Lisa Longstaff is a spokesperson for a group called Women Against Rape. She and and Lisa Avalos, assistant professor of law at the University of Kansas, wrote this article for the Guardian: Michael Le Vell’s acquittal is no reason to give rape defendants anonymity.
If you want to read my views on the anonymity issue, see here. The discussion of that was not what shocked me. This was:
But the prosecution of women for alleged false reports strengthens the myth that women frequently lie about being raped and discourages victims from coming forward. It diverts law enforcement away from thoroughly investigating rape and lets rapists loose on the public. It is not in the public interest, and must be stopped.
The writers literally believe that no woman ever should be prosecuted for making a false report of rape. Not that the decision to prosecute should be weighed carefully, that it should never be made. Effectively that it should be legal to knowingly and maliciously make a false report of rape. This cannot be put down to careless phrasing; as pointed out by commenter snoozeofreason, Ms Longstaff has made the same demand at greater length here.
I was relieved to see the response from Guardian commenters, particularly StVitusGerulaitis and EllisWyatt, but that relief could not overcome my disgust that a law professor could be so utterly indifferent to any notion of justice, or that a representative of a group that claims to want to help real rape victims could lobby in favour of those who are parasitical upon them.
This is not about reality. It is about ideology. The post-feminist doctrine that women (when acting as women) can do no wrong, are never the aggressors and are always the victims.
Thanks to this ideology, false rape accusations are a largely risk-free way for a scorned woman to ruin a man’s life, even if he is never convicted. And this is a more common occurrence than “professional women” (i.e. people who make a living solely by virtue of their gender) would be willing to admit.
Studies into false rape accusations has found wildly divergent estimates from 1% up to 50% of all accusations. Of course the feminists only ever quote the bottom end.
Not sure why any of this surprises anyone. The meme “All men are rapists” has been prevalent since Marilyn French categorically stated as much in her 1977 novel “The Women’s Room”
The haridens of the Parliamentary Labour Party have hammered this him with their distortion of rape statistics by the use of selected measures of accusations versus convictions rather than charges versus convictions as is the case with most crime statistics.
The political view put forward to the media is that in excess of 80% of rape allegations do not result in a conviction. Whereas the reality is that the vast majority are deemed “no offense committed’ (a large proportion of which are so called “date rapes”) or “no reasonable expectation of conviction / not in the public interest”.
Michael Le Vell was in one of these latter category as the original CPS review determined a prosecution would be vexatious as it was being brought by the mother of the alleged victim rather than the victim herself and there was circumstantial evidence that this was simply a revenge attack by the mother of the alleged victim.
It was only after the original CPS prosecutor dismissed the case that a politically motivated attempt to restore the case was successful, but they could not change the facts, which was why the case against Michael Le Vell failed.
As long as their is a wilful ignorance of the facts and a bias towards the victim mentality of women (especially with regard to ignoring obviously false allegations) innocent men will continue to go to gaol for crimes they have not committed.
A failure to prosecute women where a criminal standard of proof suggest that they have perjured themselves is unacceptable in a supposedly equal society.
If equality means anything it must mean that justice is blind and all are equal before the law regardless of gender, race, colour, creed, sexuality, etc.
JG
If equality means anything it must mean ONLY that justice is blind and all are equal before the law regardless of gender, race, colour, creed, sexuality, etc.
The idea seems to be that false accusations of rape need not be prosecuted because they are so rare. Even if true, with that as a policy, it won’t be very rare much longer.
Not attempting to underplay the seriousness of genuine rape, but with most of the “Date Rape” cases, it revolves around matters of consent given or withheld by the victim (or inability to give consent where drugs and alcohol are a factor).
This he said/she said is often largely unprovable one way or the other and often turns on the credibility of the victim rather than any specific facts.
Already a recipe for miscarriages of justice, false accusations and perceptions of false accusations further exacerbate the situation.
