In the Nation, a sports writer talks about the connection between jock culture and rape culture.

As a sportswriter, there is one part of the Steubenville High School rape trial that has kept rattling in my brain long after the defendants were found guilty. It was a text message sent by one of the now-convicted rapists, team quarterback Trent Mays. Mays had texted a friend that he wasn’t worried about the possibility of rape charges because his football coach, local legend Reno Saccoccia, “took care of it.” In another text, Mays said of Coach Reno, “Like, he was joking about it so I’m not worried.”

In this exchange we see an aspect of the Steubenville case that should resonate in locker rooms and athletic departments across the country: the connective tissue between jock culture and rape culture. Rape culture is not just about rape. It’s about the acceptance of women as “things” to be used and disposed, which then creates a culture where sexual assault—particularly at social settings—is normalized.

Not by itself though. Jock culture is a branch of the larger guy culture, or dudebro culture, or macho culture, or whatever the right word for it is. The culture that just kind of forgets all about women most of the time; that wants to get away from women most of the time, on fishing boats or in lumber camps or lost in the wilderness, or at least watching reality shows about same; the culture that equates women to those profiles on mudflaps.

Jock culture is just a hypertrophied version of that larger culture.

In thinking about Steubenville, thinking about my own experiences playing sports, thinking about athletes I’ve interviewed and know, I believe that a locker room left to its own devices will drift toward becoming a breeding ground for rape culture. You don’t need a Coach Reno or a Bob Knight to make that happen. You just need good people to say or do nothing. As such, a coach or a player willing to stand up, risk ridicule and actually teach young men not to rape, can make all the difference in the world. We need interventionist, transformative coaches in men’s sports that talk openly about these issues.

It’s very striking that Dave Zirin takes it for granted that the coach will risk ridicule by doing that.

Striking and depressing.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

How bad can it get? Well, I probably can’t even imagine, but I can see part of the way to how bad it can get. It can get as bad as Why don’t we have a Dumb Fucking Whore Registry? The author of that calls herself Judgybitch.

So two of the boys involved in the Steubenville “rape” case were found guilty and will now face imprisonment and a lifetime membership on the Registered List of Sex Offenders. That is a tragedy for the boys, for justice and for the victims of actual rape.  As we go through this case, ask yourself who benefits from this verdict, and why.

Most of the facts in this case seem relatively incontrovertible:  a young woman, who was not part of the regular social group, went to a football party, in a town mad for football, got trashed out of her mind, voluntarily accompanied two of the biggest football stars to another party, passed out and then got treated like a whore.

In a moment of mind-numbing stupidity, the boys opted to film their “assault” on the girl, which involved fingering her while she was passed out.  Rather than leave her in a ditch somewhere, they carried her around to different locations, none of which had any adult supervision.

What the fuck, Steubenville?  Where are all the goddamn grown-ups?

The law in Ohio states that ANY penetration, however slight, constitutes rape.  Let’s start there.  Comparing a stupid, drunk, helmet-chasing whore who gets fingered while passed out to an actual rape victim is completely and utterly absurd.

That’s the beginning. It gets less polite as it goes on.

The most telling thing about this whole case is that multiple people saw the little tramp passed out and carried about by a couple of douchey guys, and make no mistake, those boys behaved shamefully.  Part of having the adulation and admiration that comes along with being a small town football star is not to abuse that power when the little gold-digging status whores come a-calling, and those boys failed.

Punishment > Crime

That girl had no friends at the party, not one person had enough respect for her to step in, she was not part of the social tribe and there is no way in hell she did not know that.  She went to that party to nab herself a football player, and lo and behold, the football players didn’t really like such an obvious grasp at their glory.

Find yourself another wagon to hitch to, little star.

Hm. I can remember being in places where I wasn’t “part of the social tribe” when I was a teenager (and after, for that matter). Don’t we all? It happens. It’s not clear to me why not being part of the social tribe deserves such ferocious and humiliating punishment.

