"We need to change how we talk about Rape"

"Film Critic Hulk" takes on the subject of rape - partly in response to the horrible horrible HORRIBLE article by Emily Yoffe at Slate telling women to, well, Stop getting drunk - to prevent getting raped. 

I'm not going to summarize the post - go read the whole thing. Its infinitely insightful, as well as deeply depressing - if only in the way it points out how our culture is so deeply deeply fucked up.

I'll leave you with this passage - read it, contemplate the phrase "WHY ARE WE, AS  CULTURE, NOT GETTING PAST THIS?", and then read the whole article

That is all

WHY AREN'T WE LEADING A DAMN CRUSADE AGAINST THIS BULLSHIT?

WHY IS THE FIGHT ALWAYS LIMITED TO THE SAME SUBSET OF WOMEN AND A HANDFUL OF GUYS WITH VARIOUS LEVELS OF UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT'S HAPPENING HERE?  WHY DO SO MANY OTHER GUYS IN THE "50%" JUST ACCUSE THOSE HANDFUL OF GUYS OF FEIGNING INTEREST IN FEMINIST CAUSES JUST TO GET INTO SOMEONE'S PANTS? WHY ARE WE, AS A CULTURE, NOT GETTING PAST THIS?

HULK WOULD LIKE TO SUGGEST THAT THE SOURCE OF THE MITIGATION ON THIS ISSUE COMES FROM A NOT SO GREAT PLACE: IT IS THE SIMPLE DESIRE TO NOT FACE A TRUTH ABOUT "OURSELVES." WITH RAPE, WE ARE SPEAKING OF THE SEXUAL HORROR OF A WORLD. AND IT IS VERY MUCH A REALITY, NOT A HORROR. AND EVEN IF WE MAY NOT HAVE BEEN A PART OF IT, THERE IS A PART OF US THAT IS DESPERATE TO HIDE FROM THAT REALITY. THAT IS DESPERATE NOT TO SHARE IN THAT CULPABILITY. THERE'S A PASSAGE FROM DAVID SIMON'S INCREDIBLE REVIEW OF 12 YEARS A SLAVE, WHERE HE TALKS ABOUT THE SOBERING NATURE OF THE FILM'S TREATMENT OF SLAVERY, A.K.A. AMERICA'S GREATEST SHAME AND HE PUTS IT LIKE THIS:

"For ordinary Americans willing to confront our history without equivocation and vague allusion, this film will prove a humanizing and liberating journey.  This much truth can grow an honest soul. And for those still desperate to mitigate our national reality at every possible cost, this film will be an affront.  It is not intelligently assailable by anyone, though the racial divide and resentment that still occupies our national character a century and a half after abolition will prompt certain creatures to pull at threads, hoping against hope.  Mostly, those who want to pretend to another American history will just avoid the film or the discussion that ensues."

NEVER WAS IT SAID WITH SUCH CLARITY. AND NOW THE SAME MUST BE SAID IN OUR FIGHT WITH GENDER ISSUES AND RAPE. WE MUST CONFRONT THE FACT THAT THIS IS AN EXISTING PART OF OUR SOCIETY AND IT IS NOT JUST A PROBLEM FOR THOSE WHO FACE IT, BUT IT IS PROBLEM FOR ALL OF US.