Fuck Gawker Media

Trigger warning for rape apologism.

From Gawker and Jezebel we have a horrific story of a woman who, after a consensual hookup, held a man prisoner in her apartment and forced him to have sex with her multiple times. Thankfully, the man was able to call the cops and the woman was prosecuted for sexual assault.

The media coverage, however, is terrible.

Gawker tagged their post “first world problem.”

Rape. Teenagers complaining about their iPhones getting poor reception. Same level of problem, amirite?

First of all, rape occurs in developing countries! Rape of men occurs in developing countries. Hence it is not a First World Problem but in fact an Everywhere Problem, and given the rates of rape in some developing countries it is to a very large degree a Developing Country Problem.

Second of all:

RAPE IS NOT A FIRST WORLD PROBLEM

RAPE IS NOT A FIRST WORLD PROBLEM

RAPE IS NOT A FIRST WORLD PROBLEM

GO BACK TO REMEDIAL BEING A DECENT HUMAN BEING, UNIT 4, WHY YOU DO NOT MAKE LIGHT OF RAPE

WHY DO WE BELONG TO THE SAME SPECIES

Jezebel, despite being a “feminist” blog (in quotes because of their history of fail) which should know better, described the rape as follows:

By all accounts, however, the initial hook-up was consensual and, even after being stopped from leaving, the man had sex “several more times” with the woman who detained him.

So Jezebel. If someone goes home with someone and has sex with them consensually, they have revoked their right to not consent to any subsequent sex in the future? Or does it only apply the same night?

Also I appreciate your new and exciting “X was raped, therefore, they were not raped” argument. I have to say, that is… not an argument I have seen before. It is certainly unique. Yes, unique is a nice thing to say.

Alsoalso your “I wonder if people are going to ask if he was wearing a miniskirt” was not okay. No, they are going to do a different, delightful kind of rape-apologist bullshit. Such as referring to him as “sexhausted” in the headline! And generally considering that he is not a Real Man and he probably really wanted it deep down anyway.

Comments from Gawker:

I know there are some up in arms about laughing at a sexual assault, but there’s a grave difference between a man who wants to leave and apartment and woman who wants to leave an apartment. If he were willing to be violent, he could have left at any time, whereas no matter what you’ve seen Angelina Jolie do, if he doesn’t want her to leave, she’s not leaving. Don’t diminish the actual crimes women endure by comparing it to a guy whose parents clearly taught him violence is only a last resort.

[Next to a picture of two raisins] The man’s testicles were found just minutes after the police arrived.

From Jezebel:

I’m not defending the way this article is written at all, but I just want to throw it out there that maybe one of the reasons why female-on-male sexual assault isn’t taken seriously is that men are generally much stronger than women. Granted, I might just be particularly physically weak, even for a girl, but I don’t think there’s any guy I could literally force myself on. I know I’m going to get screamed at for thinking this, but I just have a hard time imagining that an adult man couldn’t seriously hurt a woman, or at least get her off of him. Not saying it can’t happen, I just think it’s probably pretty rare.

I can’t get over that she tried to have sex with the police officers who arrested her. I’m sorry, but that bit is truly hilarious. #Idofeelbadthough

At first I was gonna make a comment like “A woman wants sex so bad she wont let him leave, he found a keeper” but then I remembered that they met at a bar and were drunk that night… There’s been time’s I would have chewed my own arm off had it been handcuffed to get away from the person you’ll see the next morning, in sunlight, with a sober (albeit hungover) state of mind. Maybe men can be raped after all, I feel for this guy.

For Christ’s sake. Men don’t always want sex! Men can be raped! This is 2012, this should not be a freaking new concept. Thankfully, for most of the commenters, it wasn’t. Jez commenters, you have restored my faith in humanity.