“The wording is not what we should take exception to. It’s the action,” says Fox’s Outnumbered host, Harris Faulkner, “and to say that this is causing the action I think is a little bit of a leap.”
Hand made signs hung on the Sigma Nu Fraternity House at Old Dominion University, and on other frat houses here in the U.S., have people upset. So upset, actually, that the frat house has been suspended by the parent fraternity, who apparently hold their chapters to a higher standard than these Fox News hosts.
What is the action? Sexual assault. Harris was very clear that she is offended about the sexual assaults, and thinks that something should be done about them. However, her opening statements about “Getting our daughters ready for the real world,” seriously challenge the idea that she is offended by the culture these signs promote. Why? Well, according to Harris Faulkner:
Because the real world is that these guys are teens and in their twenties and were probably drunk when they were writing these signs, and they were just having a good time!
So what? Drunk or not they were sober when they saw them later, sober when they were told they were suspended, and soberly creating an atmosphere in which females are either sexually available or unwelcome. This “boys will be boys so we need to lock our girls away” crap is one of the underlying reasons that rapists get away with sexual assaults so often.
The hosts then begin to say that it is a fact of life that girls will go to these parties, hinting they will be assaulted anyway, so it is the universities’ job to avoid liability. The ever-living flatulent ideas of patriarchal idiocy are far too thick. Teach girls to read the damn writing on the wall and make a decision, take control of their choices. Oh, wait, that would mean they were sluts, right? Having sex when they choose and with whom, and saying “no” when they mean it? Heaven forbid we teach our daughters this!
These “boys” and “girls” aren’t kids, they are becoming the men and women that will fill our military, our police forces, our courthouses, our grocery stores, our public transit and bars and basically our whole world. For that reason, I commend the fraternity for expecting more from these young men.
Men are not rapists, though we tend to teach them that if it isn’t a forcible penetration or she was “leading them on” it is acceptable to pressure her or even to just not stop when she says no. Rapists are rapists and they are the ones that benefit from this sexually aggressive and semi-abusive attitude towards women.
These Fox hosts come to the conclusion that the signage getting them shut down is a little too much, I mean it seems they think that since signs don’t rape people then they are not that big a deal. Worse, their joking “convent” and “kitchen” suggestions to keep their own daughters safe are worse than useless when it comes to teaching our kids how to protect themselves, what is acceptable behavior, and how to seek sexual relationships. (Hint: Cloistering is bad, and making this behavior unacceptable is good.) Either way, the attitude of Fox’s so-called “bimbo-squad” continues to contribute to the rape culture that is so prevalent in the U.S.
Featured image via video screen capture
