The Other McCain

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

In The Mailbox: Late Weekend Edition

Posted on | January 31, 2015 | 28 Comments

— by Wombat-socho

Apologies for the lack of linkagery yesterday; I spent the morning with my lawyer before heading into the tax mines for my Friday shift, and by the time I was done with that it was almost 9 PM and I didn’t have the energy left to do anything by the time I got home. /whining
Part of what’s been sapping my energy is impending bankruptcy…ah, you can read about that here, and if you can help at all, it would be very much appreciated. Every little bit helps, and who knows – maybe the incentives will tickle your fancy. In the meantime, on with the items of interest from various and sundry blogs…

OVER THE TRANSOM
EBL: Andrew Sullivan Is Retiring From Blogging
Proof Positive: The Polaroid President
Louder With Crowder: Kevin Costner Uses The N Word
First Street Journal: Obviously A Joke, But Can You Imagine The Reaction From The Feminists?
Michelle Malkin: Choose To Refuse
Twitchy: Nationwide #runwarrenrun House Parties Rival Sandra Fluke Rallies In Numbers, Diversity

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Power: Former Oregon State Student Kendra Sunderland Arrested After Making Porn Video In Campus Library
American Thinker: Pedophilia And The American Future
BLACKFIVE: Free Fire Zone – Bring It Bibi
Conservatives4Palin: Sarah Palin Is Right – Go On Offense, Tout Conservatism
Don Surber: Communists Lure Democrats. GOOD.
Jammie Wearing Fools: HuffPo Author Barack Obama Tells Democrats “Get Informed, Not By Reading The Huffington Post”
Joe For America: Here’s A DREAMER For You
JustOneMinute: Not Enough One-Percenters
Pamela Geller: Ted Cruz Calls For Investigation Into Taxpayer-Funded State Department Group Trying To Oust Netanyahu
Protein Wisdom: Liberal Writer Discovers Resurgent PC Movement Is Essentially Illiberal In Ideology
Shot In The Dark: There’s A Reason They Called Bobby Heenan “The Brain”
STUMP: What I’ve Read – The Bounty Of Zelazny
The Gateway Pundit: Jordan Threatens ISIS – Kill Our Pilot And We’ll Execute ALL Our Prisoners
The Jawa Report: War Porn – Freshly Dead ISIS Courtesy Of Iraq MOD
The Lonely Conservative: Six Million Households May Be Fined For Failure To Buy Health Insurance
This Ain’t Hell: What My Military Pension Means To Me
Weasel Zippers: Texas Governor Greg Abbott Declares February 2 “Chris Kyle Day” In Texas
Megan McArdle: A Tall Order For McDonald’s
Mark Steyn: Mood Indigo

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Category: Linkagery

FMJRA 2.0: Rubycon

Posted on | January 31, 2015 | 3 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Rule 5 Sunday: Shake It Off
Average Bubba
Animal Magnetism
Muslim Anonymous
Batshit Crazy News
Regular Right Guy
Political Rift
Ninety Miles from Tyranny
A View from the Beach

The First Rule of Feminism
The Lonely Conservative
Batshit Crazy News
Living in Anglo-America
Regular Right Guy
First Street Journal
Philosophies of a Disenchanted Scholar
Dyspepsia Generation

FMJRA 2.0: Rip & Tear
Batshit Crazy News
The Pirate’s Cove

Props To Prof. William Jacobson And Judicial Watch
Regular Right Guy

WTF My Tax Reform, @GOP?
Dyspepsia Generation

Campus Kangaroo Courts
Victims of Gay Bullying
Theological Geography
Batshit Crazy News
Regular Right Guy

LIVE AT FIVESIX: 01.26.15
Batshit Crazy News
A View from the Beach

‘PC Addled Losers’
Political Rift
Batshit Crazy News

U.S.-Backed Subversion in Israel?
Batshit Crazy News
Regular Right Guy
A View from the Beach

Feminism and First-World Problems: ‘Hypervigilance’ as Irrational Phobia
Muslim Anonymous
Da Tech Guy
Regular Right Guy

In The Mailbox, 01.27.15
Regular Right Guy
Batshit Crazy News

LIVE AT FIVE: 01.28.15
A View from the Beach

In the Mailbox, 01.29.15
Regular Right Guy
A View from the Beach

Top linkers this week:

  1.  (tied) Batshit Crazy News and Regular Right Guy (8)
  2.  A View from the Beach (5)

Thanks to everyone for their linkagery!


