Comments on: OzWatch ‘09: Misogyny on Parade

By: makomk

makomk — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 20:15:59 +0000

Pantsuit Sally: be careful which rape statistics you use. For example, some of them don’t count men who’ve been forced into penis-in-vagina sex without their consent as rape victims, only men who’ve been forcibly penetrated. (The NCVS and surveys based on it appear to do this, for a start.) If you really, really want to measure rape against men, even studies considered good by feminist academia aren’t necessarily useful since this isn’t a feminist issue.

[That reminds me; I should look at what idea of consent this relationship education is using. Presumably one in which men can actually be raped - it ought to make it easier to deal with other issues, like male sexuality and the role of women as gatekeepers.]

By: Larkspur

Larkspur — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 21:49:18 +0000

jezebella, of course you are right. I guess that Stanford experiment already showed us.

This makes me think of a teenager I knew. His family’s early model SUV rolled over on the freeway (those Toyota 4-Runners loved to roll). The father was killed instantly, but mom and the two kids walked away with a few bruises. (The kids literally were able to get out; mom was trapped against the body of her husband.)

Anyway, cutting to the chase: this boy, already in the throes of a difficult adolescence, was now dealing with grief and guilt, and so at his school, the well-meaning grief counseling folks thought it would be a good fucking idea for him to work through his issues with a peer group. Yes, this traumatized boy met repeatedly with four diligent, caring classmates so he could process his experience.

It was a fucking disaster. These were good kids, but they were children. Within weeks, when the boy was still upset and non-forthcoming with his feelings in spite of how hard they were trying, his peer-counselors began to get frustrated and angry with him. I don’t know the whole story, but he had to leave the school entirely and re-enroll elsewhere.

So: role-playing. Maybe not such a good technique here. We simply have to keep talking to each other and to our children.

By: Katherine

Katherine — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 00:58:23 +0000

When can we get programs like this in NZ too?

By: Jezebella

Jezebella — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 21:54:02 +0000

Larkspur, even with random assignments, it’s not safe. Any child or young person already subjected to actual assault does not need to endure such role-playing. Any given class of 30 kids will, unfortunately, probably contain a few victims.

By: Larkspur

Larkspur — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 18:07:27 +0000

The only way role-playing has any hope of being useful in this program is if the roles are assigned at random and shuffled up frequently.

By: wiggles

wiggles — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 02:34:34 +0000

7 women think the program is a good idea and 5 oppose it.

Or only 7 women bothered to post comments in MRA-staked territory, and 5 dudebros wrote, “I’m a woman, and I think blah blah blah.”

By: Jill

Jill — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 01:49:13 +0000

Cedar Park Texas? Why am I not surprised?

By: Barn Owl

Barn Owl — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 23:03:13 +0000

nails and Jezebella -

Yes, the documentary is called “Hell House”; I haven’t seen it, but I heard the This American Life Halloween segment. Usually the program makes me laugh, but that particular piece made me cringe. Ugh, and to think the first Hell House started in Cedar Park, not too far away. Apparently there were highly coveted Squickademy Awards for the actors playing “Best Rape Girl”, “Best AIDS Victim”, “Best Internet Pedophile”, etc.

By: Doctress Julia

Doctress Julia — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 22:22:30 +0000

@goblinbee: That’s positively chilling.

By: goblinbee

goblinbee — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:56:08 +0000

Judi and Jezebella, amen. I once “supervised” an invasion simulation (when my fifth graders were studying the explorers), wherein the third graders in the school came and invaded our classroom. They ordered the bigger kids around, corralled them into one small area, took over their desks, chairs, and supplies, etc. The “invaders” basically went ape-shit with all that power; it was terrifying. I had a little Lord of the Flies going on right in my own classroom.

I never did it again.