Some Patriarchal Common Sense

[TW: Sexual assault, rape culture, misogyny]

Shorter Heather Macdonald:

Women are incapable of being Navy SEALS because some feminists have objected to a Yale fraternity's chant of "No means yes, and yes means anal!"

Her basic argument is that the fraternity chant is just a "juvenile frat-house prank" designed to provoke and that feminists should just roll their eyes at "the immaturity of boys," buy the brothers Viagra for their alleged "performance problems," or start a "sex boycott" of the frat until the brothers send "every freshman girl roses and chocolates."

Now, how it's rational to give frat guys who chant rape slogans Viagra, I haven't yet figured out. But, of course, we can't really except the apologists of rape culture and patriarchy to be rational, can we? Not when the "logic" behind the apologism often consists of the entitled whine of it's so mean of the feminazis to expect male humans to be civil men instead of boys who forge bonds over sexual violence.

Yes, somebody call the wahhhhmbulance for Macdonald and her bros because the feminists are being so mean and irrational.

It's the classic woman-hating tact, you entitle men to sexual violence and then tell women who criticize that entitlement that their criticism only proves that they're weak, self-absorbed, spoilsports, overly-emotional, and/or frail and thus undeserving of the same rights that men get. But, if women don't criticize male entitlement to sexual violence, then "No means yes, and yes means anal!" remains fixed as society's neutral level of Objective Discourse.

But let's hear it straight from the source. Macdonald writes:

"Anna Holmes [writing in the Washington Post] claims that women are fully capable of the self-abnegating warrior ethos, willing to bear up stoically under crushing physical and mental adversity [of Navy SEAL training]. The Yale fiasco suggests otherwise."

Of course.

Because if some women don't possess, or are deemed by anti-feminists to not possess, the "self-abnegating warrior ethos," then no woman on the planet does. As a class, we women are all pretty much the exact same. (See also, downloading our consciousnesses from the Woman hub).

I mean, really.

Aside from the irrationality, just as a general rule, I know that if I found myself siding with people who were literally advocating rape, I'd probably back up, take a deep breath, and re-think my priorities.