Fraser Sherman's Blog

That was someone’s quip on FB, pointing out how many rape victims using that pseudonym show up when rape hits the spotlight. Case in point, the Cornell gang-rape case.

Someone complained on Bluesky recently that it was ridiculous that so many people were shocked — did we learn nothing from MeToo, and multiple past cases? While I get her incredulity, I’m fine with this case generating public outrage, even though it’s only one of countless such cases.

Perhaps it’s that like the Pelicot case in France, the rapist texting to his buddies with an offer of free-you-know-what undercuts the idea that rape is some guy losing control or making a stupid mistake or thinking with his small head. When you’re offering a woman zoned out on booze and ketamine to your friends, you’re making a conscious choice — and it’s a very bad choice. Cheryl Rofer on LGM suggests parents dropping their kids off at school the past month or so may have played a factor. Or that the fury of #metoo, contrary to multiple proclaimations, hasn’t died away.

Jill Filipovic writes about “feeling de-personed, reduced to a sexualized thing, to a collection of body parts. Feeling profoundly betrayed because you thought a man was worthy of your trust and you learned the hard way he saw you as less than a human and more of an orifice with a brain inconveniently attached. Feeling the sheer terror of realizing your physical safely is contingent on the whims of a larger, stronger man (or a group of them).”

“This is precisely why more women don’t come forward, and why more rapists aren’t prosecuted. Because mostly-male cops and prosecutors find it more believable that a 20-year-old would want to have sex with a room full of fraternity brothers than accept that she was raped. What ever happened to common fucking sense?” — Jessica Valenti.

What happened may be that the DA decided New York’s rules on rape while voluntarily intoxicated made the case a long shot — but as pointed out at the link, that’s no excuse: “This district attorney saw an allegation of a gang rape and didn’t even bother to interview the victim. He looked at a summary of the allegations and came to the conclusion that there was no provable crime, and didn’t bother to conduct an investigation.”

“Thomas Giuffra told CNN’s “State of the Union” that people attempting to unmask his client’s identity had also targeted at least three women mistakenly identified as her. The former Cornell student is identified as Jane Doe in court documents.“She’s received multiple threats, and women who aren’t even Jane Doe receive threats,” Giuffra said. He added that he had received a threat Sunday morning.”

“The Cornell 7, did not take turns raping an incapacitated girl for seven hours because they were unaware that their act was non-consensual. The lack of consent WAS. THE. APPEAL. This is not an educational issue, this is a VALUES issue. If you value dominance, rule-breaking, feeling powerful and asserting your manhood more than you value not-hurting a woman, rape is the outcome of those values. A non-consenting girl is a feature, not a bug of frat life. Dominating her makes them feel powerful, allows them to assert status with their boys and proves their masculinity.” — Celeste Davis in a post on why most proposed solutions won’t solve the problem.

“It is notable, however, that in Sanday’s and others’ research, participants and spectators both talk about assaults of women using the language of fun – “party games,” “trophies,” and “entertainment.” They consistently express cruelty as enjoyable leisure, not coerced, reluctant conformity. This goes beyond masking despair with a visible laugh or pretending to be having fun. The issue on campus isn’t “a woman got drunk and something bad happened to her”; it’s, chances are far more likely, “a man set out to find a person who is drinking and knows it will be harder for that person to say no, resist, or be believed later.” Anti-feminists and misogynists prefer to focus on a victim’s culpability rather than on perpetrators’ decision-making process and incentives, however.” — Soraya Chemaly.

In the case of Megyn Kelly, they focus on the victim being unattractive: “That the girl who was never the most sought after suddenly had four guys who wanted to have sex with her. And she counted this, yeah, in her inebriated state, as a win and liked the feeling of being sexy and desired and wanted.” You will not be shocked “she’s too ugly to rape” is an undead sexist cliche — but while Kelly does not shock me, she disgusts me. Never let rape-apologist bullshit like that get normalized.

