Two videos in two weeks! Can this be the restart of something special?? I’ve even typed out a transcript for those of you who want/require it.
Pretty obvious I guess but TRIGGER WARNING for talk of rape and rapists and rapey beasts of the wilderness!
This video is inspired by Graham “SomeGreyBloke” Murkett’s blog.
I reference this study, which you can read in full:
CONVICTED RAPIST’S VOCABULARY OF MOTIVE EXCUSES AND JUSTIFICATIONS
by Diana Scully and Joseph Marolla
Okay, here’s the video!
Transcript:
Good news, ladies! Your days of being raped are over, thanks to the advice of one Phil Mason, aka “Thunderf00t,” a YouTube vlogger who hates feminism and loves awesome analogies involving animals. I was just reading the blog of a fellow YouTuber called SomeGreyBloke who spent nine posts going into everything that’s wrong with Thunderfoot’s 18-minute long treatise on why women need to be careful of what we wear and how we behave in order to not be raped.
So I’m not going to go into all of it but there were just a few points I wanted to expand upon like this awesome analogy involving an animal that Thunderfoot makes:
“By far the best weapon you have to fight against a stronger, more powerful adversary is psychology.
Point in question, the simple wasp. The wasp is typically a factor of a millionth smaller than a man or a woman and yet they manage to effectively discourage people from attacking them.
Women are typically only ten percent smaller than their male counterparts, and for those who find this a little too cryptic, people know that a wasp will fight to defend itself. That’s its self defence mechanism, and that fact alone will discourage most attackers.”
This is 100% true. I am at least a million times bigger than a wasp and those are terrifying. So this is great advice ladies. If you are confronted with a potential rapist, you should channel your inner wasp. That potential rapist should not know whether you’re just buzzing around for a bit before taking off or whether you’re about to stab him to death with something popping out of your butt. Who knows?
And because 80-85% of all rapes are done by acquaintances, you should channel that inner wasp literally all the time. And this should have no social consequences for you at all.
Just a few months ago I was at a party outside and there was a wasp was there. Everyone was like, “Oh my god, who invited the wasp? What a GREAT idea that was.” And that wasp went from group to group, making lifelong friends, and at no point did anyone try to rape that wasp, not even the guy who went to the hospital in anaphylactic shock.
Phil moves on to another analogy to prove that he is speaking from experience when telling women how to not get raped:
“And I know what many of you’ll be saying “Oh that’s easy for you to dob out such advice, you’ve never been in such a situation” – well actually, I have. All alone. In the very late evening, in a mountain pass, with no one around for miles. I faced a predator. A mountain lion, with a cub, that was stalking me. I played the game for real stakes.
Had I given off the body language of the victim – of the prey – there is a very real possibility that I wouldn’t be here making this video.”
That’s right: a mountain lion tried to rape Thunderf00t. He doesn’t say that explicitly but why else would he be using this story as an example of how women shouldn’t be raped. So yeah, Tfoot is out there in the wilderness with a larger beast and he had a choice to make: he could have been the victim uh he could have dropped to all fours and started munching on some bits of grass and then made an alarmed “maaaaaaaaa” noise and then run away but no, that would be prey behavior.
So Instead he well I don’t think he really goes into what he did but I assume he made himself as large as possible using his jacket, blew his mountain lion rape whistle, and called a park ranger. And that’s what we should all do when faced with potential rapists. Also when you run away maybe use a zig zag pattern.
I know all of this seems very silly to those of you who don’t know as much about preventing rape as Thunderfoot, but let me tell you, I’ve done a lot of research into this and a lot of what Thunderfoot says in his video is indistinguishable from the words of wisdom offered by actual admitted rapists in prison. There have been several studies looking into their stories and what they have to say and let me tell you Thunderfoot has done a great job of sounding exactly – exactly- like those rapists.
For instance, there was a study done in 1984 that included in-depth interviews with rapists in prison and these rapists went into their justifications for why they raped. And the researchers found several major themes throughout all of the answers, one of which was that many of the rapists believed that the women they raped didn’t do enough to convey the fact that they did not want to be raped. Even though many of the rapists were holding deadly weapons at the time, they still believed that the women just didn’t fight back because they secretly wanted it.
One woman one of the rapists described she was abducted at knifepoint in the middle of the night and gang-raped, and actually they interviewed two of her rapists, and they reported that she didn’t resist it so she was probably into it. They don’t go into detail on what would have happened with the knife if the woman had resisted but many of the other rapists mention that they only got violent with women because of resistance but who knows maybe if she had resisted they would have just left her alone.
