seriouslyamerica:

TW: RAPE CULTURE

redplebeian:

kateordie:

Ahh, Halifax. My hometown.

A protest was held today in support of Rehtaeh Parsons, the Halifax girl who recently committed suicide after being bullied incessantly due to photos that circulated of her being raped by four boys. You’ve seen it on the news, I’m sure.

It’s a horrible tragedy, and on top of it, a counter-protest was staged today in support of the boys accused of raping her.

Not upsetting enough? Have a look at the Facebook page (Speak The Truth) set up in support of the accused rapists… By a girl.

Don’t believe in rape culture? Read the Facebook group, wherein one guy accuses Rehtaeh of being a coward who killed herself because she “made a drunken mistake.” Yeah. Because being raped is a mistake, like forgetting bus change or picking up the wrong kind of milk. Right?

Wrong. There’s a lot I could say on this topic, but look for yourself…

….

I don’t have any words, just anger and disgust and vomit

You can report this group on Facebook.

hamburgerjack:

think-progress:

Fox News Guest receives racist rape and death threats after arguing guns aren’t the solution to rape.

happilyevernow:

(Triggering picture on the link)

injinglesonly:

shipsanddip:

every-officer-is-down:

dottievonlacee:

rasputin:

If you haven’t heard the story yet…it’s a story that scares me for the present/future of young women everywhere and that should be shared from all parts of the internet and news outlets. It’s sadly predictable. It’s what movies are made of. But in those movies, it’s clear who’s in the wrong and how justice should be served.

But then we come back to planet Earth and away from Hollywood and somehow most people struggle with what a victim is. Drunk girls can be victims too.

The scoop: 16yo gets drunk around star football players. They decide to use/urinate/rape her in front of others (it was funny to them). They take videos/pictures of the assault. Other people tweet it, FB it, etc. No one helps or calls cops. Case gets tossed under SHE’S NOT A VICTIM VILLE, SHE WAS SEXUALLY ACTIVE. SHE WANTED THIS.(See New York Times article)

That was until a blogger wouldn’t drop it, since there were pictures/videos/screenshots or as we would otherwise know it in non-bizzaro world SLAM DUNK CASE against the perpetrators. But these are star football players in a football town. So instead blogger gets defamation suits against her.

But Anonymous was on the case and so they leaked a video that has not only, apparently, put the case back on display but now on the national level. And so start the Occupy rallies at Steubenville.

From NYT article:

“Afterward, they headed to the home of one football player who has now become a witness for the prosecution. That player told the police that he was in the back seat of his Volkswagen Jetta with Mays and the girl when Mays proceeded to flash the girl’s breasts and penetrate her with his fingers, while the player videotaped it on his phone. The player, who shared the video with at least one person, testified that he videotaped Mays and the girl “because he was being stupid, not making the right choices.” He said he later deleted the recording.

The girl “was just sitting there, not really doing anything,” the player testified. “She was kind of talking, but I couldn’t make out the words that she was saying.”

At that third party, the girl could not walk on her own and vomited several times before toppling onto her side, several witnesses testified. Mays then tried to coerce the girl into giving him oral sex, but the girl was unresponsive, according to the player who videotaped Mays and the girl.

The player said he did not try to stop it because “at the time, no one really saw it as being forceful.”

At one point, the girl was on the ground, naked, unmoving and silent, according to two witnesses who testified. Mays, they said, had exposed himself while he was right next to her.

Richmond was behind her, with his hands between her legs, penetrating her with his fingers, a witness said.

“I tried to tell Trent to stop it,” another athlete, who was Mays’s best friend, testified. “You know, I told him, ‘Just wait — wait till she wakes up if you’re going to do any of this stuff. Don’t do anything you’re going to regret.’ ”

He said Mays answered: “It’s all right. Don’t worry.”

That boy took a photograph of what Mays and Richmond were doing to the girl. He explained in court how he wanted her to know what had happened to her, but he deleted it from his phone, he testified, after showing it to several people.”

From the NY Times article

At a hearing in early October, prosecutors told the judge in the case that the defendants treated the girl “like a toy” and “the bottom line is we don’t have to prove that she said ‘no,’ we just have to prove that when they’re doing things to her, she’s not moving. She’s not responsive, and the evidence is consistent and clear.”

