The Other McCain

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

Feminism’s ‘Rape Culture’ Insanity

Posted on | April 29, 2015 | 152 Comments

Does anyone else remember the “Culture War” of the 1990s? Conservatives like Bill Bennett and Robert Bork argued at the time that the decadence of popular culture — as evidenced in everything from gangsta rap to video games to Quentin Tarantino movies — was corrupting morality, inciting violence and sexual perversion. Here we are, two decades later and feminists are saying basically the same thing.

This is part of what the whole “rape culture” discourse is about. Whereas most of us think of rape as a criminal act perpetrated by individuals, feminists want to indict culture — or “misogyny” or “male supremacy” or some other way of blaming larger societal forces beyond the act of the individual rapist. Therefore, feminists now adamantly insist, it’s the way we talk about sex, or the way sex is depicted in advertising, movies and TV shows, which causes rape. So now the Speech Police patrol the Internet, ready to denounce as a “rape apologist” anyone who contradicts the feminist narrative. No one can be permitted to express doubt toward the Scientific Truth of the Feminist-Industrial Complex. After Christina Hoff Sommers spoke at Georgetown University, the student newspaper published an editorial that accused the College Republicans (who hosted Sommers’ lecture) of having “knowingly endorsed a harmful conversation on the serious topic of sexual assault.”

Merely to have a conversation is harmful on the 21st-century campus.

What sort of conversations are students permitted to have? Feminists apparently had no problem with the Foucault-influenced postmodern gibberish spewed by Emma Sulkowicz in a “Sexual Assault Awareness Month” event at Brown University:

“There does not exist a scientific way to prove non-consent. . . . When it comes to sexual violence, scientific proof is impossible. . . . If we use proof in rape cases, we fall into the patterns of rape deniers. . . . When a person claims that their theory is a science, they disqualify other types of knowledge. . . . Let’s change the question from ‘Did she consent that night?’ to ‘Did she have the power to consent that night?’ . . . This is not about physical strength. . . . This is about historical power. . . . Seeing is the origin of interpretation. Interpretation is the origin of knowing. . . . If truth is scientific, then art cannot access truth. But perhaps there is something beyond the truth.”

Uh, “something beyond the truth”? Something we might call a lie?

This is pretty much what Paul Nungesser’s federal lawsuit says: “Emma Sulkowicz Is a Vindictive, Dishonest and Crazy Slut — Allegedly.”

Far be it from me to presume to know what transpired between Nungesser and Sulkowicz on the night of Aug. 27, 2012. She claims he held her down, choked her and forcibly sodomized her. There is no evidence at all to support her claim, however, while Nungesser says that everything between them was consensual and quotes Facebook messages from her that would appear to suggest that Sulkowicz was quite enthusiastic about sodomy (see paragraph 16 on p. 5 of Nungesser’s lawsuit). As for a possible motive for Sulkowicz to lie, Nungesser’s lawsuit offers a credible explanation in paragraphs 30-31, p. 10:

As is evident from Emma’s Facebook messages to Paul during the summer prior to their sophomore year, Emma’s yearning for Paul had become very intense. Emma repeatedly messaged Paul throughout that summer that she loved and missed him. She was quick to inquire whether he was in love with the woman he was seeing abroad.
Thereafter, she continued pursuing him, reiterating that she loved him. However, when Paul did not reciprocate these intense feelings, and instead showed interest in dating other women, Emma became viciously angry.

“Hell hath no fury,” etc. This is an entirely plausible scenario, if you are familiar with a certain kind of high-maintenance young woman — what I call the “Daddy’s Precious Darling” type — who believes herself to be so special that she deserves to have whatever she wants. If Sulkowicz thought her hookups with Nungesser were about love, and if he treated this as just something casual? Yeah, you could see how she would feel herself to be “the woman scorned” and decide to avenge herself by falsely accusing him of rape seven months after the night in question.

