Trigger warning: This article, or pages it links to, contains information about sexual assault and/or violence, which may be triggering for survivors.
Over the course of the past week, there were a string of rumors circulating on the Internet concerning the organization of "pro-rape rallies." While there have been several articles published debunking these gatherings as pro-rape, or "tribal meetings" as they were being called, and portraying them as congregations of cis -- straight men sitting around and talking about women and the "oppressive" nature of feminism -- the events have since been cancelled as a result of concerns for the participants.
The kingpin of these incredibly offensive and, quite frankly, terrifying acts is a blogger who goes by the name Roosh V, who published an article "How To Stop Rape," which suggests and recommends, that somehow legalizing rape on private property will eliminate the problem of sexual assault by way of victim blaming (surprise, surprise).
The article opens with a brief disclaimer that he has a sister whom he does not want raped, which obviously gives him credibility and clearly gives him license to make any sort of commentary on rape, right?
He follows with a disconcerting string of scathing remarks about the concept of rapists being at fault, a disbelief in teaching men not to rape and an attempt at a claim that an intoxicated person cannot give consent.
"Thankfully, a man only has to be told the phrase 'rape is bad' at some point after puberty by an overweight feminist to definitively stop his future brutal and bloody rape career."
Roosh claims that the article is satirical and that he essentially wrote it in an attempt to get attention from the media. Interesting that because he regretted something he claimed, it was someone taking advantage of him. It is what he claims survivors of sexual assault do when they report.
"I saw women who, once feeling awkward, sad, or guilty for a sexual encounter they didn’t fully remember, call upon an authority figure to resolve the problem by locking up her previous night’s lover in prison or ejecting him from school."
Not only is he victim-blaming, he is calling upon the age-old excuse of the friend-zone.
Hi, Mr. Roosh, sir, aforementioned overweight feminist here!
Sorry to bother you, I just wanted to make sure that we're clear on something here: rape is bad. You know that, right? It's not like just some catchphrase for angry man-haters, or a tool for justification of misandry. It's a persistent issue, with at least 1 in 4 women experiencing some kind of sexual assault in their lifetime. And those are just the cases that are actually reported.
Just so we're clear: rape and criticism of rape culture is not a result of women trusting men, not a result of women not caring about themselves, and it is 100 percent never the survivor's fault.
As for your claim of satire, sure, maybe that's how you meant it, but you also know your audience. All of your blog posts are anti-feminist, anti-women, and you are a self-proclaimed chauvinist. So, it's safe to assume your audience is of a similar vein. If you preach the rest of your disrespectful bullsh*t as law, why would this be taken as anything different?
What you've done with your "satire," your digital word vomit, your vile, misogynist notions of "prevention," coupled with your crazy creeds smattered throughout your whole website, is allow people to further justify rape, to victim-blame.
People of the world: I implore you not to take this garbage seriously. Any of it. Any of his pick-up tips or words of wisdom or methods of sexual attraction, any of the misogyny, any of the upfront perpetuation of hatred and degradation. Do not take a single word of it as anything but evil.
To the Roosh's of the world: just remember that none of your nonsense was tolerated, that we will no longer sit in the shadows and quietly let you devalue our experience. You are under the public eye now. We know that you're there, and we will never stop fighting against you.
