Belfast rape trial - all 4 found not guilty Mod Note post one

hill16bhoy wrote: »

Individuals are more likely to commit a crime when there is a culture where they feel they can get away with it.

Fr. Brendan Smyth was an individual who for years raped, abused and destroyed lives because there was a culture of tolerance of sexual abuse, institutional closing ranks and cover up within the Catholic Church.

The same with Jimmy Savile and the BBC.

Drink driving used to be widespread. That culture of acceptance changed and road deaths went down.

But in rural areas some people still drink drive, which is a criminal offence, let's remember, because they feel it's not a big deal because there is still a culture which has a certain level of tolerance of it in rural areas.

There was a culture of homophobia in this country. There were regular "gay bashing incidents" and people felt they couldn't come out. There still is a culture of homophobia to an extent, but it's much less than it was because people fought against it.

Years ago people in Britain (and here) couldn't figure out what was wrong with labelling black people the n word or other racist epithets because the culture tolerated it. People fought against that too and that culture changed.

Changing all those cultures was necessary to changing people's behaviour.

Right here on this thread we had two posters who couldn't figure out what's wrong with carrying out a sex act on a sleeping person, a person who could not give consent. A prima facie case of sexual assault at best.

All of the elements I listed are part of rape culture. Every single one of them displays a degrading attitude to women.

When there is a culture among men that women are fair game to be degraded, don't be surprised when men do so - and rape and sexual assault are the most serious manifestations of that.

You can't change attitudes without changing the culture. Admitting there is such a culture is the first step towards changing attitudes. Changing attitudes changes behaviour.

It seems a lot of terminally arrogant men can't accept there is such a culture of degradation.

Rapists tend to be misogynists. Misogynism, like clerical sex abuse, racism and homophobia, is about power too.

And as the complainant during the Belfast trial so accurately said, rape (and sexual abuse) is a game of power.

One eyed Jack wrote: »

You don't imagine it's terribly arrogant to insist that such a thing as 'rape culture' exists in spite of all evidence to the contrary? You live in a society where the vast majority of men do not degrade women, where there is no culture among men that women are fair game to be degraded, where the only commonality among rapists is that they have committed rape.

You have a ways to go before you can show any indication of a link between the attitudes and behaviours of the vast majority of men and women in Irish society, and the tiny minority of men and women in Irish society who commit rape and sexual assault. I shouldn't have to explain to you that correlation does not imply causation, and yet that's exactly what you are attempting to do with your list.

RAINN suggests that the term 'rape culture' is unhelpful in tackling the issue of rape and sexual assault. Are they now perpetuating and contributing to 'rape culture' too because they have a problem with it?

hill16bhoy wrote: »

It's a culture that at worst, doesn't understand what rape is, ie. the tropes about "if a woman doesn't scream, it can't be rape", which the defence QCs in the Belfast trial implied, or implying the non-existence of spousal rape, as George Hook did.

It's a culture that mitigates rape by attaching blame to a victim - again George Hook did this, many, many posters on this website and elsewhere expressed total agreement with him.

It's a culture that makes light of consent issues - for instance, on this very thread we've had posters declaring that if a woman enters the bedroom of a man, it amounts to consent. We've had posters declare that there's nothing wrong with performing a sex act on a sleeping person (hello Francie Brady and RuMan). The idea that no doesn't mean no, either when it comes to sex or continued unwanted pursual and pestering anywhere else.

It's a culture that degrades through language - referring to or symbolising women as animals, ie. as a pig in "spit roast", or a dog or cow or a bitch, or in violent terms - "ruined her, destroyed her, pumped her, smashed her, ploughed her", or in degrading terms - "sluts, whores, brasses, slags" etc., while referring to men as "legends", "top shaggers", "swordsmen" etc.

It's a culture that misunderstands sex as something a man does to a women rather than as something man does with a woman. The language I referenced in the previous paragraph feeds into this.

It's a culture of humiliation - the "Love Belfast Sluts" meme Blane McIlroy sent around, the demands to publicly out the complainant (again, plenty of such calls on this thread). The sickening feasting on the Slane Girl video and the attempt to publicly out her.

It's a culture that assumes male power and male primacy. The ridiculing of female protest as crazy, irrelevant and illegitimate.

Subscribing to or engaging with any one of those notions is subscribing to and engaging with rape culture. Obviously the more elements one subscribes to, the more entwined with such a culture one is.

Such a culture is perpetuated, amazingly enough, by males, primarily, but by no means exclusively, younger males, who don't know a lot about about the world.

Such a culture is by no means exclusive to alt-right-minded people, but it is a culture which is synonymous with alt-right thinking - the idea of the pick up artist movement that women are effectively robots there to be manipulated and "won" like trophies, the notion that a woman's place is in the home, that women should not do certain jobs or play certain sports. I think you'll find a great deal of crossover between men who subscribe to any or all elements of rape culture and those who oppose the repeal of the 8th Amendment.