Victim Feminism: A New Form Of Extortion
A trend seems to have arisen: Women (mostly) are using accusations against men (and sometimes women in power) as a way of having unearned power.
These accusations typically don't meet any sort of standard for the "crime" committed and they tend to not seem the slightest bit reasonable to anyone not hypnotized by identity politics. Yet, they often seem to have surprising traction.
Take the case of former SciAm blogs editor Bora Zivkovic -- accused of sexual harassment and pilloried for it on social media and elsewhere, until he was out of a job and pretty much ruined. The only problem? What he did never met any legal standard for sexual harassment -- or even any reasonable standards.
But women said he did it and their accusations stood. And then a herd of supposed skeptics -- self-proclaimed skeptics known as science writers -- simply nodded their heads on Twitter in unison and decided to schedule an Internet-wide witch-burning. (Never mind that nobody ever got Bora's side of the story.)
What kind of woman takes advantage of the power of the "J'accuse!"? Not a woman of power and position. Not a woman who is going places. A woman who has failed to make much of herself or her life. A woman who doesn't have the grades or the chops or who hasn't done the work.
She sees an opening, though, an opening in our careless passage of laws, for example, like Title IX, which was supposed to be about giving girls soccer time in high school but is now used, for example, to remove due process rights of men accused of sexual crimes on campus.
It's truly sick.
The latest set of stories about these increasingly prevalent witch hunts are in an article by Michelle Goldberg in The Nation. One professor, LSU's lauded Theresa Buchanan, was fired, in part, for saying "fuck, no!" in class.
Yes, that's right. Upon hearing these words, the tender ears of some college student simply caught fire right there in the classroom and she was wheeled out on a stretcher. (Kidding. You knew that, right?)
Buchanan's other "crimes":
Making a joke about sex declining in long-term relationships, as well as using the word "pussy" in an off-campus conversation with a teacher.
And then there's this little bit of student opportunism:
Last fall, David Samuel Levinson, the author, most recently, of the literary thriller Antonia Lively Breaks the Silence, taught a course called "Introduction to Fiction" at Emory University, part of a two-year fellowship he'd been awarded there. Blunt and scabrous, he prides himself on being frank with his students. "My class is like a truth-telling, soothsaying class, and I tell them no one is going to talk to you like this, you will never have another class like this," he says.One student, he says, a freshman woman, sat besides him throughout the course, actively participating. At the end of the semester, he gave her a B+, because, although she worked hard, her writing wasn't great. "They don't really understand that they can do all of the work, and turn in perfectly typed up, typo-free papers and stories, but it doesn't mean they're going to get an A, because quality matters, talent matters," he says.
While he was on vacation over winter break, he got a Facebook message from her. He ignored it, figuring it was a complaint about her grade. She started sending him imploring e-mails asking him to reconsider her B+. Finally, he says, he got an e-mail from the director of his program saying, "You need to take care of this. You don't want this to escalate."
The student, he learned, was threatening to bring him up on sexual harassment charges. "Oh, I felt unsafe," he whines, imitating her. The director, he says, told him, "I know this is bullshit, you know this is total bullshit, since you're gay, [but] you really don't want to deal with this bullshit. Just give her the grade." Asked about this, the director says, "I don't recall that, but I do recall advising him that as with all faculty, per our policy, that this was up to his discretion and thus his decision to make."
Overprivileged brats and identity politics, more and more, are shoving out free speech, free inquiry, reasonableness, and decency.
Free speech is the loser here, and once it starts getting rolled back, things generally don't just stop and go the other way.
Oh, and if you are over 12 and can't handle "fuck" and "pussy" without feeling some sort of trauma, your mommy and daddy shouldn't be allowing you to go to college -- or be letting you out of your yard without your caregiver.
To engage in malicious gossip, our grand parents were limited to talking over the backyard fence and at the neighborhood bar; our parents had telephones - faster and no longer face-to-face, but still one-on-one; we have social media and the Internet - anonymous, faceless, capable of reaching around the world as fast as electrons can travel, and stored permanently on some server, somewhere. It's the perfect way to be smug, petty and nasty.
Wfjag at July 1, 2015 10:44 PM
"What kind of woman takes advantage of the power of the "J'accuse!"? Not a woman of power and position. Not a woman who is going places. A woman who has failed to make much of herself or her life. A woman who doesn't have the grades or the chops or who hasn't done the work."
That describes perfectly, with the addition of mental illness, the Duke Lacrosse fake rape "victim."
We really need to move sexual crimes back to the same standards of other crimes - make them prove it!
While I understand how terrible it must be for true victims of sex crimes to have to retell their story. It is like re-living the assault, or rape, or abuse again.
