An Observation

[Trigger warning for rape culture.]

Elsewhere on the internetz yesterday, I stumbled quite unfortunately upon yet another thread of gentleman—and, by my count, two Exceptional Women assuring them that they were right—complaining bitterly about the INJUSTICE!!!!!eleventy!!1! of feminist bitchez who "profile" men who are strangers to them and assume them to be potential rapists in certain situations, like the proverbial deserted parking garage.

There is a distinction to be made between "assuming a strange man to be a potential rapist," which implies a sort of malice, and "acknowledging the reality that many men are rapists and none of them wear HELLO MY NAME IS RAPIST stickers."

image of a tag reading HELLO MY NAME IS RAPIST

But setting aside discussions of nuance unappreciated by people determined to be aggrieved, the observation I wanted to make is this: If there are men who are annoyed by the fact that women to whom they are unknown may be needlessly cautious around them, and it makes them feel bad, perhaps instead of taking it up with the women who are working to dismantle the rape culture, they should direct their ire at the approximately 12% of men (pdf) who have, by their own admission, committed sexual assault or rape against at least one woman.

They are the ones who necessitate our suspicion.

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