This is not an area which is helped by further political meddling and is better left in the hands of the judiciary.
Reductio ad absurdum, perhaps the only sensible response to this is for us blokes to require women to sign consent forms before sleeping with them.
You mean you don’t already Dave?
You risk-taker you!
As Jaded pointed out, it’s never been about justice, it’s been about the demonization of men. When womyn started bleating about the “Campus Rape Epidemic of [insert year]” (according to the since-debunked Fisher/Cullen/Turner and Koss studies), they found out that the magical “1 in 4” rape figure didn’t stand up to any scrutiny whatsoever. If true, this would make the average college campus exponentially less safe for women than downtown Detroit, which is manifestly ridiculous. So it fails the very first sniff test.
In fact, campus rape incidence was horribly exaggerated (see MacDonald), i.e. much lower than for the female population in general, and if drunken fraternity/sorority parties were excluded, the incidence dropped even more precipitously.
Did that stop the feministicals? Of course not. All that happened was that the definition of rape was broadened to ridiculous inclusions, such as “morning-after-regret” and pschological coercion” (good grief).
Campuses in general are not male-friendly environments nowadays (and I speak as one who is currently in his final semester at a fairly conservative university). Even here, there are bullshit courses like “environmental feminism” and “ecological imperialism”, not to mention the plethora of clubs like the Socialist Club, Anarchist Club (clearly, for people who are ignorant of the concept of irony). Fortunately, from my observation, most of the hostility towards men is exhibited by the faculty (womyn and beta-professor enablers); the female students seem largely dismissive of it all.
So it doesn’t surprise me at all that a female law professor would be buying into the whole “All Me Are Potential Rapists!” jive. My guess is that most of the female students at UK think she’s loony.
My guess is that most of the female students at UK think she’s loony.
One would hope. But they’ve been steeped in this kind of crap since their early teens.
The difficulty is that such distortions are picked up by politico’s like the honourable member for Camberwell and Peckham, Harriet the Harpy.
Although she is currently out of power, she and her ilk will continue to manipulate the levers of power to bring forth legislation to criminalise men for such crimes as ‘morning after regret’, it wouldn’t surprise me if they tried to criminalise the non-use of condoms.
Ultimately, this is not about rape, it is about placing barriers of control, sanctioned by the state and propagandised in sex education lessons between the most intimate acts of a man and a woman. This is a further attack on the family as part of the collectivist narrative.
It makes me glad I fuck men to be honest.
There is a myth that government funded universities are O.K. in a conservative State – as the people and government of such a conservative state will prevent a radical take over of the university.
These people at the University of Kansas dispel that myth. Government funded universities (whether directly funded by government – or indirectly via “student loans”)are natural places for a far left take over. They are the natural habitat of radicals who despise everything Civilisation is based upon.
Of course, this is exactly how Antonio Gramsci and the Frankfurt School of cultural marxists expected it to work, even in the US where it is largely privately funded, the foundations remain the same only the name “marxism” is hidden, though it is exactly that.
Never mind attempting to teach non-left-wing ideas, even getting a position without the right lefty credentials is almost impossible.
Can’t see anyway to remove these ideals without a revolution – and that didn’t work very well in 1930’s German universities when it was tried out did it?
No, the only way for this to happen without resorting to book-burning is a widespread de-funding of institutions, chairs and professors which promote these misandrist ideas.
Your mistake is thinking that feminist law professors are any more interested in quaint notions such as “justice” than Marxist economics professors are interested in economics.
I cannot imagine the confusion and uncertainty that must confront any young person, man or woman, when trying to conduct the dating and mating rituals which our society has long held to be an integral part of maturing and learning how to develop relationships.
The entire process has now become a political and legal nightmare, especially in a collegiate setting.
I have been fortunate beyond measure to have had relationships with some extraordinary women in my younger days, and even more blessed with my marriage partner these last 30+ years.
