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Re: “Why I Will Always Side With Rape Accusers Before Knowing the "Facts"”
More importantly, you're missing the point and the bigger picture.
The way you are making your argument seems to suggests that you believe that women make rape out to be a bigger issue to them than it actually is, and are somehow trying to use and manipulate it. By vilifying feminists (whom you associate with all women) and accusing them of "lying," you're justifying the very mindset of rapists (which is counterproductive for both men and women).
******Progress for men should not come at the expense of women, just as progress for women should not come at the detriment of men.******
I understand that you're trying to defend men, but you don't have to hurt women to do it.
Yes, men as sexual assault survivors are just as marginalized as female survivors but that is a cause of SOCIETY and the constructs developed over the years, not because feminists are trying to manipulate the way people see things.
I'm a MALE and I'm also a FEMINIST. These are things that are NOT mutually exclusive if you understand the meaning of feminism. I'm also a sexual assault educator and we do a lot of work to establish gender neutrality, because rape is something that affects both men and women.
Instead of trying to disregard the arguments of the opposite sex we, both men and women, should be united in ending rape.
Re: “Why I Will Always Side With Rape Accusers Before Knowing the "Facts"”
To Anthony Zarat and everyone else thinking similarly:
Although I understand what you're trying to say (and I would agree that a man being forced to penetrate a women does constitute a rape), I feel that the way you make your argument is counterproductive for several reasons.
First, you can't directly compare only the yearly reports of men being forcibly penetrated to the number of women that were raped in a year without including additional numbers on both sides. The definition of rape used by the report is far to narrow for both men and women. A lot of what is lumped under "other sexual violence" does in fact constitute rape. This means that a lot of numbers would be added to BOTH sides of rape statistics if we were to compare them by sex or gender. You can't simply pick two lines and compare them, although I understand why you highlighted the one you did. I agree that the report's presentation of the statistics could be improved. The FBI recently changed its definition of rape because it previously did not include many of those things categorized under "other sexual violence," and also did not allow for men to be included in the definition. This is the type of progress we should aim for.
I also think it's unreasonable to describe the CDC, that is the Center for Disease Control, survey as being subject to undue "feminist" influence, especially when there is representation of men on the team that put out the report.