All of that, however, was a preamble to this: Robby Soave at Reason magazine wrote an article with the following headline:

Student Accused of Rape By ‘Mattress Girl’ Sues
Columbia U., Publishes Dozens of Damning Texts

A fair summary of the case, but when it was posted to Tumblr.com, a certain segment of feminist readers went berserk, including one 22-year-old who unleashed this:

Okay, I have something to f–king say about this sh*t, as someone who was raped and isn’t the “ideal” victim.
Like, yes, they had an ongoing sexual relationship.
However, he forced her to have anal sex against her will. Rapist seems to think that previous discussion of anal sex = consent. It is f–king not. You can be having sex with someone and if you start to do something to them they didn’t consent to, that they don’t want, that’s f–king rape.
She still texted him afterward? With “yearning” messages? Oh, wow. I can’t believe real humans who experience emotions are pegging this as evidence that she’s a filthy liar. When you have an established relationship with your rapist, it’s very f–king complicated. I allowed my rapist to torture me for 2½ years. We were dating. I loved him! Maybe, just f–king maybe, this woman continued to care about the man who raped her. That is NOT uncommon at all. And society tells women that when you care about a man, you have to please him. I would send my rapist “sexy” messages because I thought that’s what I had to do to get him to continue caring about me so I wouldn’t have to keep thinking about the rapes and have to cope with it.
f–king f–k all of you, holy f–king SH*T

Do you see the problem here? This anonymous Tumblr blogger says she was tortured by a rapist because she “loved him!”

Maybe I’m hopelessly naïve. Maybe I’ve led a sheltered life.

Maybe the world has changed in the past 30 years, and maybe there are lots of young women who date rapists and let themselves be tortured for 2½ years. “I loved him!”

Or maybe these women are crazy.

Also, maybe, conservatives were right about the Culture War. Maybe raising young people with no religious faith, letting them fill their minds with violence, noise and graphic sex is a bad idea.

Furthermore, the British Independent reported in August 2014:

A study on why teenage heterosexual couples may engage in anal sex has revealed a climate of coercion, with consent and mutuality not always a priority for the boys who are trying to persuade girls into having it.
Researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine interviewed 130 teenagers aged 16-18 in three sites across the country to “explore expectations, experiences and circumstances of anal sex among young people”.
The qualitative study found that anal heterosex appeared to be “painful, risky and coercive, particularly for women”, while males spoke of being expected to persuade or coerce reluctant partners.
“Anal sex is increasingly prevalent among young people, yet anal intercourse between men and women—although commonly depicted in sexually explicit media—is usually absent from mainstream sexuality education and seems unmentionable in many social contexts,” the study, published on BMJ Open, says.
It found that some young people normalised “coercive, painful and unsafe anal sex,” in an issue that needs to be addressed by health workers and schools in sex education.

Guys: DON’T DO THIS. Stop watching “sexually explicit media” (i.e., porn) and remember that sexual fantasy is called “fantasy” for a reason. All that weird and kinky stuff — especially stuff that is painful, degrading and unsanitary — is not what she wants.

Or if she does want it, she’s probably so crazy you don’t want her.

See paragraph 16 on p. 5 of Nungesser’s lawsuit.

Also, notice the footnote at the bottom of p. 7: Chlamydia.

Feminism and porn are both bad ideas. Butt sex? Bad idea. False rape accusations? Bad idea. You know who likes bad ideas? Crazy women.

Just in case you haven’t been persuaded yet:

A woman diagnosed with herpes at the age of 20 has written an emotional essay about living with the common condition to fight the stigma surrounding it.
Ella Dawson, now 22, said she had never had unprotected sex and thought she “wasn’t the sort of person STDs happened to” when the symptoms first appeared during her time at university in the US.
She found the diagnosis days later devastating, feeling a “tidal wave of shame” hit her in the student health centre. . . .
Six months after being diagnosed, she decided to start telling more people she had herpes to help herself get over the mental block.
Ms Dawson says she never had a negative reaction dropping the “herpes bomb” at parties and in class discussions at the Wesleyan University in Connecticut.

Wesleyan University, annual tuition $47,972. Ella Dawson graduated last year with a bachelor of arts in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies with a concentration in feminist media analysis.

There is a word for this, and the word is crazy.





 

Category: Sex Trouble

Forgiving Brooke Baldwin

Posted on | April 29, 2015 | 33 Comments

by Smitty

Another day, another unfortunate utterance by someone on the Left. Watching the clip, it’s clearly a scripted set-up between her and good ol’ Elijah “fake racial slurs” Cummings.

