Совершенно ослепительная заметка: Why we should believe women who accuse right wingers of rape more than those who accuse liberals.
Содержание понятно из заголовка; Арбат ее уже описал, я тоже сохраню на память. Даже не в виде ссылки, а целиком, она маленькая.
I’m sorry I haven’t been very active on the website these past few months, I’ve had some personal stuff going on in my life that needed handling and some of my co-writers have bailed on me, thanks to Internet trolls. Ever since some of our opinion pieces went viral on social media platforms when we first launched, we have received a barrage of hateful comments and death threats that caused some of our most prolific authors to call it quits – and honestly, I don’t blame them. The far right seems to be increasing its dominance on the Internet, but that’s a topic for another time.
Before I begin, I just want to state explicitly that no one supports victims of sexual assault more than me. As a survivor of sexual assault myself and someone with lots of friends who have either been raped, degraded and or assaulted by men at some point in their life, I am well aware of the damning effects sexual assault can have on a woman’s life. Rapists and sexual harassers deserve no sympathy and no due process. They deserve an eternity of suffering and torment, much like what their victims have to go through everyday.
However, this is not about rapists or victims of rape, but rather, about how so called “sexual harassment” is being used to devalue the work of longtime civil right activists and pushers of progressive values . Hollywood is currently experiencing what is perhaps its most damning controversy yet, which has seen many (mostly liberal) men like Harvey Weinstein, Louis CK, Ben Affleck and Kevin Spacey accused of sexual assault by men and women, some of whom allege that the assault took place decades ago.
The most shocking of these accusation came yesterday when a long-time LGBT activist and personal mentor of mine, George Takei was accused of making unwanted advances towards an aspiring model in 1981 (36 years ago.) These accusations have had irreversible effects on the accused (Kevin spacey has had several of his shows and movies cancelled, George Takei has had his role for an upcoming movie recast). Meanwhile, right wing personalities like Donald Trump and Bill O’reilly who have been accused of sexual harassment have faced almost no repercussions for their actions. In fact, one of them actually went on to become the President of the United States.
Regardless of whether any of these men are guilty of the crimes they have been accused of or not, one thing is for sure – the ones who hold left wing values have earned the right to make at least one mistake in their lives. George Takei has helped millions of LGBT children around the globe come out and be comfortable in their sexually. Harvey Weinstein has donated funds to many Democratic candidates and grass-root movements that have helped us secure political power. Who cares if these men have made one or two mistakes in their lives? What’s important is that they have realized their mistakes and are willing to learn from them, which is more than I can say for Trump and his fellow GOP rapists.
We should sympathize with the victims of these liberal men, but we should not devalue the work and legacies of their rapists. To focus too much on the accusations brings to light these men’s political ideologies, which wrecks havoc for us. It would be hypocritical of us to keep criticizing Trump and rape culture when so many men among us have been accused of sexual assault. If more liberal personalities get accused of sexual assault between now and 2020, Trump is going to win a second term. I don’t know about you, but I would rather live in a world where liberals hold political power and a few women get raped than one in which conservatives hold power and women still get raped.
UPD: посмотрев остальные заголовки и статьи в этом Medusa Magazine, – а там все вот такое и даже похлеще, – заподозрил неладное. Уж не пародия ли он, так сказать. По размышлении, однако, понял, что не могу решить, настоящий это ресурс или какие-то негодяи издеваются над феминистками. Опыт показывает, что множество реальных феминистических воинов давно неотличимы от пародии на них же: на читаемых мною сайтах Feministing и Everyday Feminism пишут примерно то же самое, что и на этой Медузе. Полез в Гугль, оказался там далеко не первым, кого интересует этот вопрос. Пишут, вроде, что не пародия; хотя вот тут сходятся на том, что это hoax. Черт их знает. Caveat emptor.
Re-mirrored to LJ from Dreamwidth.
comments are already there, and you can comment there using OpenID.