The Other McCain

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

On @Anne_Theriault and the Endless Futility of Feminist Revenge Fantasies

Posted on | June 17, 2016 | 31 Comments

 

Remember Jian Ghomeshi? He was the famous-in-Canada guy who was accused of rape and acquitted in a trial earlier this year. Some people might conclude that a “not guilty” verdict means that Jian Ghomeshi was, you know, not guilty. However, feminists in Canada had decided Jian Ghomeshi was guilty long before the trial began. To feminists, his acquittal meant that Jian Ghomeshi got away with it.

If you believe what feminists wrote about the Jian Ghomeshi case, rape is basically legal in Canada. Getting a rape conviction in Canada is so difficult, according to feminists, that Canadian women are raped routinely and the reaction from Canadian law enforcement is, “Tough luck.”

Because I hate Canada quite generally, I’m willing to believe this.

My attitude toward elite universities is the same. When I see feminists protesting about “rape culture” at Harvard or Yale, my reaction is to figure they’re right. Those boys with perfect GPAs and high SAT scores paying $50,000 a year to attend elite schools? Rapists, all of them.

The Ivy League Is Decadent and Depraved, as I keep saying, and I’m always willing to believe any accusation against a Harvard student. Rape, arson, kidnapping, murder, bestiality, treason — guilty! Hang ’em!

Canadian men are probably at least as bad as Harvard students, or perhaps even worse, which may explain why Canadian feminists are so angry. Anne Thériault is a Canadian feminist who declared Jian Ghomeshi guilty of rape as soon as the accusation was made:

I swear to God if one more person says “presumption of innocence” to me, I’m going to flip a table. At this point, the words have ceased to mean anything other than, “Stop talking about this thing that I don’t want you to talk about.” . . .
No one seems to care about how supporting Ghomeshi will influence other women who want to come forward about being raped or assaulted. . . .
Ghomeshi is, in the eyes of the law, innocent until proven guilty. This is an important part of our judicial system, and it should be respected. However — and I can’t emphasize this enough — the presumption of innocence should extend to all parties involved. The presumption of innocence does not mean that you should assume that these women are lying about being assaulted until proven otherwise.

Here is the fulcrum on which the whole matter balances.

Unlike most other crimes — armed robbery, possession of narcotics, vehicular homicide, etc. — rape accusations are frequently “he said/she said” disputes, where there is no corroborating evidence or testimony by witnesses to help us ascertain the truth. From the feminist perspective, however, “reasonable doubt” means that women are accused of lying and so, according to Anne Thériault, the accusation of rape should be considered tantamount to proof of rape. Guilty! Hang ’em!

The Canadian feminist lynch mob was ready to see Jian Ghomeshi go to prison, and infuriated when the judge acquitted him.

Jian Ghomeshi’s progressive persona
was the perfect cover for his abuse

That headline on a column by Canadian feminist Meghan Murphy summarizes the most bitter aspect of the Ghomeshi case for them. Ghomeshi was a sort of hero to a generation of young progressive women in Canada, and he had no shortage of female companionship. He was a known womanizer, even more notorious in that regard than Bill Clinton. When multiple women accused Jian Ghomeshi of sexual assault, the case was not really just about him, but also about every other womanizer with a “progressive persona.” Feminists are to progressive guys what wildebeests are to lions on the Katanga Plateau, i.e., their natural prey.

Most conservatives suspect that the only reason guys get into progressive politics is because such movements attract a lot of slutty feminists who are fools for any dude who can talk a good line about “social justice.” And the reason feminists hate men so much, we suspect, is because so many feminists have had the experience of being used and discarded by the Jian Ghomeshi type of progressive dude. How many Canadian feminists did Ghomeshi have sex with? As many as he wanted, basically. The number’s probably more than 100, if not 200 or 300, because Jian Ghomeshi was a progressive celebrity in Canada, and feminists in Canada are certainly no less promiscuous than feminists anywhere else.

