I come in here and there's like a billion threads on rape.

[Cruzan]

Not to add yet another, but what am I missing? Seriously, is it rape awareness week or something?

[Democracyinkind]

1. As you noted, this is thread is no. 1 billion +1

My take:

A girl posted a pic in which she questioned the fact that she had to attend rape prevention orientations while there were no "don't rape" orientations for boys. Which is a valid point, as many have tried to explain, certain subsets of men (fraternities and porn culture as obvious examples) have very murky notions about rape.

This, some men couldn't take. The notion that some men had to be educated as to what constitutes rape (something that studies confirm needs to be done) was too much for some men on DU. They just couldn't take it. They felt accused of something, whatever it was. They started to feel the need to point out that "most women fantasize about rape anyway and therefore probably want it", or that "rape is almost extinct because of internet porn" or that "giving custodial rights to male parents" will take care of the problem. Combine that with the large segment of men that COULD NOT FATHOM THAT OP'S ABOUT RAPE WEREN'T ABOUT THEM INDIVIDUALLY and you get what we got here the last days.

No wonder the shitstorm, then, IMHO.

[LiberalLoner]

2. +1

[Skidmore]

5. Thanks for the history on this.

I wasn't sure what had started this, although I did try to read through some of the threads and found some of them very offensive. I apparently did not read the thread that started it.

[Democracyinkind]

6. I think this was the original OP...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021898292

Although I think there were at least 2 or 3 versions of this going round in different groups/forums. The redundancy might have added in garnering up the shit storm.

[Starry Messenger]

16. +1

[OldDem2012]

3. Why did you feel the burning urge to add yet another thread on the topic?....

....Oh, the irony.

[CTyankee]

4. OK, well, for women it's always rape awareness week.

Because men don't fear rape as acutely as women do in general they have assigned some meanings to women's threads here about rape that are not warranted. That is, ascribing our concerns to "man-hating," to list just one. Or one I just ran across late last night, "true rape" as presumably opposed to "fake rape." The longer this is discussed, the more amazing insights into some male thinking have been revealed, quite surprising to more than a few women and to males here who are strong advocates for women.

[Brickbat]

7. "For women, it's always rape awareness week."

I just wanted to repeat that because YES.

[Democracyinkind]

8. At least Mr. "true rape" showed his true colors by posting that in those words.

That thread... Still makes me angry.. But I've been banned from it.. For better or worse... Good to know though that I pushed his buttons just as much as he did mine.

[CTyankee]

10. I don't understand how you can be banned from a thread...could you PM me and let me know...

[Heidi]

12. Hi, CTyankee. If a jury votes to hide your post in a thread,

you can no longer post in that thread.

[CTyankee]

13. OK. Thanks for letting me know.

I've never had a post hidden.

[Heidi]

14. Me, neither.

When I feel I'm getting that close to violating the TOS, I try to back away from the keyboard.

[Democracyinkind]

17. It was my first, too. And I don't think it was that over the top. But I understand.

Check it out if you're curious..It's in the rape fantasy thread. Don't want Heidi thinking that I'm a bad person .. Small country and all...

[Heidi]

19. I saw it.

I don't make value judgments about people's worth based on their hidden posts. Had I replied to that OP, my post probably would have been hidden, too.

P.S. I'm not Swiss. I just live here.

[Chorophyll]

9. + a million.

Interesting to me that everyone on this board was horrified when a Republican congressman attempted to define "legitimate rape."

But apparently it's okay for half of DU to come out and do the same.

[CTyankee]

11. If nothing else, this whole issue has revealed quite a lot about some of our most venerable

posters on DU.

Saying things like "true rape" is just mind-blowing. It was in the same vein as what was rejected by the voters of a very red state just last month! It just floored me to read that here.

[Chorophyll]

15. I've been a member of DU since 2005.

My post count is low-ish mostly because there were many, many days that I could not handle the casual, unexamined sexism on a progressive board.

I guess I'm older and tougher now. :/

[Odin2005]

18. BINGO!

[hfojvt]

24. so there really is no such thing as man-hating?

"women's biggest fear is that men will kill them?" is somehow not about me?

I mean, really? Can you make other generalizations like that without getting it jumped on? Could a person say "white people's biggest fear is that black men will kill them." without that being called extremely racist?

Just like the last one is a slur against all black men, the first one is a slur against all men.

But that's okay because men are expected to "be a man" and shrug off the slings and arrows against men.

[laundry_queen]

30. No, it's not all about you.

And that you haven't clued in yet is a big red flag.

BTW your analogy is ridiculous - the balance of power is not the same.

[Javaman]

20. Hit and run thread.

gotta love them.

[Cruzan]

21. Never left.

Read every reply.

[Javaman]

25. Just watching from the sidelines and waiting to strike, huh?

LOL

[Cruzan]

27. Actually, not.

My original post was simply a sincere question seeking information (note the word 'seriously'). As the replies come in I've been content to just inform myself by reading them.

[Javaman]

28. Well that's good.

I hope you learned a few things.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

22. I stayed away most of the last few days (well, mostly, lol) because

of the rape threads.

I try to be sensitive to the feelings of others and I didn't want any comments I might have made in these rape threads to be a part of the overall collection which might actually bring emotional trauma to any victims of rape who may be members here or search engine visitors and seeing their worst nightmares exposed on every other subject line.

But, then, I just did, didn't I?

[hrmjustin]

23. Last week There was a man here who said that he engaged in date rape as a younger man.

That and the responses by some people are the reason why there are many threads on rape.

[applegrove]

26. I know. I just did not want to go there

so I skipped them all. Don't even know the context of
why so many.

[liberal_at_heart]

29. I just put them all in the trash

It's not like there is any constructive conversation anyway. Just like all the threads at DU these days it just ends up with both sides verbally abusing each other. So sorry but this one is going in the trash as well.