Rubycon

Category: FMJRA Award

The First Rule of Feminism

Posted on | January 29, 2015 | 183 Comments

Feminism is the belief that men are entirely useless, except when men are destructive and evil. If you think any man ever had any skill, knowledge or virtue that entitled him to be treated with courtesy and respect, you are not a feminist. According to feminism, all that is good and worthy in human history — all important accomplishments, every act of courage and kindness — has been done by women. Anyone who believes otherwise has been brainwashed by the patriarchal myth that males have imposed on society as “history” and so-called “science.”

Such are the esoteric doctrines of feminism, the c0re ideology that inspires their endless complaints about inequality and oppression. By proclaiming that they have a monopoly of wisdom and virtue, feminists thereby empower themselves to tell the rest of us what we are allowed to say and what we are permitted to think. If at any time you make any statement that is not consistent with feminist ideology, you will be vilified and insulted, shouted down by the feminist mob that exercises a heckler’s veto over public discourse. Totalitarian movements require totalitarian tactics, and the foremost goal of feminists is to silence those whom they aim to enslave or destroy. See for yourself:

RULES FOR MEN IN FEMINIST MOVEMENTS

  • Shut up and listen
  • Ask me, don’t tell me
  • Prepare to be wrong
  • Call fellow men out on problematic behaviour
  • Never dismiss the lived experiences of women
  • Do not attempt to take a leadership role

Feminists who say their movement is about “equality” are lying. Feminism is a movement about power — absolute and unlimited power — and therefore the first rule for men in feminist movements is, SHUT UP. (That list of rules has been “liked” or “reblogged” more than 20,000 times on Tumblr.com since it was posted in April 2013.)

The three principles of feminism are selfishness, dishonesty and hate. If feminism had a fourth principle, it would be more hate.

“I don’t particularly like babies. They are loud and smelly and, above all other things, demanding . . . time-sucking monsters with their constant neediness. . . . I don’t want a baby. . . . Nothing will make me want a baby. . . . This is why, if my birth control fails, I am totally having an abortion.”
— Amanda Marcotte, March 2014

Feminism’s fanatical hatred empowers feminist dishonesty. They usually try to pretend that “choice” isn’t about hating babies, but the question remains: If feminists don’t hate babies, why do they want to kill them?

To which their answer is, SHUT UP.

We cannot be permitted to speak the truth about feminism. Facts and logic are tools of the patriarchy, and ordinary “common sense” — well, that’s just an obsolete male-supremacist myth!

A movement that systematically excludes honest, sane and intelligent people will tend to become a paranoid hive of fools. This brings us to “Ask a Radfem,” a Tumlbr blog that describe its purpose thus:

This blog exists to bridge a gap between people with honest questions about radical feminism, and radical feminists with something to say.

Let’s meet a few of the site’s contributors, shall we?