At a hearing last month, the girl’s mother said her daughter remained distraught and did not want to attend school. The girl’s friends have ostracized her, and parents have kept their children away from her, the mother said.

The girl does not sleep much, said the mother, who testified that she often hears her daughter crying at night.

The mother said the obsession with high school football in Steubenville is partly to blame. It shocked her that Saccoccia testified as a character witness for the defendants last month, she said.

Just wow.

I literally just vomited everywhere. Jeez.

SHARE THIS WITH EVERYONE YOU KNOW. EVERYONE!

[T.W. Rape/Rape Culture]

invisiblelad:

randomstabbing:

In 2008, an 18-year-old woman in Washington State reported to police that she had been sexually assaulted. But they didn’t believe her. Lynnwood Police Chief Steve Jensen said that her story changed, her details were inconsistent and that people who knew the victim expressed doubts about her story.

So the police charged her with false reporting, and she pleaded guilty under a deal that included a fine of $500. The charge remains on her record.

Three years later, Marc O’Leary was arrested in Colorado for charges of sexual assault, kidnapping, burglary and felony menacing. He is being held on $5 million bail. When the police raided O’Leary’s home earlier this month, they found photos of his victims.

The 18-year-old woman from Washington was in those photographs.

I think I’m done with news for today. My God, Society can be such a suckerpunch. That expecting a bare minimum of human decency, justice and empathy from individual citizens or law enforcement agents is too much to ask…

kosmonauttihai:

blargh-ish:

omgoswin:

kylesbogusjourney:

Female privilege is getting to claim a headache to avoid sex.

Female oppression is having to claim physical illness to avoid sex because men won’t take a simple fucking “no” for an answer.

Female oppression is men being so entitled that they think being denied sex is oppressive.

Sex is good for headaches so when she says she’s got a headache, fuck her anyway. Boom! Problem solved.

Did you miss the part about claiming a headache to avoid sex, or are you just knowingly promoting rape?

rabbleprochoice:

So, GOP logic on reproductive rights goes like this:

argentarachnids:

stfuconservatives:

rabbleprochoice:

If you’re raped, and it was “legitimate”, then you should see your pregnancy (LOL, you can’t get pregnant from being legitimately raped but we’ll humor you) as a gift from God and give birth to a fetus you don’t want.

But we also don’t want you to be able to lessen your chances of getting pregnant from a “legitimate rape” (even though we know that can’t happen because the Fallopian tubes are spastic LOL) by using birth control which is why we don’t want it covered by any insurance companies anywhere under any circumstances. Oh, and if you ever wanted to have a kid without being raped but needed some help (perhaps because of how violent your illegitimate rape was), we’re gonna outlaw IVF, too.

And should you actually consent to a pregnancy we’re going to impose restrictions on you that will force you to give birth to it even if it’s stillborn because cows do it and we believe women and cows are similar. In addition, you won’t be able to get an abortion if your life is in danger because we know that’s never really warranted because SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY.

Should you bring a child into this world without complications (like you’ll have a choice in carrying to term or not, cause we’ll take away that shit, too, LOL), we don’t want to have to pay for it, so we will remove all social program funding to make sure you won’t have health insurance, WIC,protection from your abuser, or affordable reproductive or prenatal care through Planned Parenthood. Sucks if your rapist requests parental rights, visitation, or custody, too.

And we won’t do anything to make sure you’ll be paid a livable wage or even the same as your male peers so you might actually be able to provide for that gift from God that was conceived in rape because you need to make your rape lemons into lemonade, goddammit.

YOU’RE WELCOME.

Love,

Rabble

But no, it’s the *Democrats* who reduce uterus owners to their baby-making capacity. SIGHHH. We can just sum up this whole post as “reasons I am a liberal.”

All the Democrats are misogynist making it out to be that all woman care about are reproductive rights.

Acknowledging that women care about their reproductive rights is not misogyny. Acknowledging that laws about abortion and reproductive care primarily affect women (among others, including MEN) is NOT misogyny.

Saying “some girls rape easy” or pretty much ANY of the quotes I linked to above IS misogyny.