Because feminists are so often used by guys in “pump-and-dump” hookups — no romance, no callback, no respect — they tend to become embittered toward men quite generally, and this fuels a vindictive rage: Men must be punished to appease her wrath for the wrongs she has suffered. Therefore, whenever a rape case makes headlines anywhere, feminists everywhere demand a guilty verdict and a maximum penalty. There has never been an innocent man falsely accused, feminists expect us to believe, and doubt is impermissible. All skeptics are “rape truthers,” a term coined by Amanda Marcotte to describe the widespread reaction to the Rolling Stone gang-rape hoax at the University of Virginia.

Canadian progressives are scum, and I wouldn’t care if Jian Ghomeshi had been sentenced to life in prison. Frankly, if a mob of feminists kidnapped Ghomeshi, doused him in gasoline and set him ablaze, his fiery death would not bother me at all. One less Canadian on the planet? Good news! However, the immolation of Jian Ghomeshi would make Anne Thériault happy, and anything that makes Anne Thériault happy is wrong, so I guess there’s at least one reason why I should hope he doesn’t die in a fire.

 

Do you see the futility of this feminist Us-vs.-Them worldview, where all men are oppressors and all women are victims? The judge in the Ghomeshi case did not find the testimony of the accusers credible and, in fact, his ruling pointed out that Ghomeshi’s accusers were caught telling lies. The judge warned against the “dangerous false assumption that sexual assault complainants are always truthful.” This prompted Anne Thériault to declare her continued belief in Ghomeshi’s guilt, blaming the discrepancies in his accusers’ memories on “trauma.” All women tell the truth all the time, according to Anne Thériault and all men are rape suspects whose guilt is certain as soon as an accusation is made. The only way a man can avoid suspicion is to avoid women altogether. A man should never go anywhere he might accidentally encounter a woman, and he must make sure he can prove his alibi, otherwise Anne Thériault would have him sent to prison, were it in her power to do so.

This is scarcely an exaggeration of the opinion Anne Thériault expressed in a column earlier this month about the Brock Turner case at Stanford:

Rape culture is the idea that sexual assault does not happen in a vacuum, but rather occurs because we are socialized in a way that normalizes and even celebrates sexual victimization of women. . . .
Everyone can agree that rape is objectively wrong, but problems crop up when we try to parse exactly what rape is and under what circumstances it occurs. . . .
Most rapists are men we know and like: our neighbors and our colleagues and sometimes even our friends. . . .
Men we think of as nice guys.
Men who look just like everybody else.

What the absolute hell is she talking about? Everybody knows and likes rapists? Read the whole column and you discover that what Anne Thériault is doing here is trying to create a definition of the “sexual victimization of women” so elastic as to include nearly every hookup involving people who have been drinking. By Anne Thériault’s standards, just about every hookup that happens after a college frat party could be construed as rape. The Brock Turner case was egregious, but in reading Anne Thériault’s commentary on the case, you realize that this is not about Brock Turner, in the same way her commentary about Jian Ghomeshi wasn’t really about Jian Ghomeshi. No, Anne Thériault has a generalized resentment toward men, and these cases give her an excuse to point the accusing finger: “You’re all guilty! Neighbors! Colleagues! Friends! Nice guys! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!”

By constantly reiterating this universal male guilt, Anne Thériault seeks to convince her readers of her own moral superiority. She is Saint Anne of the Sacred Gender, and the rest of us — especially the male “us” — are all wretched sinners, unfit to touch the hem of her garment.

This self-righteousness, and this infinite hostility toward men, are both part of a revenge fantasy that is sadly common among feminists. The main problem with the world, from the feminist perspective, is that too many women actually like men. All men deserve to be hated, and no man deserves anything except hatred, and Anne Thériault will never be satisfied until all women hate men as much as she does.




