NY - Male student sues Columbia Univ for 'gender-based harassment and defamation'

[Nova]

For those who question whether the Mattress Project is really art (and I'm not sure I disagree with them), here is the HuffPo's list of the 15 "Best" Works of art of 2014 (and, yes, the MP is one of them):

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/16/best-art-exhibitions-2014_n_6329480.html

 

[jjenny]

A link discussing the "rape video" Mattress Girl made. I'm still trying to figure out what she was trying to accomplish. Supposedly, "She posted the video claiming if you watch it you are making yourself party to her rape."

WARNING: there are a few, sexually graphic photos from the video:

http://www.wwtdd.com/2015/06/mattress-girl-moves-on-to-staging-rapes/


The link above contains a link to the MG's actual posting, including the video. I didn't watch the video (I was too busy trying to parse her logic that it is okay for her to post it, but I am culpable in her rape if I watch it!), but I'm guessing it isn't a link WS wants here. So I've pointed the way to a link, but I'll refrain from linking directly.

Note: the title of her short film, Ceci n'est pas un viol, means "This is not a rape".

Since she voluntarily posted the video, which she claims is consensual, how could somebody who watches it, be a party to her rape? I can't figure out this type of mind games.

 

[sonjay]

Since she voluntarily posted the video, which she claims is consensual, how could somebody who watches it, be a party to her rape? I can't figure out this type of mind games.

Better err on the side of caution and refrain from watching it. If you watch it, she'll be accusing you in court next. Accessory to rape.

She needs help.

 

[Nova]

That's not why I didn't watch it, sonjay, and I know you're kidding. But who knows what the future hold in terms of the law on this subject?

(Myself, I am gay and I abhor violence mixed with sex, so there was nothing in that video for me.)

 

[Nova]

Since she voluntarily posted the video, which she claims is consensual, how could somebody who watches it, be a party to her rape? I can't figure out this type of mind games.

I'm only guessing, but maybe it's like the argument against : the consumer creates the market.

If so, my response is that if the consumer creates a market for videos of consensual sex, so what?

 

[Nova]

The link I really wanted to include was an editorial by an academic who argues that while colleges need to protect their students, they also need to rethink the idea that women are always victims and men are always perpetrators, simply by virtue of their gender. I believe he was writing in response to Columbia's apparent support of the MP and its creator, despite the fact that due process had cleared the man she was accusing.

I think there's an important point here. We mustn't automatically disbelieve rape victims because they wear tank tops; but neither should we automatically believe them just because they have vaginas.

And do we really want to argue that women are so delicate than an unwanted hug must be a felony. By the same standards I was "sexually assaulted" many, many times back when I was single in the 1970s (and even a few times since then). Honestly, the impact on me was nil.

I SWEAR I am not in the women-should-learn-to-take-a-joke crowd! I'm really not. But if we want to believe--and I do--that women are very much the equal of men in terms of intellect and strength of character, then do we also want to put forth the idea that women are so fragile they need legal protection from a crude and unwanted caress?

Before the deluge begins, I realize that for every complaint about an unwanted hug, there are even more women who are victims of forced penetration and never even report it. I am not minimizing the danger of the college environment for young women. But I think we trivialize sexual assault by defining it too broadly and thereby risk trivializing rape as well.