The UK’s Mail Online ran an article six days ago on a subject that was just as attention getting as the headline they gave the story. “More men are raped in the US than women, figures on prison assaults reveal.”
This is definitely shocking, not because anyone who frequents this site is unaware of the fact that men are more frequently rape victims than women, and not because it took a British publication to report a vastly important piece of American news, but simply because any mainstream outlet came out so bluntly and said it. They supported that headline by including inmate populations in the total number of rapes.
How hopeful. If they are starting to imagine that convicts are human beings, men can’t be that far behind.
What also stands out about this article is that Mail Online closed down comments after just six people had responded. I suppose they sensed the FTSU Brigade would soon be on the way and decided not to let the cultural bloodbath, or the corrections to what they got wrong, happen on their pages.
Comments were not shut down, however, before a couple of morons got in their shots.
This one from Leavenworth (assuming it is still in Kansas) found little approval among subsequent readers who rated the comment.
Uh, it is easy, CBC9249, since rape isn’t defined geographically. Just click your heels together and repeat after me, “There’s no place like school.”
Someone else, unfortunately from Houston (which brings me eternal shame) also chimed in with their two cents (adjusted for inflation). This person got greater but not majority approval from subsequent readers who voted.
We will pass that along to the Innocence Project, and maybe some of the thousands of men the Innocence Project did not have the resources to help. And then we will hopefully find a way to teach Nini the Ninny what is obvious. Incarceration is a valid part of the criminal justice system. Rape isn’t.
Let’s see what happens if we apply the same message to people, the ones that happen to be female, who are raped outside of prison.
Stay out of seedy bars, wild parties and other high risk areas. Rapists are likely to be there. Simples.
Oh, and if someone handcuffs you and drags you there against your will, it’s still your fault. You should not have been in an area where they were handcuffing people.
Simple? No, just simple-minded.
I need to back up a moment and actually offer a word of thanks to Mail Online. This is some heavy duty myth busting in which they have engaged. It is to be lauded as groundbreaking, and the article should be Tweeted and Facebooked till people leave blood on the keyboard.
Were parts of the article lacking? Very much, and it is sad that they closed comments before some of the bad data could be challenged by readers. For example, they supported their headline with the same shopworn fallacy of excluding male rape victims who were assaulted by being made to penetrate. They relied just on the victims of rape by penetration, which of course presents a very misleading picture of both victims and perpetrators, as well as the actual numbers of rapes that happen.
The more complete picture is critical.
When all is said and done, it is very likely that we will find that not only are women the minority of rape victims, they are likely not near as relevant as once assumed in understanding the big picture of sexual assaults in this culture. Just like the referenced article said, rape victims are overwhelmingly male, more than two to one over women, even by the United States Department of Justice and Mail Online’s convoluted reckoning.
And that, folks, is how we end “Rape Culture.” All we have to do is keep hammering the fact that rape is primarily not a women’s issue (except, in some cases, as perpetrators). People will quit giving a damn overnight.
Of course, I am being facetious. Feminists show skillful acumen for taking problems that affect women less than men and putting them in a pink limelight. Tim Tolka and his #badass crew are more than happy to pitch in with the expectation of some scraps being tossed their way.
I do hope, that as this information continues to infuse the cultural consciousness, along with our corrections and clarifications on the data, that we do not lose our sense of compassion.
We must remember that women, too, are sometimes raped; just as they are sometimes the victims of domestic and other forms of violence. We should not be like feminists. We should not, in good conscious, turn away from their pain just because the majority of them enjoy protection and exclusion from the brunt of these issues.