 

Category: Canada, Sex Trouble

Comments

31 Responses to “On @Anne_Theriault and the Endless Futility of Feminist Revenge Fantasies”

  1. Steve Skubinna
    June 17th, 2016 @ 10:04 pm

    Canadian feminists don’t accept due process. Neither do American Democrats. As solid an argument for maintaining national borders as I can conceive of.

  2. RS
    June 17th, 2016 @ 10:38 pm

    Most rapists are men we know and like. . .

    This is known as “selection bias.” None of these women would be caught dead dating a conservative Christian college male, who would, you know, take her out for dinner and a movie and walk home. Such a male would be deemed “repressed” and hopelessly “patriarchal.” No pun intended, but they’ve made their beds and discovered sleeping in them is problematic.

  3. Art Deco
    June 17th, 2016 @ 11:28 pm

    This particular Anne Theriault presents herself as married and as the mother of a son. N.B. there is a Dr. Anne Theriault at the University of Ottawa; she’s not this Anne Theriault.

    One impression you get when reading much feminist writing is the sheer mediocrity incorporated within it. You have writers who appear to have had little between their ears from the get go (Amanda Marcotte), writers whose minds went rancid from a deficit of use (Ellen Goodman), and writers who were out of their depth and element but addled by overweening self-confidence (Barbara Ehrenreich).

  4. Westray
    June 17th, 2016 @ 11:52 pm

    He would also be deemed ‘nice’ which makes them go into spasms of convulsive vomiting.

  5. Westray
    June 17th, 2016 @ 11:59 pm

    Doesn’t the two week hysteria over Brock Turner (who drunkenly fingered a panty-less drunken party girl before he got up to puke and she passed out) prove that we, indeed, DO NOT live in rape culture where 1 in 4 women are raped? IOW, if so much rape is going on, why did we even pay attention to Turner? In a rape culture there would be a barrage of those stories daily. Why so much Brock Turner then?

  6. robertstacymccain
    June 18th, 2016 @ 5:43 am

    ” In a rape culture there would be a barrage of those stories daily. Why so much Brock Turner then?”

    The fact is, feminists have insisted that campus sexual assault should be punished through campus tribunals, not criminal courts, and therefore the Brock Turner case is rare.

    It’s about feminist atrocity narratives, where the worst examples of male behavior are represented as typical male behavior.

  7. NeoWayland
    June 18th, 2016 @ 8:17 am

    ?Stop talking about this thing that I don’t want you to talk about.?

    I’m pretty sure that is the core argument here.

  8. thesickmanofeurope_com
    June 18th, 2016 @ 8:59 am

    “….The only way a man can avoid suspicion is to avoid women altogether. A man should never go anywhere he might accidentally encounter a woman…..”

    Other than having separate countries or planets…..I have no idea how we can accomplish that.
    As I said before soon all men will have to walk around 24/7 with a GoPro around their necks in order to protect themselves… because simply by walking down the street and minding his own business could land a man in the clink.

    Perhaps in the end Sharia will in effect accomplish this for us men after all.

  9. CrustyB
    June 18th, 2016 @ 9:50 am

    The criteria for the left believing someone is guilty is this: I *want* to believe they’re guilty and I don’t care if it’s true or not. The “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” lie. The Tawana Brawley lie. The Trayvon Martin/Freddie Gray/Tamir Rice lie. The Bill Clinton/Monice Lewinsky lie. The “Orlando killer used an AR-15” lie. The left runs on lies. It’s like their fuel.

  10. marcus tullius cicero
    June 18th, 2016 @ 9:57 am

    …FemiNazis believe that all men thoughts are ‘to rape or not to rape’…

  11. Quartermaster
    June 18th, 2016 @ 1:12 pm

    To the left, Stalin’s show trials were due process.

  12. Steve Skubinna
    June 18th, 2016 @ 1:19 pm

    Due process = accusation.

    Which makes sense, really. I mean, you wouldn’t have been accused if you hadn’t done something, right?

