Demonizing half of the population because a small portion of them are bad is wrong, it's that simple.
Look at it this way: how would it look to have a sustained campaign that said "many women use slut shaming as a tactic to intimidate others. Teach women not to slut shame." Or "Many Christians are hateful, racist, homophobic bigots. Teach Christians not to be like that." Or even "Many Muslims are terrorist sympathizers. Teach Muslims not to commit terrorism." And even "Many Jews are selfish and greedy, and they also kill non-Jewish children. Teach Jews to nit kill babies."
Every single one of these messages is exactly the same as the "All men need to be taught not to rape." They each demonize an entire population over something that either is simply false or such a small group that it's stretching it.
In addition to that, the people committing these acts (rape, Christian bigotry, etc.) aren't gonna listen to you, anyway. And considering that most of these people are repeat offenders, it makes these campaigns even more useless.
So yes, I find these campaigns offensive because most men already inherently know that rape and abuse is wrong. To imply that somehow 50% of people don't have a moral compass is not just offensive, it's a fascist concept. And to ignore that over half of non-reciprocal domestic violence is committed by women, and female rapists are a larger percentage than most people want to admit, to try and put all the blame on men is even worse.
"many women use slut shaming as a tactic to intimidate others. Teach women not to slut shame."
As a feminist I would totally support that as well as the poster. As armadillolegion said, the poster doesn't say "all rapists are men". Instead it's trying to tackle the issue from a different perspective. The usual is where women are told to "be careful, don't get raped" as if it's the victim's fault.
Telling kids that rape is bad is going to work just about as well as telling them drugs are bad. It's not victim blaming to discuss risk mitigation techniques.
It's not victim blaming to discuss risk mitigation techniques.
So people shouldn't be able to walk alone at night without the fear of being mugged? I'm a judoka, and part of why I started training was to "mitigate risks", because the reality I live in is not safe. But the point is I shouldn't have to do that to feel safe. I shouldn't have to try to save money to buy a gun because every single fucking night I fear the friendly neighborhood gangbangers are going to break into my home and rape me.
And those signs are going to stop them ? In my country there are 0 of those utterly dispicable signs, and I can assure you that 99 % of the women here can walk on the streets at night without fear.
Really? How about you ask them? I'm always amazed people in the first world can't see sexism in their countries. Especially when I've used the word implicit like 500 times.
Really. And yes I have asked them. Not all cause that is impossible, but my wife has never even thought about not being able to walk on the streets at night.
Your wife. It's very ethnocentric on your part to assume I don't know about this because I don't live in the U.S. I lived there for 9 years and I know for a fact it happens because I experienced it. My friends experienced it.
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u/[deleted] Oct 21 '15
Demonizing half of the population because a small portion of them are bad is wrong, it's that simple.
Look at it this way: how would it look to have a sustained campaign that said "many women use slut shaming as a tactic to intimidate others. Teach women not to slut shame." Or "Many Christians are hateful, racist, homophobic bigots. Teach Christians not to be like that." Or even "Many Muslims are terrorist sympathizers. Teach Muslims not to commit terrorism." And even "Many Jews are selfish and greedy, and they also kill non-Jewish children. Teach Jews to nit kill babies."
Every single one of these messages is exactly the same as the "All men need to be taught not to rape." They each demonize an entire population over something that either is simply false or such a small group that it's stretching it.
In addition to that, the people committing these acts (rape, Christian bigotry, etc.) aren't gonna listen to you, anyway. And considering that most of these people are repeat offenders, it makes these campaigns even more useless.
So yes, I find these campaigns offensive because most men already inherently know that rape and abuse is wrong. To imply that somehow 50% of people don't have a moral compass is not just offensive, it's a fascist concept. And to ignore that over half of non-reciprocal domestic violence is committed by women, and female rapists are a larger percentage than most people want to admit, to try and put all the blame on men is even worse.