But let us express compassion for poor wee Brooke, a thirty-something special snowflake from the UNC Chapel Hill Department of Commie Propaganda (that is, Journalism). When I went to boot camp in 1987, my company commander was a SMC Baldwin. That’s Chief Signalman for you civilian types, though the rating was apparently merged with Quartermaster in 2004.

I kind of wonder what old Baldwin would think of his namesake slandering veterans as though military service turns Americans into some kind of foreign, invasive species. Veterans support and defend the Constitutional right of Brooke and her ilk to be as false and useless as they want to be. There is some irony to be mined in how the era of Hope and Change segregates Americans into victim groups, like the Baltimore rioters, and target groups, like veterans, Christians,  and males (trifecta for me!).

So, take your paycheck, Brooke. Take it knowing that, even though you’re on the wrong team, at least some veterans forgive you. We pray that wisdom find you, and you truly repent past the casual tweet and instead start doing some useful reporting. While you had EC on camera, for example, you could have diverted from your talking points to inquire if Cummings approved of Martin O’Malley’s 2013 gun law, which probably did little to help societal politeness recently in Baltimore.

But, again, we’re in a forgiving mood, and, besides: we expect absolutely nothing from you whatsoever, Brooke. It’s only when you veer negative that something must be said.

via Breitbart

Category: CNN, Media Bias

Why Do Feminists Hate Beauty?

Posted on | April 28, 2015 | 125 Comments

“The digital armpit that is Tumblr.com seems to be the preferred medium of young feminists who, although they have accomplished nothing and have no credentials, find that they can become Internet Superstars by disparaging men. It seems that the most formulaic, banal and stereotypical derision of males is enormously popular with a certain type of young woman.”
— Robert Stacy McCain, March 12

Exactly why a particularly stupid and rancid type of feminism flourishes on Tumblr is a topic that would require more time than I can afford to put into it today. My wife and I are celebrating our 26th anniversary, and so I’ll spare you my theories about Tumblr feminism. What I want to do instead is to link this Ace of Spades item about a feminist hate-storm against a company’s “Beach Body” ad:

This upset the Social Justice Tumblrinas, who began arguing that Everyone already has a “beach body,” because everyone — well, every woman — already has the perfect body with no need of improvement. (Note that feminists are usually critical of men who could stand to do some pushups.) . . .
Oh, and Protein World called the feminists — many of whom are vandalizing their advertisements, or even threatening to destroy their offices — “terrorists.”

What is it about the celebration of female beauty that angers feminists so much? Gosh, I just can’t imagine what it could be.





 

Category: Sex Trouble

Anarchy in Baltimore

Posted on | April 28, 2015 | 128 Comments

What happened Monday night in Baltimore, the Economist reported, “is perhaps best described not as a riot but as anarchy”:

Though there are police lines, there are few protesters or people fighting the police or hurling stones. Indeed, where the police are lined up, the people standing around are mostly taking photos on their phones. Drive a few blocks in any direction, though, and suddenly it feels lawless. Groups of young men, boys really, wearing bandanas and hoodies, stand on street corners next to derelict buildings, staring at anyone passing, and occasionally throwing projectiles at cars. Young women hurry home carrying bags of stolen loot: food, clothes, and bottles of beer and liquor. On the occasional street here and there cars burn freely. Shops, of which there are not many in this abandoned corner of the inner city, are ravaged, their windows smashed, their shelves picked over. Cars hurtle through red lights at high speed, music blaring, boys leaning out of the windows. And everywhere the intense smell of smoke and the buzz of helicopters overhead.

The Baltimore Sun reports:

As night fell, looters took to Mondawmin Mall and a Save-A-Lot and Rite Aid in Bolton Hill, loading up cars with stolen goods. About 10 fire crews battled a three-alarm fire at a large senior center under construction at Chester and Gay streets, as police officers stood guard with long guns. . . .
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake declared a curfew across the city starting Tuesday and for the next week, from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. for adults and 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. for children aged 14 and younger. She drew a distinction between peaceful protesters and “thugs” she said engaged in rioting Monday intend on “destroying our city.”
“It’s idiotic to think that by destroying your city, you’re going to make life better for anybody,” Rawlings-Blake said.

(“Idiotic”? Ma’am, these are Democrat voters you’re talking about.)

