What about all those untested rape kits gathering dust in police departments around the US? 400,000 of them, we’re told. Is that “hysteria about rape culture”? (Thank you, American Enterprise Institute hack Caroline Kitchens.) It sounds more like bland indifference to rape, to this puzzled observer. But maybe the police just know all of them are false accusations, without checking?
Anti-rape activists are quick to point out that, although one-third of women experience sexual violence in their lifetimes, only 3 in 100 rapists will ever spend a single day in jail.
That doesn’t sound like some kind of hysterical over-reaction. It sounds more like no reaction at all.
But still we need to have a research assistant at the American Enterprise Institute telling us via the uber-mainstream Time that talk of rape culture is “hysteria.”
Rape culture theory is doing little to help victims, but its power to poison the minds of young women and lead to hostile environments for innocent males is immense.
What about the hostile environments for innocent females? What about the environment of that party in Steubenville? What about all those neglected rape kits?
Whose the second quote from?
Jacob, from
'Rape Culture' Hysteria - Time(You can usually find sources for quotations by Googling a representative sample)
Merci, Morales. I assumed it would be buried under others quoting; will be less lazy next time.
Sorry, should have linked. Sulkily felt I didn’t want to link to Caroline Kitchens a second time.
Seems to me it’s one more case of one group pointing out a problem, then another group disagreeing it’s a problem and opposing any changes to fix the problem, and then the second group then denigrates the first for not fixing things. Seems like a pattern.
This data would be more informative against the context of other criminal incarceration rates. What’s the probability that a murder goes unpunished? It’s probably not a low figure, especially if we’re including the number of murders with unsuccessful investigations (and estimates of the number of unreported murders would be interesting, even if they may be impossible to make with any degree of confidence). Other comparable crimes might be worth looking at too (basically any crimes involving violence). I think the case that rape isn’t taken seriously enough in the courts is strong, but there is such a thing as a contextless deployment of math to make the most sensational sounding claim possible.
testostyrannical #6
“data” is plural.
and bless your heart.
I really wish RAINN would stop reporting that statistic incorrectly. Their analysis shows that only 3% of rapes are punished by jail time, not that only 3% of rapists spend time in jail. Because we know there are serial offenders out there and we don’t know how the punished vs. unpunished rapes are distributed among perpetrators, the information presented is simply insufficient to determine what fraction of rapists spend time in jail (other than that it’s clearly too small).
Of course, RAINN isn’t exactly helping in the whole rape culture issue lately, either.
Isn’t that a sign that more effort is needed, not less as some seem to be arguing?
This week I witnessed a class room activity where 10th graders should think about three things or people they would take to a deserted island. (This was a foreign language class, in case you’re wondering).
Several of the boys had ideas like taking their male friends for parties and companionship and some “pretty girls to have fun with”. Sure they totally don’t see girls and women as things to be used for their pleasure, not as individuals who might want to have a say in whom to have fun with or who have personalities that make them people…
Now, Giliell, haven’t you heard? Women are a monolithic group that are all the same (or actually two groups – bitches and honeys). They all want the same thing, even if they don’t all know it. And personalities are for men. Women can’t afford personalities, because then they might be “unfuckable” and therefore not really women at all….
I know from observation that I am EXACTLY like every other woman out there (at least I’m like all the bitches). None of us have the slightest deviation in our desire to castrate every male and take our positions as tyrants, and we will not stop in our mission. We are all either Stepford-wives or the polar opposite of Stepford-wives. Which is why my husband left me for a brainless blond with big boobs…oops, my husband didn’t leave me, we’re extremely happily married, and have a truly equal partnership. In fact, he does the dusting and vacuuming because he’s retired and I’m still working full time. In fact, with the odd characteristics I have that make me different from the vision of women that is perpetrated by media and society, I have come to the conclusion that I do not actually exist.