Was anyone else outraged by the clerics comments on Question Time last night?

[mrsruffallo]

All the blame was focused on the victims involved in the recently reported grooming case. Apparently the way the girls were dressed and the fact they were out at night was the causen for them being repeatedly gang raped.
And what on earth were the comments about 'having sex for a packet of crisps'??
I am appalled.

Chairman, I do see your point, I really do, but it's really hard to find the right language. To say "will all rapists stop raping" is to deny the gender bias, and the gender bias is important, because there is something going wrong in extreme male culture that needs to be looked at.

To degenderize it it to fail to tackle that aspect.

As for the women nagging bit, my DS asks me that all the time! I tell him I'll stop nagging when he makes his bed and does his homework!!

sorry about that, i just feel that i was treated like i had said something like that.

chairman - fwiw, it's really easy to think there is a 'personal' agenda against you/we as males when sexual assaults are discussed. There isn't, unless you 'support' asaults. Otherwise it's a protest against males incidence of sexual offending. Nothing more, and certainly not about you specifically.

on the one hand i am expected to accept that male privilege has played a part in my life , allthough i dont sit on a board or in goverment and my life feels far from privilegde , on the other i'm expected to accept collective responability for what other male criminals do with their penises.

Dione, that there was any support for a convicted rapist is wrong.

I fucking despise men to get arsey about rapist being men.

In england and wales, they can't be anything else.

But we're not allowed to even say it.

WTF is that about. Dissociation? There's no need. This is the feminist section, we already know that not all men are rapists. You need to go over to relationships or AIBU to talk to the women who don't know that.

i dont know who this footbaler is but why the media and twitter would defame the victim is totaly beyond me , does he score alot of goals or something? is he the darling of the football supporters so the press have an interest in his side?

stop whining about yourself, meow. this is not about you.

I understand that Messy, but to describe any support as "overwhelming support" is wrong.

Raoul Moat had support, it was by no means overwhelming support. To insinuate so would be wrong.

ohh basil, of course rapists are men
and of course i get defensive when someone makes out that all men are rapists , that makes me feel guilty by default even though i have done no wrong.

what do you mean england and wales? are there other sorts of rapists than men in ireland and scotland?

Sorry, Dione, who are you quoting?

#yesstopwhiningchairman

As you may tell I have recently discovered the power of the twitter hashtag...

could this trend?

reactionary fish, your just rude and here to stir shit!

Oh, OK, found it.

I'd say the victim probably found it pretty overwhelming.

you too pan, it's not your sensibilities that are offended so it doesnt matter, and it's whinning, of course i'm sure you suffer in silence when you do feel offended!

sorry chairman, you've lost my patience. Best wishes.

Chairman, I don't know about your life personally so I couldn't tell you what you have benefited from, but I'm sooo not asking you to take collective responsibility for men at all.

I'm just asking you, very nicely , to do what you can as a man to speak out against rape culture; call out your colleagues, friends if they make objectifying remarks , bring up your kids to not see sex as something men do to women, teach them about consent, that kind of thing. When we do it, people just roll their eyes at the mad rad fem, when you do it, someone might listen.

Which I'm pretty sure you do already cos well, you're here discussing it and you obviously have a conscience. So we're not against you, can I hammer that into your head please?! In a very non violent kind of way!

in the context of what we are discussing here, no, your offended sensibilities do not bloody matter.

I was quoting Messy, who said that there was "overwhelming public support" for the footballer.

Yelp! Don't quote me - I'm not ready to be famous ok ok ok I retract to "a lot of public support and general nastiness!" am I gonna be hauled up before a committee?!!

I don.tt know about the law on rape in scotland and ireland, Chairman. in some states of america, rape is penetration with a penis or other object, so women can be rapists. in england and wales, rape is penetration by a penis, so by definition can only be perpetrated by men.

Just watched QT on iPlayer. What I found quite interesting was the reaction of the panel and audience when the vicar was speaking and appeared to be blaming the victims - people were squirming and clearly very uncomfortable (and Dimbleby intervened, for once). Which is good, I guess, to an extent. But blimey, weren't they all desperately trying to pretend it had nothing to do with race. Fact is, for these offenders, they saw those girls as 'other', as a group of people who were worthless and who they could exploit - and race is an issue there. As anyone who has experienced street harassment in certain areas of inner cities will know. There are plenty of shitty men of all races, btw, but we have to be able to challenge all of them, not look away because some of them are Muslim.

"Fact is, for these offenders, they saw those girls as 'other', as a group of people who were worthless and who they could exploit - and race is an issue there."

Couldn't agree more Edam. "Othering" is the essence of victim blaming: pretending that it wouldn't happen to a decent person. Sometimes I think that's why some women are quick to join in the victim blaming, as a way of mentally telling themselves that it couldn't happen to them....

Nothing will sexualise a child like being targeted by paedophiles. Does much more damage than wearing a short skirt.

It is not safeguarding youngsters enough to say they can wear exactly what they want, which could be something they've just seen on a pop video. Telling them how to dress appropriately is as important as telling them to not walk home alone/ avoid certain areas, keep in touch etc..

WTF?

A woman / girl is much more likley to be raped by someone she knows and to be wearing jeans and a T shirt prior to the attack.