  • Ash is a fat, creative writer, lesbian radical feminist from Australia who aspires to be a women’s health nurse. She is a gender abolitionist, is anti-kink culture and pro the destruction of the porn and prostitution industries – but supports porn actresses and prostitutes themselves.
  • Cammy is a white-passing American woman from a Puerto Rican household. A bisexual radical feminist in the Southern U.S., she focuses on lesbians, childfreedom, gender and sex industry abolition, religious apostates and the poor. She is an atheist and a survivor of trauma from emotional abuse, molestation and rape dealing with C-PTSD, anxiety and depression. Past experiences include BDSM, polyamory, self-harming, abortion, an abusive marriage, Christianity and Islam.
  • Blossom is an outreach worker from Canada. Her passion lies in harm reduction, outreach, & housing initiatives with people experiencing addiction & homelessness. She is a de-transitioned lesbian who lived “as male” from 2004-2011 and has experienced the process of transition and eventual de-transition with the help of mental health professionals and family. . . . She is also a former webcam girl and behind-the-scenes employee of various adult websites. She focuses on gender abolition, mental health, & lesbian activism.
  • Lauren (Lo) is a 17-year-old white-passing Chicana from Southern California. Her career aspiration is to work against internet crimes against children for either local or federal law enforcement. She identifies as bisexual and is open about her struggle with anxiety disorder.
  • R4df3m is a no-nonsense fat, disabled, bisexual radical feminist from Portland, Oregon who does not mince words. A former sex worker and abuse survivor, she speaks primarily about the harms of the sex industry and the realities of sex based oppression. As a bisexual radical woman in a heterosexual marriage she addresses the unique intersections of straight passing privilege and the abuse inherent to heterosexual relationships.

It’s an all-star lineup of feminist kooks. You could not assemble such a crew of weirdos by accident. The pattern is not random. Crazy movements attract crazy people. Here is one of the more seemingly sane contributors to “Ask a Radfem”:

Alisha M. is a feminist blogger, writer, musician, and poet, from the Southern United States. She is focused on gender abolition, women’s media, health, spirituality and activism for women with mental illness.

Feminism = “activism for women with mental illness.” Thanks for the concise definition, Alisha! Now let’s get to the big question:

Can/how a male promote radical feminism?
Listening. Really listening and being involved. Listening. This is something I’m trying to explain to my male friends who by some stroke of “altruism” really want to help be better allies. Just listen. Listen with empathy and emotions, be human, be vulnerable . . . accept silence on your part and accept sometimes being wrong.
-Alisha

In other words, SHUT UP.

Or applaud the feminist’s courage for killing her baby:

I couldn’t bring another monster into the world. We already have enough enemies as it is.

That’s from an article with the empowering feminist headline, “I Aborted My Baby — Because it was a Boy.”

Feminism is organized insanity. Why be merely crazy, when you can turn your mental illness into a political movement?




 

 

Category: Feminism, Sex Trouble

In the Mailbox, 01.29.15

Posted on | January 29, 2015 | 12 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


OVER THE TRANSOM
EBL: Epstein’s Fantasy Island
Proof Positive: President Obama’s Credibility Takes A Dive
First Street Journal: The Pennsylvania AG’s Office Is Vacant In Everything But Name
Louder With Crowder: Chilling Interview With Imam Anjem Choudhury
Jerry Pournelle: Abolish The Air Force, And Other Stories


RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Power: Reaction To Jonathan Chait’s Essay On Political Correctness Proves His Thesis Correct
American Thinker: The Elites Bow To Mecca
BLACKFIVE: Hosting Secure Freedom Radio And Talking Iran
Conservatives4Palin: Amazing America To Feature the Motor City Madman
Don Surber: Is Scott Walker The Democratic Nightmare? GOOD.
Jammie Wearing Fools: Deranged Lefties Want Boehner Tried For Treason For Inviting Netanyahu To Speak To Congress
Joe For America: White House Pressuring Army To Let Bergdahl Go Free
JustOneMinute: Too Dumb Even For Environmentalists
Pamela Geller: Sharia Tribunal In Texas – This Is How It Starts
Protein Wisdom: Trigger Warning – “I’ve Already Seen The Bulge…”
Shot In the Dark: Trulbert! Part XXVI – Darkness Before The Damned
STUMP: Are Public Pensions Actually In Crisis? Or Is It “Just Math”?
The Gateway Pundit: Race Hoax Exposed – Cop Who Detained NYT Columnist’s Son Was Also Black
The Jawa Report: Blog Sabbath On A Wednesday – IStoned Edition
The Lonely Conservative: Seattle Residents To Be Fined For Throwing Out Too Much Food
This Ain’t Hell: Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) Introduces Legislation To Half-Ass The War Against ISIS
Weasel Zipper: NOW Feminazi Mocks Joni Ernst By Wearing Bags On Her Feet
Megan McArdle: Moral Panics Won’t End College Rape
Mark Steyn: Education As Child Abuse


Administrivia: Live At Five will be on hiatus until the site’s scheduling software gets fixed. I’m tired of staying up until all hours and setting posts to go off at 5 AM only to not have them post until 2 PM after I’ve poked them.


