Ireadforpleasure
Really Experienced
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2015
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- 146
So, after the disturbing and extremely credible allegation that Brett Kavanaugh attempted to rape Christine Blasey Ford at a party when she was 15 years old, Republicans have come out of the woodwork, attempting to defend his behavior.
Everything from “boys will be boys” to “that was a long time ago” to “he was pig-drunk at the time” to “attempted rape isn’t actually a crime” has been offered up as a means of defending Kavanaugh’s sexual assault of a 15 year old girl.
It says a lot that so many Republicans are willing to defend Kavanaugh’s sexual assault against Christine Blasey Ford. The Republicans are so ready, willing and able to defend rapists, it’s almost like they’re the party of rapists and sexual predators.
Almost?
Last year, a Republican legislator from New Hampshire, named Robert Fisher was unmasked as an architect of an extremely misogynistic website where women are basically treated as the enemy of men, and it discusses strategies for fighting against women and against women’s rights.
In addition to being anti-woman, the website is also pro-rape. In one of the more infamous posts written by Fisher, he considered rape from the rapist’s perspective.
“I’m going to say it. Rape isn’t an absolute bad,” Fisher wrote, “Because the rapist I think probably likes it a lot. I think he’d say it’s quite good, really.”
And Robert Fisher isn’t alone. Republicans taking the side of the rapists seems to be pretty much the norm these days.
On 19 August 2012, U.S. Representative Todd Akin of Missouri, a Republican who was challenging incumbent Democrat Claire McCaskill for her seat in the U.S. Senate, was interviewed by St. Louis television station KTVI. During that interview, Akin was asked whether he believed abortion was justified in cases of rape, and he responded by asserting that “legitimate rapes” rarely resulted in pregnancy:
“It seems to be, first of all, from what I understand from doctors, it’s really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut the whole thing down.”
Two years later, while appearing in another television interview with MSNBC to promote his new book Firing Back, Akin asserted that “legitimate rape” was a law enforcement term and that his original remark had been “intentionally misunderstood”.
Funny thing is, there isn’t a law enforcement official anywhere in this country who is willing to back up Akin on his claim that “legitimate rape” is a law enforcement term. The phrase “legitimate rape” isn’t listed in any law enforcement document anywhere in this country. It’s like Akin just made the term up, in an attempt to malign women, and make them seem like they’re willing participants in sexual assaults.
And then we have Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association. Bryan Fischer is a radio host with millions of listeners. Republican candidates chronically seek Fischer’s endorsement as his radio show can influence millions of Republican votes. Fischer is very popular amongst Republican voters nowadays.
Fischer; of course; was a very strong supporter of Todd Akin and Todd Akin’s comments on rape.
“What Todd Akin is talking about”, Bryan Fischer said in public agreement with Todd Akin, “Is when you’ve got a real, genuine rape. A case of forcible rape, a case of assault, where a woman has been violated against her will through the use of physical force where it is physically traumatic for her, under those circumstances, the woman’s body — because of the trauma that has been inflicted on her — it may interfere with the normal function processes of her body that lead to conception and pregnancy.”
And then there’s Lawrence Lockman, a Republican member of the Maine House of Representatives, who asked, “If a woman has (the right to an abortion), why shouldn’t a man be free to use his superior strength to force himself on a woman?”
He even had the balls to refer to rape, as a man exercising his “pursuit of sexual freedom”.
Right-wing media figures like Fox News' Andrea Tantaros have a habit of attacking efforts to address sexual assault as proof of a "war" on men on boys, but many institutions actually favor alleged perpetrators when investigating the crimes.
And back in 2014, when the Obama White House released a report addressing campus sexual assault, the right-wing media rushed to try to discredit findings that one in five women experienced attempted or completed sexual assault while in college. In the time since the right-wing media have continuously questioned sexual assault statistics, with right-wing media figures like Rush Limbaugh going as far as to go on record about campus sexual assault to claim that "it's not happening" at all."
Andrea Tantaros of Fox news Channel seems to believe that frat boys who rape college girls have little choice in the matter and should not be blamed when they rape college girls. In defense of frat boys who rape college girls, Andrea Tantaros says, “These girls show up at these fraternity houses. The guys, what are they supposed to do? Lock them out? ‘Hey, how are you?’ They have a couple more beers, the girl passes out.”
What are they supposed to do?
How about NOT raping the girl? That’s the first answer that pops into my head. Apparently, the idea of NOT RAPING never occurred to Andrea Tantaros.
Andrea Tantaros also attacked MSNBC for daring to spend about an hour of broadcast time, covering the Senate military sexual assault hearings back in 2013, saying that saying “what they consider to be priorities” is “unbelievable.”
She also attacked President Barack Obama for speaking out against sexual assaults in the U.S. military, saying, “That same [Memorial Day] weekend, he talked about military rape. What a smack in the face of the men and the women have served us with dignity and gave the ultimate sacrifice. … I mean, it’s the way they prioritize these things. It’s unbelievable.”
The Pentagon estimates that 26,000 cases of sexual assault occurred in the military in 2012 alone, but apparently, tens of thousands of sexual assaults are nothing to be outraged about. What Tantaros thinks should inspire outrage is if we TALK about sexual assaults or attempt to DO SOMETHING about stopping them!!
Ann Coulter is just as bad, claiming that “there is no campus rape problem” and that unless a victim gets “hit on the head with a brick,” it isn’t a legitimate rape.
And then we have the current leader of the Republican Party on tape, bragging about how he can sexually assault women and get away with it, because he’s rich and famous. If he meets an attractive woman who’s married and not willing to have sex with him, that’s no problem. According to Donald Trump, he can just grab them by their genitals. There’s no guilt and no consequences. Trump indicates that he perpetrates sexual assaults like this all the time.
