Bernie Sanders distances himself from 'dumb' 1972 essay on rape

[Nye Bevan]

New York (CNN)Bernie Sanders' campaign tried on Thursday to distance the presidential candidate from a 1972 essay in which he wrote -- among other things -- a women "fantasizes being raped by three men simultaneously."

Michael Briggs, Sanders' newly minted campaign spokesman, said the article was a "dumb attempt at dark satire in an alternative publication" that "in no way reflects his views or record on women."

"It was intended to attack gender stereotypes of the '70s, but it looks as stupid today as it was then," Briggs told CNN.

.....

"Have you looked at the Stag, Man, Hero, Tough magazines on the shelf of your local bookstores? Do you know why the newspapers with articles like 'Girl, 12, raped by 14 men' sell so well?" Sanders wrote. "To what in us are they appealing?"

http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/28/politics/bernie-sanders-rape-essay-1972/

[Kali]

1. oh FFS

[arcane1]

2. That was easy. Anyone who read past the headline already knew it.

Thanks for posting!

[mythology]

3. That was a dumb thing to say

Not the dumbest thing I've heard said, probably not the dumbest thing I've ever said. Also it was 40 years ago and he hasn't tried to make policy based on it. Unlike say Republicans who think that there's legitimate rape and illegitimate rape and such, or that squeezing an aspirin between a woman's legs is a form of birth control.

[jwirr]

11. Many of us who were young women in those days recognize exactly what he was saying. He did

a very good job of showing what we went through in those days leading up to the feminist movement. Not too many men could have said that. He understood.

[Orrex]

23. Curious that he'd try to distance himself from a statement 40 years ahead of its time, then.

I don't think that he's pro-rape any more than I think that he's a racist (which is to say "not at all&quot , but in terms of damage control he'll do better by saying "it was a dumb thing to say" rather than "you all just don't get it."

[jwirr]

24. I think they are distancing it for the same reasons we see in this thread. It is only us older

ladies who remember when "girly" magazines controlled our lives. And as many said it is not well written.

[nadinbrzezinski]

31. Some of us not that old remember

teen magazines were (and are) still very toxic

[jwirr]

36. Exactly but the magazines Bernie is referring to are the ones who printed story after story about

the woman's fantasy rape by a group of men. They were very close to porn if not actual porn. Back then we also had the teen mags and women's magazines telling us how to be a good submissive wife. We still have all of them but for the most part they no longer have the power they had then.

[nadinbrzezinski]

37. Thankfully circulation for Cosmo

is down in the gutter.

[jwirr]

39. It should be we have learned a lot since then.

[blm]

35. It's corpmedia describing it as 'distancing himself'. Lazyminded media has their catch phrases

that they cling to, don't they?

[jwirr]

42. Absolutely.

[LordGlenconner]

32. Seems like you're rationalizing it

[jwirr]

43. If you bother to put into perspective and read the whole article maybe you will see what he was

doing back then. Talking about the role models that women were forced into back then by the magazines of the day (especially the magazines men read). He was and does support the feminists of that day.

And yes, I support what he wrote. I lived that life and recognize what he wrote as dealing with the source of the problem. The rape by 3 men was a common theme in the men's magazines then. They thought they were describing what we women wanted. Bernie in his article calls that idea out.

Notice at the end of the article he asks " And what does that say about us?" The article was written to men. To tell them what their actions were doing to women.

[1939]

30. If you don't drop the aspirin, it is very effective. NT

[JI7]

4. good for him

[Drunken Irishman]

5. Long time ago. Of course, I keep reading here that Hillary supported Goldwater...

So, that's proof alone she's a right-winger.

[eloydude]

6. She is a right-winger

but it's based on her current foreign and economic policies.

Not because she was a Goldwater Girl. Before my time.

Now, I have an interesting dilemma for Clinton - for those who were born during the Clinton administration have any idea who she is? I am talking about the Millenials who are of voting age by the time 2016 rolls around...

[NYC Liberal]

14. Name ten right-wing Republicans in Congress who support:

Equal pay
A living wage
Raising taxes on the rich
Labor rights and unions
Protecting unemployment insurance
Cutting back corporate welfare

Hillary supports all of them and has for years. Some "right-winger."

[cyberswede]

26. You won't be getting a reply

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=profile&uid=322772&sub=trans

[seabeyond]

29. about damn time. not that it wasnt pretty fast with this system. but, one had to ignore and

be patient, his time would come. and avoid a hide with any comment one might want to make to him

[Johonny]

41. Isn't the fear that Hillary won't actually work to hard on any of these social issues

A lot of liberals see the Clintons as DOMA, NAFTA, labeling rap albums, and Financial Services Modernization Act and a lot of talk. They fear she as president would concentrate on foreign policy where she is likely to find more agreement with a conservative/teaparty congress. It is easy to see why people fear the "right wing" Hillary Clinton if the left wing Hillary Clinton does little outside of election time. It is the base fear of the party that their candidates of late have talked a good game, but failed to show up often while in the White House. The fear is exaggerated, but it also exists. Clinton and her supporters can't just push it off as "crazy" talk. People aren't really up to more middle east adventures and little progress on Equal pay, living wage, progress tax structures, fair trade, labor rights, protecting the unemployed, and corporate welfare. Americans have moved a lot more left on issues since that Bill Clinton presidency and her task this primary cycle is to prove she's moved with it. If she doesn't, she will lose again. The Liberal Hillary took a long time to find her voice in 2008... this cycle she's come out early, but the fear remains that it is just talk... That is the race. Listing issues doesn't end the fear. It is her primary goal to get across that she is going to fight for liberal causes and not just fight wars in the middle east. Does she do it... I'm guessing yes.