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Category: Linkagery

U.S.-Backed Subversion in Israel?

Posted on | January 28, 2015 | 126 Comments

Alana Goodman at the Free Beacon reports astonishing news:

A U.S. State Department-funded group is financing an Israeli campaign to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and has hired former Obama aides to help with its grassroots organizing efforts.
U.S.-based activist group OneVoice International has partnered with V15, an “independent grassroots movement” in Israel that is actively opposing Netanyahu’s party in the upcoming elections, Ha’aretz reported on Monday. Former national field director for President Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign Jeremy Bird is also reportedly involved in the effort.
OneVoice development and grants officer Christina Taler said the group would be working with V15 on voter registration and get-out-the-vote efforts but would not engage in overtly partisan activities. She said OneVoice and V15 are still formalizing the partnership.
While V15 has not endorsed any particular candidates, it is working to oppose Netanyahu in the March elections.

Barack Obama and John Kerry need to answer for this.

(Hat-tip: Memeorandum.)

 

Category: Israel

LIVE AT FIVE: 01.28.15

Posted on | January 28, 2015 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Storm Pummels New England, Spares NY/NJ

Pedestrians and cars cross the Brooklyn Bridge yesterday

NYC Mayor Di Blasio: “You can’t be a Monday morning quarterback on something like the weather.”
Leaders defend shutdown for blizzard that wasn’t
NWS meteorologist apologizes for blizzard “forecast miss”

Former Intel Officer Claims White House Delaying Announcement Of Desertion Charges
Did Fox, NBC get the Bergdahl story wrong?

WJC President Warns Jews Still Targets
Speaking before 300 survivors gathered at the Auschwitz extermination camp



POLITICS
Silver Sacked As NY Assembly Speaker

Soon-to-be-former Speaker leaving his office on Monday

Assembly Democrats announce he’ll be replaced as Speaker in Feb. 10 vote

Judge Refuses To Toss Rick Perry Case

Obama Dropping Proposal To End 529 College Plans

Senate To Begin Hearings On AG Nominee Lynch

AL Chief Justice Roy Moore: Gay Marriage Rulings “Federal Tyranny”

Obama Floats Atlantic Drilling Plan While Moving To Lock Down ANWR

Fatal Shooting Of Teen Driver Sparks Probe Of Denver Police

DOJ Building National Car Tracking Database



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Asian Crude Falls On Firm Dollar, Rising US Inventories: WTI $45.41, Brent $48.92
Fed Likely To Hike Rates In Mid-2015
Asian Stocks Tumble After Weak US Corporate Earnings
US Stocks Plunge Nearly 300 Points
Consumers Giddy, Businesses Not So Much
AT&T Beats Profit Estimates As Promotions Win Over Customers
Apple Has Red China To Thank For Blockbuster Earnings
Google Fiber Confirmed For Four More Metro Areas, 18 Cities
New Features For Twitter And Snapchat
FCC Warns Against Blocking Personal WiFi Access



SPORTS
Richard Sherman Speaks His Mind

“I kind of go to the beat of my own drum.”

Seahawks cornerback talks smack about Pats owner, commissioner Goodell


Blue Jackets Edge Caps, 4-3


Pens Beat Jets, 5-3

Grizzlies’ Randolph Posts 10th Straight Double Double In Win Over Mavs

Irving Scores 38 To Lead Cavs Over Pistons 103-95

Habs Edge Stars, 3-2

Wall’s Wizards Rally Past Lakers, 98-92

Nationals Face Five Questions Before Heading To Florida



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Tom Cruise had Nicole Kidman’s Phone Wiretapped And Other Revelations

The marriage never had a chance.