Yet, when I look around at many of my friends’ and relatives’ situations, I am struck by the terrible effects of loneliness and broken relationships, and, conversely, the marvelous effects that a long, loving relationship has on peoples’ lives.
It sometimes seems to me that being alone and disconnected from the web of human relationships that extend beyond those of friendship/work associate/social contacts is one of the primary sources of human misery in this world.
I have no glib solution to this terrible problem. I can only hope that the younger people who are attempting to navigate these treacherous waters can find some stability and loving companionship in their lives, and that the older people who have loved and lost can find it within themselves to try again.
When my grandmother died, after 49 years of a very loving, yet tumultuous, marriage to my grandfather, I would sometimes come home from school and find him sitting on the front screen porch with tears running down his face. When I asked him what was the matter, he would just shrug and say, “Oh, I was just thinking about Ma”.
This last year and more, for various family and professional reasons, I have been separated from SWMBO for a couple of extended periods, and I was often miserably lonely, something I had not felt for many, many years.
I thought how wonderful it would be to be able to go back to those times and sit next to him and hold his hand and be able to say that now, after all these years, I finally have a little inkling of what you are feeling.
(I know this thread was supposed to be about other things, but I don’t always know where my mind and heart will go when I start writing, and this is one of those times. Forgive a foolish and sentimental old man, please.)
Veryretired. You remind us of something the socialists hate, loyalty and affection towards something other than the collective, a hated barrier to their wretched fantasies.
Veryretired, on a similar thought to that already expressed by Mr Ed, on a thread about rape it is good to be reminded that loving relationships exist. I hope that your circumstances will soon allow you and your wife to be back together full-time.
You mentioned confusion and uncertainty. I have often thought that the desired end result of political correctness is that friendship or love between different genders, races or sexualities should be made more difficult. It is difficult for affection to grow when one is continually on one’s guard for insult or for a remark that might be perceived as insult. That suits certain people fine.
“I have often thought that the desired end result of political correctness is that friendship or love between different genders, races or sexualities should be made more difficult.”
Not surprising, Natalie. It’s been field tested SOP procedure with the military for thousands of years. Replace the bonding to members of the other sex with bonding to the group to encourage loyalty & compliance. Can remember seeing literature to that effect during long ago flirtation with revolutionary socialism. “Relationships between cadre members should be strongly discouraged as detrimental to collective solidarity.” or some such. Your woman’s probably got the tattered roneostat of that one, in a drawer somewhere.
First, what is a “roneostat”? Not in my tattered dictionary.
It seems to me that certain groups of folk, once popular and trendy, then discarded once mere propaganda
has been shredded by actual examination, have no recourse but to shrilly beg “OK, double or nothing” in desperate hopes of discharging their amassed debt, without actually having to surrender any imagined assets.
False rape (however re-defined)accusation folk.
Anthropomorphic Global warming folk (as well as the “possible consequences” folk)
Socialism (by any other name) is a RIGHT- It’s just never been done RIGHT yet, folk
Criticism and Discrimination against people of outrageous contra productive behavior is FORBIDDEN folk
Self defense is bad folk
“Fair” (whatever THAT means this week) confiscation and redistribution of “other peoples” assets folk
“My ancestors were too stupid to pick up a rock” preferred exemption status folk.
What’s NOT so shocking is the %intersect in the Venn Diagram of such folk.
The demands that their critics/non participants be somehow “Branded” and deprived.
Their ASTONISHING rate of non compliance to 8000 years observation of cause and effect.
The only practical response I can offer is the reintroduction of punitive negative reinforcement, until such time that such folk reach the maturity and integrity to engage in practical “Can’t we all just get along?” behavior, rather than the increasingly traditional “protected” tantrum in the face of deferred gratification appeasement.
Actual undesirable consequences for lying(ANY elected/appointed/fiduciary/”lettered” folk), and in the above situation, WORLD FELONY STATUS for proved false accusation, including false enforcement of “the law”, MIGHT be a start. History has repeatedly proved electing, appointing, or anointing, “someone else” to “take charge” evolves into corrupt disaster.
