Mike – first of all, sluttish is a loaded word. It is only ever used of females, and MacDonald only uses it of females here. “Thuggish” or “boorish” are not nice words, true, but they do not refer to promiscuity – a promiscuity which for Mac Donald turns rape into non-rape. And men’s “boorishness” is testosterone-fuelled – ie they can’t help themselves, especially when encouraged by “slutty” women.
Second, although Mac Donald uses the word “thuggish” in passing, her advice on avoiding “rape” (which she doesn’t believe happens anyway) is not directed at men at all. There is nowhere – nowhere at all – any hint that men should, or even can, change their behaviour. Boys will be boys and girls must fit in round this.
I do not agree that it follows that Ms. Mac Donald shows any lack of concern for women’s welfare. She repeats the theme of women taking control of and responsibility for their actions, as opposed to the rape industry’s message of women’s helplessness in the face of men’s carnal lusting
Her lack of sympathy cries out from this article. Not once does she even acknowledge that date rate can happen. If girls don’t define their experiences as rape then it isn’t rape. But on the rare occasions that they do, they are lying.
The idea that Mac Donald’s advice “empowers” women is laughable – just as laughable as the idea that the veil empowers Muslim women. Mac Donald’s “control” refers only to women controlling themselves, their urges or the way they dress. If they conform to the Stepford-wifey, cashmere-sweatered “good girl” ideal, then they don’t deserve to be raped. Otherwise they are fair game – in fact it isn’t rape at all.
There isn’t a “mugging industry”, but likewise there isn’t a “campus rape industry” that is actually having any effect. Women aren’t crying rape because of it. It is a straw man. Mac Donald uses the “rape industrialists” as the mouthpiece of her purse-lipped, one-sided disapproval of a “sluttiness” she condemns in women but accepts in men.
To sum up, words denoting promiscuity are used only of women. Advice relating to promiscuous or “slutty” behaviour is given only to women. Men’s behaviour is just the way it is, with a hint that if women didn’t act so slutty, men would respect them more.
Double standard. Guilty as charged.