The same could be true for any victim of crime - having to retell it to cops, to detectives, to lawyers, to the court could be like re-living it.
But, we also need to protect those falsely accused. Unfortunately, as you have pointed out many times, Amy, modern feminists have assumed that false charges against men don't happen. And modern feminists assume any man so accused MUST be guilty.
Sadly, I don't see anything on the horizon suggesting that we are moving back to sanity in this regard.
charles at July 2, 2015 4:11 AM
Back in the '60s we were looking for a truth serum.(We got LSD) Right now there's no hope in Title IX or academia. Could we somehow sell them a reality inhaler available OTC for people who don't know if their ass is punched or bored? (That's a machinists' joke)
Canvasback at July 2, 2015 4:39 AM
Amy,
Are you engaging in a "war on women"?
(sarcasm)
Bob in Texas at July 2, 2015 5:01 AM
charles, Bora Zivkovic is one of those falsely accused who needs protecting. I do not do reported stories but someone who does needs to cover this horrible thing that was done to him.
And Bob in Texas, this is my part to "war" against injustice.
Amy Alkon at July 2, 2015 5:42 AM
So the Left has now decided that cuss words are inappropriate for public speech. Miss Grundy, meet your true compartriots.
Cousin Dave at July 2, 2015 7:56 AM
Charles, you're giving far too much credit to the Duke "rape victim". In the 24 hours before this incident, she had engaged in rough sex (voluntarily, whether for pay or fun is unknown), and passed out onstage and been dragged unconscious and nearly naked across a gravel parking lot by her "friends". Then she showed up for a private stripping gig at the lacrosse team fraternity too drunk/drugged to even strip. When they threw her and her companion out with no pay for no performance, one of them threw a big enough fit that the cops were called.
The false rape accusation was not her idea - it was a cop's. She asked the cop for a ride to the hospital; the cop told her that she was going to the drunk tank unless she was raped. Her response was utterly predictable for anyone who has ever had to deal with lowlifes like her - they barely comprehend the difference between truth and fiction when they are sober, let alone when intoxicated. So departmental policy for cases like this was to, in effect, seek a (probably false) rape accusation.
The next day, when enough of the drugs had cleared out of her system that she could talk coherently, the cops and prosecutor would not let her back out of it. Nor did her inability to identify the pictures of the "rapists" discourage them. Apparently Nifong had already made public statements accusing the players of rape and "a hate crime", and wasn't about to let the truth embarrass him. So they kept repeating photo lineups over several days, until she picked out three men, and then carefully avoiding learning any contrary evidence - e.g., one of the accused had been using an ATM at the time, so they ignored the ATM records and security camera, and intimidated the taxi driver who dropped him off. Witness intimidation is a crime, but cops and prosecutors can get away with it.
markm at July 2, 2015 9:43 AM
I believe the premise of the Authors argument is fundamentally flawed, at best incoherent. Yet the argument is somewhat thought provoking.
I argue that it's hypocritical to attack the "social justice warrior" movement for wanting "safe spaces" or "trigger warnings" or being offended by "explicit language" when the Author is similarly afraid of the unknowable outcome of accommodating the requests of the "social justice warrior" movement.
The Informal Extortion/Bullying/Censorship mechanisms utilized by the "Feminist" or "Political Correctness" movement(s) are legitimate, effective strategies for gaining power (E.g. brute force) and are advocated for in "Rules for Radicals" by Saul Alinsky. An important quote from the book is "In the politics of human life consistency (of ethics) is not a virtue."
After the Author denounces her ideological opposition for utilizing such mechanisms (Informal Extortion/Bullying/Censorship), the author then utilizes and further advocates the use of these same mechanisms against her ideological opposition. The author attempts to justify this by appealing to "ethical" considerations.
I would appreciate a considered response from the Author.
Justin at July 2, 2015 10:01 AM
The injustice of what was done to Bora is almost too painful to bear. Both I and Bora have been dangerously close to suicide (at different times) since this disaster happened. The torture of the irony here is that Bora is 100% innocent. Not only was NO action meeting the legal definition of sexual harassment committed, but there was also not a trace of inappropriate comments or behavior ever to escape Bora's person. Ever. EVER. And the people who know him, the thousands he has unselfishly and freely given his time to, know this. If we had the resources, we could PROVE his innocence. If we ever have the chance to sue any and every body involved in this crime, we will nail you for every last penny you have. One has to do only a surface investigation into the sordid life of Monica Byrne to see that her depravity reaches far and wide. We know three different men in the Triangle, who are not only strangers to the science community, but also strangers to each other, and all have said that Monica is a known pathological liar, none were surprised by her actions, and one even suggested that the reason she falsely accused Bora is that she failed to get him to sleep with her. If she can't bend a man to her will, she will set out to destroy him, just as she spent her time in NYC riding subways "hunting" for flashers, as she relates in the story she told at The Monti. Just as she has been crying like a little bitch because she didn't get her way with Wired. Read the reviews of her novel on Amazon and you will see that she is one sick bitch. Look at her 100+ 'sexy' dress poses' selfies and you will clearly see that she uses her sexuality to manipulate and control men. It is really rather disgusting.