  13. Steve Skubinna
    June 18th, 2016 @ 1:20 pm

    They have to, because the truth just doesn’t work for them.

  14. DeadMessenger
    June 18th, 2016 @ 1:36 pm

    They say that the best defense is a good offense.

    So, if both the college boy and the girl have been drinking, then foolishly decide to have sex, the next day he should go to the administration and tell them that he had diminished capacity and she raped him. Perhaps at a sorority party. Maybe he doesn’t remember her name? Hannah? Haven? Something like that. There was definitely an “H” in it.

    Groups of college boys can mass in front of media cameras and protest loudly about the rape culture on campus, and how aggressive feminists get them drunk then take advantage of them. They can carry signs that say “No means no” and “A hot mess does not mean yes”.

    Statistics clearly show that 2 of 5 college boys will be raped before graduation.

  15. DeadMessenger
    June 18th, 2016 @ 1:40 pm

    I’ve sat on juries before where someone said that. The topic apparently hadn’t come up in voir dire.

  16. DeadMessenger
    June 18th, 2016 @ 1:42 pm

    The day is coming when it’ll be like that in this country, only a reality show where people can call up and vote for their least favorites.

  17. Steve Skubinna
    June 18th, 2016 @ 2:19 pm

    Damn it, this guy is guilty of something and by golly he’s gonna hang for it!

  18. wisemanner
    June 18th, 2016 @ 3:59 pm

    It’s because they only got where they were through positive discrimination.

  19. Joe Joe
    June 18th, 2016 @ 6:23 pm

    I did not follow the Gomeshi trial, but was it anything like the railroading of George Zimmerman?

  20. Joe Joe
    June 18th, 2016 @ 6:26 pm

    Or maybe the damned colleges can start enforcing drinking and drug laws instead of looking the other way. The sheer amount of alcohol cosumed is astounding. Brock Turner’s victim was at almost 3 times the legal limit (and that was after a saline IV at the hospital.) While a drunk victim is still a victim, these young women need to get some common sense and limit themselves.

  21. Joe Joe
    June 18th, 2016 @ 6:30 pm

    “Read the whole column”

    I went there and tried to get through it. Seeing that she immediately jumped on race, I wanted to comment that a black athlete, Sam Ukwuchu, was given exactly the same sentence as Turner was earlier this year (http://www.mindingthecampus.org/2016/06/14156/), but there is no comments section.

    I guess she really doesn’t want to hear what anyone else has to say.

  22. DeadMessenger
    June 18th, 2016 @ 6:36 pm

    Can’t argue with that.

  23. DeadMessenger
    June 18th, 2016 @ 6:38 pm

    Shocking, isn’t it?

    Or not…

  24. Joe Joe
    June 18th, 2016 @ 6:54 pm

    ::Expresses extreme shock by opening a Foster lager::

  25. Mal
    June 18th, 2016 @ 7:21 pm

    Not quite, Joe. The asshole did smack women around on his “dates”, but many of them went out with him again afterward. Duh. And he did harass women relentlessly in the workplace, dry humping them from behind, etc. When some of the harassed co-workers went to management about the dickhead, they were told not to pursue any course of action, and felt – correctly as it turned out – that their jobs might be in jeopardy. Years down the road, a bunch of them contacted the police, who heedlessly charged him without due diligence on their part. The women, similarly, demolished their own cause, by openly collaborating on witness statements on social media; and his lawyer, who had openly made a pretty good dinner joke about him being an asshole before she was hired to defend him made mincemeat of the case against him.
    It was a clusterfark all ’round.
    The guy should have been sacked long before for his egregiously nasty behaviour at work; and his dates should have pursued assault charges immediately with the police. Instead, his employer, the CBC, allowed him to continue despite knowing what he was up to; and his “dates” kept going out with him. It all came to a head when a young blogger who had come to his attention happened to mention what a revolting skeeve he was (or words to that effect) in her blog. Then all of the deeply offended exes excitedly piled on. The result was a publicity windfall for Ghomeshi’s brilliant lawyer and a disaster for many of the women involved.
    Ultimately, the dickweed WAS sacked from his job and good riddance; but his enablers at the CBC got away with it.
    A little long-winded, but I think I got it all.
    That said, feminists are still assholes, too.

