#NotAllMen. Really?
The opposite of #NotAllMen is NOT that every single adult male out there is a rapist or sex pest or misogynist. To call out the inherent bullshit of that particular hashtag/movement/insecure cry is not to say that all men should be treated like would-be criminals. The opposite of #NotAllMen is all women.
All women are currently unsafe and unsupported by a society that mocks and attacks them for speaking out. The safety and well-being of all women should be the prime focus of any discussion about rape or sexual assault, not the collective victim complex of men who fear that feminism has gone too far.
The abhorrent treatment of Dr Christine Blasey Ford following her testimony to the US Senate judiciary committee last week brings into stark focus the way in which all women who have somehow found the courage to publicly speak out about sexual assault are treated like fair game for all to humiliate and vilify.
The bare-faced cheek of some to question why Ford didn’t come forward sooner in the midst of the shit that she is now facing is staggering. A clearly nervous but brave woman summoned up untold reserves of fortitude to recount a deeply traumatic event in her life and for what personal gain?
There is a warped belief that every woman who speaks out about their abuse does so with some ulterior motive pertaining to notoriety or fame. Why the fuck would anyone puts themselves through such insane levels of personal abuse and character assassination out of choice? No one ever wins.
Ford has had her voice mocked, the legitimacy of her hearing angrily derided, her testimony undermined by a fake conspiracy theories about mistaken identity, and faced the utterly vile but sadly common slur that she is somehow too unattractive to be sexually violated – with the use of an image that is not her.
Lanny Lancaster, Cabarrus County GOP chairman, should be removed from office. He is a deplorable individual. #SMH https://t.co/uFT4XvEcAA
— jatovi (@jatovi) October 3, 2018
And then there’s Donald fucking Trump.
Forget acting in a manner that is becoming of his office, the President of the United States behaved with sub-human contempt when, in front of a cheering and mocking crowd, he cruelly imitated Ford as a vague and untrustworthy witness. The sickening characterisation was both spitefully nasty and wholly inaccurate.
President Trump mocks Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused Trump's Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct, during a rally in Mississippi. https://t.co/4izdM9eY4U (corrected) pic.twitter.com/EkKzc3ErOI
— NBC News (@NBCNews) October 3, 2018
This is after he claimed that it’s a “very scary time for young men in America”, and before insisting that Brett Kavanaugh is the innocent target of an evil plot. Trump was essentially adding credence and legitimacy to the #NotAllMen victim complex – the perversely nonsensical notion that men are under attack instead of women.
It’s a bit like the pathetic #AllLivesMatter response to #BlackLivesMatter – a grossly disingenuous attempt to undermine a minority’s demands to exist free from attack and persecution, by diluting it into a meaningless generalisation. Both of the false causes of #NotAllMen and #AllLivesMatter are designed to maintain the status quo.
The opposite of #NotAllMen is all women. Allowing half the fucking population of the world to be free from sexual attack, crippling inequality, and daily humiliation. If you really want to state the case that it’s ‘not all men’ – that you and others aren’t horrible cunts intent on undermining women at every turn – shut the fuck up and live it, don’t say it.
