“women Are WORSE At Sports Than Men!!!” Is Not Why We Have Women’s Sports

I just saw one of the many ways that rape culture is subtley normalized in media.

I won't say what show I was watching because I don't want any spoilers, but the main character is a shifty guy who's meant to have a good heart regardless, and we're meant to sympathize strongly with him. He tricked a drunk woman into having sex with him by telling her a direct lie about who he was. She woke up horrified at being lied to and he went through his morning routine undisturbed by her outrage or her abrupt departure. The writers try to make it an amusing and light-hearted situation, like, "Boys will be boys! What a scoundrel, how funny, right?"

It isn't funny. It's sexual assault.

Imagine being the sort of "person" who lies to someone in order to get them to sleep with you with the understanding that they wouldn't come near you if you were honest about yourself; knowing that you were subverting their right to be selective about sexual partners and treating them like an object for your use rather than a human being who has the right to decide who has access to their bodies. Yet this is what this man did, and the show just moved on like it was no big deal instead of addressing what it actually was: a sign of a soulless, exploitative sexual predator, and someone no one should be sympathizing with.

There are SO many examples of this. Did anyone ever see those dumbass movies from the early 2000's, Superbad and 40-Year Old Virgin? The former is entirely about two teenage moids trying to get their classmates drunk so they'll be incapacitated enough to have sex with them, fully acknowledging that the girls would regard it as a mistake...

"𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗴𝗶𝗿𝗹𝘀 𝘀𝗮𝘆 '𝗔𝗵 𝗺𝗮𝗻, 𝗜 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝘀𝗼 𝘀𝗵𝗶𝘁-𝗳𝗮𝗰𝗲𝗱 𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗻𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁, 𝗜 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱𝗻'𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗳𝘂𝗰𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗴𝘂𝘆? ' 𝗪𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗯𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲!"

The latter is about a man getting advice as to how to manipulate women into sex, which in one scene involves targeting women who are so inebriated that they're stumbling out of the bar. The men in the movie compare "drunk bitches" to gazelles and themselves to tigers, openly admitting that they're predators.

"𝗔𝗹𝗹 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗴𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗮 𝗱𝗼 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗰𝘁𝘀. 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗱𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗮 𝘁𝗶𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄𝘀 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗹𝗲 𝗮 𝗴𝗮𝘇𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗲? 𝗜𝘁'𝘀 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗻, 𝗶𝘁'𝘀 𝗰𝗼𝗱𝗲 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗗𝗡𝗔, 𝘀𝗮𝘆𝘀 "𝗧𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗮𝘇𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗲." 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗲𝘃𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝗼𝗿 𝗻𝗼𝘁, 𝗶𝗻 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲'𝘀 𝗮 𝗰𝗼𝗱𝗲 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘀𝗮𝘆𝘀 "𝗧𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗹𝗲 𝗱𝗿𝘂𝗻𝗸 𝗯*𝘁𝗰𝗵𝗲𝘀."

This all plants the idea that there is nothing serious about men preying on women; that it's even funny in it's own way. A lot of times, these men even have their happily ever after (or something closely resembling it) with the woman they preyed upon. I'm not even 𝘵𝘳𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 to think of examples and tons of them are crashing down on me. Another is the Breakast Club, where John Bender insulted Claire the entire time, made her cry, attempted to fucking 𝘴𝘦𝘹𝘶𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘶𝘭𝘵 𝘩𝘦𝘳 under the table...

And yet at the end she kisses him multiple times and gives him her diamond earring.

Why? WHY? It makes me want to scream, cry, and vomit! I feel such despair at all of this because it's EVERYWHERE. The message of "Yeah just let men do what they want to you okay, it's normal, dont be such an uptight bitch, it's just what guys do and it's not a big deal" is all over the place and it's no wonder women have such a low standard for decent behavior from males. It's intentional. You have a million shitbag males in movies and shows who you're told to like and to root for while they abuse women who adore them at the end, after all they've done to them. Why would you not believe this is all normal when you're seeing it wherever you turn?

Sometimes it feels like such a huge problem, so all-pervasive, that I just want to throw in the towel. But ALL through my most impressionable years, no one pointed out any of this to me. No one said, "Look at what they're trying to make you believe is normal. Isn't that disgusting and pathetic?" 𝘕𝘰 𝘰𝘯𝘦 talks about it, and I wish someone had! So if even ONE woman becomes more vigilant about the messages she's being fed through these storylines, and the way these situations are portrayed as normal, funny or charming, and these characters as "good guys" when actually they are 𝘴𝘦𝘹𝘶𝘢𝘭 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘴 and NONE of this is normal or okay...

Then it was worth writing a post about.