And how about Kathleen Raven? Talk about a pussy. She is a major pussy. Bora actually considered her his best friend and trusted her implicitly. The (one sided) snippets from the emails she posted really succeeded in making Bora look like some kind of pervert. But the fact is that he was having a private conversation with her about his adolescent sexuality, and what it is like for young people growing up in a culture that affords them no real privacy for sexual exploration. Young people in Belgrade (at least at that time) didn't have their own apartments or live together before marriage. You basically either had your spouse move in with you and your parents, or you moved in with your in-laws, after marriage, of course. Ironically, in his culture sex is considered normal and natural and nobody faints if you say the word "erection." Kathleen Raven is a sneaky little bitch. More than once, she coyly asked Bora "are you attracted to me?" I have seen the Twitter DMs. I have read her emails and texts. Her hands are not clean. Although they came close to actually having an affair, it never got physical. And the reason is that Bora refused because they were both married. I do think they had what I would call an emotional affair. They were in constant contact, they both lit up like Christmas trees when they met at conferences, Bora once even credited Kathleen with "saving our marriage," because he had someone to talk to who understood.
Understood? Since Kathleen didn't hesitate to throw me under the bus, I will tell you the story of her ex/abusive boyfriend: apparently this fellow had some unsavory rape fantasies that he persuaded Kathleen to allow him to "act out" with her. Although she gave her consent, she said she was extremely traumatized by this sex play. That isn't surprising. It sounds horrible. But this is classic Kathleen Raven logic. Say yes, decide it was a bad idea, cry wolf. It is worth noting here that Kathleen was under a HUGE amount of pressure from Maryn McKenna and Emily Willingham (everybody's favorite!) and a few other women to make these public accusations about Bora. She totally dissed Bora's friendship and loyalty and folded to the party politics. In my book, that makes her a great, big PUSSY. And tell me, if you will, that if she was so intimated by Bora, why did he have an invitation to come and visit her in her home? The visit was planned for the week after Bora was "outed." How quickly things change! Finally, if you have watched the video of the Double X session (which, ironically, Bora organized) you can clearly see that after Kathleen publically accuses Bora, a little smile/smirk breaks out on her face. If you know anything about microexpressions, you know that this is a classic "tell" for lying. I know what I say is true because I was here. And I was there. I watched the whole thing unfold. I even warned Bora: bad idea, keep your distance, you can't trust her. But everybody who knows Bora knows that he is totally gullible, always gives the benefit of the doubt,and trusts everyone. At least he used to.
What people don't know is that a lawyer forced Bora to publish that "apology" and would not allow him to use his own words or defend himself. So his fate was sealed, his guilt certain. A handful of brave women came to his defense. Interestingly, this did not include the women that knew him best, like Bethany Brookshire (we danced at her wedding! She started her blog on his laptop! She KNOWS better) and Janet Stemmwedel (she had been aching to be on the Science Online board for a couple of years, Bora and Anton were actually planning to add her as the organization grew, but she took this opportunity to turn against Bora and try to stage a SciOn coup). Sorry, Janet, when two people have an idea, do the work (LOTS of fucking free work), and make a great baby, you can't just TAKE that baby and claim it is your own. All of you should be very, very ashamed for ruining one of the best conferences in the country.
Almost NO men stood up for Bora because they knew they would be committing career suicide. There was one notable exception: Anton. Anton was Bora's closest friend and partner. During the early weeks, we probably would have died without his loyal support. However, when he wrote an incredibly thoughtful, fair, and profound piece about the issue (in all of it's complexity) and published it around New Year's Day, he was attacked so visciously, with so much mocking and hatred, that even he questioned the innocence of Bora, and proceeded to put a fairly substantial amount of distance between himself and Bora. This was a real low point for us. We lost so many friends for whom we cared deeply. It was disturbing to see all those "journalists" sincerely believing that they knew the Truth without asking Bora ONE SINGLE QUESTION.
The funny (but not too funny) thing is that Bora is one of the rare true male feminists. He achieved gender equity with everything that had his name on it (his blog network, Science Online, his annual best of science blogs anthology....and he refused dozens of invitations to participate on panels all over the world because the panels did not include one single woman speaker.
