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'MSNBC host Toure argued that there is “sexist, coded language” sometimes used to describe Hillary Clinton on Saturday’s “Up with Steve Kornacki.”
Toure, in a discussion about a list of sexist code words put out by a pro-Hillary Clinton group said that “there is this sort of sexist, coded language that we’ve talked about. We had somebody on ‘the Cycle,’ I think when you were on, where somebody referred to Hillary as ‘shrill,’ right? And we all understood that as one of these code words that people use against women that they’d never use against men…we do have to be careful about the way we talk about female politicians and not sort [use] those code words to say ‘hey, remember she’s a woman,'” although he did argue that the words on the list in question weren’t sexist code words.'
'The campus rape panic that dominated western media for well over two years suffered a severe blow in late 2014 thanks to the credulous reporting of hoax allegations in Rolling Stone. Those who had long harboured doubts about the panic, such as Glenn Reynolds and Emily Yoffe began to lend aid to long-time sceptics like Christina Hoff Sommers and Cathy Young. Today, Bloomberg columnists casually refer to this chapter of history as a moral panic. Meanwhile, colleges that embraced the panic by abandoning due process are facing a wave of lawsuits from aggrieved students.
This is all good news. But the focus on college campuses is limiting. It blinds us to the bigger picture. In truth, the “rape culture” panic spread far beyond the walls of universities, injecting an atmosphere of vigilantism into almost every community where both genders happened to mix. In all of these arenas, opportunists seized on the opportunity to ruin the reputation of innocent people on little more than hearsay. One of the most egregious examples, in fact, did not occur on a college campus but in the community of professional librarians.
The librarian, Joe Murphy, was publicly accused of being a ‘sexual predator’ by two colleagues on social media. This was followed up by blog posts urging his professional community to ban him from conferences, despite the fact that none of the allegations had been proven true.
It was excellent advice — but it’s not just women who have to be careful at college.
As the mother of a young son, I, too, am starting to plan some advice — about the dangers to guys of false accusations of sexual abuse. It’s a real issue, and a scary one.
My message to my future college-bound son would be: Don’t expect anyone to give you the benefit of the doubt. The tale of the Rolling Stone piece about a gang-rape-that-wasn’t at a University of Virginia Phi Kappa Psi fraternity party is a case in point.
...
As in the case of the Duke lacrosse team years ago, everyone simply accepted — with zero evidence — that the brothers of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity were rapists. They were guilty merely because of the accuser’s word. Never mind the boys’ claims of innocence.
My son will spend his life hearing from me that women are — or should be — equal to men, that “she can do anything you can do.” But when he gets to college, he’ll find out that’s not always the case.
In fact, men are held to higher standards than women — most notably, by the very women and “feminists” who demand equal treatment between the sexes.
Consider: If a man and woman are both drunk at college, the onus is almost certainly on him to head off any possible sexual interaction between them.
'State Sen. Mae Flexer, D-Killingly, said there is bipartisan confusion within the Higher Education and Employment Committee about a bill she introduced to help shift the way society thinks about sexual assault.
While state Rep. Mike Bocchino, R-Greenwich, was openly criticized by the Connecticut Democratic Party for comments he made during discussion of the bill at a recent meeting, Flexer said he was just one of several people from both parties to make “unfortunate comments.”
The proposed legislation, which was forwarded to the Senate by a 14-3 vote, would move the burden of proof in sexual assault cases on college campuses from the victim to the alleged perpetrator, Flexer said. Currently, the victim must convince investigators that she said “no,” while this bill would put the onus on the accused to prove she said “yes.”
Bocchino’s remark was made in the context of his concerns about ambiguity in the bill’s definition of “affirmative consent.”
'In case you missed it, there is a documentary film that purports to expose the “campus rape culture.” Premiering at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, “The Hunting Ground” takes full advantage of the belief that college campuses are extraordinarily dangerous places for women because sexual assault is so common and tolerated. Canadian writer Wendy McElroy’s Daily Bell piece about this film is excellent.