Talking about things that women think about is not misogyny. Women also care about the economy (and we also recognize that our family planning options have a direct impact on the economy), student loans, gun laws, fair pay, taxes, and foreign policy among other things.

Acknowledging that reproductive rights MATTER is not misogyny. Pretending that women are whiny and that they’ll get over not having access to reproductive care IS.

Love,

Rabble

spastasmagoria:

“Women are assumed to be in a constant state of consent unless they explicitly state otherwise, says Connecticut supreme court”

“The state Supreme Court Monday threw out the conviction of a city man found guilty of sexually assaulting a severely handicapped woman.

In a 4-3 decision, the high court ruled that despite evidence the 26-year-old woman cannot speak and has little body movement, there was no evidence she could not communicate her refusal to have sex with the defendant, Richard Fourtin Jr. As a result of the ruling, Fourtin goes free and cannot be tried for the case again.” READ THE FULL ARTICLE - “Supreme Court sets accused rapist free”

What the actual fuck!?

[TRIGGER WARNING: Rape/Stalking]

desliz:

ghostferry:

friendlyangryfeminist:

everythingbutharleyquinn:

please read the link “snowdrop exposed” with caution. It is grotesque and chilling and horrible. He did not actually rape and murder the woman he planned to, but he describes how he planned to (and actually has the gall to characterise himself as a victim) and it’s very upsetting and may be triggering to some. 

He claims he told his story to help other men from becoming monsters, like he “almost” became.

Dude, I’d say you became a monster the second you actually planned to commit rape and murder and assembled a fucking kit with which to do so.

That he can be accepted by the feminist community now is also very upsetting.

Though the moniker of ‘femanist’ indicates immediately he’s a hopeless narcissist. 

svetlana-del-rey:

As requested, “snowdrop exposed”

desliz:

fuckyeahkinkshaming:

Several people have requested that I kink-shame the ever-living fuck out of “SnowDrop Explodes”  who continues to blog and continues to be internet friends with feminist bloggers,  even after it became widely known that he posted, in explicit detail,  about the time he stalked a woman with the intent to rape and murder her.

While I would prefer this blog to be mostly about people’s defensive attitude towards their harmless pee fetishes or their insistence that having lots of heterosexual sex is queer by speaking in a British accent.  Because that shit is funny.

And snowdropexplodes is not funny.  The idea that someone who stalked a woman with the intent to murder her,  then defends his right to consume violent pornography (I’m cutting the exact description of the porn, but you can read at the link) because he says it “saved her life” by fullfilling his desire to rape and murder “safely” is still a feminist blogger is fucked up. 

It’s possible that extreme porn saves lives, by providing a safe and non-destructive outlet for the fantasies and urges of people like me. The only time those fantasies become dangerous (as they did in my case) is when the person having them is suffering from mental health problems and feels isolated (for example, because of their deviant sexuality!)

And whatever one’s views on kink and porn in general,  that a person like this devotes a great deal of time and energy to attacking feminist critrics of bdsm and porn is also fucked up. 

So yeah, fuck that guy.  I hope he continues to feel shame. 

Isn’t it remarkable how loathsome woman-hating wastes of carbon like this can become feminist heroes as long as they learn how to justify their existence with sex-positive bullshit? Not only must women fell obligated to declare how much they love sex and appealing to the male gaze before they can call themselves feminists, we must grovel around pieces of shit like this because they help reify the lie that, if we’re good girls who don’t complain about things that make us uncomfortable, we’ll be safe from the men who would stalk and rape and murder us.

This made me nauseous. 

what the ever loving fuck

honestly there are some people that i would feel absolutely no guilt over beating the shit out of with a baseball bat and this guy is one of them.

reblogging so people can be fully informed about him and what his apologists are defending.

[TRIGGER WARNING: Rape Culture/Rape]

eatright-staybright:

keep-calm-get-skinny:

sassy-asami:

thatonechick42:

perfectwrongturn:

thingswilllookup:

I saw this and it broke my heart.. 

I don’t really have words for this. This hurt to the core of my being.

My heart just sank.

This makes me so sad.

How can anyone be so hateful and absolutely cruel? Nobody ever should be THANKFUL for getting raped. My god what the fuck is wrong with people in the world.