US magazine reviews Co$ documentary Going Clear


New All-Female “Ghostbusters” Cast Chosen


Disney Eyeing Chris Pratt For Indiana Jones Revival


Lizard Squad Hackers Threaten To Release Nude Taylor Swift Pics

Unspeakable Armenian To Appear In T-Mobile Super Bowl Ad

Alan Cumming Celebrates 50th By Bringing Back Studio 54

Liam Hemsworth Eyed To Star In “Independence Day” Sequel

Six Barmiest Blizzard 2015 Coverage Moments



FOREIGNERS
Singapore Pulls Trigger In Deflation Fight
Japan’s Abe Calls Latest Hostage Deadline Despicable
Gunmen Storm Luxury Hotel In Tripoli, Killing Ten Including An American
Israeli Rights Group Questions Legality Of Targeting Homes In Gaza War
Mexico Insists 43 Missing Students Are Dead
Aussie PM Abbott Promises Wider Consultations After Knighthood Backlash
Obama Pushes Gender Equity In India, But Remains Silent In Saudi Arabia
Israeli President To Talk Latino-Jewish Kinship In The Bronx
Kim Jong Un To Visit Russia
Australian High Court Rules Detention Of Asylum Seekers At Sea OK



BLOGS & STUFF
EBL: Joe Franklin, RIP
First Street Journal: Rape Is Rape – Being Stupid And Drunk Does Not Excuse Rape
Doug Powers: Bergdahl To Be Charged With Desertion – Administration Scurries To Protect The Narrative
Twitchy: “Have Fun Photoshopping” Taylor Swift Taunts Hackers Claiming To Have Nude Photos
American Power: Two Weeks After Mark Zuckerberg Said “Je Suis Charlie”, Facebook Begins Censoring Images Of Prophet Muhammad
American Thinker: Obamacare Cost Me My Health Insurance
BLACKFIVE: Exclusive Interview With Author Jack Higgins
Conservatives4Palin: Media Losing All Credibility With Their Palin Madness
Don Surber: How Extreme Is The Muslim World? EVIL.
Jammie Wearing Fools: Phone Company “Outraged” By Fraud, Abuse In Obamaphone Program
Joe For America: Pakistani Islamic Leader Threatens World War III
Pamela Geller: Saudi Imam On Paris Attacks – This Is The Only Language Jewish And Christian Infidels Understand
Protein Wisdom: HuffPo’s Sofia Eribo Uses Holocaust Remembrance Day To Indulge In Some Antisemitism
Shot In The Dark: “The Greatest American Battle Of The War”
The Gateway Pundit: Four-Star General Tells Congress Al-Qaeda Has Grown Fourfold In The Last Five Years
The Jawa Report: Jawa Present Must-See Fatwad Films
The Lonely Conservative: Obama Refers To Himself 118 Times In 33-Minute India Speech
This Ain’t Hell: Sand-Kicker In Chief
Weasel Zippers: 26 States Now Suing To Block Obama’s Executive Amnesty
Megan McArdle: Big Pharma Is A Pointless Target For Warren
Mark Steyn: Rush’s Right-hand Man


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Category: Live at Five

Feminism and First-World Problems: ‘Hypervigilance’ as Irrational Phobia

Posted on | January 27, 2015 | 69 Comments

Jessica Valenti wants mentally ill women to know that their mental illness is the fault of the oppressive patriarchy:

A study published this month in the journal Sex Roles reveals that some of the sexism women face — from catcalling and sexual harassment to sexual objectification and violence — makes women generally more fearful and anxious. The researchers from the University of Missouri-Kansas and Georgia State University found a substantive “link between physical safety concerns and psychological distress” . . .
When I spoke to Dr. Laurel B Watson, an assistant professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and one of the researchers in the study, she told me that one of the hurdles in studying the impact that sexism has on women’s mental health is that women have normalized this fear and anxiety so completely. . . .
This fear and anxiety that women experience isn’t simply anecdotal: women are 70% more likely than men to experience depression and we’re twice as likely to have an anxiety disorder, something Watson,who has a degree in counseling psychology, says is “absolutely” related to living with misogyny.
“Over time, existing in a state of hypervigilance has a negative impact, and leads to a higher level of psychological distress,” she explained. . . .

