This is from last March, but it’s so special it deserves resurrection. It’s about a Republican Maine state legislator, one Lawrence Lockman. He has said things. A muckraker called Mike Tipping, an activist with Maine People’s Alliance, found some of the things.
Perhaps the most inflammatory was a press statement from 1995 in which Lockman says “If a woman has (the right to an abortion), why shouldn’t a man be free to use his superior strength to force himself on a woman? At least the rapist’s pursuit of sexual freedom doesn’t (in most cases) result in anyone’s death.”
Where to begin, eh? I guess just skip over the obvious brutality and contempt, to zoom in on the idea that rape is the “pursuit of sexual freedom.” That strikes me as a stunted and also perverse understanding of freedom.
I know it’s a bad think to wish violence on someone, but boy I wish this darling fellow could encounter a big ‘ol rapist in a dark alley sometime soon.
Hey, it’s #UpForDebate, right?
Abortions don’t result in anyone’s death either, but it will be a long time before you convince all of the right-wingers of that.
Our poor misunderstand pro-lifer Lockman seems to equate “the rapist’s pursuit of sexual freedom” with his view of “women’s rights to abort pregnancies” – both, to him, hateful absurdities no Right-Thinking Person could support.
The parallels fall apart under any bright light, but in Lockman’s dim and murky world, it’s all as clear as can be.
moarscienceplz: that would just be rewarding the other rapist.
That’s “our poor misunderstood pro-lifer Lockman” in # 4, as revealed by the great Tpyos…
This seem to stem from the typical conservafuck talking point that an abortion is something sluts get, so they can slut around some more (aka sexual freedom). His view is strongly based on the idea that pregnancy is a punishment for having sex and that women should just suck it up and accept being incubators.
In Tippings’ mind, a pregnant woman who wants an abortion is just like a rapist, bc he sees both doing harm to another person. Like so many fetus worshippers, I’d like to hear his explanation of what qualities a fetus possesses that makes it a person. And why the fetus has the right to use the body of a pregnant woman against her wishes.
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moarscienceplz:
It’s not just bad to wish violence on someone (it is), it’s perpetuating Rape Culture to wish for anyone to be raped. My wish for an end to Rape Culture includes any fantasies about someone being raped. Rape is NOT a punishment. Please don’t do this.
So in response to women’s assertion of their autonomy he poses an even greater violation of their autonomy? Well, you’ve got to give the guy credit for being consistent. Heck, from the pro-life standpoint that the moral obligation to churn out babies should take precedence over a woman’s rights the legalization of rape would be the way to go.
I’m pretty sure I could rob Lawrence Lockman without killing him. And it wouldn’t even require superior strength. All I’d need is some GHB or perhaps some incriminating photos. Or both, if Fortuna was smiling upon me that day.
So I guess blackmail and robbery are also ok? As long as my “pursuit of happiness” doesn’t result in his death and I can find some flaw to pin on his gender that results in someone’s death somewhere, we’re all good?
I’m not struggling to think of ways this could happen.
His comparison implies that women have abortions in pursuit of sexual freedom, which is just as wrong.
People like this can never seem to avoid the window dressing making their motives more obvious than their intended message. For example:
The phrases “at least” and “in most cases” stand out for me like they were in bold and underlined in red. They seem designed to make the payload (“pursuit of sexual freedom”) seem innocuous and reasonable.
Why would anyone want to make the things they say seem reasonable instead of just being actually reasonable?
@Ross
I think he’s saying that the availability of abortion services grants women a degree of sexual freedom. He’s right (on that point, nothing else). Where abortion services are available, women can have sex without having to have babies they don’t want. Within, outside, between marriages, relationships or casual fucks.
Clearly, women do and should use the availability of abortion as a tool for sexual freedom. Lockman doesn’t want women to have such freedom so compares the choice of women to fuck or not with the choice of men to force women to fuck, one way or another.
Absolutely this. Wish for him to trip and fall face down into a pile of broken glass, if you must, but rape is always bad, every time, no matter who’s the victim.