But the blogger assures us that the punishment wasn’t ferocious at all, and the girl will be fine.

Her life is not ruined in the slightest.  LittleTramp is free to go about her life, getting as drunk as she likes, chasing after any high-status males she likes, and securing criminal convictions against men who treat her like the whore she is.

I don’t think that last freedom is factually accurate, unless what the blogger means by “treat her like the whore she is” is sexually assault her while she’s passed out, and even then only if there’s enough evidence to convince a judge or jury.

You know what we need?  We need a Drunk Whore Registry. If sex offenders are registered for the protection of all women, then why not register drunk whores for the protection of all men?  It’s true that men could protect themselves by not acting like dicks, but combine small-town celebrity with lots of alcohol and no adult supervision, and you WILL get men acting like assholes and women acting like sluts.

When we only punish one side on that equation, we have a serious cultural problem.  Men are held to account for their irresponsible decisions made while young and stupid and drunk, but women are not? Most crimes acknowledge explicitly that mitigating circumstances create different categories of crime with correspondingly progressive punishments.  Why is rape different?

The punishment these boys face, which will be in effect for THE REST OF THEIR LIVES is way out of proportion to the “crime”.  The definition of rape in Ohio is so broadly defined that the act of being a dickhead is now as serious as the act of fucking a woman forcibly and against her will. And if you don’t think there is a material difference between getting fingered and getting fucked, you are probably a feminist.

That’s some of how bad it can get.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

There’s a funny thing where obsessive people have Rosicrucian-like Ideas about what happened when once long ago a comment they made on my blog ended up on the cutting room floor. They think it’s because Dogmatism or Social Justice Warrior or Skepticism Stabbed in the Back or the Femistasi or The Lindbergh Baby. They obsess; they make wikis; they type and type and type and type; they go on for thousands of words. And all the time it’s much simpler than that.

The comment was fucking boring.

It was long, and detailed, and pedantic, and about a very small thing that couldn’t stand that much length and detail and pedantry, and it was fucking boring.

You know what? Not everybody writes well. It can be surprising how many people don’t write well and never realize it. I get some people like that commenting here. (Not you! Of course not you. But some people.) When people who can’t write well write long detailed pedantic comments about some tiny incident that can’t possibly merit that level of attention and verbiage…

then those comments are boring. Boring. Boring.

I hate boring. I don’t want boring here. I don’t want windbags here, boring everyone into stone.

But I don’t like just coming right out and telling people, that comment was boring and you go on much too long about much too little all the time.

So I just ditch the god damn boring comment and hope they take a hint.

But they don’t. Instead they develop a Key to All Mythologies on the subject, and they Casaubon it to death ever afterwards. But at least they don’t do it on my blog! They do it on other people’s blogs, and on their beautiful new wikis, and on fora, but they don’t do it on my blog.

And that, O Best Beloved, is how the leopard changed its spots.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Hotshot starry tv trainers who can make people lose 800 pounds in a week turn out to be peddling quack “weight-loss pills” that are both useless and harmful. How sleazy.

Both trainers have created standalone sites — jillianweightloss.com and bobharpersupplements.com — to sell their supplements. By taking this under-the-radar path with their diet pills, the trainers are using the fame and trust they’ve gained from their time on the Biggest Loser to market weight loss supplements to a consumer base eager for a quick fix that “really works.”

There is little proof that either pill “really works” at all. Michaels has faced four different lawsuits from consumers claiming her supplements either didn’t work or were dangerous. All four suits were dismissed, and it wasn’t clear whether the ingredients singled out in one lawsuit — Chinese rhubarb, Irish moss powder and uva-ursi — posed a major risk to consumers. But Lynn Willis, professor emeritus of pharmacology at Indiana University, says that Michaels’ Total Body Detox and Cleanse supplement is ineffective:

“This product is an absurdity,” says Willis. “It’s completely bogus that this would detoxify the gut. Someone takes a laxative and they lose two pounds of water weight, but it will come right back.”

