[this image is a companion piece to the one recently posted at a post on gang rape here. This time it is a man who is allegedly in some sort of pleasure-high after being raped. For a pro-queer writer's questions about both images and commenters' replies and analysis, see here]In a recent post, Jennifer Drew added her analysis of the atrocity of gang rape. I welcome everyone to read that by clicking here and scrolling down to her comments.
One point I'd like to clarify, as a white U.S.er, is that racism and homophobia are not considered hate crimes in the U.S. Not even close. Nor are any institutionalised abuses against oppressed people understood, legally, as "crimes"--hateful or otherwise.
Here in the U.S. racism, sexism, heterosexism, and classism are systematised, accepted, bolstered, supported, celebrated ways of being and behaving, by those who are in the dominant positions vis a vis the oppressed.
Given that racism and homophobia/lesbophobia impacts more women that men, that is reason enough for neither to be categorised as hate crimes. This is to say, the oppression of any women for any multiple reasons is not a crime, including and especially if she is a working class lesbian and of color or a poor white heterosexual woman. And here in the U.S., if not in all whitemale-dominated societies that are multi-racial/ethnic, racism is one of the founding pillars, one of the GREAT VALUES of our society. Our society would not function or even exist without it. It is as far from "a hate crime" as can be. White supremacy is, in this sense, the opposite of criminal, along with male supremacy, heterosexism, capitalism, and utter disregard for the Earth and non-human animals.
What are (sometimes) categorised and (rarely) prosecuted as "hate crimes" are specifically defined interpersonal or local actions involving one or more people from a dominant class using speech or other expression, such as spray painting a swastika on the front of a synagogue, or the beating up of an oppressed person WHILE the victim is being called racist or homophobic names, for example. There is a faint and weak consciousness in this law that acknowledges that such interpersonal crimes do, in fact, denigrate and terrorise an oppressed people, and not just the one person or building being targeted.
As you say, society-at-large would have to even ADMIT that patriarchy exists, collectively, socially, culturally, interpersonally, economically, religiously, and in law, that male supremacy is an active and lethal ideology, that men and boys rape women and girls because they are demonstrating their manhood-making and boyhood-bolstering desires to be heteromen. Males rape to practice being men in the patriarchal sense, and as you note, the women and girls who raped are barely human at all to them. They are living beings in the eyes of these males, only enough only to make the assaults a sport. And they enjoy it. They ENJOY it.
To compare societies "crimes", this is vastly different, for example, from interpersonal or local mugging, robbing, or burglarising someone (or their home or office) to get money for... whatever. There's no group entertainment in such an act. Well, except for the cheering that goes on at Wall Street's stock markets, which most certainly is (consciously or not) a daily celebration of theft, vandalism, sexism, racism, genocide, and ecocide. (Unless the markets are down, in which case only those who bet on the market going down will celebrate.)
The "alleged criminals" in only interpersonal and local non-business, non-organised crime cases doesn't return to the local bar, his family, or corporate office and high five every male in it for his accomplishment. He's not met with cheers for the mugging or theft. It is completely different with male interpersonal crimes against female humanity, as you well note.
Somehow the media refuses to get how, as you say, it is MEN doing this, each and every time, and that it is ENTERTAINMENT for these men to violate, degrade, and beat girls and women.
What do you call twenty men gathered around a young woman being raped?
Profeminist answer: an atrocity.
Patriarchal answer: fun.
It's several centuries past time for men to stop one another from committing such acts of atrocity, and start behaving like the "men" they proudly proclaim themselves to be. If "manhood" is supposed to equal bravery, courage, and heroism, why don't men beat up and kill one another for committing gang rape, or any rape of a girl or woman?
Now THAT would be heroism. I long for the day when the father-rapists, the husband-rapists, the date-rapists, the acquaintance-rapists, the street-rapists, and the gang-rapists are tracked down and killed BY MEN, or woman, or any person.
AND to have the society, its anti-capitalist, anti-patriarchal government and its laws, call it heroism, and give out medals of honor to the man or woman or any person who succeeds in killing the most rapists, male batterers, child molesters of girls, male pimps, and male pornographers. (Note: medals are and have always been given to U.S. men who commit these same acts--along with others--against women in other countries where people of color live.)
This would demonstrate that society really doesn't condone men's violence against women and girls.
END OF POST.
