Well, folks, it\u2019s June 24, 2013, and I\u2019d like to welcome you to a little feature I call \u201cRape Culture Round-up.\u201d \u00a0Progress on the War on Women front? \u00a0Let\u2019s just say any moves have been lateral at best, rather than forward.<\/p>\n
We can start with\u00a0this little gem from conservative talking head Laura Ingraham<\/a>. \u00a0When discussing how Plan B (emergency contraception) will likely soon be available over the counter, she opines thusly: \u201d\u00a0It\u2019s a good deal for pedophiles, a good deal for people who commit statutory rape against young girls.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>Right. \u00a0Because rapists and pedophiles are FIRST AND FOREMOST concerned about the consequences of their actions for their victims. \u00a0And the mentality of a rapist is such that he\u2019s worried if a pregnancy results from the rape, he might have to stick around and raise the kid. \u00a0Let\u2019s completely ignore how the availability of Plan B (aka the \u201cmorning after\u201d pill) might actually help or empower a person who\u2019s the victim of a rape or pedophilia. \u00a0Don\u2019t mention that, Laura. \u00a0Instead, let\u2019s introduce one of my favorite techniques (employed by both sides of the debate, by the way) the\u2026drumroll, please\u2026the false comparison.\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThese girls can\u2019t get their ears pierced, they can\u2019t take an Advil at school without parental permission. Yet, they can go into a pharmacy in this Brave New World of women\u2019s equality and \u2014 quote \u2014 reproductive health \u2014 and get a morning after pill\u2026<\/strong><\/em>I think it empowers men who want to abuse women.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Allow me to enlighten this debate by sharing that while girls can\u2019t take an Advil at school without parental consent, they also can\u2019t take the morning after pill at school with or\u00a0without parental consent. \u00a0If and when girls CAN go into a pharmacy and buy the morning after pill without consent, so, too, can they buy Advil without consent. \u00a0I\u2019m not sure Ingraham understands this, but a school is a\u00a0different place<\/em>\u00a0from a pharmacy. \u00a0They operate differently and under different rules. It\u2019s complicated, I know.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s another little factoid for those fans of false comparisons. \u00a0Girls and women get their ears pierced and take Advil for different reasons\u00a0<\/em>than they might take the morning after pill. \u00a0So, for example, if a 38-year-old woman finds her birth control has failed, and for whatever completely legitimate reason she has (which, frankly, is none of your damn business) she is not likely to take Advil to prevent the potential pregnancy. \u00a0Neither will a 15-year-old rape victim, battered, bruised, in shock and traumatized decide the solution is to run to the mall to get her ears pierced so that she doesn\u2019t become pregnant. \u00a0We take Advil when our back hurts from too much volleyball. \u00a0We get our ears pierced for fun and fashion. \u00a0We take the morning after pill to\u00a0prevent a pregnancy<\/em>\u00a0for a variety of reasons (which, again, are none of your damn business.)<\/p>\n Furthermore, the concern Ingraham and the others at Fox News show that the availability of Plan B emergency contraception may \u201cempower men who want to abuse women\u201d is, shall we say, disingenuous. \u00a0If they were truly concerned about empowering men who abuse women, they\u2019d be talking about the following things in today\u2019s Rape Culture Round-up:<\/p>\n 1.\u00a0\u00a0The Anonymous hacker<\/a>\u00a0who helped expose the\u00a0Steubenville rapists<\/a>\u00a0might get more jail time than the actual rapists. \u00a0Let\u2019s hope not, but way to discourage disclosure and reporting of rape, justice system!<\/p>\n 2. \u00a0Facebook\u2019s misogyny problem.<\/a>\u00a0 Thanks to the highly publicized social media campaign that threatened to lose FB some big advertising dollars, Facebook is finally tiptoeing around the notion that pages entitled, \u201cRaping your Friend Just For Laughs\u201d and \u201cKicking your Girlfriend in the Fanny because she Won\u2019t Make you a Sandwich\u201d might constitute hate speech, rather than humor. \u00a0Pictures of women who have been pushed down the stairs, with the caption \u201cNext time, don\u2019t get pregnant\u201d might not be permissible free speech. \u00a0DON\u2019T, however \u2013 DO NOT \u2013 post a picture on FB of a woman breastfeeding. \u00a0It will be taken down because it is \u201cindecent.\u201d<\/p>\n 3. \u00a0At Microsoft\u2019s conference last week,<\/a>\u00a0one of the producers of (surprise, surprise) an extremely violent video game saw fit to make a rape \u201cjoke.\u201d \u00a0In front of thousands. \u00a0To a woman. \u00a0A woman he was absolutely destroying and pummeling in this violent video game. \u00a0Yes, friends, he told her she liked it. \u00a0She said she didn\u2019t. \u00a0He said, \u201cJust let it happen. \u00a0It\u2019ll be over soon.\u201d \u00a0Hm. \u00a0The one bright spot is that this joke was not well-received by the audience, and the producer was quickly called out for it on Twitter \u2013 by a fellow Microsoft producer, and a male one at that. \u00a0Yes, in this case, the fact that the fellow producer was male is significant. \u00a0Makes it more of a Sister Souljah moment.<\/p>\n 4. \u00a0Lindy West, a feminist and a comedian, spent a few minutes on a show discussing why comedy is not the most welcoming place for women. \u00a0Please click on this and watch the short video<\/a>\u00a0of her reading the responses she\u2019s gotten for this in a post entitled, If Comedy Has No Lady Problems, Why Am I Getting So Many Rape Threats?\u201d\u00a0 Please do it. \u00a0I will wait.<\/p>\n Well, that was fun, wasn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n 5. \u00a0Republicans in Congress continue to bring the crazy to the debate on abortion laws making exceptions for women who are victims of rape and incest. \u00a0Yes, Trent Franks.<\/a>\u00a0 You\u2019re right. \u00a0Chances of getting pregnant from rape are practically non-existent! \u00a0My unicorn agrees with you. \u00a0Now excuse me while I run to the store to pick up my light saber that has been repaired. \u00a0Have to slay those dragons, you know!<\/p>\n Now, if any of you are hearing Fox News covering these stories in ways that demonstrate genuine concern for women and the appropriate derision towards rape culture, please let me know. \u00a0Somehow, though, I doubt I\u2019ll be hearing from many of you racing to Fox\u2019s defense.<\/p>\n I will leave you, though, with an absolutely brilliant response one woman had to her personal experience with rape culture. \u00a0She received a full frontal naked picture of a man wanting to date her. \u00a0She took screen shots of the picture and resulting conversation. \u00a0And sent them to his mother. \u00a0Please click on this to see it.<\/a>\u00a0Please do it. \u00a0I will wait.<\/p>\n Well, that was fun, wasn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n So, this ends today\u2019s Rape Culture Round-up, folks. \u00a0While I hope I\u2019ll never have to do another one of these, I know I will. \u00a0For as long as our society downplays the threats to women and enables rape culture, while simultaneously and perversely denying women the means to cope with the aftermath and\/or control their reproductive lives, there will be a need for columns like this one.<\/p>\n This post originally published on The Broad Side<\/a> on June 14, 2013.<\/em><\/p>\n