You Can't Escape "Rape Culture" -- Even If There Are Barely Any Men On Campus
Women at St. Catherine University demonstrated against the "rape culture" there -- despite how 97 percent of the undergrads are women, according to the Star Trib story by Maura Lerner:
St. Catherine University has cut ties with an event organizer, Heartland Inc., after protesters accused both the school and the company's owners of being insensitive to rape survivors....The furor began on June 10, when Heartland held a seminar on women in leadership at St. Catherine.
That morning, a woman named Sarah Super led a small group of protesters on the edge of campus, drawing attention to the rape case involving the Neals' son, Alec. Super, 27, has publicly identified herself as the woman raped at knife point by Neal, who pleaded guilty last year and is serving a 12-year-prison term.
This is not rape culture -- where there's some encouraging and condoning of rape.
This is justice in action -- rape being treated as any decent, civilized, rational, mentally healthy person sees it: As a terrible crime.
What this really involved was campus organizers noticing that they could get some attention, vis a vis the protests of the Brock Turner case -- which is remarkably unsimilar to this one, save for how there was a sexual assault underlying:
"Turner's family rallied around Brock in ways that are pretty similar to my perpetrator's family," said Super. She criticized, in particular, a letter-writing campaign attesting to Alec Neal's character before his sentencing. Her goal, she said, was to show how that affects victims. "Brock Turner's case lit the flame for the conversation."The Neals, though, say they never attempted to minimize their son's crime. "We are heartbroken over the suffering Sarah has experienced," they wrote. "There wasn't a single letter that suggested Alec shouldn't be held accountable for his actions or that expressed anything but compassion and concern for Sarah."
Once again, this is a case of people seizing power by claiming there's been an injustice done -- and never mind whether one actually exists (beyond the rape itself, of course). They're talking about a culture of injustice that just isn't reflected here:
Heartland's supporters, meanwhile, have leapt to the Neals' defense. Jina Penn-Tracy, a Minneapolis investment adviser who has attended their workshops, wrote on Facebook: "I am very sorry for what Sarah suffered, but as a multiple rape survivor, I object to the families of offenders being targeted for attack and boycott ... This is not justice, but vendetta."In an interview, Penn-Tracy, 48, said she understands Super's anger, "but attacking their business, trying to drive them out of business, is an aggression, and I don't think it's going to bring healing."
Patricia Weaver Francisco, a Hamline University professor who has written a memoir of her own rape and recovery, said it's unfair to compare the Neals to the Stanford case, where the perpetrator's family seemed dismissive of the crime. In his most controversial remark, Turner's father stated that jail time would be a "steep price to pay for 20 minutes of action."
The Neals, by contrast, are "deeply thoughtful and caring people" who were "devastated for Sarah," said Francisco. "I've literally never heard them say a thing about Sarah that is anything other than concern."
Here's real rape culture:
If You're Raped In A Muslim Country, You're Guilty Of "Adultery" This Dutch woman, a rape victim when she was in Qatar, made the mistake of reporting her rape to authorities, which means she confessed to committing a crime (under Islam).Yes, being raped is a crime under Islam -- unless you are a woman captured by Muslim soldiers, in which case, they get to do what they want with you.
via @instapundit
Hello? Where are all of you today?
Amy Alkon at June 18, 2016 12:09 PM
We're pondering what sort of guys attend a basically all-girls college??
momof4 at June 18, 2016 12:41 PM
Cleaning carpets, visiting my mom, hosing down dogs, cooking burgers,and now having a quiet time.
Bob in texas at June 18, 2016 12:43 PM
From the the university's website: In fall 1937, St. Kate’s became the first Catholic college or University in the United States,
So St. Kate's (or, as everyone called it when I was growing up in the Twin Cities, St. Catherine's) is a Christian university. From what I recall from being raised Lutheran, it's Christian/Christ-like to extend compassion and mercy to an offender. After all, according to the story as told in the gospels, Christ himself asked for forgiveness for those who were crucifying him.
Seems to me that, instead of apologizing for the initial statement, Sister Lee could have reminded Sarah Super and the other protesters of this.
A couple of side notes regarding St. Catherine's..
. It has a beautiful campus and, as I recall, has won awards for the landscaping.
. Back in the summer of '99, on one of my trips home to visit my parents and brothers, I was looking through the St. Paul newspaper and discovered that Ann & Nancy Wilson (from Heart) were playing at St. Catherine's O’Shaughnessy Auditorium. I managed to score a single ticket in the second row and it was one of the best concerts I've ever seen. Here are Ann & Nancy doing "Stairway to Heaven" at the Kennedy Center Honors for Led Zeppelin in 2012.
JD at June 18, 2016 12:53 PM
Hello? Where are all of you today?
I normally wouldn't be home on the Saturday morning of Summer Solstice weekend because that's the weekend that the Seattle neighborhood of Fremont has its annual Street Fair. The best part of the fair is the Solstice Parade, and the best part of the parade is the nude-but-body-painted cyclists. The parade always used to be on Saturday morning but, beginning last year, for some reason, they moved it to 3 pm, so I'm leaving for it in a few minutes.
JD at June 18, 2016 1:03 PM
The use of the term "racism" by hoaxers and any minority who wants unearned recognition has devalued that term. Today people are just as likely to roll their eyes and walk away when the term is thrown out at every turn.
In the same way these self-absorbed and bitter feminists are going to dilute the term "rape" through their support for rape hoax claims and their banal charge that any sexual activity is rape.
Jay at June 18, 2016 1:40 PM
Given women commit nearly half of all sexual assaults, and lesbians couples have more domestic violence than any other configuration, I can see why they were protesting.
I dont know why they failed to proclaim they just need to teach women not to rape though
lujlp at June 18, 2016 3:06 PM
Read this to understand what's happening here - http://www.twincities.com/2015/07/27/st-paul-victim-rapist-not-mentally-ill-hes-a-product-of-privilege/
Sarah Super is a SJW wackadoo who dated Alec Neal for a few years. Neal has a history of mental illness and was recently institutionalized. After he got out of the hospital they had a confrontation and he later broke into her home and raped her.
She blames his parents, and men and white people, especially white people who live in affluent suburban areas.
The Neals used to publish Utne Reader, so they're part of the misogynistic power hegemon that makes 'white boys' feel they're entitled to rape, blah de blah blah blah. Also they're racist because all men are racist.
She's an insufferable ideologue whose using this incident to punish his family and rail at white men.
moops at June 18, 2016 4:37 PM
Getting the house ready to sell so I can escape from New York. When I wasn't at work.
MarkD at June 19, 2016 5:34 AM
“Our St. Catherine values of compassion and mercy must extend first, of course, to the victim and her family, but also to the family of the offender and even to the offender himself.”
Yep, a basic Christian principle. Forgive one's trespassers and all that. Admittedly often easier to say than to do. But being difficult to implement doesn't invalidate the principle.
Cousin Dave at June 20, 2016 8:58 AM
Rape culture is nothing more than a big scam to keep the price of abundant pu**y high.
The purpose is to simply scare college men away from taking advantage of their own rarity.
Whenever women are rare, they can get high prices for their vaginas. In other words they get commitment and marriage.
Whenever women are abundant, hookup culture develops and men take advantage.
Rape culture is a play to scare men into committing to one woman in a place where women would be throwing themselves at the few available men. All universities now have way more women than men, so men get their pick (or not).
St kates has 3 men for every 97 women. Any man, without the boogeyman of 'rape culture' can have as much fun without having to commit to anything. He would be stupid to commit. Rape culture makes commitment the safe way to go about things for the rare men.
John at June 20, 2016 11:01 AM
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