I’m speechless…I feel sorry for his son, if he has one, that he thinks it is as simple as turning the other cheek and “switching colleges or taking on-line classes”. It is rather scary to think there are people out there who do not ascribe to basic civil rights. Thank goodness 96% of the people that responded to the poll disagree.
He is just a politician, pandering for votes. The scary part to me is that people in the gallery applauded when he said that.
As some political commentators are fond of pointing out, there is no level of crazy and wrong that can’t get 24% in the polls on an up-or-down vote in this country. Whether you agree with the politician or not, hearing the applause shouldn’t be taken as a groundswell of support, it should just be taken as the fact that some people out there will support anything.
Whether it qualifies as a “groundswell of support” or not, there is nothing good to say about an elected representative drawing applause by asserting we should punish men just because a woman stands up and says we should.
Polis is a member of the party I support, but I’ve got to say that his idea that we should expel guys for sexual assault even if they probably didn’t commit sexual assault is… bizarre.
Susan Brownmiller says take care of yourself and don’t expect others to do your fighting for you:
http://nymag.com/thecut/2015/09/what-todays-rape-activists-dont-get.html?mid=twitter-share-thecut#
Brownmiller did a lot for woman in the early 70’s and helped make the issue of rape a national conversation. That cannot be taken away from her. She is in her 80’s now and while I am still interested in her opinions, they at times can be extreme. Lets not forget the basic premise of her book “Against Our Will” is that:
And while I certainly agree that rape is a big issue among lower socioeconomic status women I do not agree with this statement from the linked article:
I think my thoughts are pretty much summed up by Amanda Marcotte’s piece in response to the NY Magazine article:
Bottom line is that we have been focusing on women’s choices for hundreds of years now and we still have a huge problem on our hands. And Brownmiller would agree with me on that.
I think rapists and abusers ARE like the weather right now. I’m 100% for any intervention researchers can think of to teach young people how to act better or get their friends to act better. In the meantime, encouraging women to view themselves as agents of their own sexuality and safety is a feminist priority.
However, as a law professor friend of mine said, I wish Brownmiller’s tone and attitude were better. 80-year-old feminists don’t worry about sounding diplomatic.
I’m all about education and women seeing themselves as agents of their own sexuality and safety but I think some of the younger feminists have weakened their position with the “sisterhood of victims” battlecry, it borders too close to asking for protections for my taste.
The last line of the linked NY Mag article leads me to believe that even at 80 Brownmiller still gets it. When the interviewer said that one would hope that men would respect women’s choices, Brownmiller responded with:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmWBrN7QV6Y
Warning: Really hard to watch
AAU nationwide survey validates average of 1 in 5 female undergraduates report experiencing sexual assault:
http://columbiaspectator.com/news/2015/09/20/aau-universities-nationwide-survey-validates-average
More than 10% of female students report sexual assault that included penetration. About 2% of male students (eyeballing the chart) report sexual assault that included penetration. Most students did not report their assault to either police or campus authorities.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2015/09/21/what-a-massive-sexual-assault-survey-showed-about-27-top-u-s-universities/ lists the percentages by school (which are predominantly well known mainly-residential schools).
Can you c&p that here vs making everyone go to the link?
The by-school numbers in the article linked in #2193 are not in a convenient table, but wordily described in paragraphs, except for the sexual assault percentages reported by undergraduate women (which varied between 19% and 30%) given in a picture.
A cursory look at the article indicates that undergraduate women reporting non-consensual penetration or attempted penetration ranged from 6% to 12%, and undergraduate men reporting overall sexual assault ranged from 3% to 7%. Response rates varied widely from 13% to 53%.
For the men who reported sexual assault does the report indicate whether those assaults were by women or other men? The report is 288 pages long and am not finding the relevant section.
Why did more women participate in the survey then men?
Women care more about this issue than men do.
Waiting for the rape denial posters to come back.