Ah the old “detox” nonsense – the stuff you can get in Prince Charles’s overpriced boutique Duchy of Cornwall shoppppes. Also in Boots, also in the chain drugstore near where I live.

Adriane Fugh-Berman, associate professor at Georgetown University, agrees:

“Supplements like this are laxatives and diuretics, and they don’t have any place in a rational weight loss regimen because they can dehydrate people and leave them short of electrolytes,” [she] says. “And supplements have side effects.”

That doesn’t stop Michaels and Harper from continuing to claim their supplements are different from all the rest. Harper’s site boasts claims of two double-blind, placebo-controlled studies that confirm the effectiveness of his active ingredients, but one of the studies was funded by the makers of Harper’s pill, neither is named or linked to, and only one can be found online. According to an indepedent supplement review website there are several flaws in the study: the caloric intake of the participants was not monitored or restricted, which means there is no way to tell how many calories each participant in the study consumed on a daily basis; the study wasn’t performed on Bob Harper’s supplement, but on a different product; and four out of the five co-authors have ties to the company that makes the diet pill. Despite this, Harper claims on his page that he’s “tired of good people like you getting ripped off by scam diet programs and products that just don’t work,” and that his really does.

Blegh. Really sleazy. That old advertising bluff – all these other quacks cheat you and I’m tired of it, so here’s my totally authentic shit that I wouldn’t dream of selling you if it weren’t 100% totally 100%.

The Duke and the Dauphin are at it again.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Hot new idea in Egypt! Allowing citizens’ arrests.

Uh oh. It doesn’t take much slow careful pondering to see the risks in that idea.

Only Islamist political powers, represented by the Freedom and Justice Party and Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya, welcomed the decision as an attempt to curb the security deterioration in the country.

Really? You sure? Not as an attempt to curb the secularism and sluttiness and bareheaded woman-ness in the country? Not as an attempt to curb the blasphemy and Christianity and apostasy in the country?

Yes, Egypt is right off my bucket list. I’d be arrested before the captain turned off the seatbelt sign.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

One of the pseudonymous harassers commenting at Michael Nugent’s blog is now just plain posting libel about me. It’s “Commander Tuvok”  – who will never have to face any consequences of his penchant for posting libel about people, because he is pseudonymous.

Meanwhile, we have Ophelia and her mob claiming terms such as “gender traitor”, “sister punisher” and “chill girl” were NOT taken up and used frequently by the Baboons and their followers. Just a pity the Pit has screencapped and documented dozens of examples of those terms being used with NO condemnation from the FfTB leadership. But this is typical of Ophelia and her insane sycophants – lying liars.

I claim no such thing. I said, truthfully, that I don’t call people “sister punisher” or “gender traitor.” I said what I do and don’t say. I don’t know which people “Commander Tuvok” means by “the Baboons” but in any case I said what I do and don’t say, not what other people do and don’t say.

And I am not a lying liar. And it is my real name and reputation attached to these smears, while “Commander Tuvok” keeps his own name and reputation clean by keeping them a secret.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Raw Story offers the top five rape apologist responses to the Steubenville verdict, so you don’t have to go looking for them and evaluating them.

1. CNN: “Those poor boys’ lives are ruined”

CNN correspondent Candy Crowley responded to the verdict by bemoaning the sad future of two rapists who traumatized one young girl for life but would never get to live out their football dreams.

3. Author/blogger Michael Crooke: “It’s just buyer’s remorse”
Author/blogger Michael Crook, who additionally claims that “rape doesn’t exist,” won the race for most-likely-to-be-poorly-executed satire, at least until he took to his Twitter feed to demand that the survivor be “held accountable”, tell women that “skimpy clothing is pretty much implied consent” and encourage every woman to not “dress like a whore if you don’t want to be treated like one.”