Bora was born to teach. Partly out of love, and partly as community service, he has been teaching freshman biology at a local college for twenty years, including during the time he worked at Scientific American. This is a situation in which there is a REAL power differential. However, in all of those years, he has not had one single complaint (not even from the creationists in his classes, many of whom he converted to accept evolution based on the evidence he taught). Not one complaint. In fact, he consistently has the best evaluations on campus.
I know Bora better than any of you ever will. I know that he lacks the machismo and even the self-confidence to bully or harass any person in any way. Do you seriously feel that he is a threat? He weighs 125 lbs! About 50 lbs less than the average woman at a conference. ANYBODY could take him down, if necessary. But it would never be necessary because that is just not who Bora is.
Bora LOVED his job. He worked 18 hour days most of the time, and ALWAYS seven days a week (unless he was on his beloved Amtrak train.) Bora cared deeply for almost everyone. And he has always been unfailingly polite to the few people he can't stand. I admit that he is the goofy guy who stands there talking to you for ten minutes without realizing his elbow is in your potato salad. But what can I say? He's on the spectrum. So many people owe their careers or book deals to him. I can't count that high.
But where oh where is the loyalty to Bora? Not even Bora so much as the pursuit of, and loyalty to the truth? His boss at the college heard the rumors and read the slander, but she is wise in the ways of the world and knows that the person being described as a "serial sexual harasser" was not, is not, and will never be Bora. Is it possible that the rest of you are so utterly and completely gullible and stupid that you can not see that there is no way Bora would have behaved in such a crude manner? Yes. I actually do believe that most of you are THAT stupid.
All of you that have been complicit in this crime are guilty of ruining our life. You have succeeded in rendering Bora unemployable. You have humiliated our children, and pushed us both to the very edge of suicide and divorce. You have taken four people out of the middle class and sentenced us to a life of poverty. Because of you, there are children going to bed hungry (our daughter is down to 83 lbs and she's anemic. She is not anorexic. She is hungry. She is afraid to eat because she's afraid there will be nothing left. YOU DID THIS TO HER. TO US. And for what?
To all of you who were complicit in this lie, beware! Evil begets evil.
Somebody out there needs to find Moses (or Jesus) and recognize this grave injustice. Somebody needs to refuse to participate in this witch hunt and offer Bora a decent job with full benefits. Monica Byrne and Kathleen Raven need to grow up, admit their lies, and publicly apologize. Bora deserves the restoration of his life, his work, and his good name.
Ccziv at July 2, 2015 11:31 AM
To Ccziv,
Similar stories appear regularly in the news nowadays. It is not the fault of any particular indervidual it is the context that is creating this cultural phenomenon.
It is now obvious that many women are willing to sabotage/sacrifice their own reputation/careers to destroy the public image and career of a prominent figure.
Due to this phenomenon many top executives and politicians have policies to limit their exposure to women, some refuse to do one on one meetings with them (it has been written about extensively of late).
Justin at July 2, 2015 2:48 PM
OK,whatever, Justin. But did you miss the part where I said MY HUSBAND IS INNOCENT AND MY KIDS ARE HUNGRY?!?!?!
Ccziv at July 2, 2015 5:15 PM
Thanks for standing up to this conning. Great article!
petpanther at July 3, 2015 5:38 AM
Thank you so much, petpanther.
Amy Alkon at July 3, 2015 5:48 AM
Congrats Justin on showing just how immoral and inhumane the social justice movement is.
Just like it's predecessor the moral majority, social justice is neither.
Ben at July 3, 2015 7:30 AM
Justin,
"I argue that it's hypocritical to attack the "social justice warrior" movement for wanting "safe spaces" or "trigger warnings" or being offended by "explicit language..."
I, for one, don't have a problem with safe spaces or trigger warnings per se. It's when the SJW demands everyone else kowtow to their narrow preferences so they can remain 'safe' that it becomes a problem for the public at large. If a particular person cannot handle frank discussion and language? Okay. Higher academia isn't for you then. I can't handle heights, so that effectively eliminates me from a career as a roofer. I don't demand that builders build houses lower to the ground to accommodate my phobia.
"...when the Author is similarly afraid of the unknowable outcome of accommodating the requests of the "social justice warrior" movement."
Restricting speech and language has had a demonstrably negative effect both in history and in modern societies. The outcome is fairly predictable.
Don at July 4, 2015 8:24 AM
Don't feel too sorry for Bora. Here is how much sympathy he had for the young men falsely accused of raping a stripper at the Duke Lacrosse party:
'There was NOBODY good in that case, not the boys, not the girls, not Nifong, not the lawyers, not the University, not the media, not the bloggers, so it is hard to be sympathetic towards any of them, even if one really WANTS to root for one side or another.'
So I guess Bora's getting a taste of his own medicine.
Emilia at November 3, 2015 6:05 AM
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