Robert Stacy McCain IS….Privilege Denying Dude
Know your meme. This is all I have to add to Jill from Feministe’s excellent response to RSM’s latest drivel:
Privilege Denying Dude
See also: Robert Stacy McCain on Date Rape: ‘You Buy the Ticket, You Take the Ride’
Jill from Feministe via Mediate:
I’m not sure what RS McCain thinks rape actually is, other than punishment for women who are slutty enough to leave the house and talk to men. He says in his post that if “you buy the ticket, you take the ride,” which I guess means that if you go on a date with someone or kiss someone or have any sexual interaction at all with someone and they end up forcing you into sex, it’s your fault and you aren’t a victim “of anything except your own stupidity.” McCain’s position seems to be that women who have sex should either expect to be raped or, alternately, can’t be raped — he calls “promiscuous” women “not-so-innocent bystanders” in their own assaults (and promiscuity is defined as doing anything other than hand-holding, as he’s against “heavy petting” before marriage and kissing on first dates).
This isn’t really new material. “She was asking for it because she went out with him / wore a short skirt / flirted / had sex with him before / went to that party / kissed him / etc” is such an antiquated and tired justification for rape that I’m almost more offended by the lack of creativity and hoariness of it than I am by the actual content (almost). Although I will say that ”Listen up, sweetheart: You buy the ticket, you take the ride” is new and interesting phrasing from someone who also says he isn’t a misogynist rape apologist.
Disturbing and wrong-headed as his articles are, I can’t take him all that seriously — his ideas about sexual assault and women’s rights seem to be about as rational and modern as his thoughts on race (See: Slavery wasn’t wrong, interracial marriage is repulsive). Usually my modus operandi for white supremacist He-Man Woman-Haters on the internet is “close tab”; it’s really a shame that RS McCain is embraced by the right-wing blogosphere and that his writing is widely featured on some of the most heavily-trafficked conservative websites, so I can’t ignore his “sluts were asking for it” mutterings quite as easily as I’d like.