First of all, sluttish is a loaded word. It is only ever used of females, and MacDonald only uses it of females here.
So the complaint is that Mac Donald uses a word that is used exclusively in relation to women, in relation to women?
“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.
Where is this phantom implication of Mac Donald’s that promiscuity turns rape into non-rape?
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.
To take Jackson’s mugging example from above (far, far above), I can’t imagine that a pamphlet advising white people the steps they can take to protect against muggings, being improved in any way by also criticizing the would-be muggers.
Why should Mac Donald, when she writes about the campus rape industry and its relation to women, include men in the discussion at all? Men’s behavior in this case is a complete non sequiter: other than to make Jackson feel good, I don’t see the point to including it.
Boys will be boys and girls must fit in round this.
Jackson is drawing a conclusion here that is not supported by the evidence. Back to the mugging example – if I were to suggest that not getting drunk in public is a good way to reduce chances of being mugged, it does not follow that I therefore am of the opinion that “muggers will be muggers,” or that their behavior should not be addressed in some way. There may be other avenues for this that I believe are more appropriate and/or effective.
Mac Donald not addressing male behavior may mean any number of things: she may think that male behavior has been addressed adequately elsewhere; or that it is extraneous to the topic of her column. I don’t know, and neither does Jackson.
Double standard. Guilty as charged.
Convicted by evidence that exists only in Mary Jackson’s imagination! The shame!