Defending rapists and maligning the victims of rape seems to be standard operating procedure for the Republican Party these days.
Everything from “boys will be boys” to “that was a long time ago” to “he was pig-drunk at the time” to “attempted rape isn’t actually a crime” has been offered up as a means of defending Kavanaugh’s sexual assault of a 15 year old girl.
It says a lot that so many Republicans are willing to defend Kavanaugh’s sexual assault against Christine Blasey Ford. The Republicans are so ready, willing and able to defend rapists, it’s almost like they’re the party of rapists and sexual predators.
Almost?
Last year, a Republican legislator from New Hampshire, named Robert Fisher was unmasked as an architect of an extremely misogynistic website where women are basically treated as the enemy of men, and it discusses strategies for fighting against women and against women’s rights.
In addition to being anti-woman, the website is also pro-rape. In one of the more infamous posts written by Fisher, he considered rape from the rapist’s perspective.
“I’m going to say it. Rape isn’t an absolute bad,” Fisher wrote, “Because the rapist I think probably likes it a lot. I think he’d say it’s quite good, really.”
And Robert Fisher isn’t alone. Republicans taking the side of the rapists seems to be pretty much the norm these days.
On 19 August 2012, U.S. Representative Todd Akin of Missouri, a Republican who was challenging incumbent Democrat Claire McCaskill for her seat in the U.S. Senate, was interviewed by St. Louis television station KTVI. During that interview, Akin was asked whether he believed abortion was justified in cases of rape, and he responded by asserting that “legitimate rapes” rarely resulted in pregnancy:
“It seems to be, first of all, from what I understand from doctors, it’s really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut the whole thing down.”
Two years later, while appearing in another television interview with MSNBC to promote his new book Firing Back, Akin asserted that “legitimate rape” was a law enforcement term and that his original remark had been “intentionally misunderstood”.
Funny thing is, there isn’t a law enforcement official anywhere in this country who is willing to back up Akin on his claim that “legitimate rape” is a law enforcement term. The phrase “legitimate rape” isn’t listed in any law enforcement document anywhere in this country. It’s like Akin just made the term up, in an attempt to malign women, and make them seem like they’re willing participants in sexual assaults.
And then we have Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association. Bryan Fischer is a radio host with millions of listeners. Republican candidates chronically seek Fischer’s endorsement as his radio show can influence millions of Republican votes. Fischer is very popular amongst Republican voters nowadays.
Fischer; of course; was a very strong supporter of Todd Akin and Todd Akin’s comments on rape.
“What Todd Akin is talking about”, Bryan Fischer said in public agreement with Todd Akin, “Is when you’ve got a real, genuine rape. A case of forcible rape, a case of assault, where a woman has been violated against her will through the use of physical force where it is physically traumatic for her, under those circumstances, the woman’s body — because of the trauma that has been inflicted on her — it may interfere with the normal function processes of her body that lead to conception and pregnancy.”
And then there’s Lawrence Lockman, a Republican member of the Maine House of Representatives, who asked, “If a woman has (the right to an abortion), why shouldn’t a man be free to use his superior strength to force himself on a woman?”
He even had the balls to refer to rape, as a man exercising his “pursuit of sexual freedom”.
Right-wing media figures like Fox News' Andrea Tantaros have a habit of attacking efforts to address sexual assault as proof of a "war" on men on boys, but many institutions actually favor alleged perpetrators when investigating the crimes.
And back in 2014, when the Obama White House released a report addressing campus sexual assault, the right-wing media rushed to try to discredit findings that one in five women experienced attempted or completed sexual assault while in college. In the time since the right-wing media have continuously questioned sexual assault statistics, with right-wing media figures like Rush Limbaugh going as far as to go on record about campus sexual assault to claim that "it's not happening" at all."
Andrea Tantaros of Fox news Channel seems to believe that frat boys who rape college girls have little choice in the matter and should not be blamed when they rape college girls. In defense of frat boys who rape college girls, Andrea Tantaros says, “These girls show up at these fraternity houses. The guys, what are they supposed to do? Lock them out? ‘Hey, how are you?’ They have a couple more beers, the girl passes out.”
What are they supposed to do?
How about NOT raping the girl? That’s the first answer that pops into my head. Apparently, the idea of NOT RAPING never occurred to Andrea Tantaros.
Andrea Tantaros also attacked MSNBC for daring to spend about an hour of broadcast time, covering the Senate military sexual assault hearings back in 2013, saying that saying “what they consider to be priorities” is “unbelievable.”
She also attacked President Barack Obama for speaking out against sexual assaults in the U.S. military, saying, “That same [Memorial Day] weekend, he talked about military rape. What a smack in the face of the men and the women have served us with dignity and gave the ultimate sacrifice. … I mean, it’s the way they prioritize these things. It’s unbelievable.”
The Pentagon estimates that 26,000 cases of sexual assault occurred in the military in 2012 alone, but apparently, tens of thousands of sexual assaults are nothing to be outraged about. What Tantaros thinks should inspire outrage is if we TALK about sexual assaults or attempt to DO SOMETHING about stopping them!!
Ann Coulter is just as bad, claiming that “there is no campus rape problem” and that unless a victim gets “hit on the head with a brick,” it isn’t a legitimate rape.
And then we have the current leader of the Republican Party on tape, bragging about how he can sexually assault women and get away with it, because he’s rich and famous. If he meets an attractive woman who’s married and not willing to have sex with him, that’s no problem. According to Donald Trump, he can just grab them by their genitals. There’s no guilt and no consequences. Trump indicates that he perpetrates sexual assaults like this all the time.
Defending rapists and maligning the victims of rape seems to be standard operating procedure for the Republican Party these days.