Why don't you just cut your testicles off? You may as well.
ReplyDeleteYou're more than welcome to show me how, using yourself as the example.
ReplyDeleteYour outrage is just, thank you for expressing it.
ReplyDeleteJulian, I've been reading your blog for a while now and I'm so happy sane men like you exist - and write blogs.
ReplyDeleteThat anonymous comment show a really disturbing mindset that I've many young boys showcase on the internet: Rape = manly behaviour. Oppressing female people = being a real man.
I think the most important thing in the world is that male humans must have the ability to have empathy for female humans. Only then can the epidemic gendered violence be stopped. Boys and men must see their fellow people of the female sex as just that - fellow people. It seems that the majority does not do that today.
Thank you for your comment, Saskia.
ReplyDeleteAnd more power to you to keep on surviving in a world of men that either hates women, or feels nothing and commits abuses as if women weren't human at all.
Welcome mrija,
ReplyDeleteI agree empathy along with respect, regard, and compassion are needed by men to fully see women as human.
Let's hope that day comes soon, when all men feel what all women feel--when ALL men feel, in their bodies and minds, the harm, horror, and terror women experience daily due to the private practices, the public harassment and scorn, the violent and violating customs, and callous and cruel institutions men created and maintain to dominante and degrade women. And feel it the way women experience it.
i actually don't think men are capable of higher level thinking or feeling that would cause them to see women as people. I see no evidense of this. So who are they really?
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that men have never seen women as human. I don't know how long it is going to take for women to really get this. Men, being subhuman rapist dominators that they are, will not change by themselves.
ReplyDeleteAfter this latest mass rape by men and boys at Richmond High School in Northern California, I think we know what the answer is. This is who men and boys truly are. This is the purest distillation of the male soul, the male mind, the male subhuman creature from the depths of hell.
What should women and girls do about those boys and men?
I think it is right and just for a jury of women to take hold of each and every rapist, and hang them in a public square for all to see. I think the fathers of these boys should be made to watch this execution. I think the boys who cheered on the rapists should be castrated and branded, so that it would be open season on them, and that any woman who killed the boys who cheered on the rapists would be given a $1,000,000 each for ridding the world of these cretans.
This should be televised. For the next year, all women would be allowed to go out and kill any man who had wronged them and each kill would be awared an additional $1,000,000. The heads of the men would be chopped off and carried in the streets, until all men surrendered, and vowed never to rape another woman again. Any man who broke this vow would cause this cycle of revenge to repeat. My guess is that women would kill well over 43,000,000 men and boys before the rest of them finally gave in and stopped the war on women. Men are slow learners after all. 43,000,000 executions, $43,000,000 to women who killed the rats, $43,000,000 to finally stop the rape worldwide, or perhaps only in the U.S.
Could women summon the sheer anger to finally defend themselves against these monsters? Could women truly say, "We have had enough, men will not change, time is up!" And what about that 15 year old girl and her friends who were affected by this crime? What about them? Who will speak for them? Who will post the pictures of all the men and boys accused of this rape, so that all can see and know their names, so that they become targets for the rest of their natural lives? Who will avenge this crime?
Hi Anonymous,
ReplyDeletei actually don't think men are capable of higher level thinking or feeling that would cause them to see women as people. I see no evidense of this. So who are they really?
I can appreciate where this comment is coming from, and you realise the same is said of us white people, right?
The problem is that men have never seen women as human.
My father say my mother as human. My grandfather saw my grandmother as human. My uncles see my aunts as human.
But if we're speaking of men collectively, or of male supremacist men, actively patriarchal men, then yes. They don't see women as human to the degree they see one another as human. (And of course we whites don't see people of color as human, either.)
I don't know how long it is going to take for women to really get this. Men, being subhuman rapist dominators that they are, will not change by themselves.
Men will not change (but can), whites will not change (but can), and other oppressor groups will not change by themselves (but can). They'll/we'll need help, and we'd best find those among our own oppressor groups who understand what needs to change.
After this latest mass rape by men and boys at Richmond High School in Northern California, I think we know what the answer is. This is who men and boys truly are. This is the purest distillation of the male soul, the male mind, the male subhuman creature from the depths of hell.
Socially speaking perhaps. But not biologically speaking. And white men have done far more grisly things to women of color that that, horrible as that is to imagine. But read this, for just one example of what I'm referring to.
