministing to write about humor and feminism, and since I can't say it any better, I suggest you read her post.