I just recently had the very dubious honor of a CBS News affiliate doing a hit piece on my recent essay, Patriarchy for Dummies.
Well, I say “hit piece,” but I actually found it reminiscent of the scene in the old movie Cat Ballou, when an old and drunken Lee Marvin, sitting atop an equally aging and intoxicated horse, took aim at a barn with his six shooter, fired- and actually missed it.
The broad side, that is.
The critique, penned by someone who didn’t bother to post a byline, was that bad, and that off the mark.
Whoever it was used the shopworn “Blame the Victim” allegation, and gave an apt demonstration why such over used charges are losing their effect with thinking people.
They intoned that my questioning the judgment of a young woman who would go into a hotel room alone with Joran van der Sloot was somehow burdening her with the responsibility for her own death. I scratched my head a lot while reading the piece, trying to figure out just how they came to that conclusion, and was still a tad bemused later when I came upon a comment on the matter by our good friend Mr. Snark over at The Spearhead.
This was his take on the CBS piece:
The ‘victim blaming’ shaming tactic is really old. YAWN
Serial Killer: Hello Ladies. I am a man who likes to disembowel and torture women to death when they get close to me. How are you doing today?
Woman: OMG! You are so, like, totally awesome! Coffee?
*The next morning*
Coroner: This women appears to have been disemboweled and tortured to death.
PAUL ELAM: If she hadn’t gone with that obvious serial killer-
FEMINISTS: BLAMING THE VICTIM BLAMING THE VICTIM BLAMING THE VICTIM BURN HIM! BUUURRRNN HIIIMMMM!
I always liked ending my confusion with a little laughter.
But the point Snark makes is valid. And in his comedic little melodrama for The Spearhead, he could have interchanged the word “feminists” with the word “media,” or the words “public opinion,” because thanks to the feminists and the media, public opinion has largely reduced itself to the herd mentality of a bunch of consumer zombies that have to wait for Sean Hannity or Al Franken to tell them what they think.
And one of the things they think for sure is “Don’t Blame the Victim!”
Oh, Gawd no!
Not even if it might keep young women from being murdered.
And that’s the greater problem here. Human beings have some very dark problems. Some of them indeed are tied to our sexuality and our innate biological drives. Female attraction to dangerous men is one of them.
Female attraction to dangerous men is a big one.
But as long as anyone gets the bums rush for daring to take a candid look at the problem, we will never be able to even entertain the idea of valid solutions. We will remain completely oblivious to what Lincoln called “The darker angels of our nature.”
Should we try to understand the nature of dangerous men? Of course. We will do a lot of that here as a matter of fact, only not in packaged neat little PC bundles that you can squeeze between Viagra commercials in a 30 second sound bite. I have no female centric sponsors to please here so anything reasonable is on the table.
But we damned well better be willing to take a look at the real problems of women as well, including their own propensity to give and receive harm. I have never made it a secret that I am no fan of what western women have become, but despite the television induced hysterical reaction of the occasional nitwit that wanders in here, it genuinely matters to me that they don’t come to harm.
I am not so sure about CBS.
Tags: Culture, Feminism, Mainstream Media, Miscellaneous, Patriarchy
440 Posts in Total 
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4thtroika:
Roderick1268:
db917:
FarmCat:
blueface:
Well, you should have expected it knowing that feminist jurisprudence is based on “don’t blame the victim”, where the victim is always a woman. Also that the mainstream media is inhabited with female biased chauvenists and eunuchs. The internet and imminent demise of the mainstream media are positive developments for MRAs.
The main stream media must DIE.
I’m not surprised by this. Getting feminists (like the freak at CBS surely is) to acknowledge that women should take responsibility for their behavior will always be a Bridge too Far I’m afraid. I’m glad they at least looked at your piece at MND though.
How dare you even consider the possible responsibilities of a woman… ANY WOMAN Paul!
These idgits seem to imply that you are the president of the Van der Sloot fan club.
To your room! No dinner!
TMOTS
Always good read your essays Paul.
Back before we all found out that Crystal Gale Mangum was a liar, I mentioned on a “conservative” blog that it is never a good idea for a woman to attend a party with drunken frat boys. I got the same treatment as Paul. I never visited that blog again. So I’ll say it here: If you careen down a mountain road at 80 miles an hour, you don’t deserve to die, but you probably will; if you go to a party with drunken frat boys (except the apparently well-behaved drunken frat boys of the Duke lacrosse team), you don’t deserve to get raped, but good God, don’t go!
“Don’t blame the victim” is one of the most misunderstood and misrepresented concepts in the feminist vernacular. It is commonly used as a straw man to derail discussion of relevent, but uncomfortable issues concerning rape and DV.
“Blaming the victim” means placing unfair responsibility upon the victim for the crime committed against her/him while deflecting responsibility away from the perpetrator. Stating that a young woman knowingly entered a hotel room with a man who could be a serial killer as a reason explaining in part why she ended up dead the next morning is not “blaming the victim.” It is neither unfair to her, nor does it deflect responsibility for the crime away from the alleged perpetrator. It does, however, help to explain how and why the crime happened and can be used to help others from becoming victims.