Another common theme in the study was the idea that nice girls don’t get raped. A large percentage of rapists in prison vociferously agreed with many of Thunderfoot’s points here, using their victims’ dress and behavior as a way to excuse raping them. Their comments ranged from pointing out that a woman they raped was wearing tight black clothes or wearing a skirt, or that a woman spread her legs when exiting a car, or that a woman claimed she was a virgin but seemed much more experienced while being raped, or this gem: “She was a waitress and you know how they are.”
One rapist claimed that his victims deserved it because they had been prostitutes, even though pre-sentence reports indicated that none of them were prostitutes.
Much like Thunderf00t, these rapists believed that these traits made their victims more rapable. So to follow Thunderf00t and the convicted rapists’ thinking, women can avoid being raped by not wearing tight black clothing or skirts, by keeping their knees locked while exiting cars, by not being waitresses, by not being mistaken for a prostitute by a deranged rapist, or even by not having sex, ever. By not being experienced in bed. Don’t get me wrong, there is still a very good chance you’ll get raped, but at least there will be fewer ways for Thunderf00t and your rapist to blame you for it.
Thuderfoot parrots not just convicted dedicated rapists, but every Imam in every little shithole and palace across the Middle East arguing that women belong in burquas and niqab for their own safety and so men will not be bothered with rapey thoughts.
I wonder if the irony of that will ever sink in to the airy cavity protected by the three inch thick cranial bone his neck supports.
This is why there was no rape or prostitution in Victorian times, when women were covered from head to foot. Even piano legs were covered to prevent impure thoughts (the Ripper murders may well have been triggered by the sight of an exposed piano leg in Jack’s youth).
And nobody* ever gets raped in Saudi!
*”One of the men brought a knife to my throat. They told me not to speak. They pushed us to the back of the car and started driving. We drove a lot, but I didn’t see anything since my head was forced down.” Sounds like she was giving off conflicting signals, right Phil?
Cityzenjane,
If you limit that statement to the Muslim extremists, I’ll agree with you.
Cityzenjane,
Actually strike my last comment, I should have said fundamentalists.
Right, no one ever tries to kill wasps. That’s why there are no products on the market for killing wasps. What a great analogy! http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_5?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=wasp%20spray&sprefix=wasp+%2Caps%2C449&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Awasp%20spray
Hey now, this is how not to get raped, not how to not get murdered. WOMENFOLK, jeez.
One of the insecticides is Tanglefoot brand. Coincidence? I don’t believe in coincidence!
If he were more clever I would say he might be making an allusion to Shakespeare.
Well no, obviously not, but it still seems relevant.
PETRUCHIO: Come, come, you wasp, i’faith you are too angry.
KATHERINE: If I be waspish, best beware my sting.
PETRUCHIO: My remedy is then to pluck it out.
KATHERINE: Ay, if the fool could find where it lies.
PETRUCHIO: Who knows not where a wasp does wear his sting? In his tail.
KATHERINE: In his tongue.
PETRUCHIO: Whose tongue?
KATHERINE: Yours, if you talk of tales, and so farewell.
PETRUCHIO: What, with my tongue in your tail?
Thunderf00t has done one better and put his whole head in his tail.
One of the many reasons I admire Rebecca Watson so much is that she can take a situation that would reduce me to nothing but expletives and unfocused fury, and focus her fury into making a wonderfully ironic video leading to a devastating last sentence that pretty much destroys Thunderf00t and his ilk. That’s art, and it’s great. Thanks for continuing to fight the good fight.
I think this is a little unfair because a lot of those rapists were clearly lying, delusional, or engaging in the natural human defense mechanism of denying (to yourself) that you did anything wrong even in the face of overwhelming evidence. It’s not really fair to compare the two. Thunderf00t’s comments are much more vile because he doesn’t have any excuse.
He is speaking from the experience of almost being raped by a mountain lion….
Cityzenjane,
Even if his story was true, most likely the mountain lion was trying to eat him, not rape him and for the most part he was probably just lucky. If a mountain Lion attacks you, and no one else is around, assuming you can’t run away, which most likely you won’t be able to, and no one else is around, chances are, you’ll be dead. Also even if Thunderf00t’s anti rape strategy would work with people ( which it won’t most of the time ) it definitely wouldn’t work with a wild animal trying to kill you. Its a horrible analogy and if Thunderf00t thought about it for even a moment, even he would probably realize it.
