This bullshit's been going around quite a bit this week.
I'm going to take it apart now.
Remember: we’d do well to understand that conservative worry over false accusation is a statement, not about truth, but about power.
I'm going to take it apart now.
Remember: we’d do well to understand that conservative worry over false accusation is a statement, not about truth, but about power.
First, though, let's look at the toxicity of the pitch.
Who should be afraid? Well mothers, of course. We aren't trying to protect *boys.* We're trying to protect *mothers.* This is a *women's* issue.
How scary for women, living in a world where women are believed, how scary.
Who should be afraid? Well mothers, of course. We aren't trying to protect *boys.* We're trying to protect *mothers.* This is a *women's* issue.
How scary for women, living in a world where women are believed, how scary.
Next, who is the danger? Why, girls, of course.
What girls? ANY. ANY girls. At ANY time.
Any girls, of course, but mothers.
Which mothers?
Why, the mothers that matter most.
The mothers of boys.
What girls? ANY. ANY girls. At ANY time.
Any girls, of course, but mothers.
Which mothers?
Why, the mothers that matter most.
The mothers of boys.
Why do the mothers of boys deserve this special concern, this elevation in our eyes?
Because they gave birth to the most special people in our society, of course.
Boys. Boys have lives. Fragile lives. Lives subject to ruin by anything, oh, anything.
Like stories about them.
Because they gave birth to the most special people in our society, of course.
Boys. Boys have lives. Fragile lives. Lives subject to ruin by anything, oh, anything.
Like stories about them.
And what sorts of stories RUIN the fragile lives of boys?
Stories about their behavior. Stories that ANY girl might tell.
Mothers of girls need not worry, it seems. Girls, it seems, have far more durable lives, impervious to damage.
How lucky, how lucky.
Stories about their behavior. Stories that ANY girl might tell.
Mothers of girls need not worry, it seems. Girls, it seems, have far more durable lives, impervious to damage.
How lucky, how lucky.
Let's never forget that what defines our culture, more than anything else, is abuse, and enablement of abuse.
One way you can tell we have a culture of abuse is the number of powerful and influential people who fret so overtly that the greatest danger we face, one we must avoid at all costs, is a culture of accusation.
Remember: we’d do well to understand that conservative worry over false accusation is a statement, not about truth, but about power.
Republicans and Trump aren't actually attacking false accusation. They're re-establishing that accusation itself, whatever its accuracy, is categorically the exclusive property of powerful men.
To people like Trump (by which I mean all Republicans), a victim’s accusation is always a false accusation if the abuser is powerful; not because it's a lie, but because they should have no right to accuse. Their claim to the use of accusation as a tool is, to Trump, a false one.
Thus, false accusation isn't some hazard we create by fighting rape culture. False accusation is *part* of rape culture.
It's a symptom.
Are you worried about false accusation? Really?
Then fight rape culture.
It's a symptom.
Are you worried about false accusation? Really?
Then fight rape culture.
Framing false accusation as a intrinsic danger of taking abuse seriously is a canard.
False accusation is abuse.
The surest way to protect people from false accusations is to create a culture in which victims are believed and abuse is taken seriously.
False accusation is abuse.
The surest way to protect people from false accusations is to create a culture in which victims are believed and abuse is taken seriously.
Mothers of boys, you do indeed live in a terrifying world
It's a world where your boys are being told every day that only they have lives worth fretting over
It's a world where they are told only they matter
It's made many of them into terrible monsters with convincing masks
It's a world where your boys are being told every day that only they have lives worth fretting over
It's a world where they are told only they matter
It's made many of them into terrible monsters with convincing masks
It's made these boys of yours vulnerable to being accused of things they did not do.
Worse, it's made those boys of yours vulnerable to being accused of terrible things that they *did* do.
Worse still, it's made them vulnerable to doing terrible things and getting away with it.
Worse, it's made those boys of yours vulnerable to being accused of terrible things that they *did* do.
Worse still, it's made them vulnerable to doing terrible things and getting away with it.
Mothers of boys, we feel for you. We feel your terror, your fear.
It could be worse, though.
Imagine being the mother of girls.
It could be worse, though.
Imagine being the mother of girls.
And, to put the hypocritical cherry on the mendacious conservative sundae, there's this:
Christine Blasey Ford is a mother.
She's the mother of two sons.
Christine Blasey Ford is a mother.
She's the mother of two sons.
Yes, indeed.
And if we want to keep them safe, we need to fight rape culture, and toxic ideas such as the one in the OP.
The surest way to protect boys is to create a culture in which victims are believed and abuse is taken seriously.
And if we want to keep them safe, we need to fight rape culture, and toxic ideas such as the one in the OP.
The surest way to protect boys is to create a culture in which victims are believed and abuse is taken seriously.
Love doesn’t merely want to hear your sorrow, it wants join you in it.
The impulse that wants you available but silenced calls itself love but isnt; it’s a quite different thing.
The impulse that wants you available but silenced calls itself love but isnt; it’s a quite different thing.
I suspect the big fear is not false accusation, but the idea of facing the probability that an accusation is true.
Astute—and that is actually the entire giveaway. The message isn’t really expressing concern for boys, or mothers of boys. It’s the fathers of boys, aware of their pasts, concerned about themselves, projecting their fears.