Those are my top two from Raw Story’s top five. Not at all, don’t mention it.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Gee, is Mitch McConnell a fan of the slime pit?

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) got in a few yucks during his 2013 CPAC speech Friday morning, telling a crowd that he thinks the Democratic Party’s 2016 presidential field is looking like “a rerun of ‘The Golden Girls.’”

“Don’t tell me the Democrats are the party of the future when their presidential ticket in 2016 is shaping up to look like a rerun of ‘The Golden Girls,’” he said. The crowd erupted with laughter.

Ahahahahaha – that’s so funny. Old; geddit? Women who are old. Hilarious, right? Stupid bitches – they should just die instead of hanging around getting old.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

A guy got beaten up by shouty racist bully-boys on a Manchester tram packed with football fans, and nobody helped, instead everybody just watched, as if it were an entertainment.

Prakash Patel, 56, from New Moston, was on a tram with his daughter Devyani  at Trafford Bar when he suffered a tirade of racist abuse followed by a sustained vicious assault. He was punched in the face and head more than 18 times and suffered two black eyes and concussion.

He tells what happened.

WE had been to the Fulham match at Old Trafford. We go as often as we can because we are big fans, we’ve been going for 25 years and never had any trouble. There were more than 200 people just in our carriage, it was so packed you couldn’t move. About six men or seven men came on to the tram and started making indecent racist comments.

Myself and my daughter felt distressed and very uncomfortable about this so I said ‘just behave’.  I said it again ‘please behave’ and that’s when it started. There was one in front of me and one behind me both punching me in my face and on the back of the head. They were hitting me in the face, the eyes, the head.

And no one helped. No one helped. All those people, and no one helped.

Both of them are horribly upset by that. It is upsetting.

Devyani Patel, 21, is an estate agent who lives with her parents in New Moston.

Reliving their ordeal, she said: “I was screaming at them to stop. They were punching him over people’s heads, but nobody did anything or said anything. I was trying to pull them off my dad and shouting at them to get off my dad.

“The one facing me was just staring at me with these cold evil eyes. I am tiny and I’m a woman. I don’t understand why nobody did anything. I was just being his daughter.

“That’s what hurts the most – that nobody did anything, nobody said anything. I have lost my faith in society.

“Later at the police station, they showed us the CCTV footage. You can’t see the men but you can see all those passengers watching – it sent a shiver down my spine when I saw that. Some of them were actually jumping up to get a better view.”

[shiver]

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Keep the title in mind.

It’s a beautiful spring afternoon here, one of the first we’ve had, and I went out into it, and not ten minutes along I saw a dog get hit by a car.

I probably could have prevented it, and I failed to.

There’s this scenic walk a couple of minutes from where I live, overlooking Puget Sound and the mountains. Where the street curves from south to east, there’s a little open park overlooking the view and diagonally across the street a little closed park that used to be a private garden. It’s a busy spot on days like today. I was approaching the curve and the open park when a boxer came racing out of the enclosed park, across the street, and into the open one. Uh oh, I thought; uh oh, uh oh; danger danger; cars. I heard a child’s voice calling, “Freddy! Treats!” Then I heard a car approaching behind me. I turned to look, and thought I should signal it to stop until someone got Freddy under control – but I didn’t. The car kept going and the boxer changed direction and raced right smack into it.

I said shit really loudly – involuntarily – and turned away for a few seconds.

But the dog was still racing around, and ended up going back to the closed park where two little boys were waiting for him. A guy in the overlook park shouted rather angrily “you should have it on a leash!” I stood and quivered for a bit, and watched as the driver parked and got out and went into the closed park. Then I went there too, to tell the little boys they had to take the dog to the vet. I told them that, and there was a woman just ahead of me who told them the same thing. “I’m a vet tech,” she told me, and I felt oddly reassured.

The boys gathered up Freddy’s leash (which was now connected to his collar) and headed for home.

I think Freddy’s ok. It was the meaty part of his shoulder that took the hit.

