Simon Paynton

Unseen wrote:
Males as a group don’t gang up against females as if we are in a competition with them for some kind of resource or advantage. That’s patent nonsense.

I’m not saying that males compete with females for resources.  That would be nonsensical like you say.  I’m saying that primate males compete with each other for females.  Humans…[Read more]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:
I don’t. I know most religious societies do to a greater or lesser extent and that is one of the reasons why religions persist.

I was generalising.  I didn’t say which human males.  I think actually sometimes all of society participates in it, especially when organised religion enters the picture.

The Barbara Smu…[Read more]

jakelafort wrote:
Rape is very likely a biological reality. Chimps are rapists too and they share most of our dna.

Here’s something I read recently: patriarchy in a nutshell, if we accept that human males cooperate to dominate and control females, via social norms, while chimpanzee males compete to dominate and control females.

When a female…

[Read more]

_Robert_ wrote:
Exactly who are all these people allowing males to harass or get inappropriate with women in modern Western society?

Murder happens at alarmingly higher rates in African American culture. I guess we should call African Americans a “murder culture”, huh? It starts with rap music, property crimes and moves on the drugs and eve…

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_Robert_ wrote:
It is not acceptable in my culture.

And yet it goes on in every culture, a lot.  The spectrum begins with manipulation, coercion, violating boundaries, and potentially ends in rape.  Boys at school, and maybe everyone, needs to understand the connection.  They’re a matter of degree (objectively) and more or less devastating (subjectively).

_Robert_ wrote:
The word “culture” implies that such behavior is acceptable by our society.

I’m using “culture” in the meaning of a shared set of values, practices, knowledge, etc., of a group.  It’s morally neutral.  However, it contains its own version of morality.

Rape culture is pretty much defined as a spectrum of behaviour that wilfully breaches somebody’s intimate and sexual rights of consent and self-determination.

Davis wrote:
I hear guys joking about raping women as though it’s not a big deal. Jokes about how they have coerced drunken women into doing things they likely regretted (with high fives) and sharing tactics on how they can manipulate women into doing things.

It’s difficult, but challenging these things goes a long way.  People know that rape is…[Read more]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:
So, on the spectrum of severity which is of greater severity…A slap to the face today or no slap to the face today?

A slap or a rape.  There’s a spectrum of something going on there, perhaps in terms of intrusiveness of boundaries and injury caused.  It’s objective: the facts of what happened.  But the subj…[Read more]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:
Is some of it sort of OK when compared to the severe cases?

OK, it’s on a spectrum from severe to more severe.  If boys knew this, it might make them think twice if their behaviour is shown to be on a spectrum with rape.

Davis wrote:
I’m less concerned by men who get defensive over the above, and more by the general slowness in tackling rape culture in general.

I don’t seem to come across it much.  Andrew Tate is the patron saint of rape culture.  It was @robert who said that rape culture is a spectrum of behaviour from mild to severe, and this would be a goo…[Read more]

But realistically, men aren’t actually being accused of being rapists, just of being dangerous, which I think is really a fair point.  It’s clear that men as a species are potentially lethal to women.  So, men should just suck it up if women are suspicious of them – it’s rational for women to be that way.

Also, men are the physically stronger (…[Read more]

TheEncogitationer wrote:
Don’t lump the innocent in with predators in the name of either religion nor ideology!

It would be good if the innocent weren’t so sensitive, because they shouldn’t mind being tarred with a brush because of the seriousness of the peril and danger for women coming from a minority of men.

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:
Saying it out loud in public shows just how fucked religious morality is. I do not take his apology as being sincere.

That’s true – it shows how religion can warp normal morality.  I find that religion is a moral domain in itself, which has a slightly different agenda (worshipping God? – broadly) than mutual…[Read more]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:
After saying women who wear shorts deserve to be raped, pastor admits “I was wrong”.

This is the best news I’ve heard all week, in that not many people can admit they’re wrong these days.