At Rawlings-Blake’s request, Gov. Larry Hogan signed an executive order declaring a state of emergency and activating the Maryland National Guard. . . .
The governor is sending 500 state troopers to Baltimore and requesting as many as 5,000 officers from neighboring states, he said in a press conference.
“I have not made this decision lightly,” Hogan said. “The National Guard represents a last resort.”

Of course, if the National Guard can’t restore order, President Obama could deploy the 82nd Airborne Division, or maybe order some Predator drone strikes against the rioters, but we probably don’t want think about that “last resort.”

Ta-Nehisi Coates offers intellectual excuses for the rioters:

Rioting broke out on Monday in Baltimore—an angry response to the death of Freddie Gray, a death my native city seems powerless to explain. Gray did not die mysteriously in some back alley but in the custody of the city’s publicly appointed guardians of order. And yet the mayor of that city and the commissioner of that city’s police still have no idea what happened. . . .
The citizens who live in West Baltimore, where the rioting began, intuitively understand this. I grew up across the street from Mondawmin Mall, where today’s riots began. My mother was raised in the same housing project, Gilmor Homes, where Freddie Gray was killed. Everyone I knew who lived in that world regarded the police not with admiration and respect but with fear and caution. People write these feelings off as wholly irrational at their own peril, or their own leisure. The case against the Baltimore police, and the society that superintends them, is easily made . . .

Right. Liberals must blame “society,” despite the fact that the “publicly appointed guardians of order” answer to a “society” (i.e., the citizens of Baltimore) who in 2012 gave 87% of their votes to Barack Obama. Yet it is predictable that, to people whose politics is a simple devotion to (a) electing Democrats and (b) supporting liberal policies, the evidence of failure leaves them angry, confused and hunting for scapegoats. Democrats cannot be blamed, nor can the party’s most loyal constituents be held responsible, and the possibility that liberalism is itself the problem — well, no, thoughts like that never cross the mind of someone like Ta-Nehisi Coates. His worldview is completely fact-proof and immune to the influence of logical deduction.

This is the political gospel of modern liberalism: People who vote 87% Democrat are never to be blamed for anything they do wrong. And really, the liberal asks, isn’t “wrong” kind of a judgmental word when applied to the peace-loving citizens of Baltimore?





 

Category: Crime, Liberals, Maryland, Racism

LIVE AT FIVE: 04.28.15

Posted on | April 28, 2015 | 5 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
BALTIMORE BURNING – RIOTING ERUPTS AFTER FREDDIE GRAY FUNERAL

“Demonstrators” throw rocks at police

Slain suspect’s sister disapproves of rioting
Fifteen officers injured, six hospitalized as questions over police reaction begin
Baltimore mayor finally calls for National Guard, imposes curfew


Nepalis Dig Through Quake Rubble For Survivors
PM says death toll could reach 10,000

Bali Nine Executions: Corruption Investigations Into Judges Completed
Commission hasn’t released report, however, as executions loom



POLITICS
GOP Budget Negotiations Hit snag Over Paying For Defense Increases

Sen. Bob Corker puts brakes on budget deal

Objections to deep cuts in non-defense spending

Obama Rips House GOP Budget Spending Limits

NY Housing Authority Reduces Spaces For Homeless Under DiBlasio

Supremes Tell Another Lower Court To Reconsider Obamacare Mandate For Religious Groups

Loretta Lynch Sworn In As New Attorney General

Obama-Backed Green Energy Failures Leave Taxpayers Stuck With $2.2 Billion Tab



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Asian Crude Falls As US Stockpile Expected To Peak: WTI $56.14, Brent $64.00
Advocacy Groups Press SEC To Review Shell’s Arctic Filings
Cheap Oil Not The Only Factor In Southwest Airlines Success
Sales Up, But Profits Drop 1% In Philips Q1
BP Profit Beats Estimates As Refining Offsets Crude Plunge
ContainerStore Results Miss The Mark
Facebook Messenger Now Has Video Calling
China iPhone Sales Boost Apple
ESPN Sues Verizon Over Move To Slimmer Cable Packages
OneTouch Idol 3 Review: How Good Can A $250 Smartphone Be?
Konami Cancels “Silent Hills”



SPORTS
Caps, Wizards Advance Together For First Time

John Wall (2) and Paul Pierce celebrate after winning Game 4 and achieving the first playoff sweep in club history

Wizards finish off Raptors 125-94, cheer Capitals on to victory against Islanders