OF COURSE I might have summarized this whole position with a brief, trite, truism or two, but apparently the 8000 years of multicultural observation in the human condition that inspired them has been somehow lost to sudden Politically Correct “discovery”.
And OF COURSE I could be wrong.
It COULD simply be a matter of adulterants in the water, or “radio wave” pollution.
” what is a “roneostat”?”
Thoroughly pre-xerox.
Think the USian version was a mimeograph or something. Worked with a ‘master’ sheet you wrote/typed on the front the pressure picked up solid ink from an inksheet, on the reverse. Then run the master & blank sheets through a roneograph, winding the handle, to get the copies. How the old “samisdat” was done, wasn’t it & possession of the copier got you gulagbound?
First few copies weren’t bad but they progressively got fainter until, they were unreadable.
What you young ones missed, eh?
Just did what our self appointed officer material, above, should have done & Wiki’ed Roneo. Sorry my bad. Roneo made the stencil duplicator. The one described above, strictly speaking’s a Banda. But if I remember rightly Roneo’s factory, in Romford, Essex made both. And their engineering shop also inadvertently made suspension parts for my kit car.
bloke: The “stencil” was actually a thin front wax sheet with a black sheet behind and finally a fairly thick third sheet for support. Typing (sans ribbon) or writing on the wax sheet would displace the wax and reveal the black sheet. I want to say that the black sheet would also mark the support sheet but I am not clear in my memories about that.
A friend and I would produce an unofficial school comic in my parents loft-space. I don’t remember it being called a “Roneograph”, just a duplicator. Ours was a Roneo-Vickers. I can still remember the smell of the ink.
Bloke in Spain, CaptDMO,
Gestetner.
I remember at university. The Radical Feminists won control of the student union, so the Revolutionary Socialists vented their spleen by setting fire to the gestetner.
“Ach du lieber, mein gestetler au flambé!”
Ok, it has a certain ring to it.
This professor is claiming that women are more honest than men, and therefore admits that she thinks the sexes are different mentally and not just physically.
That’s sexism and she should be sacked.
“USian”? What’s that?
USian is I suspect a slightly garbled version of Usonia, which was coined by Frank Lloyd Wright (I think, cannot be arsed to Google it) to mean “distinctly of the USA”
Thank you, Cats! I only remembered the first G, and was raking my old rusty brain…phew.
Before that, the Hectograph
Cheers
Wow1 Gestetners! The memories!
Was thinking about coining the term “neolithographic” for that delightful era but no doubt they’d be someone pointing out it didn’t actually involve any “lith” On the other hand we all hit “print” but I don’t suppose there’s many daisywheelers still connected to anything. Mostly it’s a spray process.
For very late neolithographic, got given a couple of dye-line colour printers some years ago. Serious stuff. About £8k a go in the 80’s I was told. Supposed to be the dog’s for photographic images but the donor did once own the major London photopress agency.* Software was for one of those pre-MS machines & couldn’t find any physical or driver interfaces to get them to work so passed them on to a bloke collects legacy desktop publishing hardware. That’s gotta be some totally zen interest, hasn’t it? But he seemed fairly normal.
*Reckons he owns the Bobby Moore holding the World Cup pic. With the place he’s got at Port Grimaud, sounds likely.
pete, no, you haven’t understood.
Male superiority > Sexism
Female superiority > Fighting against masculo-normativity!
JM Heinrichs,
I had dimly remembered the Colditz Hectograph
All,
I once had a Dungeons and Dragons character called Prinz Gestetner Von Herpes.
Regarding what students believe as compared to what their professors preach, is it possible that young people are becoming inured to the increasing amount of bullshit being flung around? I suppose that, even if that were true, it might merely manifest itself as increased cynicism about everything.
bloke in spain:
Here in Canada they were colloquially referred to as “ditto” machines.