This is so powerful.

thecsph:

safespacenetwork:

tw: sexual assault, rape culture.

rapeculturerealities:

hahamagartconnect:

‘V DAY KISS’ MURAL by KOBRA

We’re so late on this but we just had to post it anyway, because let’s face it…it’s spectacular! Eduardo Kobra’s mural of Alfred Eisenstaedt’s photo, V-J Day in Times Square. – Chelsea, NYC, USA.

via Street Art Utopia & pic by Hector Thyso

How many of you out there know that this picture, this iconic moment, is actually sexual assault?  No, really, this sailor, was “grabbing every female he could find and kissing them all” according to the photographer himself.  There are just… so many things wrong with that in and of itself!  Here we have a person with a great deal of power and privilege - he’s a man, he’s white, and he’s behaving in heteronormative ways each of which is powerful all by themselves and then we add the fact that he actually has institutionalized power by virtue of his being a member of the armed services in uniform and the guy’s basically unstoppable.  All that power and privilege meant that he was not only permitted to run down the street sexually assaulting every female-presenting person he saw but also was praised for it.  Based on accounts of the day not one person tried to stop him, not one person had anything negative to say to him about that, and he was immortalized in one of the world’s most iconic photos in a positive way, forever reinforcing this behavior for everyone who hears about it.  

Imagine if it had just been some random guy walking down the street kissing people for no apparent reason without the institutionalized power of the navy and wartime heroic propaganda at his back - there’s a good chance somebody would have at least tried to stop him or said something negative about it.  Imagine a woman walking down the street kissing all the men she saw - again, there’s a good chance such actions would received negative attention.  Imagine a Man of Color, any Person of Color really doing something like this - again, lots of negative attention, in fact, a Man of Color walking down the street kissing random white women would probably get arrested and/or shot/lynched/murdered.  Finally let’s imagine some behavior that’s not heteronormative - a female presenting person kissing female presenting people, a male-presenting person kissing male-presenting people, someone who’s obviously non-binary in some way kissing anyone, a known trans person going around kissing anyone, etc - again, lots of negative attention, probably some sort of physical violence of some sort.  

All that negative attention for all those imaginary people in all those other possible scenarios would be because walking down the street forcing kisses on random strangers without their consent is sexual assault.  But make it a privileged, powerful individual sexually assaulting people who don’t have such privilege and power and all of a sudden it becomes “cute” and “endearing,” not only positive in some way but also not negative at all.  So not negative, in fact, that I’m willing to bet that if that nurse had tried to defend herself against this attack, had maybe even gotten physically violent, had maybe tried to report this assault to anyone she would have been treated like she’s making too big of a deal out of it, like it’s actually not an issue at all, like she’s the one behaving in a way that she shouldn’t, instead of the person assaulting her.  

This right here is rape culture in action.  This right here is how privilege and power coalesce into one giant heap of shit that makes it easy for people to sexually assault, sexually harass, abuse and rape.  The worst part about it, I think, is that it’s so easy that certain kinds of sexual assault/abuse/harassment are actually so normalized that nobody even stops to think about what’s really going on.  The woman in this picture has been violated, her basic right to consent has been ignored, she has been abused in a very serious way and yet for most of us that’s just not something we even think about, it’s not something that it even occurs to us to consider.  That kind of normalizing of violence is what helps to perpetuate rape culture.  We have to get to a place where it’s not normalized or nothing will ever change.

We had no idea this classic photo is not actually a sweet moment between lovers…but actually a rapey, horrific act captured on camera as if it was a moment of beauty.

Ugh.

laughingintothefire:

iamateenagefeminist:

thatfeministdyke:

[Trigger Warning: Rape, Sexual assault, Rape culture]

funeral-beat:

hana-rosemona:

Here are the two rapists that assaulted Savannah Dietrich.

The first one is Will Frey III

and the sec is Austin Zehnder.

If You guys haven’t read the story yet. A young 17 year old girl was sexually assaulted, when the Judge (Judge Mcdonald) got them off easy, Ms. Savannah went on twitter and spread their foul names, now she is being sentenced to Jail. Please sign the petition and get the charges to be dropped.

Sign Petition here:

http://www.change.org/petitions/kentucky-district-court-drop-charges-against-savannah-dietrich?utm_campaign=petition_page

Spread their names and pictures to protect yourselves.

