Content note: this post discusses rape culture, rape apologism and physical violence
In case you didn’t know, a woman called Tabitha Brubaker is in jail for having taken action against a man who, day after day, for months, stood around holding a sign encouraging rape. You can donate to her legal fees for taking this drastic action, because she should not be punished for this.
Predictably, men who have been conspicuously silent on other men encouraging and enabling rape, have suddenly gone all pacifist and think that hitting people is wrong.
Well yes. Hitting people is wrong. But do you know what else is wrong? Encouraging rape. Threatening to rape. Enabling rape.
Holding up a sign saying “You deserve rape” is a direct threat to all women. A physical intervention is not just an act of self-defence, but an act to defend all women.
I’d honestly rather we lived in a world where nobody smacked anybody with a baseball bat. Unfortunately, we do not yet live in this world. Rape is a fact of life. It is something that happens to far too many women, and something all other women fear. It is frighteningly common, and so entirely ingrained that men can literally hold placards stating their intention to rape while other men leap to their defence. A man encouraging rape is not even seen as inciting violence, but that is exactly what is happening. Rape is an act of violence, and yet defending oneself against it is the violence that men get their knickers in a twist over.
If you don’t want to see a man threatening rape getting whacked with a baseball bat, there is an incredibly simple solution: stop his violence. Intervene before it gets to that point. Make it so that his threat of violence, his encouragement of rape, is so completely acceptable that he fucks off. Snatch his sign from his hands and shout and scream over him. Involve the auth-
Oh wait. When hate speech happens, the law tends to sit around with its thumb right up its arse. When men make violent threats, the law does not give a tiny little rabbit dropping. Is it any surprise, then, that those affected are having to take matters into their own hands?
The law, completely and utterly disinterested when a man is helping out rapists, suddenly comes to life when a victim of his violences takes defensive action. The law protects rapists at the expense of those who think rape is wrong. This is why it is so imperative that we help this brave woman with her legal fees: the state would sooner help out men who would rape.
None of this needed to happen, if men were anywhere near as offended by rape and rape enablers than they are by one getting hit. There is no moral high ground when we have already been dragged down so low. The only way to prevent rape enablers getting beaten with baseball bats is to prevent rape enablers themselves.
Another angry woman 
Really encouraging
When I saw this news pop into my Facebook feed, the top comment was “Well, he was asking for it.” Pretty clever, right? The whole point of the comment was to ironically subvert the common trope surrounding rape victims. In other words, the commenter didn’t really mean that he was “asking for it”, because it is no more possible to “deserve assault” than it is possible to “deserve rape”, like in the guy’s sign. Violence is not something that is “deserved”; at best, it is something that becomes necessary when people are in danger and there is no other option. In one short sentence, the commenter made a very powerful refutation of the guy’s notions about “deserving rape.”
^^^^^^ BUT THEN HERE COMES THIS FOOL ^^^^^^
Seriously, I know that an anarchist’s conception of “justice” usually reduces to “ill bash ye fookin ead in m8, sware on me mum”, but, when it comes to talking about rape culture, can you temporarily set aside your anarchist street violence fetish? Pretty please? For me?
Can you stop your fellow men raping? Because we kind of need that before we can stop defending ourselves against it. Pretty please? For me?
Yep, sure thing. Next time I get an opportunity to literally stop someone from raping, which is totally something that happens all the time for your average guy, I will stop it.
Now that I’ve made that pledge, do you promise to beg my case before the People’s Revolutionary Committee, so they don’t line me up and shoot me along with the rest of the pigs and capitalists when the revolution comes?
lol dude, sounds like you’ve enabled lots of rapists if you think you’ve never encountered any, and don’t know what an anarchist is. Hope “Phillip Andrews” isn’t your real name.
Rape has become such a huge thing in our generation nowadays and the worst part is that when a woman gets raped men like to use the excuse “Boys get raped too” which is quite stupid, you can only acknowledge someone’s trauma to silence someone else trauma. It is stupid, or how people will say some females ask for it based on their outfits? Like Seriously that bull. If males see females as sex objects then that’s the man’s problem and he should face the consequences. Rape must be stopped immediately also for our future generation.
Technical comment: “Make it so that his threat of violence, his encouragement of rape, is so completely acceptable that he fucks off.” should say “unacceptable”.
I donated to the legal fund.
Hey, I live in Brazil and I want to share with you a recent history that happened here. A girl in a party, She drunk too much and She was using little cloths. Then She was rapped. For 33 guys.
I just needed to share this case , because the impunity here will not make these guys pay for what they did .
I’m enjoying your site a lot so far 💛 thanks
“Rape is an act of violence” This is seriously so fundamental and basic that it is extremely painful when people don’t understand that. As if rape can be put in its own category that is exempt from violence-no. Rape is inherently violent. Thanks for speaking up.