In the lead up to ICMI-17 we will be republishing a few classics from the AVFM library. The following piece by Paul Elam from May 2013 remains as relevant as ever. – PW
___________________
Did the headine grab your attention?
I will get to the results of that disturbing study in just a bit, but first I want to tell you a related story that has to do with another group of studies regarding women and rape.
On June 19 of 2011 I wrote a piece here at AVFM, titled “Study Reveals Female Rape Victims Enjoyed the Experience.” I cited several studies and some articles from Psychology Today that supported the idea that many rape victims actually enjoyed being raped and secretly yearned for it to happen.
The article drew a lot of traffic, and still occasionally goes viral somewhere. It did so yesterday to the tune of 11,000 hits.
The only glitch in the article was that none of it was true. I simply made up a conclusion that women actually enjoyed being raped and then went to find anecdotal evidence in magazine articles that would superficially support that completely insane idea. The “studies” I backed it up with were either non-existent, as in I fabricated them out of thin air – or they were studies that in no way made the conclusions that I claimed they did.
The whole thing was a bunch of malarkey designed to create a destructive and unfair characterization of the average woman’s sexual psyche in the most misleading way that I could. Well, misleading up to the last paragraph where I explained to readers that they had “been had,” and that the entire piece was a ruse.
At the end of that article, along with my explanation, I linked them to an article by esteemed social researcher Dr. Murray Straus. Unlike me, Straus wasn’t kidding. His paper, entitled, “Processes Explaining the Concealment and Distortion of Evidence on Gender Symmetry in Partner Violence,” is an accurate and highly disturbing overview of how feminist academicians and researchers coerce, fabricate, mislead and even attack their way into ensuring that a feminist narrative on domestic violence – one of female only victims and male only perpetrators – is the only thing that sees the light of day in the academic world and subsequently the world at large.
In that reference to Straus’ article, which is also now available on this site, I also explained to readers the purpose of my little ruse; to provide an example of how this kind of demagogic deception can harm.
Here’s the rub. As Straus eloquently and courageously illustrated in his article, we live in a culture drowning in feminist deceptions. And they are not just limited to lies about the nature of domestic violence. Every time you see a headline about 1 in 4 women being raped[1], about a gender wage gap[2], about a billion women on Earth being beaten and abused[3] or about many other feminist canards that are the stock-in-trade of feminist fundraising and ideological expansion, you are seeing something no different than what you see in the headline of this article, or the one I concocted on women and rape.
It is exactly the same thing.
Well, there is actually one difference. Feminists will not try to grab you at the last moment and tell you, “just kidding.” They won’t let you know they are lying. They will, in fact, seek to silence you, demonize you, and even destroy you if you do not accept their false propaganda or do a very good job convincing them that you believe.
They will use false conclusions, “evidence” by citation, obstruction and harassment to generate funds, gain political clout, suppress opposing views and further their ideology with depraved indifference to the serious damage they are inflicting on the society around them.
Here is another excellent overview of how the problems manifest. It is well worth watching. (source 1menaregood1)
My Rape Study Reveals article has drawn a great deal of criticism. Most of it is from feminists who, without reading and/or comprehending the entire article, wigged out at my purported conclusions and either commented or emailed me to rage about it. A few of the feminists who have contacted me actually did read the entire piece, understood it, and raged at me anyway because they feared that potential rapists (read: all men) might misunderstand the intent and get the idea that it was permission to sexually violate women.
These, I must assume, would be the same feminists who have no concern whatsoever that the feminist narrative on rape and domestic violence might encourage some women to think they can get away with being abusive. Of course, in their defense, if your worldview does not even acknowledge that women rape or physically abuse men, children and other women, then I suppose it is reasonable that this concern would not enter your mind.
I have to wonder though, how many of them will ever have the light turn on, and come to realize that their outrage only proves the bias that I was pointing at to begin with? I wonder how many will stop to think that the only thing that separates my one article from the overwhelming body of feminist literature and research is that I actually yelled “April Fools!” at the end to let everyone know it was a joke?
I am betting very few.
At any rate, the article remains one of my personal favorites. It averages over 200 hits a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, with a viral spike here and there that gives our traffic a big boost. Also, and even more importantly, it illustrates very well the nature of the double standard we are up against.
You can sell a long debunked bit of wage gap fluff directly through the mainstream media without having so much as one TV producer or newspaper editor ask for a fact check or an opposing view. At the same time, if you try to push a piece on the real and outrageous death gap where it concerns sex and suicide, you can hold your breath and not run out of air before someone pipes up to point out that you must include that women actually “attempt” suicide more than men, so they are still more affected by the problem.
That prejudicial bias is what you are seeing in all the outrage about my article from 2011. After two years the outrage keeps on coming, and it will for years to come because the plain fact of the matter is that it is perceived as a problem for women. If I were peddling lies that might be construed as harming men, I would not be hearing from any of these people.
Now, I don’t, even in my wildest imagination, think that I can make these people care about men. It is just not going to happen. But I can point out their hypocrisy and make them pull their fucking hair out while I do it.
Some days that’s good enough.
[1] 1 in 4 debunked http://falserapesociety.blogspot.com/2011/02/one-in-four-lie-demolished-once-and-for.html
[2] Wage gap debunked http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-13/don-t-blame-discrimination-for-gender-wage-gap.html
