Re: [LCA2011-Chat] Some Anti-Harassment Policies considered harmful

From: Matthew Garrett <mjg59_at_srcf.ucam.org>
Date: Tue, 1 Feb 2011 18:12:15 +0000

On Tue, Feb 01, 2011 at 02:17:14AM -0500, Theodore Tso wrote:

> Please note, I am not diminishing what rape is, and or any particular
> person's experience. However, I *am* challenging the use of
> statistics that may be hyperbolic and misleading, and ultimately may
> be very counterproductive if it causes people to become afraid when
> the reality might not be as horrible as the "1 in 4" numbers might at
> first sound. Just as it was wrong for George Bush to inspire fear in
> the population so he could push his War Against Iraq agenda through
> congress, it's also wrong for people who, out of good intentions,
> inspire fear in others or themselves of being raped if the statistics
> used are misleading and manipulated.

(off-list)

You appear to be arguing that both the 1 in 4 and 1 in 6 figures are
misleading due to them using definitions of sexual assault or rape that
don't match the definitions of sexual assault or rape that you're using.
I'm unclear how making that argument in this manner is anything other
than diminishing what rape is, and bringing up arguments like "But they
had sex with the same individual subsequently" would work much better in
a world where beaten women don't tend to suffer in silence. Please
re-read what you wrote and think about whether it actually conveyed the
message you meant to imply, because right now to me it looks massively
ill-judged.

-- 
Matthew Garrett | mjg59_at_srcf.ucam.org
Received on Tue Feb 01 2011 - 18:12:15 GMT

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