Oh, I think the email is a joke. It's a sick sexist joke, but an idiot college kid joke nonetheless. The year after I graduated, some students found a dead raccoon in the woods and nailed it to a cross in a mock-crucifixion IN THE DORM LIVING ROOM and left it there. Other students were understandably upset, but the crucifying students thought it was hilarious.

ETA: I think it reveals his contempt for women, but I don't think he was planning murder.

I just don't see how saying that it's men that are to blame helps the situation at all.

I don't say that. I know a lot of great men in my family, and I know a lot of great guys on this board. But I also think there's a segment of the culture that encourages men to think of women as property, as unequal, as objects, and not as people.

It doesn't mean every man in the world or the US or the South thinks that way. But I do think it exists.

But do you really think they assaulted the woman in question because they're men?

I think they assaulted the person because she is a woman.

Oh, I think the email is a joke.

Oh, most definitely. A case of 'know your audience' is at work here I think. He's an idiot. An unfunny idiot.

there's the unmistakable sense that McFadyen certainly didn't think of the woman as human -- I mean, he said he was going to kill her.

Not to excuse him, but I didn't take his comments about killing and skinning strippers at face value but simply purposefully outrageous. Your basic fratboy rapist isn't really Ed Gein, but he would certainly say the most demeaning or shocking thing he could about women. That would have some currency in his culture, indicating that he's not some pussywhipped PC girlyman.

In sum: thoroughly loathsome rapist but of the stupid braggy type, rather than the insane serial killer stripe.

xpost with Scrappy the Wise.

Every time I start to post something, I click "refresh" first and find that Dana has said it, only more concisely and eloquently.

Absolutely. I'm just saying that if the friend got charged, Ransone really needs to get charged, even though the surface of the story is more white-knight and saviourly.

Yep. I don't actually think your friend should have been charged, based on what you've said, but that's a different story.

Every time I start to post something, I click "refresh" first and find that Dana has said it, only more concisely and eloquently.

t preens

A case of 'know your audience' is at work here I think. He's an idiot. An unfunny idiot.

"Idiot" is the kind of word I reserve for people who aren't also rapists. Something a bit stronger is in order here, I think.

I do think they assaulted her because she's a woman.

That's a different question, though. Subhuman assholes like this don't even deserve to be called men, let alone define how I feel about half the species.

And, I think this may be the crux of the discussion. We have one group looking at this from the perpetrator side (subhumans) and others looking at it from the victim's side (women--mostly).

Is this a gendered problem from the subhuman side? No. Not all subhumans are men and not all men are subhumans.

Is this a gendered problem from the victim's side? I say yes because the victims are usually women. Should it be is another question. And, no, it shouldn't be. It should be a human problem, but it realistically isn't.