TDOM
I totally agree with you Paul…it amazes me how females love the bad boy but will persecute all men for their own impulsive behavior. They dont seem to understand that they basically saying they are incapable of higher thought processes. Every human being is responsible for their own actions or they cease to be a human being……unless they’re mentally retarded or mentally ill
As a woman, I’ve seen women do this more than what you can believe. Going with guys you KNOW are assholes and then end up dead. There are many girl pals that have gone with guys that are not good for them, yet down the road will end up blaming all men for the one asshole that she chose to be with.
While I agree that what happened is horrible, she did have some fault to having that happen. She knew that he wasn’t exactly a good person to be hanging out with but went with him anyway.
Feminists can’t accept that there are some stupid shit girls. You don’t see them defending stupid guys that fall for bridezillas or violent women.
It’s idiots like this that make the rest of us women look like raving lunatics.
For an attempted hit piece, that CBS article was pathetic, I know that taking comments out of context is part of the strategy, but that article is so obvious about it that only the sheeple or feminists might believe it,(which is the only part that worries me). I second all motions advocating the demise of the main stream media in fact, it cant happen fast enough for me!
Off topic but interesting.
http://media.theage.com.au/national/national-news/charged-mother-prostituted-daughter-1719583.html
Also topic but interesting.
Rape charges dropped after deleted messages recovered from iPhone
http://www.theage.com.au/digital-life/mobiles/rape-charges-dropped-after-deleted-messages-recovered–from-iphone-20100727-10ueq.html?autostart=1
Criticised by CBS eh, you really hit the big time now
Whilst a man who goes down a dark alley at night is partly responsible for being mugged, alongside all the social and biological pressures that made him ignorant or uncaring of the danger, and the people who perform the crime the kind who would do such a thing, but he doesn’t have any moral fault for going down it, that behavior is harmless unlike that of the criminals which require remediation and deterrent. Rarely is it correct to rest responsibility for an event on one person’s shoulders, and to minimize harm happening again we have to tell men not to go down that alley at night, but it seems more worth our while to focus on the people doing the unusual, harmful behavior, and the causes of that. When there are such obvious political consequences for mentioning something like this, i’m blind to why you did. A future wife beater or rapist are not always that obvious, nor are muggers.
Off-topic: Ever notice how it takes two to get a woman pregnant
But only one to destroy a life before it’s born?
To be honest, I’m only pro-life to make feminists angry. That’s the entire reason for my position.
@ Snark
It is the same deal at child support time. When it comes to the child, she get’s it because she is the mother, and so she makes nearly every major decision about the child. But when she wants money, it is “His child and his responsibility.”
Ahem.
@ NAKIA
Really? So them posting an article of a girl who has had sex with 1000 people is more acceptable than what Paul wrote? I’m not buying it.
I dont like what western women have become either. I saw photographs and read about what women used to be like. Sorry if its wrong to think that if im busting my ass in 117 degree weather that I should come home to a clean house and dinner. Women want men to sacrifice more and more while excepting lrss and less responsibility. At this point there are entire divisions of women that do nothing but lay on their back and spend money. Dont even try to deny it fems: i have seen it in person!
YEAH!!! SEE WHAT I MEEN ABOUT AUSTRALIAN WOMEN!!! FUCKING BITCHES MAKE AMERICAN WOMEN LOOK LIKE PUSSY-CATS!!
YEAH I’M REFERRING TO::
http://www.theage.com.au/digital-life/mobiles/rape-charges-dropped-after-deleted-messages-recovered–from-iphone-20100727-10ueq.html?autostart=1
My brother taught me that life isn’t fair even to people who’ve done nothing to merit what happens to them. And feminists are saying that what happens to the (female) victims are not their fault, hm such a convenient excuse to not take responsibly for their actions.
Many AU women are really starting to agree with the MRA message in my age group, the ones with sons mostly.
But still many of them are crazy, no doubt.
BTW many are single and childless in their mid 30′s right now, I suspect they will stay that way.
“”Feminists can’t accept that there are some stupid shit girls. You don’t see them defending stupid guys that fall for bridezillas or violent women.
It’s idiots like this that make the rest of us women look like raving lunatics.”"
Haute, unfortunately you’re right. Right now I feel sorry for women, because when the backlash happens (and its coming), a lot of innocent, very good women will end up punished for no fault of their own. I believe most women are good, but the bad ones have made life such a living night-mare for men, that there will be a “rude awakening”, and when it happens, most men will swing the pendulum too far, and want nothing to do with women, refuse to date women, and show no empathy or compassion.
In essence, a lot of guys will swing from ass-licking white-knights to misogynists. So… yeah… I don’t know what to think about it. I guess the good women should have started speaking out earlier and defending men earlier. Now its too late… Sad to say it, but its inevitable, the backlash will be huge.
“Unnamed CBS News Affiliate writer”
hehehehe