The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

He’s German, and a Feminist

Posted on | December 24, 2014 | 14 Comments

Paul Nungesser is the Columbia University student accused of rape by Emma “Mattress Girl” Sulkowicz. The New York Times interviewed him:

Speaking carefully, with a slightly formal bearing and an accent so faint that it can be hard to place, Mr. Nungesser, who is from Germany, says he believes sexual assault is an important cause for concern. “My mother raised me as a feminist,” he says, well aware of how those words will strike some people, “and I’m someone who would like to think of myself as being supportive of equal rights for women.”

Hmmm. He is “supportive of equal rights for women,” and is accused of raping one student, groping another and having an abusive relationship with his ex-girlfriend. At one point, I thought he might be innocent, but he’s a German feminist, so therefore he must be guilty.

Defending red-blooded American males, OK.

Defending German feminists? No way.

 

Comments

14 Responses to “He’s German, and a Feminist”

  1. RS
    December 24th, 2014 @ 11:19 am

    The kid’s problem is that German Feminism is a completely different animal than it’s malignant Anglo/American cousin. A complete explication of the reasons for this is beyond the scope of a blog comment, but in reading the underlying article a day or so ago, what struck me is that Mr.Nungesser is essentially culturally illiterate. He either attempted to behave in conformance with German/European cultural norms in America, or believed the “Hollywood Hype” about what America is. I’ve spent the last 30+ years dealing with German culture. Americans get a perhaps well-deserved rap for being culturally inept, but Europeans are as bad when it comes to dealing with us. For most Europeans, “America” is New York, Miami, The Grand Canyon/Monument Valley and Hollywood, together with all that that implies.

    (I could tell a thousand stories, but let it suffice to say that Mr. Nungesser’s travails are not a surprise to me.)

  2. RS
    December 24th, 2014 @ 11:21 am

    Damn. “. . . its malignant Anglo/American cousin.”

  3. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    December 24th, 2014 @ 11:35 am

    You would have defended him, but the “German Feminist” comment was a bridge too far. Like Arnhem.

  4. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    December 24th, 2014 @ 11:41 am
  5. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    December 24th, 2014 @ 11:44 am

    For most Europeans, “America” is New York, Miami, The Grand Canyon/Monument Valley and Hollywood, together with all that that implies.

    You left out freedom and hot women.

  6. RS
    December 24th, 2014 @ 11:54 am

    The “hot women” is implied in Miami and Hollywood. I was using geography as a shorthand way of saying, they don’t know much about us. Freedom, cowboys (Monument Valley), excessive (in their view) patriotism is all wrapped up in that. As i said above, a complete discussion is outside the scope of a blog comment, but I could write pages about my observations over the years.

  7. robertstacymccain
    December 24th, 2014 @ 12:13 pm

    Yeah, whenever I need someone to criticize my “excessive patriotism,” seeking help from Germans is right at the top of my list …

  8. RS
    December 24th, 2014 @ 12:24 pm

    They don’t criticize it, necessarily. They just don’t understand it and are naturally suspicious of it.

    You have to understand, the German school system post 1945, at least in the West, and then incorporated into the East in 1991, was formed as a reaction to Nazi nationalism. Patriotism has been bred out of them for fear of a resurgence of the evils of National Socialism. That’s what happens when you lose a world war and are responsible for the deaths of countless millions.

    That, of course, is problematic in our view. Rightly, I believe, because that fear of a “relapse,” prevents a vigorous response to external threats, whether those be Islamic immigration or revived Russian imperialism.

  9. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    December 24th, 2014 @ 12:45 pm

    I just say ‘Merica!

  10. Fail Burton
    December 24th, 2014 @ 1:32 pm

    Why doesn’t this guy sign an endorsement deal with a German mattress company and carry his own mattress around?

    It could be a new line called the “Consensual Mattress.” “All work and no play doesn’t make you free.”

    They could show him serenading it at sunset in Central Park and sitting opposite him at a candlelight dinner or watching German soccer on TV together. It would be solid gold.

    Stupid, stupid schweinhund German.

    Anyway the aptly named Sulkowicz is kinda nice looking in a feral kind of way so I give Schweinhund a 6.5 for his possibly deranged Posturepedic Comfort Woman who probably retroactively decided she is too attractive to have sex without being given a car or jewelry or HBO special or an endorsement deal from the Bangenschlong Mattress Company.

  11. Federale
    December 24th, 2014 @ 2:33 pm

    Sounds like a player, I guess Mattress Girl and the others did not like the game. But I can see them falling for the “European” game. And then there is the German like of S/M. I guess the girls played at that, then changed their minds.

  12. Daniel Freeman
    December 24th, 2014 @ 7:39 pm

    A memoir focused on cross-interpreting German and American culture for each other would be a valuable thing. If sufficient honesty would risk damage to relationships that you value, then you can write it out, put it away, and let your heirs decide what to do with it when you’re gone. Just don’t let that specialized knowledge go to worm food!

  13. richard mcenroe
    December 24th, 2014 @ 8:07 pm

    Couldn’t he find enough women to crawl to in Germany?

  14. Art Deco
    December 25th, 2014 @ 2:48 pm

    Emma Sulkowicz is extraordinarily handsome. It’s a pity it’s wasted on (a) displays of loose morals and (b) displays of teh crazy derived from not being able to acknowledge her loose morals and (c) ‘performance’ ‘art’.

    If Columbia were a serious institution, the studio art faculty would be dismissed en bloc. A new such faculty could be constructed a year later and dismissed faculty re-hired if they could demonstrate through references to departmental meeting minutes, that they had never been on board with hiring any ‘performance’ ‘art’ boobettes.