  26. Joe Joe
    June 18th, 2016 @ 7:31 pm

    Thanks. He’s definitely not the “deer in the headlights” Zimmerman defending himself while on his back being beaten MMA style.

    With Gomeshi being as much of a turd as he was, why did any women go out with him? (I know, I’m a guy, I just don’t get it….) And if he was sexually harassing women at work IN CANADA(!), why weren’t grievances filed? What was wrong with management? And why didn’t they sue the company instead of looking for criminal charges?

    Sounds like the police dropped the ball here, too.

  27. Mal
    June 18th, 2016 @ 7:38 pm

    The police, AND the women involved. Ghomeshi’s employers didn’t so much drop the ball as hid it behind the boxes in the furnace room, the pricks.
    It was as messed-up a case as I can think of; in which you detested everybody involved, except – astoundingly – the defence lawyer and the judge, who got it exactly right.

  28. Westray
    June 18th, 2016 @ 10:36 pm

    Campus feminists are showing their hand without knowing it. Their avoidance of criminal courts is them unwittingly kind of giving a nod to the fact that, “Look, we know there aren’t any real crimes here. Just drunken co-eds doing what they do.”

    It’s either that or they themselves don’t regard rape as a serious crime. I do. I say give any real rapist the death penalty. I wouldn’t want cases of murder to be handled by kangaroo courts of 19 year olds in which the murderer is simply expelled off the campus into the world. Do they not think rape is serious? Then why is it just; “Just kick him out. Who cares if he rapes again?”

    They have to pick a side;

    1. Either admit that ‘rape culture’ is a massive hoax driven by the impetus of tens of thousands of women’s studies majors who need to have something to do.

    2. Admit that they don’t regard rape as a serious crime and that they don’t care if the expelled rapists rape again.

    Choose one, feminists.

  29. Art Deco
    June 18th, 2016 @ 10:37 pm

    Long ago in a galaxy far away, Barbara Ehrenreich was a professor of biochemistry at the State University College at Old Westbury. Why she resigned from her position is a matter of conjecture. The academic job market was not all that demanding in 1971, she worked in the hard sciences (finishing her PhD at age 27), and Old Westbury was a Rockefeller-era start-up founded only 3 years before she’d been hired. There’s a story there, but not one she’s willing to tell.

    As for Goodman, she’s a graduate of Radcliffe College. She’s not congenitally dopey and her sister (Jane Holtz Kay) was an engaging writer on urban issues. But, you know, use it or lose it. It always seemed as if the Globe had hired her to appeal to fuzzy-minded bourgeois women, the Syndicate picked up the column to sell to papers looking to appeal to fuzzy-minded bourgeois women, and she spent the next 30 years appealing to fuzzy-minded bourgeois women, which requires making affirmations, not arguments. Her biggest fan in my social circle was a seven-sisters graduate employed as a computer programmer at the University of Rochester. She should have known better.

  30. Westray
    June 18th, 2016 @ 10:40 pm

    Even the footage of Ray Rice being attacked and defending himself wasn’t enough to derail their narrative.

  31. News of the Week (June 19th, 2016) | The Political Hat
    June 19th, 2016 @ 11:55 am

    […] On @Anne_Theriault and the Endless Futility of Feminist Revenge Fantasies Remember Jian Ghomeshi? He was the famous-in-Canada guy who was accused of rape and acquitted in a trial earlier this year. Some people might conclude that a “not guilty” verdict means that Jian Ghomeshi was, you know, not guilty. However, feminists in Canada had decided Jian Ghomeshi was guilty long before the trial began. To feminists, his acquittal meant that Jian Ghomeshi got away with it. […]