Still. I’ll be watching for a boxer out for a walk for awhile, hoping to get a chance to make sure.

I wish I had signaled that car though. I didn’t have any real reason not to, I think it was just accidental passivity. But if I had – she might have stopped, and then seen Freddy race into the street without getting hit, and everybody would have been glad she’d stopped. Sigh.

It was horrid. An awful crunch-thump as the car punched Freddy’s shoulder.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Physioproffe said let’s for fun post pictures of our bookshelves so I said ok so here’s my picture.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Metametameta coverage – reactions to the Steubenville verdict, reactions to reactions to the Steubenville verdict, [continue the series].

Too much sympathy in court being shown for these disgusting little rapists. It is not a tragedy when a rapist is found guilty.#Steubenville

— Radical Feminist (@RadicalFeminist) March 17, 2013

Is there? I looked for coverage and haven’t found it yet but did find commentary on the tears and sobs of the rapists themselves. The anchor (a woman) in the studio asked the commentator (a man) outside the courthouse about how gut-wrenching it all was, and he said the boys “didn’t realize that what they did was so serious.”

They didn’t?

Well why the fuck not?

Did they think it’s just ok and normal and no biggy to shove your fingers up a nonconsenting girl?

If so, why would they think that? Why would anyone ever think that?

Why would anyone ever think it’s ok to shove your fingers up a nonconsenting girl while other people watched and took pictures and video?

I would really like to know.

I wonder how much of it, if any, has to do with being called a girl by their coach during football practice. I wonder if their coach did that; I wonder if it’s universal among football coaches; I wonder if anybody even talks about it, in schools, where it counts. I wonder if all or most football players learn contempt for women, even loathing of them, in the very act of playing and training for football.

Anyway. I would really like to know how teenage boys can fail to realize that sexual assault is serious.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Both were found guilty of rape; Mays was also found guilty of disseminating a naked photo of a minor.

Richmond’s father told CNN that his son was doing OK.

“I told Ma’lik to put all his trust in God. God will see him through this,” Nate Richmond said. “I told him that I love him, basically. And to be strong.”

I wonder if Richmond’s father told him anything about not raping.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

QED has released the video of the panel “A Question of God” from last March. The panel is moderated by Paula Kirby and has Maryam Namazie, DJ Grothe, and me. Ironic, isn’t it.

It’s as I remembered it – fun, congenial, entertaining, interesting. That’s why I was so surprised when a few months later Paula Kirby called me a Feminazi and Femistasi. Watching that panel, she doesn’t seem like that kind of person.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-gdewF7tMk

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

How…quirky. Brazil’s House of Representatives elected a racist homophobe as the new chair of its Commission for Human Rights and Minorities. Kind of defeats the purpose.

Marcos Feliciano is known for his homophobic and racist declarations:  “Africans descend from an ancestor cursed by Noah. This is a fact,” he wrote. “Noah’s curse on his grandson, Canaan, lingers in Africa,  therefore leading to all the hunger, diseases, ethnic wars.”

This is a fact? What would a fiction look like then? If an old story in an old book is “a fact” then what criteria do you use to detect a fiction?

Marcos  Feliciano’s image has been further tarnished by the exposure of his  behavior during his fund-raising sermons at the ‘Resurrection  Cathedral’ (Catedral do Avivamento) for his church ‘The Assembly of God’  in Riberão Preto, in São Paulo state. Feliciano accepts donations in  cash, check, credit cards. Even motorbikes can be used to pay for  ‘divine rewards’, he announces.

In this video (not  subtitled), Feliciano says: “This is the last time I’ll say it. Samuel  de Sousa has donated using his credit card, but hasn’t provided the  password. This is not fair. Then he is going to ask God for a miracle,  and if God doesn’t reply he’s going to say God is evil.”

Even more quirky. Racist, confused about what a “fact” is, and venal to the point of embarrassment.