What should women and girls do about those boys and men?
I think it is right and just for a jury of women to take hold of each and every rapist, and hang them in a public square for all to see.
I do not support any action against men of color that echoes the white supremacist past and present. Whites have no business hanging anyone, except gynocidal white heterosexual men. That comment of yours shows great insensitivity to the people in the U.S. who have been publicly hanged by whites for being Black.
I think the fathers of these boys should be made to watch this execution.
Can those of us who are white steer clear of advocating public hangings, please?
I think the boys who cheered on the rapists should be castrated and branded,
Again, this is grossly racist and anti-Semitic. Jews had numbers branded onto their forearms. Black men in the U.S. have been "castrated" as part of lynching rituals, or not. Such methods of torture or punishment ought not be used, in my opinion.
so that it would be open season on them,
ReplyDeleteI find that language also racist. People of color as non-human animals?
and that any woman who killed the boys who cheered on the rapists would be given a $1,000,000 each for ridding the world of these cretans.
While I admire your spirit and sense of urgency about ending gynocidal atrocities, I'm not sure offering money would do the trick, as this would disproportionately target poor people and working class people. And we know the middle class and rich are just as guilty, if not more guilty, than the poor and working class, of committing gynocide, both interpersonally and institutionally, locally, regionally, and globally.
This should be televised.
It would just become another form of pornography.
For the next year, all women would be allowed to go out and kill any man who had wronged them and each kill would be awarded an additional $1,000,000.
I'd support that as long as there was no financial reward and that the women who did so could not be prosecuted or charged with a crime.
The heads of the men would be chopped off and carried in the streets, until all men surrendered, and vowed never to rape another woman again. Any man who broke this vow would cause this cycle of revenge to repeat. My guess is that women would kill well over 43,000,000 men and boys before the rest of them finally gave in and stopped the war on women. Men are slow learners after all. 43,000,000 executions, $43,000,000 to women who killed the rats, $43,000,000 to finally stop the rape worldwide, or perhaps only in the U.S.
I really wonder exactly how many men this would have to happen to before men would, collectively, "get it" and stop their violence. But we have to keep in mind that institutional and corporate violence is not so noticeable, so directly interpersonal. And that level of violence harms and kills women too, disproportionately women of color.
Could women summon the sheer anger to finally defend themselves against these monsters?
I don't think any man is a monster, so for me the question is: are women allowed, in any patriarchy, to express and organise around this rage?
Could women truly say, "We have had enough, men will not change, time is up!"
Good question. We can note that some women over time have had enough, and have taken action against men. But their actions over centuries pale in comparison to what men do to women every minute.
And what about that 15 year old girl and her friends who were affected by this crime? What about them? Who will speak for them?
I hope, when they are ready and able to, the friends will speak for themselves.
Who will post the pictures of all the men and boys accused of this rape, so that all can see and know their names, so that they become targets for the rest of their natural lives? Who will avenge this crime?
I've seen a wall of photos of white men who were rapists and genocidalists of one sort or another. It was a few years ago. The photos were of all the U.S. white male presidents.
I'm actually not looking at this rape in racial terms at all, I'm looking at it as part of the male war on women. I didn't even know the race of all the men and boys involved, nor did I know what the demographics of that high school were, since I've never been in Richmond. But what I am talking about is the crime itself, what men and boys think they can get away with, and how men and boys avoid all responsibility for their actions.
ReplyDeleteMen are so dead on this subject, never voicing outrage, never really caring as far as I can see.
So that is why I deem men collectively unable to feel anything at all... they have been dead inside for generations, and it is up to women to fight back with every weapon now. We can't rely on the courts (male controlled) we can't rely on men, no integrity, porn profiteers that they are. As a class, men have used up whatever moral integrity left in them, and become pornified zombies.
I am very very harsh, and I want every man and boy who committed this crime wiped off the face of the earth, after first being beaten day after day after day in some rotten prison.
I want the justice of the sword, and no possibility of parole ever...it's why rape should be a capital offense, in my opinion, because they let the rapists out of prison so that they can rape women again.
When women finally get this, I think we'll see a very different world. It's why I am so blunt when I say all men are rapists or bystanders, and you don't know who men really are. You don't know what they are capable of, other than dominating women, and this has nothing to do with race or creed, it has to do with their spiritually unevolved state of being...it is in their very nature.