[Drunken Irishman]

22. If right-wingers were more like Hillary, I'd be able to tolerate the right-wing a helluva lot more.

[Sheepshank]

28. really? and the point of this post vs. Sanders age is.....?

assinine post.

[Cha]

15. Yeah, some of Bernie's delusional supporters call her a rw.. they have no ******* clue. just cheap

ignorant pot shots.

[peecoolyour]

7. It's a shame that people have to answer for things they did or said 43 years ago.

I've done and said a lot of things that I no longer consider having done because I was a different person when I did them.

Hell, I can pull up things I wrote 5 years ago that feels like a stranger wrote them.

[Joe the Revelator]

8. Bernie should not have to apologize for this. People have dark fantasies. Its why they are fantasies

Some people like feet, some people like BDSM, some people like all sorts of dark shit. Why is verbalizing that in an essay satirizing gender roles wrong?

[MFrohike]

9. It was pretty shallow

It read like a teenager's attempt to explain gender roles and sexual fetish. I didn't find it offensive, just kind of pointless.

[jwirr]

13. As a teenager back then in the 50s and early 60s I recognize the hell we went through when we

were expected to be just exactly like he described us then. He was pointing out the pressures and cultural issues that shaped both how we were and why not so many years later we were part of the feminist movement.

[MFrohike]

16. Makes sense

When I said it was pointless, I meant that it wasn't really a cohesive whole. He asked some questions, tossed out some observations, and that was about it. I'm more into persuasive argument myself, so I guess I wasn't the target audience (along with the fact that I wasn't born when it was published!).

[jwirr]

19. You were right about the writing style - it was not easy to see what his point was unless you were

a woman living then.

[frazzled]

10. But you know what's interesting?

Is how bad it was. To call it stream-of-consciousness would be generous. It wasn't just bad writing or bad satire (not sure it was quite that) ... it was just plain bad thinking. You can't even tell what the point was supposed to be. And even if it was satire, it was pretty offensive. I guess what I mean to say is interesting to me is that it is kind of juvenile, both in style and substance. And he was not a kid at that point ... he was 32. How did a University of Chicago graduate put that out? It sort of sounds like the kind of thing a geek would write to try to show he was "cool" but only showed how geeky he was. (That's probably the U of C thing.)

I say it's interesting because I remember being struck a couple of years ago when Barack Obama's young writings were published--from his early 20s: letters to two different girlfriends, a letter to a friend/former roommate describing his first impressions upon moving to Chicago. They were philosophical disquisitions of great clarity and elegance. They sounded exactly like the speeches he writes now. Which is sort of Obama's hallmark to me, biographically speaking: he is the most freakishly consistent person, across time, I've ever seen. He was a remarkable writer at age 20, and it remains one of his strong suits now.

I'm going to hope that Bernie is not the same person or writer he was back then ... because that piece was truly embarrassing.

[Cha]

17. Thank you for bringing up Pres Obama's writings when he was younger and that they were

"..They were philosophical disquisitions of great clarity and elegance.", frazzled.

[jwirr]

18. I am 73 years old and I did not find the substance juvenile. He did a damn good job of showing

just exactly how women were expected to act back then. He was talking about how the gender role models effected us then. Believe me we are a world away from that today. He was using the "girly" magazines to show how these roles were enforced. The rape fantasy was from one of those damned magazines.

[beam me up scottie]

21. Thank you for your posts on this issue.

I seem to be the only one reading them but your perspective is appreciated.

Context matters.

[boston bean]

33. So, he is a Dworkinite! LOL

I'm just being facetious, cause if that was the reason for his writing, it sounds a lot like Andrea Dworkin!

This might just turn off a lot of dudes to Bernie.

[Lilith Rising]

34. I absolutely agree with your take on the piece.

I too remember those days and immediately understood what his point was.

[hrmjustin]

12. Oh Lord!

[Wilms]

20. That's really not necessary.

You can just call him, "Bernie".

[Sheepshank]

25. Look, I'm more the HRC camp...but this stuff is just as dumb....

as trying to paint Clinton with some sort of Righty agenda because she had a political association with Goldwater at age 17...even though she never voted "R". I doubt Bernie is into rape of any sort.

[backscatter712]

27. If you have to go all the way back to the 1970's to find something to attack Bernie Sanders...

...that indicates desperation for material.

Everyone does stupid things in college, Bernie Sanders included. I think we can move on.

[Nye Bevan]

38. Did you also raise that point in response to the "Goldwater girl" attacks on Hillary?

Or does your rule of thumb only apply to certain candidates?

[uponit7771]

40. Same has been done with Hillary on DU again and again and again

[JI7]

44. majority of the attacks on Kerry and Obama were from decades ago