You can read the whole thing, because (a) you have an expensive computer in front of you, (b) you’re sufficiently well-educated to be able to read at college-level and (c) you have nothing better to do with your time than to read a Jessica Valenti column, which tells you that (d) you’re living in a prosperous industrialized society. Congratulations!

Gratitude for one’s good fortune, however, is not what feminism is all about. Feminism is about endless misery and dissatisfaction and — lest we forget — blaming the oppressive patriarchy.

Would it surprise anyone to discover that Professor Watson’s undergraduate degree was in psychology, “with a concentration in women’s studies”? Perhaps you will also be surprised to learn that Professor Watson once worked as a counselor at an Atlanta abortion clinic, the Feminist Women’s Health Center. And I’m sure you will then be shocked to learn that Professor Watson’s publications include “Gay-Straight Alliance Advisors: Negotiating Multiple Ecological Systems When Advocating for LGBTQ” (Journal of LGBT Youth, 2010) and “Experiences of Objectification and Sexual Risk Behaviors Among Sexual Minority Men” (Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, 2014)? But here, let’s just look at the “Major Research Interests” listed on Professor Watson’s curriculum vitae:

Research interests include: women’s and gender-related themes, sexual objectification experiences, interpersonal violence and trauma, social justice and advocacy, LGBTQIQ-related themes, body image/disordered eating, race and ethnicity-related themes, feminist identity development, feminist pedagogy and epistemology.

Where does research end and advocacy begin, Professor Watson? And does it not occur to you that your own privileged position within the Feminist-Industrial Complex of academia — where you’re paid to produce research for such publications as the Journal of LGBT Youth — is evidence contradicting your basic premise, i.e., that American society is a wall-to-wall nightmare of sexist, racist, homophobic oppression so intensely traumatic as to induce psychiatric disorders?

Only within the comfort of the Higher Education Bubble, is it possible for Laura B. Watson, Ph.D., to assert that American woman are “existing in a state of hypervigilance” that “leads to a higher level of psychological distress,” and to have this bizarre assertion taken seriously.

You know what might cause “psychological distress,” Professor Watson? Murder. According to the FBI, the city of Detroit had the highest homicide rate (45 per 100,000 residents) in the country in 2013, edging out New Orleans (41 per 100,000 residents) as the most dangerous city in America. Checking the data provided on victims, we find that 78% of murder victims (9,523) were male, compared to 22% (2,707) who were female. Furthermore, 44% of murder victims (5,352) were black males, although black people are only 13% of the U.S. population, so that black males (less than 7% of the population) were overrepresented among murder victims by a factor of more than 6-to-1.

Males are at greatest risk of violent death, especially black males, yet here we have Professor Watson telling us that women are living in a condition “psychological distress”? Here we have Jessica Valenti using Professor Watson’s research to tell us that “everyday expressions of misogyny could be seriously impacting [women’s] mental health”? And here we have Professor Watson herself bolstering her assertions with a convenient anecdote:

For example, she said “I went for a jog recently, and I saw a guy in a van — and if I jogged past him, he could have opened the door and snatched me,” Watson told me. “I had an immediate response to move to the other side of the van or to change my direction, I didn’t think twice about it.”
“It’s normalized, but it has such an effect on your life — women constrain their behaviors every day.”

OMG! Men drive vans! Women are in “a state of hypervigilance”!

