It takes sodomy to get attention in Iraq...women being raped isn't enough.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4193053

If you recall, a few months ago, there were two women who had said they were raped by members of the military. I think they were 17 and 18. When someone THEN posted "our army rapes children?" they were attacked because "17 and 18 year olds aren't children" and "don't blow it out of proportion".

But now, a 16-18 year old male is sodomized and it's a completely different ballgame. Nobody questions that HE was a child.

Here on DU we paid attention to both the male and female rapes. But the public let the rapes of those women slide by. I doubt they will do the same with the men though.

Why is raping a woman "natural"? And even for people that claim to abhor it, when compared to a man raping another man people will usually say the one is worse than the other.

[Ripley]

1. You are so right.

The attitude seems to be:

Rape is:

1. Not that big of a deal for a woman. She's alive isn't she? Can't she just try to enjoy it since it is happening?

2. Something that horrible criminals like child molestors should have done to them in prison as part of their punishment.

3. The worst thing that could happen to a man.

I'm getting almost fed up again. DU takes 1/2 a step forward on sexism, then WHAMO it pole-vaults back into 1965. The hatefulness being spewed here in the name of "But I love the tits (or whatever the subject is)!" is over the top. And the ganging up on women who choose to call them on it is not fair.

:grr:

[Bunny]

2. Speaking of Apollonia's breasts:

Did you see my post there this morning re: the age of the actress who played Apollonia? She was only 16 when the infamous "tit" scene was filmed. Wonder if all those stand-up guys realize that they're ogling the breasts of a child? Would that make them pedophiles? :rofl:

[Ripley]

3. Oh, but then they'll say she is a young woman, not a child.

And you are a prude in denying the blossoming of her sexuality. As a matter of fact in some cultures it is acceptable for female sexuality to blossom at age 10. Aferall with the onset of menses, they are sexual beings.

I actually read the above bullshit on DU.

[Bunny]

4. Yeah, I know. It boggles the mind, doesn't it?

I just think it's funny that all the "tit" enjoyers, who like ogling her "fine set", don't even know that they're looking at an underage girl. Especially the one poster who said he's 57 years old - THAT's pretty creepy! Wonder if he thinks of his daughters or granddaughters that way?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

5. Which thread are you talking about?

:shrug:

[Ripley]

6. This one...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4174231&mesg_id=4174231

[Lydia Leftcoast]

7. Oh, my, I know the type

About ten years ago, I joined a film discussion group led by a man who was then unemployed. He finally settled on a new career, photographer of soft-core porn.

The mostly female group just kind of said, "Oh, well," and tried to ignore his new career choice, but he kept bringing samples of his wares to meetings and showing them around.

We'd pass them on without even looking at them, once we saw that they were stuff like 18-year-olds wearing transparent gauze underwear. Finally, we told him that we weren't interested in looking at his photos at all.

He got mad and told us that we were "censoring" him and didn't believe in free speech.

The group eventually broke up over this controversy.

At the time I was subletting part of a house from a lesbian couple, and I'd kept them informed of the ongoing story as we shared the one kitchen in the house. One of my landladies finally said, "The women in the group are all accomplished professionals. He's living in his ex-wife's basement. Showing those pictures around is his way of cutting you all down to size."

I'd never thought of it that way---I'd thought he was just obnoxious--but I think she was right on the mark.

[Ripley]

9. Observant landlady!

The sexism always gets turned around to cut women down to size. For instance, the use of the word "tit" doesn't really bother me. It was hilariously used in a game of "porno password" in the movie "Cable Guy" with Jim Cary.

Yet the thread eventually descends into a multitude of words for breasts. Therein lies the sexism. And the more they use the pornographic words (on this very public board) to describe female body parts, the more they claim they are saying it because of how much they love women.

There is a hardcore group of very hateful men in here...I've seen them for years posting this crap. They sneak in one word ("cunt" used to be used here frequently), then another guy pushes the envelope.

I suppose when this stuff is allowed to stay here that the administrators are telling the world that the most popular liberal board on the internet doesn't consider sexism a bad thing.