Sign the petition, spread this around. This whole situation is just fucking unbelievable.

Rape survivors should never face more stigma than their attackers. I do’t care what the judge says. 

Signal boost for the Kentucky area. And consider that petition signed!

mononokexvx:

tw; rape, stalking

sociorythm:

that-emilyanne-girl:

This is Gary Cherny, the vocalist for Before We’re Done. Which is arguably the most well respected band currently in Mile High (Denver) Hardcore. Gary is known for being a stand up guy that easily floats between all cliques, groups and social circles in our local hardcore community. He is often viewed as “everyone’s friend”. With a giant hug, a firm handshake or welcoming smile this man has won over the hearts of many folks that come around to shows, effectively fooling each and every one of them. 

The four above photos are screen shots of messages which Gary sent me via the anonymous option on Tumblr. With the use of my IP tracker and a few unsuspecting questions to Gary, we were able to prove that it was him beyond a reasonable doubt. 

To backtrack… I was raped inside of my home three months ago by someone that had been stalking me at shows. This person would call me from blocked numbers, reference what I had been wearing at the show the night before, threaten to rape me and then hang up. We all thought it was simple harassment, but the person turned out to be good on their threat. Unfortunately, to this day we have no been able to identify this person, as I did not see his face at all during my attack. 

Now, I am not suggesting that Gary was my perpetrator, let’s be clear on that. What I am saying that, at the very least, his choice of words was especially poor. No woman should ever be told to “get raped” in the first place, period. But, the wounds are still fresh and it has sent me into an incredibly dark place. 

Gary and I have been close acquaintances for a while (which is why I am more than confused by his actions) and he knew that growing up my biological father was my best friend. He knew that he had raised me all on his own as a single parent my whole life and when he died when I was 14 that my world shattered. He also knew that my foster father sexually abused and perpetrated me repeatedly in my teen years. Hence my reaction to his last anonymous message when he said, “go get raped by some father figure in your life… Oh wait… You don’t have one.”

When confronted, he profusely denied it and said, “I can’t even understand how you would think that was me, EmilyAnne,” as he hid behind his friendly reputation. Upon making it known that there was absolutely no way he could debate his innocence, he asked if we could meet in person and talk. I agreed on the condition that I could bring Marco to witness what he had to say. We all met up later that night and he continued to give me gigantic puppy eyes, practically turning on the water works and confessed while also trying to give a sad story about why he did what he did. I cut him off, asked Marco if he had heard Gary’s confession and we both walked away. 

If you read the screen shots, it’s very more than clear that there is direct aggression, threats and the obvious suggestion of rape. This is something that I will not tolerate in my community. Many of you will be shocked to read this (if it gets out) and will probably wish to deny it initially. But, Gary has called multiple people seeking help and has openly admitted to all of them what he did. Ask him yourself, he will not deny it. Now, the threats and words that he used are ones that are very direct. Whatever his excuse, I have no desire to hear it. This is rape culture at it’s finest when we listen to and take pity on a man that undeniably targeted a woman agressively telling her “you’re gonna get what’s coming to you”, “all in due time, bitch” and “go get raped”. 

When I first received the anons before we figured out it was Gary, I called the police, suspecting it had some attachments to my rape. They suggested that I file a restraining order. I would much rather see this go around to every person in our scene and possibly branch out further resulting in immeasurable social discomfort for him. So, please, don’t just ‘like’ this post. Reblog it if you can. I know it is long, I know it is not funny, nor is it cute. But, it is important. Even if this gets two reblogs, I’ll be happy that at least the awareness branched out that far. His band tours around as well as plays local shows, all the while having Gary as their frontman talking about solidarity and love. About how hardcore is a place for kids who don’t belong to come and find a home. When clearly Gary is a misogynist, rape culture perpetuating, hypocrite. 

They will be playing this Tuesday at The Marquis. Please, support the touring bands, but omit your presence from the opening act Before We’re Done as well as all other shows they play if they continue to keep Gary as their vocalist. 

Fuck this guy! I hope this band gets to go on tour to England cos there is a cricket bat with the name Gary Cherny on it waiting for him. You think you know what ‘Hardcore” is? Come experience some fucking true English Punk beat-down coward.