Don’t know, possibly though. When I went to a small technical school, part of Leeds Polytechnic back in the 80’s, I ignored most of the left-wing propaganda on offer from the lesbian-femo-nazi that was our faculty director. Being computer bods we were 80% male anyway so just treated her as a joke as did most of the faculty staff.
Doubt things have changed since.
Sounds retarded. Wright should have stuck to designing houses.
bloke in spain:
What you young ones missed, eh?
OH, you mean “purple inkers” from school!
Young one? Um…Yeah, that’s the ticket. (cough)
“Mimeograph” is indeed the USian word.
I seem to remember “Woe be unto those that screwed up loading the master” as it involved vast amounts of purple ink spread EVERYWHERE.
@ Mr Galt
It does occur, this sub-conversation about the neolithogaphic era may be more compelling than the original topic. Feminists are a bit like weather, aren’t they? Some times a useful conversation opener with strangers at bus stops but generally they happen way above your head & as long as you take precautions & avoid exposure to violent storms, they’re just a background to normal, everyday life
I remember getting purple Banda handouts from my teachers back in the 70s and 80s. The smell of the ink would have you high as a kite in no time.
I’m pretty sure “Usian” is a politically correct way of separating “American” in the sense of “of The United States of America” with “American” in the sense of “Of North and/or South America”.
Never mind the historical factors that led the English Language to use “American” to refer to what is now the United States.
veryretired – quite so (as Mr Ed and Natalie have pointed out).
John Galt – yes “defunding” is the way.
No more TRILLION Dollar government backed student loan scam – and no more of the other subsidies either.
Hillsdale gets on without these things – and so should other universities.
Rhukatah, I don’t know what those “historical factors” are, but one practical factor is that every other country in this hemisphere actually has a name (Canada, Mexico, Argentina, etc.) whereas the US (of A) doesn’t. So we latched onto “America”, as no one else was using it. Seems to have worked out OK (except for fools like Frank Lloyd Wright, for whom I have no use whatsoever).
“I’m pretty sure “Usian” is a politically correct … yada yada yada”
POLITICALLY CORRECT !!!
Fuck off.
It’s a way to wind up yanks.
bloke in spain @ September 28, 2013 at 12:30 pm:
” what is a “roneostat”?”
Think the USian version was a mimeograph or something.
Correct. Roneo was a well-known brand.
How the old “samisdat” was done, wasn’t it & possession of the copier got you gulagbound?
In the USSR, mimeographs and copiers were under lock and key. Actual samizdat production was by typing out individual copies. Even this was risky. The KGB had a sheet of sample text from every typewriter.
First few copies weren’t bad but they progressively got fainter until, they were unreadable.
John K @ September 30, 2013 at 11:46 am:
I remember getting purple Banda handouts from my teachers back in the 70s and 80s. The smell of the ink would have you high as a kite in no time.
These are both references to ditto, a different technology.
With mimeo, as noted, the user created a mimeo sheet which would pick up fairly conventional black (or other colors) ink in the desired pattern and deposit it on sheets. A single master could be used for thousands of impressions.
With ditto, the user created a master sheet which itself carried a small amount of specialized “ink” in the desired pattern. This ink was directly transferred to successive sheets. I don’t recall what was the maximum number, but I don’t think it was much over 100, if that, and the later impressions were increasingly faint.
Also, dittomasters were only available in a few colors (mainly purple).
As an old SF fan, I have some familiarity with this stuff.
Rich:
Apparently so:
@ Laird,
By “historical factors” I meant that the term “American” was used by British both still in Britain and in the colonies to refer to the British colonists in North America long before the independence of the United States. It stayed as the default term after the revolution. Much like customary measurements vs the metric system, it’s too much work to be worth changing now.
@ Bloke in Spain,
I’m sorry that being called out on advancing a leftist frame hurts your little feelings.
