The single most humiliating moment in Jessica Valenti’s public life

pnw_diver · 2015-08-27T18:44:21+00:00

"rape culture is the culture that allows rape to happen over and over."

How are we defining the word "allows"? Rape is against the law. Anyone who commits or tries to commit a rape is a criminal. They're pursued by the law and if caught, punished. Yes, it does keep happening, but to unrelated individuals, by unrelated individuals. That's not allowance, that is an understandable inability to prevent individual people from committing crimes.

The only way to prevent all rape is to prevent all crime, which can only be done by totally curtailing all rights of all people and dictating the way in which each person conducts their lives with no deviation whatsoever. The application of freedom is the admission that sometimes, people will use that freedom to infringe upon the freedoms of others. It's a hazard we all have to face. That's the whole purpose of law.

"Look, we understand that we're all free people here. But if you do these bad things to people just because we're not locking you in a cage, telling you when to eat and sleep, and assigning you a pre-determined occupation based on your birth certificate/serial number, we'll look for you, find you, and do things to you back that you don't like. Such as LOCK YOU IN A CAGE, TELL YOU WHEN TO SLEEP, WHEN TO EAT, WHAT TO EAT, AND ASSIGN YOU A PRE-DETERMINED OCCUPATION BASED ON YOUR SERIAL NUMBER.

I'm also deeply troubled by this quote from Valenti, regarding whether it is possible to eliminate the "rape culture":

"...we have opportunities to intervene everyday, whether it's stopping someone when they're telling a rape joke or saying they got "raped" by a test, or holding your university accountable for their Title IX obligations. Sometimes, intervening on rape culture can be done within the system, you can work with your school to implement a Yes Means Yes policy... Other times, intervening in rape culture can be done in less traditional ways. When their schools weren't doing enough about rape, some students at Columbia and Barnard started writing the names of their rapists on the school walls."

This woman appears to have both lost perspective on what incites a person to commit an act of rape, comparing it in the same sense to the way government idiots of the 1990s thought "Cop Killa" was going to make people start shooting policemen.

And apparently she doesn't have a problem with vigilante justice without incontrovertible evidence. She's okay with a rape accuser engaging in a full on smear campaign to destroy the life of someone who has only been accused of committing a crime, when in fact it is a grievous violation of a person's rights - especially if the accused person is innocent.

I believe rape culture today is the opposite of Valenti's view. Rape Culture is the state of American life today where an accuser of rape is politically immune to all criticism and questioning, where the accused (if male) is guilty-until-proven-innocent, in direct contravention of a fair trial. Where society-at-large plays judge, jury and executioner.

ayumuuu · 2015-08-27T20:35:26+00:00

Good GOD.

"North America is not a rape culture. And it is an insult to women who live in one that women here, with so much freedom and so much opportunity, are trying to share the same status with them."

She just tore it apart.

SwanOfAvon22 · 2015-08-27T17:31:17+00:00

Wow, Valenti is entirely outclassed by McElroy. This should be widely viewed

mooseman923 · 2015-08-27T17:59:17+00:00

That was brilliant. McElroy is 100000% correct. Individuals need to be help accountable.

pnw_diver · 2015-08-27T19:18:48+00:00

Excellent, thanks.

Ive never understood once how Valenti - a professionally vacuous and mindless harpy - was ever taken seriously.

McElroy came across as a serious adult figure, with a deep connection to the issue of rape and violence, and a ton of intellectual integrity. Furthermore, by researching claims made in reports and books, she is doing all the journalism that Jessica Valenti never did, or does.

I was particularly struck by McElroy's reference to the engineer who worked on the Rosetta landing being forced to apologize, in tears, on national television, because feminists didn't like his t-shirt. She caught the deepest truth of that moment - that the man's achievement, which is historic, means nothing to feminists,** because it was a man's achievement,** and furthermore some tawdry or outright hysterical complaint about cartoon figures on a t-shirt are what caught the feminist eye and they were allowed to internationally shame this man over a t-shirt.

This is the distilled essence of everything wrong with modern feminism - it is a vacuous, shallow, totalitarian-tending movement that targets and attacks - and smears - all things men and things men do.

jb_trp · 2015-08-27T19:57:01+00:00

"Do not build justice for women on injustice for men." - Wendy McElroy

jubbergun · 2015-08-28T01:09:30+00:00

There is no "most humiliating moment" for Jessica Valenti. She lacks the self-awareness and sense of decency necessary for one to feel shame.

2015-08-27T22:00:22+00:00

I'm still in the first 10 minutes (only McElroy talked so far) and... just wow.

I'm almost weeping. You need to watch it - not just for the "humiliation" (which I didn't see yet, as again only McElroy talked so far), but because she's such a good speaker.

Just wow.

