Meet the Predators (men need to learn how to recognize and fight rape culture)

[TeamsterDem]

81. First of all, you have no idea what my experiences are

So you can save the assumptions about my life and what I've seen.

Second, that you find it impossible to believe that I haven't heard a rape joke or men denigrating a woman's humanity (that's what I actually said), then you're stating that you believe that so many men are rapists and rape-supporters that I must've heard it by now. That's a statement laden with one of two assumptions: The first is that the sentiments of men are better known by you than I, and that it's so widespread that literally everyone hears it; or 2 that I'm lying about it. The first hypothesis is not provable by you, as you can't claim to know just how widespread the sharing of rape jokes is, and I can't prove that I've never heard a man telling a rape joke. So you can assume what you like, but know that simply stating what is YOUR ASSUMPTION does not necessarily make for a great argument, nor does it prove much of anything. For that reason I included my own personal experiences, as I'm not aware of statistics relating to the prevalence of rape jokes (so I couldn't demonstrate it that way), and unlike you I don't feel free to toss out broad-brush assumptions about entire groups.

Third, the post most certainly IS about me as it says that "men need lessons" regarding rape and rape support, and I'm a man. So it is inherently about me, much as any post generalizing women into some group would inherently be about all women. That's what a generalization is, you see.

Fourth, I don't think asking men to help eradicate rape is somehow harming me. What I think is that labeling me into some group which "needs lessons" doesn't actually ask for my help but instead offends me. And that's been my point the whole time, something you'd know if you actually read what I wrote instead of just clambering to disagree with it.

You can save the smarminess for someone impressed by it, but you could do a hell of a lot to impress me by simply understanding that no one wants to be stereotyped or told that they, as a group, are uneducated about something simply because the author doesn't realize that not all members of the group are the same, and may in fact be equally "educated" about it already.