Friday, March 26, 2004

Ugly backlash article in Salon

Here's another article about the big mean feminists who want to hurt all men. As usual with these articles, a handful of weird/extreme cases are presented, a handful of unsupported allegations offered and then it's all tied into an unrelated situation. In this case, the author presents a handful of cases of mentally deranged women who accused someone of rape and uses this to argue that the "sluts can't be raped" defense that Kobe Bryant's lawyer is attempting to use is perfectly legitimate. One quote from the article I particularly like: For some feminists, the dogma that "women never lie" means that there is, for all intents and purposes, no presumption of innocence for the defendant.
Really? Cool. Oh, by the way, who are these feminists and where are they published?
What's interesting to me is that in a lot of writers enthusiasm for this game of "smear the slut" they have to willfully ignore the fact that the defense is playing off racist stereotypes just as much as they are playing off sexist ones. The story is not "girl had sex with a bunch of guys and then decided to smear one of them for rape", but "girl has sex with a bunch of guys and decides to smear the black guy for rape", and using all the anxieties that people have about black/white sexual relations to introduce more muddle and confusion to this entire situation. But strangely, I have yet to see someone defend the need for racist stereotyping for Kobe Bryant's defense.

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