Edit 15 minutes in now, still only McElroy talked so far. I have yet to see someone with so much empathy for men. You need to watch her talk.

I've personally downloaded the video to my computer in case Valenti's lawyers manage to get it off AVFM like they did from youtube. This talk needs to be out there.

Edit2 21 minutes in. I don't know when Valenti will talk, but hasn't happened yet. McElroy's talk is just getting better. I'm emotionally drained here.

Do not build justice for women on injustice for men. Thank you.

22 minutes in: Valenti started her talk. It's not interesting. She's just so outclassed it's not even entertaining. I stopped after a minute in, because watching her will just ruin the experience of McElroy's talk.

We don't need Valenti's part - she can DMCA it if she likes. I don't care. We need to circulate McElroy's part. That... that needs viewing.

fastball21 · 2015-08-27T21:36:45+00:00

The video is now on YouTube

_Mr_Fahrenheit_ · 2015-08-28T00:27:57+00:00

She said 'trigger warning.' Holy shit. It was hard to take her seriously after that.

bertreapot · 2015-08-27T21:53:08+00:00

Valenti's speech is a litany of false statistics and unproven claims. All the statistics she quotes have since been debunked, and none of the claims have been proven besides Stubenville. She should be embarrassed by it.

Pathfinder24 · 2015-08-27T23:42:33+00:00

The applause from the audience makes me sick.

"I don't have to prove shit" clapping

liquid_j · 2015-08-27T21:49:17+00:00

wow... still listening to Wendy McElroy.. that woman knows how to speak passionately...

2015-08-27T19:19:05+00:00

Exposed.

Pathfinder24 · 2015-08-28T00:15:26+00:00

The first half of that video made me so proud and happy, then the second half of that video made me so disgusted.

We, as a species, have suffered for too many thousands of years without any semblance of fairness and justice for those accused, and now feminists want to just throw our constitutional rights in the garbage over fear and hysteria. What an absolute disgrace of a human being.

2015-08-28T03:06:40+00:00

Yes, McElroy severely outclasses Valenti but where is this humiliating moment? I guess I was expecting Wendy to actually debate and destroy Jessica given the title.

I watched the whole video and the second half was punishing, I feel let down.

Valenti did nothing out of the ordinary for a feminist speaker so I guess I am wondering which "moment" was humiliating enough to make her want to hide it from public viewing.

mwobuddy · 2015-08-27T19:20:28+00:00

I wouldve assumed her single most embarrassing moment was being born.

jdub_06 · 2015-08-28T04:40:17+00:00

"um, like i think a lot of people im exausTId in having to talk about rape culture in a framework that assumes its existence is up for debate. "

aka the orwellian way of saying "I only like debates where i decide what you can say"... great start. everyone who clapped to that should be shot.

also her vallygirl esk inflection is really annoying.

dwfan24 · 2015-08-28T04:59:53+00:00

McElroy fuckin killed it actually. I thought her words made a lot of sense and were educated. Glad to see every feminist isn't as toxic as Valenti.

But where was the humiliating part? I endured the second half, but all McElroy did was have a better speech than hers.

anonparty123 · 2015-08-28T05:08:05+00:00

Valenti says she supports "direct action" at around 31:00.

Of a known hoax threat Valenti said:

“Hoax or no, it was still a threat.” http://www.avoiceformen.com/feminism/top-10-feminist-failures-of-jessica-valenti-in-2014/

Who are the intended victims who are threatened by a hoax threat?

Valenti tweeted (links not allowed):

'Massacre' threat forces @femfreq to cancel university talk http://theverge.com/e/6742850 BUT SEXISM ISN'T A THING

where luckily, no on was hurt.

Investigation into Sarkeesian death threats reveals no risk to USU students or staff—Officials cast doubt upon their validity http://www.avoiceformen.com/allnews/anita-sarkeesian-feminism-online-harrassment-2/

But if the threat was not real, was it a "direct action"? If it was, who was the intended target?

And isn't using a terrorist threat to make a political point more appropriately called an act of terrorism?

lichtie · 2015-08-28T08:32:29+00:00

Valenti trying to get this video removed from the internet just makes me think of this;

[(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dx32b5igLwA)]

Globalization101 · 2015-08-28T10:41:59+00:00

http://memegenerator.net/instance/57532152

33a5t · 2015-08-28T14:12:06+00:00

Is there a Q&A part?

timo906 · 2015-08-27T19:44:57+00:00

[permanently deleted]

Title	The single most humiliating moment in Jessica Valenti’s public life
Author	ourthirdsixsoul
Upvotes	268
Comments	50
Date	August 27, 2015 3:48 PM UTC (10 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/3im00d/the_single_most_humiliating_moment_in_jessica/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/the-single-most-humiliating-moment-in-jessica.972470 https://theredarchive.com/post/972470

Comments