Women living in fear
By Rod Van Mechelen
Living in fear is a decision, and fearless living is only a decision away.
Rape may not be about hate, but feminists sill blame men for feminist fear-mongering
2012 Olympia, Wash. - Sejuti Paul almost gets it:
Most women, are taught that if they are not careful, they could become victims of sexual assault. They live with the knowledge that they are easy targets. ... As a result, women in our society live in a perpetual state of fear. This fear is ingrained within us. - In a society that promotes ‘Don’t get raped,’ women live in fear, Sejuti Paul, Oct 25, 2012
When I read that, I felt encouraged. Maybe this wasn't another hit piece on men. She nailed it. This is exactly right. For the past 25 years, feminists have gone to great lengths to label all men as rapists and to scare women. No wonder women live in fear. But then she fell back into sexist victim rhetoric vented by flatulent feminists with a hate on for men:
In the United States, we deal with rape by educating women on how not to become victims. Women are conditioned to accept certain attitudes, values, and behaviors about themselves. Society enforces an idea that if women behave a certain way they can avoid being sexually assaulted. Wearing the “right” clothes or avoiding certain situations teaches them that they can protect themselves from becoming targets. - In a society that promotes ‘Don’t get raped,’ women live in fear, Sejuti Paul, Oct 25, 2012
This is ironic. Her remark might have been true 40 years ago, but today American women are the most liberated and privileged in the world. Certainly, they are more liberated and privileged than 99 percent of American men.
She continues:
Victim control does nothing to diminish the threat of rape. Nor does it address the real perpetrators: rapists. Rather, it puts the responsibility of rape on women and excuses the perpetrator. It suggests that sexual assault is avoidable if a woman acts in a socially acceptable manner. - In a society that promotes ‘Don’t get raped,’ women live in fear, Sejuti Paul, Oct 25, 2012
It's misogynist to claim that rape is about hate?
With this passage, she is about to engage in a standard feminist ploy: expropriate and twist the argument of the opposition. In the process, she implies that the feminist position that rape is about hate is really a plot of the evil patriarchal male hegemony. Read on:
Walking alone on an empty street does not cause rape. Rape is caused by perpetrators who are indifferent to the well-being of women. In fact, while it is widely believed that rape is a crime of hate against women, this is not usually the case. - In a society that promotes ‘Don’t get raped,’ women live in fear, Sejuti Paul, Oct 25, 2012
She's subtle. And only goes halfway. She doesn't say, "most rapists rape because they're aroused AND criminals AND indifferent..." Like most feminists, she leaves out the part about criminality and sexual arousal, because in the feminist hate paradigm all men are criminals, and all male sexual arousal is a crime...except when women want it. And even then, it's suspect! She does, however, repeat the lie that, for most rapists, rape is about power:
They want something from these women-whether it is sex or the feeling of power over them- and they take it. They do not consider the feelings of their victims at all because they think they are socially inferior. - In a society that promotes ‘Don’t get raped,’ women live in fear, Sejuti Paul, Oct 25, 2012
They define all men by what Eldridge Cleaver had to say about rape:
All our lives we've had the white woman dangled before our eyes like a carrot on a stick before a donkey: look but don't touch. - Eldridge Cleaver, Soul on Ice
For Cleaver it was to some extent about power, and feminists generalize from that to define all rape on that basis, and to blame all men:
To fight against rape, we need to address the ideology that supports and justifies rape. There is a multitude of things we can do to fight against rape. By empowering women and educating men, we can build a coalition of anti-rape advocates. By speaking out against the myths of rape and being open to dialogues about sex and consent, we can create a more respectful society. Rape is not just a woman’s problem. It is society’s problem. It is time to stop being afraid. - In a society that promotes ‘Don’t get raped,’ women live in fear, Sejuti Paul, Oct 25, 2012
She's right about it being time to stop being afraid.
Fearless living is a decision
The feminist fear-mongers created the "rape crisis" out of thin air. They are to blame for the pervasive fear women have of being raped. And it was the feminists who subverted the social conditioning that, for generations, instructed men to protect and respect women's "purity."
It was still that way when I was a boy. My friends and I were all raised to hope for the chance to be a hero and have the chance to save a "damsel in distress." We were taught that rape was bad, and that as gentlemen we were expected to defend women, open doors for them, pull out their chair, and that if we observed these and other social rules, just as women would also observe certain social rules, they would lead to love, marriage, family, and so on.
We got feminism, instead. Bill Maher:
"Feminine values are now the values of America: Sensitivity is more important than truth; feelings are more important than facts; commitment is more important than individuality; children are more important than people; safety is more important than fun."
The false feminist statistics about rape and sexual assault notwithstanding, American women already live in a society where more women have less to fear than in almost any other place and at any other time in history. All a woman needs to do to stop living in fear, is to stop living in fear. Living in fear is a decision, and fearless living is only a decision away.
Regards
Rod Van Mechelen
Rod Van Mechelen is the author of What Everyone Should Know about Feminist Issues: The Male-Positive Perspective (the page now includes several articles by other authors), and the publisher of The Backlash! @ Backlash.com. He is a member of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe and served for 9-1/2 years on the Cowlitz Indian Tribal Council.
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