While I would not wish to underestimate the risk of psychology professors face of being snatched off the streets of Kansas City — violent crime there is bad enough to make it No. 10 on the list of the FBI’s 2013 most dangerous cities — when one looks at the overall picture, Dr. Watson’s “hypervigilance” would seem to reflect an irrational fear. And the word for irrational fear is phobia. To say that the ways “women constrain their behaviors” to avoid risk is “normalized” is simply to say that most women exercise common sense, e.g., staying as far as possible from dangerous places like Kansas City.

Despite the menace that male van drivers pose to jogging psychology professors, common sense tells us that avoiding danger requires us to make a rational estimate of risks we face. While people are sometimes victimized in ways that they could not reasonably be expected to predict — Mohamed Atta piloting a commercial airliner into the World Trade Center — most of the risks we face can be rationally estimated, if we pay attention to actual facts, rather than letting ourselves be distracted by media hype and academic propaganda.

Is “living with misogyny” making women crazy, as Jessica Valenti would have us believe? Or is it possible that crazy women are afflicted with irrational fears that academics like Professor Watson interpret through the warped lens of feminism that sees “misogyny” everywhere? Having been teased along for more than a thousand words, now you’re ready to read the abstract of Professor Watson’s research:

Fredrickson and Roberts (1997) asserted that sexual objectification experiences are likely related to women’s physical safety anxiety; however, to date, very few studies have examined this relationship. Using a sample of 228 U.S. undergraduate women (n?=?133 Black/African American; n?=?95 White) from a Southeastern university, this study explored the relationships among sexual objectification experiences, physical safety concerns (i.e., perceived risk of crime, fear of crime, and fear of rape), and overall psychological distress. Findings revealed that Black/African American women reported more sexual objectification experiences and fear of crime than White women. Results of a measured variable path analysis suggested that perceived risk of crime fully mediated the relationships between sexual objectification experiences and fear of crime for both groups of women. Moreover, perceived risk of crime fully mediated the relationship between sexual objectification experiences and psychological distress for Black/African American women, but not White women. For White women only, fear of rape partially mediated the relationship between perceived risk of crime and fear of crime, and perceived risk of crime fully mediated the relationship between sexual objectification experiences and fear of rape. Taken together, the results suggest that a sociocultural context that objectifies women and their bodies is related to their sense of safety and security in the world.

While I don’t have a Ph.D. in psychology and hesitate to make any general statements based merely on this brief description without having examined the actual data in Professor Watson’s study, it seems to me she has found that white female college students have a heightened fear of rape compared to black women. Note that her research involves only women’s subjective perception, rather than their actual risk. The question that Professor Watson doesn’t seem concerned to answer is whether these white students — who, in fact, report experiencing less “sexual objectification” than do black women — are irrational in their perceptions and, if so, what are the causes of their disproportionate fear of rape? Once we have compared actual risk to perceived risk, we are left to ask what is the “sociocultural context” that could explain these differences in women’s “sense of safety”?

It might be helpful if, rather than relying on survey questions about “objectification” to explain these differences, we instead had some hard socioeconomic data about the survey respondents (e.g., parents’ marital status, household income, urban, suburban or rural community, etc.) to be able to correlate with the survey response data. It is a truism of social science that you can’t measure what you don’t study, and Professor Watson’s research is focused on “sexual objectification experiences” to the exclusion of every other possible factor. Were it within my power to direct psychological research on such matters, I would suggest this: Solicit detailed socioeconomic background information from the survey participants, aggregate their subjective reports of “objectification,” perceived risk, etc., on a 1-to-10 scale, and compare the top quintile (20%) to the bottom quintile. What factors in the socioeconomic data correlate with either high or low response on the subjective reports? What factors are most strongly correlated with the experience of “objectification” and fear of rape?