[Hello_Kitty]

14. Haven't we all been in situations like that?

That reminds me of a college class I was in. Business Ethics I think it was. There was a guy who constantly injected sexist comments into the class discussion and his big paper/presentation was on a sexual harrassment situation he supposedly had at work. According to him, 2 young and attractive women "wanted" him (not likely given how repulsive most of the class thought he was) and schemed to get him run out of the company or something like that. I remember that the mostly female class tried as hard as we could to ignore him. But the more we ignored him, the louder and more insistent he got.

I experience the same thing with some of the guys I work with. I'll avoid them and remain silent and detached when they start up with the misogynistic rhetoric because it's really pointless with these guys, you know? But they'll often try to draw me into a conversation with them and pester me until I respond. And I've found it doesn't really matter to them if my response is positive or negative, just that they've gotten to me. You see it with some guys on DU too. Especially the ones that follow women into other discussion forums to continue debates started in GD or the Lounge. It's like dude, if we're so wrong and our opinions are so meaningless to you, then why can't you leave us alone? They can't. They have to put us in our place.

My dad, who was a huge sexist despite being fairly liberal otherwise, had this insistence on having "the last word" in any argument with a female, whether it was my sister or me or an adult woman. That was a really important symbol of male dominance to him. The last word.

Your landlady was right on.

[Misunderestimator]

10. LOL... "the radical sexism brigade"

:rofl:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4174231&mesg_id=4187463

"I've attempted to debate the radical "sexism" brigade here at DU, and I've learned you get nothing but sexist viciousness, and not to mention self-righteous condescension, in return.

They are a disgrace to DU, feminists and progressives as a whole."

Man... what if it said "the radical homo brigade, where you get nothing but anti-straight viciousness" :wtf:

Ok, not laughing now... this is truly hideous. We were all just personally attacked there, you know.

[Bunny]

11. I missed that, so I went back in there. I saw your post and

responded. What a dick! And sadly, there is quite a group of them here. Why are they here, I wonder? :shrug:

[Misunderestimator]

12. Apparently they are scared.

Why... because they must think we are stronger than they are. That's all I can imagine. Why else would they need to turn us into objects for their amusement? Why else would they need to cling desperately to their RIGHT to belittle and demean us, despite our obvious discomfort with it?

[Bunny]

13. It's dog-eat-dog, I guess. In their eyes, maybe. So they have to

cling to whatever bits of control they belive they have. Being politically incorrect is just asserting my god-given right to remain an asshole!

[Solly Mack]

8. Speaking along those lines

I detest when a child gets raped and people say "molested"

NO - the child was raped.

I think it stems from this attitude you are talking about. Since women being raped isn't seen as the big deal it actually is...children are molested...women are raped. As if because it's a child, a different word has to be used.


But I could be wrong.

Anyway, I put ALL rape on the same level..regardless of gender/age.

[Heddi]

15. Or even worser

they call it 'assault'

A four year old child was sexually assaulted by her father.

A 10 year old boy was assaulted by one of his teachers

A 34 year old woman was sexually assaulted by an intruder into her home.

See..it's just assault...not RAPE. not FORCED SEX. Not PENIS FORCED INTO ANUS OR VAGINA AGAINST SOMEONE'S WILL

It's just assault. Nearly everyone's been assaulted--verbally, physically. And it's no big deal. Just a little rough, that's all. A smack on the ass, a pinch on the tit. No big deal.

Hell, that little girl should be happy she was only SEXUALLY ASSAULTED instead of being RAPED. You can get over assault just like you should get over rape....

[Solly Mack]

18. Yes!

just one more way to marginalize violence against women and children...and even men.

[Ripley]

16. I agree.

I usually say "child rapist" but used the term "child molestor" in my post above as an example of what OTHER people seem to think is appropriate.

I always thought murder and rape were the top two most horrible felonies committed. Yet somehow with the sickness of War surrounding us again...the rapes done at the hands of American soldiers in Iraq...it now is being talked about in these terms: Well, rape is just a fact of life during wartimes. Including male to female and male to male rape within our own military personnel.

How can Humans ever evolve when people speak of this as "normal." I don't think war is normal anymore. Europe pretty much learned and changed. But to accept that US Army male soldiers rape US Army female and male soldiers is MIND BLOWING AND NOT ACCEPTABLE!

[Solly Mack]

17. I know. The "Oh well, that's what happens" thinking

as if we can't work to prevent it from happening...people just accept it's going to happen and there's nothing they can do to change it....and many don't care if it is changed.