They say a picture is worth a thousand words. This is an ad I have seen probably five times now here on Daily Kos:
I took this as a screen shot this evening. I left a little piece of the Kos sidebar to show that yes, it's here.
Let's do a little deconstruction past the orange squiggle.
Admit it
You'd go to Jail for This
Uh-huh.
I'm a guy. As such, I'm a little hesitant to talk about rape. It's not something I carry around with me. I don't live with its threat like women do. But isn't this what this T-shirt is encouraging? (And I'm not even getting into the basic, good-ol' objectification.)
I've got two daughters, 18 and 20 years old. We've taught them to stand up for themselves, to challenge misogyny, to claim their bodies as their own. This is a horrible image, and I'm sad to see it here.
Let me be clear. I don't go to jail for consensual sex. The only way that I go to jail "for this" is through sexual assault.
Rape.
There are two possibilities:
1) I could have consensual sex with this woman, and she's under the age of consent. Therefore not consensual. That used to be called "statutory rape", as opposed to "legitimate rape" or any other flavor of rape you'd like. There are two possibilities under Wisconsin law (I'm living in Wisconsin, YMMV). Either she is 16 or older in which case I'm guilty of a Class A misdemeanor (up to 9 months) or, if she is not yet 16, I'm guilty of a Class C felony (up to 40 years).
2) OK, but she looks like she's 18 to me. I "go to jail" for having sex with her without her consent. Either second or third degree sexual assault under Wisconsin law. I'm facing ten years in prison, more if there was use or threat of force or I got her intoxicated for the purposes of the assault.
I get it. We need to have advertising to keep the site up. I GET IT. But do we have to have this kind of advertising?
(Statement - "Well you ought to subscribe"... I am a subscriber, but under a previous username/persona which I gave up when I was elected to public office, cleared with the powers-that-be. A whole lot of people here, commenters and lurkers, aren't subscribers. Anyone who drops in on this site to see what we're about is not a subscriber. And this is what they see.)