This is Why I Am a Feminist
The depraved thoughts of a defense attorney in Irvine, California provide a great lesson in misogyny and anti-sex puritanical attitudes. To quote Charles Johnson:
Last month, in Irvine, California, Officer David Alex Park, stalker and rapist, was acquitted by a jury of eleven men and one woman. He was acquitted, not because he is anything other than a stalker and a rapist—which he as much as admitted in open court, and which was proven well enough anyway by phone records, license plate requests, and DNA evidence. He was acquitted because he is a cop, and the woman that he harassed and sexually extorted danced at a strip club, and so the jury concluded that she made him do it, and besides, if she strips for a living, she must have been asking for it anyway.
You might think that I am exaggerating the defense’s position for polemical effect. No, I’m not. Here’s defense attorney Jim Stokke: She got what she wanted, … She’s an overtly sexual person. And in cross-examination of Lucy, the survivor: You do the dancing to get men to do what you what them to do, … And the same thing happened out there on that highway [in Laguna Beach]. You wanted [Park] to take some sex!
Let’s review what should be rather obvious points to any decent human being:
1. Women are not the property of men.
2. The expression of a woman’s sexuality is hers to make decisions about.
3. You should not act on the premise that a woman flaunting her sexuality is inviting anyone to lay coercive claim over her.
Is it really that hard to understand this?
Natasha | Ethics, Feminism, LeftLibertarian.org, Sexuality
Seriously. That’s repulsive. That line of argument is so criticized in feminist circles and literature that you’d think people would know how to defeat it blindfolded and talking backwards by now.
Perhaps the problem is a dearth of “decent human beings,” or at least the fact that said decent folk are typically not in the habit of defending cops.