Today people dressed up as ghosts to protest.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Bjarte’s stick figure has discovered “civility.”

1. So you think you should not be treated like a public toilet and I disagree. [butterfly, flower, smiley]

2.Surely that’s a legitimate difference of opinion over which we can have a polite conversation. [birdie, musical note]

3. *@! no, because:

context
facts
values

analysis
logic

conclusions

4. #FTBullies blabla “*@!” blablabla uncivil blablabla uncharitable blabla tone blablabla rather than engage in civil dialogue!

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

There’s a gallery in a little neighborhood shopping area about half a mile from where I live, not the main top of the hill shopping area, but a smaller one, with a miniature grocery store, and the dentist I go to, and a great bakery-coffee shop called Macrina, and a taco place, and an orthodontist with witty signs (“if you have more tattoos than teeth, come see us”), among other things – quite a humming little spot really.

The gallery is the Fountainhead Gallery. I went past it yesterday and looked in the windows as I always do, and then looked some more and then went inside. They’re having an exhibit called Frontline Heroines, by Judith Larsen. The heroines are journalists killed on the job.

For instance -

NEDA Neda Agha Soltar was an Iranian student demonstrator who was gunned down during the 2009 student protest. She has since become an icon and martyr for democracy in Iran.

ANNA Anna Politkovskaya, born in the USA, was a Russian newspaper editor, journalist, human rights activist and an award-winning author who was shot to death near her Moscow apartment, allegedly for her coverage of the Chechen conflict and her investigative articles.

MARGARET Margaret Moth, CNN photo journalist, was shot and critically wounded while covering the Bosnian War. She died later from related health issues.

SHAIME Shaime Rezayee, host of an Afghan MTV show, was executed for her role in that program.

An important subject.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

The CBC doesn’t seem to consider internet harassment just “drama” or “playing the victim card” or similar. The CBC takes it seriously enough to report on it, at least.

An Alberta man found out just how ugly an online debate can become when someone hijacked his identity and went on a crude Facebook rampage.

He joined a Facebook page about preserving an Edmonton airport – whoa, controversial, right?! – and things got heated.

One of the users started harassing him, using profane language, so Ken blocked him.

This only angered the man and he recreated Ken’s Facebook profile, stealing his real profile pictures, his name and even where he worked.

The man then started posting racist, homophobic and exceptionally crude things under Ken’s name. One status claimed Ken was a rapist.

I thought everybody was allowed to do that. I thought that was “humor” – “parody” – “satire” – “lighthearted joking.” No?

Ken said he repeatedly reported the problem to Facebook. He asked dozens of Facebook friends to report the fake profile, but claims the company did nothing.

That’s Facebook. Facebook – unlike CBS – Doesn’t Care.

Steph Guthrie, who makes her living as an online activist but specializes in outing internet trolls who harass behind the cloak of anonymity, said she sees situations like Ken’s all too often.

“Harassment is unfortunately extremely common on the internet,” she said.

“The identity thefts side of things is maybe less common, but it’s definitely one of those key tools in an internet harasser’s arsenal.”

She said stealing someone’s identity is illegal, but Facebook rarely bothers to act.

Guthrie said police tend to prioritize investigations with financial or physical threat, so people just suffer in harassment cases, which can harm their well-being and reputation.

Yes but you see that’s their problem because they are out in public. If they weren’t out in public, the harassers wouldn’t know about them, so obviously it’s their own fault that they’re being harassed.

Facebook finally shut down the fake page today after being contacted by CBC News.

Ah well done Facebook! Do nothing for two years – and react only when the CBC taps you on the shoulder. You lying shits.

Account co-ordinator Claire LaRocca said the social media company takes the privacy of their users’ information very seriously.

“It is a violation of our policies to use a fake name or operate under a false identity, and we provide resources for both users and non-users to report false accounts through our Help Centre,” she said.

That is a shameless lie. Just ask my friend EllenBeth Wachs.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)