Astros Whip It Out Late, Top Padres 9-4

Lightning Electric Against Red Wings, Force Game 7


O’s, Pale Hose Postponed (Rioting)

Bucks Dodge Bullet Again, Beat Bulls 94-88

BoSox Rally Late, Edge Blue Jays 6-5

Nyets Send Hawks Home Winless

Nats Lose To Braves 8-4, Fall To NL East Cellar



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Actress Jayne Meadows Dies, 95

Jayne with husband/co-star Steve Allen (at the piano) and Louis Nye

Died of natural causes at her Encino home

Lifetime Making Unauthorized “Full House” Tell-all Pic

Ian Somerhalder, Nikki Reed Married

High School Claims Justin Bieber Bullied His Way Into Prom

Amy Adams Plans Secret LA Wedding

The New Queen Of Diss Rap – Mariah Carey?

VIPs Brunch At Politico Founder’s Digs After #Nerdprom

TMNT2 Casts Brian Tee As Shredder

“Real Housewives” Might Not Be Helping Kim Richards’ Sobriety

Jake Gyllenhall: Currently Single, But He’d Let Mom Set Him Up

Rihanna Flaunts Her Beach Body In Hawaii

First Look At The New Nightcrawler

“The Osbournes” Reboot Dead At VH1



FOREIGNERS
Iran Aims To Use NPT Conference To Step Up Pressure On Israel
ROK Court Gives Captain Of Sewol Ferry Life Imprisonment For Murder
Coalition Vows Two-Pronged Yemen Strategy
Japan, US Set New Rules For Military Cooperation
Ahead Of Election, PM Cameron Says Only Tories Can Save UK
UN SecGen: Palestinians Put UN Schools At Risk During Gaza War
Car Bombs Kill 19 In Baghdad
Greek PM Leaves Referendum Option Open, Rules Out Elections
Sudanese President Bashir Reelected With 94% Of Vote
157 Arrested During Burundi Protests



BLOGS & STUFF
EBL: Is Hillary’s Campaign Collapsing?
Louder With Crowder: An Open Letter To Baltimore Rioters
Doug Powers: Hillary – Killing Babies Will Never Be Copacetic Until You Clingers Let Go Of Your Religious Hangups
Twitchy: To Riot Or Not To Riot In Baltimore? Vox Helps You Decide!
Shark Tank: DWS Says Jews In-Line With Dems, Not GOP (Forgets Old Testament Teachings)
Bill Whittle: The Class Of 2015 – Book Burners Afraid Of Matches (Thanks to loyal reader Brian E.)
American Power: Homosexual Businessman Who Hosted Ted Cruz Event Forced To Grovel Before Gay Fascist Overlords
American Thinker: The Clintons’ Little Tin Box
Conservatives4Palin: Thomas Sowell – The New Inquisition
Don Surber: Next American President Must Prosecute
Jammie Wearing Fools: Pathetic deBlasio Whines About How He’s Treated At Baseball Games
Joe For America: Who’s More Out Of Control – Baltimore Rioters Or The Mayor?
JustOneMinute: Reminder – Obama Aided And Abetted Hilary
Pamela Geller: UK Labour Leader Says His Party Will Criminalize “Islamophobia”
Protein Wisdom: “We gave those who wished to destroy space to do that.”
Shot In The Dark: Cue Captain Reynaud
STUMP: Obamacare Watch – The Disaster Of Covered California
The Gateway Pundit: Obama Sent Three WH Officials To freddie Gray’s Funeral – None To Chris Kyle’s
The Jawa Report: Good News – ISIS Supporters Snapping Pics In Rome
The Lonely Conservative: GoFundMe Shuts Down Fundraiser For Christian-owned Bakery
This Ain’t Hell: VA Secretary Says Aging Veterans “Created Stress”
Weasel Zippers: Baltimore Riots Tweet Of The Night
Megan McArdle: Accused Gets His Say In Columbia Rape Case
Mark Steyn: Uranium One, America Zip


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Category: Live at Five

Mayor In Dire Straits? Media Pool Accused Of Twisting Her Words?