TRAs criticising a female author: CANCEL JKR I CAN'T BELIEVE I LOVED HARRY POTTER. I'M GETTING MY DEATHLY HALLOWS TATTOO REMOVED AND BURNING THE BOOKS I OWNED! FUCK ANYTHING MADE BY TRANSPHOBES!! ALSO THE PLOT WASN'T THAT GOOD AND THE CHARACTER NAMES ARE SHIT AND SHE'S A RACIST NAZI HOLOCAUST DENIER NAZI NAZI RACIST!!!

TRAs criticising a male author: ...well yeah Hussie wrote the r-word a few dozen times throughout homestuck and they also made Dave say the n-word once but it's ok because we should separate the art from the artist guys... Besides Dave is aracial anyway! Respect Hussie's pronouns please they're nonbinary 🥺 anyway here's an essay about why every character is trans uwu

I think it's interesting how often "femininity" expects women to cover our faces. From the BDSM masks to Muslim women veiling to the expectation that women wear makeup and not our natural faces. I think it's to stop us from empathizing with each other and to mask the inhumanity in how men treat us. So that for onlookers, there's a clear demarcation between "person" and "woman".

can female celebrities keep dressing like this year’s met gala all year? finally the majority of women are not naked and uncomfortable on the red carpet for once, let’s make it a trend

*sees anti sex work sentiment*

*calls it terf bullshit*

These people keep telling us every way but out loud what being trans really is about, because what does sex work have to do with being transgender? hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

one thing i dont think we talk enough about is how pretty much every sex ed resource for lesbian teens tells them they should be open to sex with male partners

i remember being 14/15 and googling how lesbian sex worked and just being confronted with site after site telling me that lesbian sex sometimes includes a penis and it was uninclusive and closed minded to think otherwise :)))

i guarantee you no girl or woman searching for lesbian sex ed resources is looking for advice on how to blow a guy or have piv intercourse, theyre looking for advice about sexual relationships between biologically female partners

i think people underestimate how ashamed and broken it made me and other lesbians feel to read that over and over. after reading those resources i felt so hopeless that i tried to force myself to be asexual because it was the only socially acceptable way to rule out having a male partner

constantly adding these ~helpful reminders~ is like telling lesbians that they just haven't met the right guy yet, and there is no context in which they should forget it

some of these were government affiliated websites insisting that exclusive homosexuality didnt exist, or at the very least that it was unthinkable and unpeakable

its a very impactful and insidious form of homophobia

every time a GNC woman jumps ship and IDs as some category of “not a woman” it feels like she’s thrown her hands up and said “FINE you were right, I was being a woman the wrong way and it’s because I’m NOT one” but it’s celebrated as a victory rather than a crushing defeat for the rest of us who choose not to hide from our own reality. I get wanting to opt out of misogyny, but it’s just not possible...

Current queerness activism is off its rocker and needs an entire overhaul. I couldn't figure it out from the beginning.

"Let them pee!" was pretty good, actually, I did fall for that one, an emotional appeal that people could relate to, but they just couldn't keep the lid on the AGPs hateposting their erections in the ladies rooms and getting their sex crimes splashed all over the internet, all the while insisting that it clearly had never happened and never would, and was paranoid pearl-clutching.

And No Debate? People said that like it was a normal thing to say in political debate, and not a huge red flag.

And using a word as loaded as genocide to describe stroke-of-the-pen lawmaking? Really ill-conceived.

Transphobiaaaaaaaaa! worked for awhile, until there was only one thing left that wasn't transphobic, which was lesbians having sex with men, and now does it mean anything? Other than 'you're not doing what you're told'?

Not just those language problems, either, the academics took the idea public that words about women don't really, on any meaningful level, define anything, and there's nothing about a woman that makes her a woman, and pointed at clownfish and shrugged smugly, like a reproductive capacity of a fish meant that women had been mistaken all along in believing we were women.

And then there was the shitshow of 'bonus hole' and 'non-men attracted to non-men'. That was an own goal. Now WPATH is chucking cis-supremacy around like that means a single thing.

The whole affair has been an utter shambles from start to finish. Just staggering from one PR disaster to another, constantly doubling down, and consistently revealing motives that look pretty indefensible, like begging for blockers and hormones for children, or they will harm themselves, while adult trans identities are valid just by saying so, and that women should participate in sports, contact and otherwise, with men, and be locked up in prison with them.

Queer Theory doesn't care about women, or know anything about women, just like Michael Foucault. It doesn't even respect women enough to answer our questions about seizing our rights.

Back to the drawing board, QT. Maybe get a talking gecko.

It is a deeply anti-female movement, it hates that women talk back, protect their kids, and analyze its ideas. So please keep doing all of that.

Baffling. Madness.