“The film is best understood as a volley in the campus consent wars now raging across North America,” she writes. “It is part of a manufactured and coordinated hysteria about campus rape that imposes a politically-correct agenda and strips accused male students of due process rights.”
Exactly. This is another of those hobgoblins H.L Mencken observed were so vital to crusaders, who constantly need “issues” that keep people looking to them for salvation.
Bill status page here. Bill as referred here. Excerpt:
'Section 1. Section 10a-55m of the general statutes is repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective July 1, 2015):
(a) For purposes of this section and sections 10a-55n to 10a-55q, inclusive:
(1) "Affirmative consent" means an active, informed, unambiguous and voluntary agreement by a person to engage in sexual activity with another person that is sustained throughout the sexual activity and may be revoked at any time by any person;
...
(b) Each institution of higher education shall adopt and disclose in such institution's annual uniform campus crime report one or more policies regarding sexual assault, stalking and intimate partner violence. Such policy or policies shall include provisions for: [(1) detailing]
This article was great to read, for once. Heather Gray writes in News.com.au with a heap of good sense. Excerpt:
'YOU know the moment. You’re at a backyard barbecue when one of the wives starts telling silly tales of her husband’s misdeeds. She tells them with a smile and may even be hugging her husband when she does it. Still, though, there’s this cord of tension that you can just feel. She’s mocking him in front of his friends and is doing it in such a way that he will seem “sensitive” if he gets upset about it.
It might be called “passive-aggressive”.
Instead of saying what’s really bothering her, she lets him know through “a joke.”
Others may call it “emotional manipulation.”
She’s being mean and then making him feel like he’s overreacting if he brings it up or gets offended because she was “just joking.”
Maybe as an isolated incident, we can look at this as simple, emotional manipulation. However, this isn’t just one incident.
'Despite the steady wave of scandals that have begun to erode even the New York Times’ portrayal of Hillary Clinton, her image remains unblemished on Wikipedia. Since he first started editing her page in June 2005, Hillary’s “Wikipedia watchdog" has been guarding against slanders, accusations, unfair assumptions, and distortions on the high-traffic, heavily footnoted, highly policed Hillary Rodham Clinton Wikipedia page.
Unlike most Wikipedia editors, who prefer to remain anonymous, "Wasted Time R" has no problem giving his real name: Jonathan Schilling. Leading up to Hillary’s failed bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008, Schilling’s significant role in the shaping of the image of the former first lady was the subject of several interviews and articles, including pieces by NPR, BBC, Canadian Radio, and New Republic.
'There are man-haters everywhere, it seems, from children’s telly to high culture. Charges of sexism have been levelled against the creators of the Daddy Pig character in Peppa Pig — daddy is portrayed as a hopeless bumbling idiot while Mummy Pig is the embodiment of good sense — and the literary critic Harold Bloom argues that there is ‘a strong element’ of misandry in Shakespeare (whereas misogyny, he says, is hard to find).
The latest challenge invited you to climb aboard the bandwagon and compose an extract from an imaginary novel written from the perspective of a female chauvinist author. In a small but accomplished entry, Sergio Michael Petro, Frank Upton and Sandra McGregor deserve an honourable mention, the winners take £30 each and Adrian Fry pockets the extra fiver.
'But in the need to ensure there are safe places for women to be educated – which is crucial – isn’t it worth asking if there can be safe places for men to gather without suspicion of being a cabal of misogynist terrorism? In the heated discussion about rape culture, the feminist voice is loudest at the moment, which makes many young men feel that their every move, every thought, is policed. Some might even suggest they’re victims of misandry, if they weren’t sure their complaints would fall on deaf ears.
A witch hunt, you say? Well, I won’t use that loaded term, because it only serves to ratchet-up the gender wars when what we need is a little calm.
