There's a new meme trending in the social mediaverse. #HIMTOO was started by people who fear the greatest threat facing our nation today is "angry feminists" accusing poor innocent (white) men of unspeakable acts.
A story making the rounds, tells of a "brave" Navy mom who is proud of her son, #1 in his boot camp we are told, who only goes on double dates so he can avoid having an "angry feminist, with an axe to grind, falsely accuse him of rape."
This is rather akin to a new trend among wealthy white fathers having "the talk" with their privileged white sons, warning them not to talk back to police, or even drive through certain neighborhoods, lest they be pulled over and shot dead for "driving while white." Just a note, this never happens.
Yeah, mom, your son is a real hero for not putting himself in a position to be cruelly taken advantage of by some rando girl with a feminist grudge, and all of her lying friends, too. The fact that girls have spent generations avoiding being alone with boys, often using the double date ploy, along with dozens of other tactics, to avoid being violently raped by their "boyfriends," and all their buddies, too, seems to fly way over this "concerned" mom's head.
There ya go mom, now you know what it's like to have a daughter.
#HIMTOO is a vile insult to women, true, but also little more the usual sort of participation trophy white guys always award themselves for showing up and doing the absolute bare minimum. Woohoo guys, you managed to go on a date without drugging your date, raping her, and tossing her unconscious body into a dumpster! Way to go, Real Man!
Quick, gimme your man card so I can punch it. Ten dates and no rapes means you get the Brett Kavanaugh bobble head doll that screams, "I like beer!" when you rattle it only slightly.
Trevor Noah has recently put this in perspective. He notes that something like 100 prominent men have been accused of sexual assault over the last few years; men like Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein, and Charlie Rose. All these men are undeniably guilty. All of them have committed unspeakable acts of abuse and assault. Yet the #HIMTOO folks are convinced that this is evidence that "angry feminists" are coming for all men, everywhere. That no man is safe. That it's time to worry about our sons, brothers, and uncles.
- Instances of false rape accusations run at roughly 2-10% of all rape charges. Put another way, 90-98% of all rape charges are true and accurate.
- 20-25% of women in America have been raped. Virtually ALL woman have been sexually harassed, cat called, stalked, and/or groped.
- Only 16% of rapes are reported to police.
- Only 25% of reported rapes result in arrest.
- Barely 5% of all rapists will ever spend even one day in jail. Put another way, 95% of all raped women will never see a day of justice for the violent criminal assault perpetrated against them.
- Rape results in emotional trauma that lasts a lifetime. It affects women's relationships, work life, social life, and health. Rape steals a woman's freedom and affects her self-image. Rape destroys lives.
- Women are routinely denied insurance coverage for therapy after rape because insurance companies (run by men) deem it "unnecessary." Insurance companies typically deny medical coverage for women who are raped a second time because they consider having been raped the first time to be a "preexisting condition."
And yet the #HIMTOO people would have us believe greatest threat this nation faces is the prospect that some man might have his "life destroyed" by being "falsely accused of rape."
Not a single tear shed by these people for the millions of women whose lives actually HAVE been affected and even destroyed by rape. Not one. Not. One.
It does raise the question of, what are these men really afraid of? If someone ran into the room and yelled "They're coming to arrest all the Martians!" would you get nervous? What if they ran in and yelled "They're coming to arrest all the people who have stolen office supplies!" It does seem likely most of us would worry a lot more about the second prospect. What does it say that so many men, so many privileged white men, are so TERRIFIED of being "falsely" arrested for being a Martian?
On another note, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and her family are still living in hiding for fear that they will be murdered if they go home, while Trump still vilifies her and implicitly encourages his followers to do her harm. Meanwhile, Brett Kavanugh, credibly accused sexual predator, now has a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court, and Trump (falsely) claims he has been found "innocent," even though no credible investigation has been conducted of the charges against him, and the minimal and fraudulent investigation that was done has been hidden entirely away from the American public.
So whose life is being destroyed, again?