charlie meadows wrote:I did not understand that sentence as invective. I understood it as a rhetorically hyperbolic statement intended to provoke a re-examination of what was, at that point, a stalemated discussion, the non-hateful nature of which was plainly apparent in the context of the decidedly non-hyperbolic material intended to do the same thing that manifestly and self-evidently constituted the substantive and meaningful import of the post, from which the response to that one sentence was distracting in a way that I thought was unfortunate.
My statement was indeed meant as
invective, in the sense of the first definition of the word
here, that is, "vehement or violent denunciation, censure, or reproach". And although I had thought that to a thoughful readership, the rhetorical nature of that comment would be obvious, I also knew it would provide a foothold for many of the comments which naturally follow from such a use of language. However, faced with the surfeit of statistical and anecdotal evidence presented by the women on the board during the course of this thread, to be confronted by your comment, Stephen:
Stephen Morgan wrote:I suppose my inherent resistance to the idea is that I just don't believe it.
...to me simply attests to height of the sheer cliff-face of bland antipathy that must be regularly negotiated in this realm in order for this kind of discussion to ascend. As far as I can tell, virtually every woman involved in this discussion has been sexually assaulted. And, as opposed to your own experience of the women in your life, virtually every mature woman I have known with enough intimacy to allow for such a discussion to take place has allowed that she has been sexually assaulted during the course of her life. This includes my sister, both my ex-wives, and literally dozens of other friends, lovers, and aquaintances.
At this point I might as well offer a personal anecdote, for although it could well be anomalous, I consider it somewhat formative in terms of my understanding of the issue: in the fall of 1977 at the university of my attendance, the campus experienced what I can only refer to as an epidemic of sexual assault. During the early course of the semester, there occured four widely publicised violent rapes of women on the university grounds. Three more rapes followed in quick succession, and none of the perpetrators were caught. And though this was a somewhat shocking turn of events for most of us at the time, the administration and local police seemed to take it in stride, even as the women on campus grew more and more wary. What happened next, though, surpassed the most frightened expectations of any among us. The publicity accorded those early assaults seemed to ignite a violent spark in the surrounding community, and the attacks accelerated in number and violence for the next two months. By November there had been thirty-seven rapes within a four block radius of the university, including of all things, the crowbar-rape of a woman in the school parking garage, and a nun in a nearby Catholic church residence. By the end of the semester, two men had been assaulted and raped as well, also in the parking garage - this was, in fact the first time I had even considered the potential for my personal safety to be compromised, for by that time, women were complying with the general request of the authorities that they should avoid ever waking through the school without male escort under any circumstances. When all was said and done, two of my friends had been assaulted, though these weren't included in the published stats of the incident, as they had not been rapes per se, but merely attacks, which leads me to believe that such figures were consistently lowballed.
The rape spree at San Jose State has been
subsequently blamed upon the deinstitutionalization of mental health patients by then-governor Ronald Reagan, but we all knew what was happening, because you could see it if you lived there - men were driving into town from the surrounding bay area and beyond having heard that it was open season on coeds. Eventually, the institution of formal walk-alongs and the implementation of a large number of well-lit emergency phones and heightened police presence stemmed the tide, and things returned to "normal".
So perhaps my attitude in this regard is less objective than most, but I feel I really do know what evil lurks in the hearts of some men, because I witnessed it firsthand.
He then blames men and their alleged attitudes toward women (which in my experience comes somewhere between submission and worship) for literally all of the evils in the world (I'm extrapolating a bit there).
No, I blame misogyny and the subjugation of women, which is not the same as men. I adore men. Some of my best friends have been men. In fact, I come from a long line of men. My dad was, to be blunt, a man. My uncles too, and grandpappy or two. I loved them all dearly, despite their faults. All hyperbole aside, you can love the world and yet wish it were different, bro.
The most dangerous traps are the ones you set for yourself. - Phillip Marlowe