Remember, I am talking about all men as a class. So if the men and boys were non-whites, then a jury of their racial peers should determine their fate. If the boys were Latinos for example, then an jury of all Latina women should sentence them.
ReplyDeleteAgain, rape merits a death penalty whether the men are white or Latino. The race of the offenders is irrelevant, it is about the crime they committed, and whether or not women actually have the right to fight back, to make the world safe for other women. And we have to come down so hard on men that they come to fear being on the streets at night because women might actually do them in. That's what I'm talking about.
I don't see men capable of change, so women must change, women must learn to defend themselves and avenge any crime against another woman. We need to control the courts, the prisons, everything, so that man who ever does anything bad to a woman will have to face a panel of women. I want women to judge men, to execute them, to make it clear that the world has changed and this rein of terror of men against women will come to an end.
I'd have exactly this same opinion of all rapists. The crime is so horrifying, I believe the absolute rage of women printed on the page nails the truth of the matter to the wall. I am beyond compassion, I want women's bodies avenged, and I want women to learn how to end this violence. Let's see how all the male commentators slide around this issue with all their male denying tactics, all their false compassion, all their self satisfied male dominant behavior on the networks, in the newspapers...I'd like to see one man speak out and say point blank, kill all of them!
So true what you have written Julian in that and correct me if I have misinterpreted your article - the only 'real crimes' are ones committed by white males against other white males.
ReplyDeleteHere in the UK we have legislation making it a criminal offence to promote racism and/or homophobia but all too often public outrage is expressed only when a celebrity white male publicly makes a racist comment about a coloured male.
Misogynistic comments made by so-called celebrity male commedians are dismissed as 'just humour' rather than deliberate women-hating.
I'm not trying to trivialise racism/homophobia rather what I see here in the UK is the continued male-centered and male-dominated focus on males and invisibility of females - unless of course they are portrayed as white men's dehumanised sexualised objects.
Women of colour living in the UK are subjected to racism but all too commonly their experiences are invisibilised because the focus continues to be on coloured men's experiences of racism. Similarily women living in the UK and who identify as lesbian or are 'considered to be lesbian' and then subjected to homophobic comments and verbal attacks are also invisibilised because as always men are centre stage and women are marginalised.
Alan Johnson in his book The Gender Knot makes a similar statement, wherein he says medals are awarded to soldiers for the 'brave deeds they have committed in battle' but where are the medals and memorials to the innumerable women and children slaughted in men's wars?
What is to be done? I personally do not believe all men are rapists but certainly all men learn as they grow up that being white and male gives them automatic entitlements and privileges including the pseudo male sex right to unlimited sexual access to women and girls.
Challenging individual men on their behaviour is a step but more much more needs to be done and radical feminists have been saying for years that we need to change how our society teaches men as boys what being a man is all about. Going to the root of the problem directly challenges male entitlement and pseudo male sex right which is why I personally was not surprised on reading reports of approximately 20 males, some adults others boys who rushed to view the spectacle of males engaged in group raping a young woman. To me this demonstrates what happens when our so-called liberal society refuses to even begin to understand how and why so many men cannot even begin the long, long task of challenging their indoctrination of masculinity and supposedly innate male superiority over women and girls.
Regarding the horrific atrocities white men have committed and continue to commit against indigenous women and girls is appalling. But given white males are taught almost from birth their biological maleness supposedly automatically makes them human compared to women of colour and particularly indigenous women and girls because they are 'non-human' it is not surprising such atrocities continue to be committed. But whilst I am not surprised that doesn't mean I'm not angry at the atrocities committed by white men against white women, women of colour and indigenous women and girls.
I see a continuum of male violence wherein white male violence is even more excused and justified if the women are not white and yes racism and xenophobia plays a huge part in male hatred of women.
I'd like to see this latest atrocity as a 'wakeup call' but unfortunately I think it will be quickly forgotten and dismissed as 'just another individualised case wherein some boys just got carried away!' Or else the focus will once again be on the young woman, with minute analysis as to how and why she didn't take more precautions with regards to her safety. Because women are supposed to have built-in antenna which automatically alerts them to potential male violence being committed against them.
Hi Jennifer Drew,
ReplyDeleteI'll respond to you in a new post but will link back to this one, so people can read your comment in its entirety, uninterrupted by my remarks.