Is this a … No True Rapist argument?
Why is it clear? How do you know this? Do you have access to their minds via some method no one else on the planet knows about?
This is ableist and makes it seem like their raping isn’t an agentive act. Means the rapes they committed aren’t their fault because they are mentally ill.
Natural? Really? How do you know this is a “natural” defense mechanism? Can you please tell me which gene codes for this?
OR, you know, they know exactly what they’re saying and they’re being honest. I think you need to ask yourself why you feel the impulse to deny that that could be the reality of the situation.
This kind of shit is really annoying. This is rape apologia and it helps reinforce rape culture. Cut it the fuck out.
Wrong logical fallacy. It isn’t “natural” to lie about it when you are caught doing something horrific, because “natural” doesn’t really mean anything. That’s the core of the naturalistic fallacy: attributing an effect to a meaningless, non-existent, or magical cause (i.e. “nature”), or simply assuming such an effect without evidence it exists. It’s only natural that someone who has been raped by a mountain lion would understand the naturalistic fallacy, so TF must be lying about that.
As for genes coding for lying when caught, you’re equating “natural” with “genetic”. It might be epigenetic or learned or cultural. But most likely, you are right, it is genetic. We just haven’t found the gene yet.* When an early human hunter saw a rustling in the grass and he knew he was faster than at least one of his companions, he would say, confidently, “there is no lion” and then slowly edge away from the group in the opposite direction He didn’t need to faster than all the other huters to escape the mountain lion, he only needed to be faster than the slowest hunter, or to have a positional advantage (head start)**. It takes lots of genes to code for “faster”, but it probably only takes one to code for “lying”, so that must be what happened. We haven’t discovered that gene yet, but it could be there since we haven’t discovered what most genes do.
[*] This is called “the Evo-psych of the Gaps.”
[**] It also helps to have genes for solving “If a train heads East from Pittsburgh at 48 mph and another train heads West from Philadelphia at 63 mph, which one will get to Albuquerque first?” problems. Hunting explains why men are better at math.
Argh!
“He didn’t need to faster than all the other huters…”
“He didn’t need to RUN faster than all the other huNters…”
Anyway, what’s a huter? Why didn’t Firefox complain about the spelling by underlining it in red, but it does now? Is it ableist for Firefox to assume I can see and notice when it’s underlined a misspelling? Is it derailing to ramble on about my failure to proof-read my own comment? I’m just asking questions.
That’s what I was getting at by pointing it out….
I’m not equating natural with genetic. If this is a “natural” trait that humans possess in the sense that this person is using it, then it must be inherited in some way. If it is epigenetic, then it may not be natural (could be influenced by environment/culture). And culture ? nature. If they had said “engaging in the cultural defense mechanism,” that would have meant something entirely different than “engaging in the natural human defense mechanism.” Natural implies that it is universal to the species.
Basically, my point in responding was to point out that they are making an argument from incredulity that is rape apologia.
I know you’re making the “nature vs. nurture” distinction, and your argument is entirely correct. I also know this is the common parlance. But this language annoys me. I know, it’s a weird pet peeve. Culture is as natural as genetics, though. It’s just collective animal behavior. We’re as natural as anything else on this planet. Maybe I’m crazy, but I’m sick of our “genetic” behaviors being “natural” and “culture” being “synthetic”. They’re both products of nature.
I hate the language, too, actually.
But I’m actually not equating “nature” with “genetics” as Buzz thinks. If anything, I’m equating “nature” with “biology” in this particular instance. Biologically inherited vs. socioculturally learned. A horribly false dichotomy to be sure.
Of course culture is a “natural” part of what it means to be human. But the problem I have with that language (as long as we’re being persnickety) is that it has the effect of subsuming culture under biology/nature, with biology/nature always as the ultimate cause and culture always as the proximate cause. I think this language obfuscates the role of culture both in shaping biology and in shaping human behavior. Why not say that biology is culturally contingent for humans? For humans, biology is always already cultural. We are biocultural beings.
I do not see culture as “synthetic” at all, and I agree completely that this nature/culture, or biology/culture dichotomy has many problems and is quite untenable.
Just for clarification, the point I was making to lofgren was that just because something seems natural does not mean it is natural. Humans have a really weird way of naturalizing culture, making it seem as if what is actually a culturally derived trait or belief is based in human nature. What they did there was create a mythical narrative about human nature (which is itself another meta-mythical narrative in Western civilizations) under the guise of making a skeptical argument.