“It’s a horribly familiar shape. We recognize it. We’ve seen it before, too many times to count. We saw it in Steubenville, in Glen Ridge, in Saratoga, in Torrington. We saw it at Trinity High School — Louisville’s version of Georgetown Prep. It is the shape Gibby Haynes described as “the ever-present football player rapist.” It seems like every town big enough to have its own McDonald’s has one. Except there’s never just one. Because this species always hunts in packs. The activity is, for these guys, a form of male bonding. The bond this forms and expresses is, for them, the most important thing. “Bros before hoes.” The girls they join together — always together — to prey on and to humiliate are incidental, interchangeable, forgettable and soon forgotten.” — Fred Clark’s thoughts on the Kavanaugh hearing sound perfect for the present controversy.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth: “I don’t want my son serving alongside troops who are out of shape or in combat [units] with females who can’t meet the same combat arms physical standards as men.” The War Horse at the same link: “Women serving in combat specialties have always been required to meet the same job-specific standards as men, based on the physical demands of their chosen field, such as infantry or artillery. But the broader physical fitness tests taken by all service members once or twice a year serve a different purpose: measuring overall fitness. Those tests have historically been scored using age- and sex-based standards.” Astonishingly (he said sarcastically) “Whiskey Pete” is fine with keeping the adjusted standards for older men.

In case you’re wondering, 90 percent of women in the Marines can meet the new standards. Of course, Hegseth is starting from a loathing for women in what he sees as male roles, so we’ll see what happens next. Remember, his spiritual mentor, misogynist Doug Wilson, is very big on male supremacy.

“The U.S. already has abortion travel bans—we just don’t normally call them that.”

“A judge criticized the Department of Health and Human Services for citing nonexistent scientific evidence or potentially AI-generated citations to support sweeping changes to federal teen pregnancy prevention programs. The Trump administration had said money Congress appropriated for such programs should avoid encouraging teen sexual activity and be used only for programs that promote abstinence and “body literacy.” The administration’s changes were challenged after HHS cut tens of millions in grants.” No surprise. It’s a proven fact that comprehensive sex ed and affordable birth control can reduce the unwanted pregnancy rate, ditto the abortion rate — but Republicans would sooner have more abortions than approve of women enjoying sex.

“A death related to ectopic pregnancy should really be a never event,” said Dr. Alice Abernathy, an OB-GYN in Philadelphia. At the link, ProPublica reports that since abortion bans became legal, ectopic deaths have soared.

Danny Katch looks at “the deep misogyny of an anti-trans movement that poses as defenders of women when it’s convenient but ultimately is driven by a desire to police all violations of traditional gender norms.”

The Girl Scouts support members in their faiths, including Muslims. Needless to say, bigots hate that.

Republican Florida governor candidate Byron Reynolds assures women repairing Florida’s roads is so they can get to the hair salon and stay pretty.

“Although many families strive to share these responsibilities, research has consistently found that mothers tend to shoulder a larger share of the work tied to their kids’ schooling. That includes not only attending school events or packing lunches, but also the less visible work of scheduling doctor appointments, signing up for after-school activities, and responding to emails or calls from teachers and administrators.” One of the reasons is that no matter what instructions they get, schools tend to call the mother first.

“White men get to fail,” said Amanda Litman, co-founder of Run for Something, which recruits young, progressive candidates to run for office. “Women do not get to make mistakes. People of color do not get to make mistakes.” Litman said the argument was not that serious allegations should be treated differently because of a candidate’s identity, but that Platner had been granted an unusual degree of latitude to recover from earlier controversies that a female candidate or a candidate of color would probably not have been afforded.

“It is a very strange thing to move through the world understanding that the one half of the population that never had their humanity doubted on the basis of their genitalia, that enjoys the privilege of being the default category of human, remains the primary arbiter of your physical safety and, sometimes, your personhood.” — from Jill Filipovic’s essay on the Cornell Seven.