Posted on | April 28, 2015 | 40 Comments

by Smitty

That almost recalls a song:

Here’s what Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake actually said:

The poor mayor. She misquoted herself. She meant to say: “We gave them space. . .the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship ProtesterBussyPrize. . .its five year mission. . .to seek out planets populated by patriarchal-normative cis-hetero Euro-centric lumber-sexual micro-agressors. . .to destroy their businesses. . .to boldly go where Progress has not gone before. . .because #SocialJustice.”

The Codpiece Media seems to be forgetting that Democrats get to airbrush whatever is necessary for the cause. Only Republicans are to be quoted accurately, especially when gaffing.

Fortunately, Her Majesty is coming; Her Majesty’s pimp hand is strong.

Category: Democrats, Maryland

If You’re Rich, Bisexual and Mentally Ill, Columbia University Wants You!

Posted on | April 27, 2015 | 57 Comments

Trust me, when an Ivy League university freshman says she’s “upper middle class,” she’s what most of us would call “rich”:

I am undeniably absolutely white and mostly WASP
my family is upper middle class and supports me financially . . .
my gender is basically “everybody told me I was a girl and I believed them because I didn’t have any better ideas”. I’m not really a girl but my gender identity isn’t really something that I feel strongly about so I go by she/her/hers pronouns and present femininely. I’m not really cis but I benefit from cis privilege in a ton of ways and I don’t feel comfortable calling myself trans
I’m bi as hell
I’m coming to realize that my gender and sexuality are often very tied up in my mental illness/neuroatypicality and so sometimes they change and that’s ok
I’m mentally ill (diagnosed with depression and BPD [borderline personality disorder], probably got some other shit going on too) and autistic

She’s a bisexual Columbia University freshman, and is a supporter of “mattress girl” Emma Sulkowicz. You will recall that the fellow student Sulkowicz falsely accused of rape, Paul Nungesser, filed a federal lawsuit against Columbia last week.

The bisexual mentally ill freshman is not happy about this:

i’m reading the complaint by paul nungesser against columbia for “allowing him to be harassed” and i’m just getting mad about a lot of things and this is such misogynistic bullshit

Also, this:

i’ve read through paul nungesser’s entire complaint and I will debunk it point by point if I have to because people on tumblr are starting to turn against emma sulkowicz

So, if you’re an “upper middle class” family with a mentally ill bisexual daughter, send her to Columbia University, where she can prepare for her future career in the challenging field of Ranting on the Internet.

Some of us manage to rant on the Internet without an Ivy League degree, but that’s just because of our “cis privilege,” I guess.

 

Category: Education, Sex Trouble

Introduction To Feminist Theory

Posted on | April 27, 2015 | 39 Comments

Until I started studying radical feminism, I never thought of “normal” as an achievement. “If you want to understand feminism, begin by studying abnormal psychology,” as I explain on page 18 of Sex Trouble: Essays on Radical Feminism and the War Against Human Nature. Perhaps no entirely sane person would ever sign up for a university Women’s Studies class, but if she did, it might permanently warp her mind.

Consider, for example, “Introduction to Feminist Theory” (GGS 228), a sophomore-level course in the Global Gender Studies program at the University of Buffalo. This is one of the “Core Curriculum” classes required of every student who wishes to major or minor in this subject, and here is the official course catalog description of what the 19-year-old sophomore will be taught in GGS 228:

Introduction To Feminist Theory
Introduces to the complexity of feminist thought and theorizing through a discussion of many of the major schools of feminist thought and past and present debates within feminist theorizing as it has developed both within the United States, and abroad. A solid grasp of the core theories, their fundamental approaches, their insights into social phenomenon and the key criticisms of each, will allow the student to enter into and participate in the ongoing conversations that characterizes feminist thought. Feminist theory has always developed in tandem with feminist movements and activism. Thus, throughout the course, students will not only learn about feminist theories, but also apply the tenets of different theories to current issues and modern problems. Theories are not meant to be passive ideas unrelated to our everyday reality, but are meant to be used as tools to analyze the world around us. As a critical theory, feminist theory aims not only to produce knowledge, but also to provide a base for action. Feminist theories ask us to rethink what we mean by sex and gender, how we understand our sexuality, the roles, status, and ideals assigned to men and women in our societies and how we reward and punish individuals that question, challenge or deviate from these roles. Feminist theory engages with issues of social inequality, oppression, and sexism, and invites us to imagine strategies for creating a world where there is more equality and liberation.