That said, some of the research about fraternity culture is not kind. A 2007 study by professors at the College of William and Mary – the place, ironically, where the first Greek-letter fraternity, Phi Beta Kappa, was founded in 1776 with the motto “Philosophy is the guide to life” – found that men in fraternities were three times more likely to rape than those who weren’t.
A culture of male peer support for violence against women coupled with excessive drinking practices contribute to a higher risk for sexual assault, the study found, leading some scholars to suggest fraternities should be banned. Other research has added to the alarm. Elizabeth Armstrong and other professors at Indiana University studied the social life at a large Midwestern university for five years, producing a book in 2013, Paying for the Party, How College Maintains Inequality, and a paper on sexual assault that described how fraternities contribute to the reproduction of gender inequality.
'Gov. Greg Abbott said Thursday that he and other elected officials can’t fight domestic violence alone — ordinary residents must join the battle, too.
Abbott stopped here Thursday morning for the grand opening of The Gatehouse, a 96-unit apartment community for abused women and children.
...
“No woman should be trapped in an abusive relationship,” he said. “No woman should feel unsafe in her own home. No woman should feel helpless with no place and no one to turn to.”
...
...
“This is not a women’s issue,” he said. “This is a man’s issue … and we need to draw a line in the sand and say you never, ever, ever hit a woman.”
'On Wednesday, California Democrat Barbara Lee proposed a resolution in the House of Representatives that claims women will eventually be forced into prostitution in order to obtain life-sustaining food and water for their families.
Lee introduced House Concurrent Resolution 29, warning that women will be forced into “transactional sex” to get enough food and clean water — all because global warming will create “conflict and instability” in the world.
...
Lee’s document goes on to urge Congress to agree on the “disparate impacts of climate change on women,” and goes on to demand that Congress use “gender-sensitive frameworks in developing policies to address climate change.”
Lee also charges that women, who are “often underrepresented in the development and formulation of policy regarding adaptation to climate change,” are doubtless in the best position to offer policy ideas.'
'A team of Hillary Clinton “super volunteers” warned a New York Times reporter on Wednesday against using words about Clinton that they deem to be “sexist.”
The group, “HRC Super volunteers,” wrote Times reporter Amy Chozick, the paper’s Hillary Clinton reporter, and put her on notice regarding “coded sexism.”
Sexist words, according to the group, include: “polarizing,” “calculating,” “disingenuous,” “insincere,” “ambitious,” “inevitable,” “entitled,” “over confident,” “secretive,” will do anything to win,” “represents the past,” and “out of touch.”
“You are on notice that we will be watching, reading, listening and protesting coded sexism,” the group reportedly wrote her.'
'I’ve been very interested in the last few days to read about Kayode Modupe-Ojo, who has spoken to the press about being falsely accused of rape.
Even though Mr. Modupe-Ojo's experience is a lot more painful than mine – he was jailed for a short time, named publicly, and saw his business tainted by association, while I avoided all three mainly due to the ineptitude of my accuser – I still have a first-hand insight into what it’s like to be falsely accused of sexually assaulting somebody.
...
Firstly, what was interesting, even unique, about my false accusation is that I knew it was going to happen. To explain, my accuser was a one-night stand who had taken to harassing me after I denied her a second date, turning up drunk at my flat and sending me abusive texts and voicemails. In the early summer of 2010 she stepped up the frequency of her visits. When I found her stood outside my home one evening in the pouring rain, intently watching my bedroom window, I told her that I was going to have to go to the police if the behaviour continued. She responded by telling me that if I did go to the police, she would tell them that I had drugged her and sexually assaulted her.
Unsurprisingly, I didn't go to the police straight away, but eventually the persistence of her harassment gave me little choice. It's a faintly surreal experience telling a police officer that, by the way, when you arrest her, she's probably going to tell you that I raped her, but I figured that my warning them at least would slightly discredit her if she went through with it.
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