Laird, two continents are called ‘America’. The North American United States should be called NAUS, or USofNA. Let’s not offend any spics who might be reading this!
NngG, that business about not calling us “Americans,” nor our country “America,” any more is Early PC all by itself. Eventually I got to feeling funny about using the nomenclature myself. Sure, I can see where the Canucks and the Latin Americans and the South Americans would have their feelings hurt. “What, WE’re not ‘Americans’ just as much as you guys?!”
However, at this point I remain a citizen of the same geographical territory, but I feel a distinct lack of kinship with what the U.S.A. has become. (In terms of its official acts and policies and agendas, that is.) I have ended up the polar opposite of Moobelle, namely, “for the first time in my life….”
So, except when speaking formally, I have reverted to calling my country (the one in which my heart resides) “America” and myself “American.” And if the Mexicans and Argentinians don’t like it, let them make an old-style America out of their own countries.
And for YOUR info, Mr. NngG, I AM Spic. Well, 1/4, anyway. (Otherwise, mostly English.) And my Royal Spicness will have an absolute FIT if anybody starts talking about ‘NAUS’!
*Mumble* … Ruddy Ozians….
😉
More North-pole prejudice! How can we rid the world of it?
Who cares? It’s Spring over here (perhaps we should call it Rise, to complement Fall, though our gum-leaves don’t leave, they stay on the tree and just wither away), so we’ll be enjoying warm weather for months and months!
Haven’t you heard- we’re no longer Ruddy Australians! We kicked out the Labour Government, though Kevin Rudd stays as a member, just no longer Prime sinister.. oops MINISTER!!
We’re Abbotty Ozzies now!
NngG, you do have a way with words! :>))!!
It is definitely Fall here, and the leaves are tumbling down indeed, though more than a precious few still cling green-and-gold to the bough; wherefore I bow not before your Rise, nor my medium-sized dog either. (Fifty-eight pounds being a little too big to qualify as Little, as they say, or would if they were. Those who are not, of course, cannot speak, or so it is said, though naturally not by them.)
As for “North-pole prejudice” (and I do welcome the use of the hyphen for a change, speaking of which, are you perhaps a devoté of Miss Lanchester? Her rendition of the one about the girl who lost her hyphen is positively mistressful) — Ahem, N-pP, yes, I must say the Pole’s bears bear a certain classiness, unlike the Pole Below, littered as it is with Penguins and certain sorts of Scientists.
Still I admit to a sneaking wish to visit McMurdo Station. Do you think I should take along several pounds of fish? To indicate that I come in peace, though not of course pieces, as I would not wish to ruffle any tuxedos.
As for Oz, I do hope you-all find yourselves more happily Abbotted than you were when Rudded, although of course all such creatures must try your powers of forbearance. Be of good cheer, you could always move to Patagonia and refuse to speak to anyone, should you happen to come across anyone. I will send fish.
He sure does, but still, nothing beats the old good Midwestern punmaking:-)))
Alas, dear Alisa, we of the Middle Classes are, unlike the late Queen, easily amused. :>))!!
Well, they haven’t revoked my poetic licence yet! (I wonder which department that would be- the good taste section?)
Department K, Gray. Department K. *sinister ;)*
VERY IMPORTANT UPDATE!! I was slightly off as to the synopsis of Miss Lanchester’s tale, but here is the whole thing. I am so happy for Emmaline, now that she has his hyphen!
http://archive.org/details/ElsaLanchester-01-20
You want No. 10 in the playlist at the right: “Mrs. Badger-Butts.”
(After that, go to No. 18, penultimate to the bottom, and enjoy the “Yashmak Song.” Charles Laughton, who was not only Henry VIII but also her husband, introducing her on her record and said of this number that she “imitates a whole darned Oriental bazaar.” Or words to that effect.
(Alisa, I hope you see this. It seems to me you’d get a kick out of it.)
That is just delightful, Julie – thanks:-)))
;>)))