You see that feminist theory is not “passive ideas unrelated to our everyday reality,” and therefore what students learn in GGS 288 cannot be separated from “feminist movements and activism,” so that students are expected to “apply the tenets of different theories to current issues and modern problems.” Notice also that students are required “to rethink what we mean by sex and gender.” The professors in charge of these feminist indoctrination programs are invariably of a type Eric Hoffer called The True Believer, because only a devoted ideologue would get a Ph.D. in this stuff. So, which lunatic is in charge of this particular asylum? During the Spring 2015 semester at the University of Buffalo, GGS 288 was taught by Assistant Professor Christine Varnado:

Dr. Varnado teaches courses in sexuality and gender theory, literature and the humanities, and qualitative methodologies. She received her Ph.D. from Columbia’s department of English and Comparative Literature, combining a specialization in the drama and prose of the English Renaissance with focuses on queer theory and the histories of sexuality and gender. She is at work on a book project, The Shapes of Fancy: Queer Circulations of Desire in Early Modern Literature, which expands the category of what can be called queer desire beyond historical evidence of same-sex sexual practices, to modes of feeling and desiring (such as longing for impossible transformation, or being used) that have often been overlooked in the period, thereby exploring the queer potential of readerly identification and recognition for studying desire in other historical moments. An essay on what offstage and un-staged sex looks like, “Invisible Sex!” will appear in the upcoming collection Sex Before Sex: Figuring the Act in Early Modern Literature. She has been active in the Shakespeare Association of America, the Modern Languages Association, and the American Comparative Literature Association. Varnado’s other teaching and research interests include witchcraft and witch persecutions, performance theory, bodily sex and reproduction, ethnography and ritual in the trans-Atlantic sphere, death and memorialization, literary theory, and cultural studies.

To summarize, then, Professor Varnado is interested in queer theory, queer desire, queer potential and also witchcraft.

Pat Robertson could not be reached for comment.

You know that Women’s Studies courses are taught to more than 90,000 students annually in programs at some 700 U.S. colleges and universities. You know this because those numbers are cited on page 29 of Sex Trouble, and you have read my book, haven’t you?

Knowing how many Women’s Studies programs exist, therefore, the reader may ask, “Stacy, what drew your attention to this particular course, taught by this particular professor, at this particular university?” Behold, the GGS228 Tumblr.com account:

we are members of an “intro to feminist theory” course
in buffalo, ny looking to prove theory and tumblr
can exist together in harmony.

The reader who clicks that link (and keeps scrolling) will discover that there are very good reasons why the proceedings in Women’s Studies courses are generally not discussed outside the classroom. There is a vast gulf between the esoteric doctrine and the exoteric discourse of feminism. What the True Believer must believe — e.g., the social construction of the gender binary within the heterosexual matrix — is not subject to debate within academia. Yet these ideas are so seldom discussed outside academia that whenever I attempt to explain feminist gender theory to people, the reaction is invariably the same: “They don’t really believe that stuff, do they?”

Oh, believe it they most certainly do! And if anyone at the University of Buffalo (or any other institution of higher education in America) does not believe feminist gender theory, they’re being awfully damned quiet about their dissent. Why? Because disagreeing with feminism makes you a sexist; any expression of dissent from feminist ideology could be used as “evidence” of discrimination under Title IX; therefore, no university administration can tolerate opposition to feminism on campus without risking a federal civil rights lawsuit.

By defining disagreement as hate, you see, feminists have effectively prohibited criticism within academia and banished opponents from campus. This is why students go berserk when someone like Christina Hoff Sommers appears at Oberlin College. Because criticizing feminism is quite nearly illegal in 21st-century academia, students have never encountered an articulate exposition of opposing viewpoints. Indoctrinated to consider feminist ideology as synonymous with Truth, Enlightenment and Virtue, students believe that only ignorant bigots can possibly disagree with them. Feminist consciousness makes them intellectually superior to others, as Professor Sandra Lee Bartky explained: “Feminist consciousness is consciousness of victimization . . . to come to see oneself as a victim.” Disagreeing with a feminist means you are supporting oppression by denying her victimhood.

Crazy? Sure, it’s crazy, but if every college-educated person is required to believe it, “insanity” becomes a synonym for “education.”

