Some of you may be familiar with Joji, a trans dandy who has a popular Goth blog and a youtube channel. Joji is a talented artist and a piercer and has, in my opinion, an awesome sense of style (Joji is a woman who identifies as a man, wears makeup and photoshops her breasts out of pictures).
Being a long-time Goth myself I was one of Joji’s early Tumblr followers, eventually ceasing to follow Joji over sexist, hurtful remarks posted about women. These began to sound like the things that another transM had posted on FB about women that I mentioned in an earlier post. Basically the comments start to follow a line in which men are the true victims of everything and feminists are wrong, bad, etc.
Recently, someone on Tumblr reblogged a comment from Joji and I read it. Here’s a screen cap:
Doing something against someone’s will sexually is rape. I am not arguing that it doesn’t happen to men, but I am stating that the majority of the rape committed against men is done by other men. However, arguing like this about rape is incredibly stupid. Rape is rape. It’s disgusting and it should be stopped. Consent is consent and must be solicited in sexual situations. Statistically men and women can remain silent after a rape due to the same factor: shame.
Men not only commit rape against other men and boys, but they also cover up other mens’ rape. To see a true and sickening example of this we need only to look at the current case at Penn State. Illustrating a perfect reason why I still read Jezebel, despite the tripe they put out there we learn from a recent article on the site:
In 2002, after a graduate assistant saw Sandusky anally raping a 10-year-old boy in Penn State’s football showers, he told Paterno, who reported it to university officials but not the police. President Spanier was also informed of the incident, but decided the reputation of the school’s football team was more important than stopping Sandusky.
What human being on Earth doesn’t call the police over witnessing an event like that? Oh, right. A man. The Gothamist tells us more about the GA who saw this happen.
Mike McQueary, admitted to investigators that he was so shocked that he just left and asked his father for advice. McQueary’s father told him to tell Paterno.
This is disgusting. I understand shock, but MALE after MALE who learned of this heinous act simply passes it along the chain of patriarchal command and no one actually does anything. Men will not even come to the aide of the ones who will grow up to be men. This is how the cycle of the patriarchy continues from the male perspective.
Rape culture hurts both men and women. Meanwhile, men are also raped by other men in times of war. This graphic article makes this clearer and shifts the focus from white, middle-class America to the global reality that is too often ignored. Rape is a weapon in wars and rape is the chief weapon of the timeless war to exert power and control over others.
Men as a group and individuals are a danger to women, boys, girls, and other men. Men perpetuate rape. If you are a man and have been sexually assaulted by another man or by a woman I am sorry. I am sorry that our culture and our world is such a vile place. Please seek help. Please report what happened to you to the authorities. (As a starting resource for more information visit RAINN by clicking here.) For example, a male friend of mine was sexually harassed by another man at his place of employment and although nervous to do so he turned the man in and the perp was dealt with harshly.
I do not feel bold in claiming that if we continue to work against rape culture, expose it, stop shaming women who are raped, and keep tearing away at the patriarchy that the issue of rape can be dealt with. Patriarchal male culture is what keeps the rape machine going and keeps rapists acting in an environment that all too often lets them go on unpunished (as we see at Penn State).
What we do not need are trans activists harshly trying to silence women about rape, rape culture, and demeaning feminism by making it all about the men.