Absent that kind of information, we have only Professor Watson’s limited analysis, which doesn’t explain what she hasn’t bothered to study. While I’m not a Ph.D., my hunch is that socioeconomic factors explain far more about these phenomena than Jessica Valenti would have her readers believe. Never trust feminist ideologues with social science research. However, speaking of Kansas City and female fears of crime:

Three Kansas City teenagers have been charged in the murder of a 14-year-old girl at a water park.
They’re accused of brutally beating and then taking turns shooting Alexis Kane, an eighth-grader at Smith-Hale Middle School in the Hickman Mills School District.
Alexis’ body was found outside The Bay Waterpark, 7101 Longview Rd., in south Kansas City on Jan. 11, not far from her school. . . .
Court reports and surveillance video show that Alexis got into a car with two of the suspects at a 7-Eleven on Blue Ridge Boulevard.
Her friends said she had arranged to meet with “Malik” whom she had been communicating with on Facebook.
The victim’s friends told Alexis not to get into the vehicle and began to follow the vehicle with her inside, court records state.
After losing sight of her, Alexis’ friends asked her to turn on her cell phone’s location service in order to be located.
The teen suspects went to a Grandview apartment and then left, heading towards The Bay Waterpark.
Surveillance video from the waterpark showed one of the teens hit Alexis in the face with a handgun. Then, the two others passed the gun to one another to shoot her multiple times.

No report on whether the victim experienced “psychological distress” because of a “state of hypervigilance” that was “related to living with misogyny.” Meanwhile, in Nigeria:

Hundreds of Boko Haram gunmen on Sunday launched a predawn attack on the Nigerian city of Maiduguri and were locked in a fierce battle with government troops on the outskirts of the city, according to the military, residents and citizen vigilantes.
The militants launched a simultaneous attack on the town of Monguno and were apparently successful in taking control of the town and its military barracks, a Nigerian military officer in Maiduguri told CNN.

The New York Times:

Hundreds of thousands of people have been driven from their homes and at least 10,000 have been killed over the course of the Islamists’ insurgency, now stretching into its sixth year.

This is worse than Kansas City — even worse than Detroit! — yet Jessica Valenti can’t be bothered to notice such things, because somewhere a college girl is being objectified by a sexist.

 

Category: Crime, Education, Feminism, Intellectuals

In The Mailbox, 01.27.15

Posted on | January 27, 2015 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho


OVER THE TRANSOM
EBL: Deflategate Super Bowl Meatball Recipes
Doug Powers: Fauxcahontas Reminds Drug Companies – You Didn’t Pilled That!
Twitchy: UN Halts Gaza Rebuilding Efforts As Middle East Donors Fail To Make Good On Billions Of Pledges (As Don Surber would say, GOOD.)
Sultan Knish: The Hollywood Jihad Against American Sniper
Monster Hunter Nation: Sad Puppies 3 – The Ensaddening


RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Power: Double Blow To Germany’s Leadership
American Thinker: Okay Liberals, Let’s Talk Inequality
Conservatives4Palin: A Few Iowans Byron York Didn’t Interview
Don Surber: Maryland Upended Democrats’ Racial Politics. GOOD.
Jammie Wearing Fool: Obama Sits There Chewing Gum During India Parade – “An Ungainly Sight”
Joe For America: Another Reason Black Lives Don’t Matter
JustOneMinute: The Morality of Torture
Pamela Geller: US Nixed Israeli Arms Transfer To Nigeria To Fight Boko Haram
Protein Wisdom: Obama Doesn’t Believe In Nation Building
Shot In The Dark: Naming Committee
STUMP: Public Pensions Watch – Illinois Pension Reform Lawsuits
The Gateway Pundit: Facebook Ordered To Block Posts Insulting The Prophet Mohammed
The Jawa Report: Islamic State Of Losers Loses Kobane
The Lonely Conservative: Russian Spy Arrested In NYC
This Ain’t Hell: Hagel Says “Nonstop War” Is Forcing Good Troops To Leave Service
Weasel Zippers: US Closes Embassy In Yemen After Shia Rebels Overrun Obama’s One-Time Anti-Terror Success Story
Megan McArdle: Syriza’s Tall Order For Greece
Mark Steyn: Happy Australia Day!


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