Please, go to the GGS 228 Tumblr.com account and keep scrolling. See what these students have to say about “patriarchy” and “heterosexuality” which, as readers of Sex Trouble know, are two ways to say the same thing: Women are oppressed because they are heterosexual (pp. 12-13), and women are heterosexual because they oppressed (p. 105). In feminist theory, males are only ever discussed as oppressors and rapists. No man is deserving of respect or admiration, nor can any man be trusted. What you find these University of Buffalo students saying on their Tumblr.com blog is exactly what feminists say in the quotes found on pp. 48-53 of Sex Trouble: Heterosexuality is imposed on women through “institutionalized force” (Kate Millett, 1970), “programming” (Andrea Dworkin, 1974), a “patriarchal system” of “sexual repression” (Ann Jones, 1990) and “male power” (Dianne Richardson, 2000). There is no reason, according to feminist theory, that any woman should ever find a man attractive or desirable as a romantic partner.

As she obtains feminist consciousness of her victimization, the student understands that, as Professor Joyce Trebilcot explained, patriarchy “depends on the ability of men to control women through heterosexuality” (quoted on p. 100 of Sex Trouble) and, oh, look, what is this? “Smash the Patriarchy,” says the GGS 228 Tumblr.

There is an old saying that if someone says “it’s not about the money,” you know it is about the money. Feminist theory’s substitution of the word “gender” for “sex,” by the same token, tells us: “It’s about the sex.” And what do you think students in GGS 288 learn about that?

The other day in class, discussing heterosexuality as dependent on romantic love ideals and how it fails to address many of the evils behind it (i.e. rape, domestic violence, possession, etc.), made me wonder about all the hopeless romantic movies I have fallen in love with over the course of my 19 years and really reevaluate why I actually liked this certain genre. I do believe that it is because at a very young age, we are socially conditioned to admire those types of movies, and the reoccuring idea of heterosexual love, that of a strong aggressive man sweeping the damsel in distress off her feet in order to save her from whatever she is “distressed” about, without a second thought about any other types of love, such as lesbian , gay, bi, etc.
I can’t help but wonder that if at, lets say the age of 4, instead of Pocahontas falling in love with John Smith, she finds herself deeply in love with her best friend Nakoma, or a spin off The Lion King revolving around Timon and Pumbaa’s love affair, we would certainly think nothing of it, similar to the way we view heterosexuality and all the movies that portray it. If we had in fact, grew up with this type of cinema as the norm, then I do believe many of us would reevaluate why we are heterosexual, or why we think we are.

Thus said a University of Buffalo sophomore in September 2014,, and another student in the same class was even more explicit:

Walking out of Feminist Theory on Wednesday I heard someone whisper to a classmate something along the lines, “… every time I walk out of this class I just become more sexually confused!” Evidently, what she said was meant to be humorous, but I couldn’t agree more with what she was really trying to say.
By taking Gender Studies classes, we are all very fortunate to see the world from a different, gendered lens. Sure, learning about different types of feminism and how gender effects our daily lives are incredibly important and relevant subjects, but the more I seem to learn, the more I question how the person I am today seems to be merely product of socialization.
Although I don’t agree entirely with radical feminist thought, it undoubtedly transmits revolutionary ideas that lead us to engage in introspection. This week I have definitely been looking back on instances or practices that could have possibly socialized me to be who I am today – which has proven to be very unsuccessful.
I am, and will always be, a feminist… but how are we supposed to get anywhere successfully if we can’t even agree [or in my case even understand] the roots of the problem(s) we face?

Both of these students were quoted verbatim, typos and all, with the emphases in the original. Students complain they “become more sexually confused,” as they are taught that their sexual identity and orientation are “socially conditioned” by “romantic love ideals.” Remember that, as the course description for GGS 228 explains, “feminist theory aims not only to produce knowledge, but also to provide a base for action.”

What kind of “base for action” is provided when teenagers are taught that heterosexuality is synonymous with “rape, domestic violence, possession, etc.”? What feminist action might be inspired by teaching college sophomores an ideology that never speaks of males except as dangerous, untrustworthy, violent oppressors? Gosh, I just don’t know.

Within academia, no one can criticize these radical ideas because campus feminists use terroristic tactics to silence dissent. If you dare contradict their totalitarian anti-male hate propaganda, they will accuse you by name of “perpetuating rape culture.”





 

Category: Sex Trouble
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