As usual, Johnny had something thoughtful to say. This past week it was about rape culture, thanks to the Stanford rape case in the news:
You know… as a straight man you think “rape culture” is bullshit when you learn about it. You believe that a tiny percentage of men are rapists, and since they’re sociopaths, there’s no point in lecturing them – hence our encouragement of female responsibility. We resent being lectured on consent because we already effing know the difference between right and wrong, and we find it incredibly offensive to be lumped in with the tiny minority of violent criminals who rape women. We have this knee-jerk, “oh fuck you” reaction to the suggestion we’re basically a fraternity of rapists.
… then you see something like this, where it’s not just the one criminal who committed a rape. There actually is a system that protects him, that apologizes for him, colludes with him supports him….years ago there was a rape at a party [in Stubenville, Ohio]; the kids involved shared it online. Basically this whole small town was laughing about it on the internet before it went viral. That’s when I was like, “holy shit… an entire town nefariously colluding to keep this rape an inside joke… that’s… that’s a culture.”
That’s when the existence – if not quite the purported prevalence – of rape culture became undeniable to me.
