I’ll tell you, the letters section at Salon makes the bile bubble into my throat like so much cheap champagne after a shot of 99 Bananas. I’m constantly blown away by the searing misogyny of apparently Liberal Dudes and am sufficiently saddened to be allied with them in the name of progressive politics. After the Ann Coulter/faggot dust-up, I encountered an admittedly well-written short story in which a clever Liberal Dude, outraged, detailed his fantasty of anally raping Ms. Coulter. I know. “I can’t believe she said faggot! That’s so offensive! I want to anally rape her!” I’m not linking to the story, because: ew, but it was a prime example of the sort of invective that this type of Liberal Dude hurls at women who step out of line. It should go without saying that I’m no fan of Ann Coulter, and it should similarly go without saying that I don’t tolerate sexist douchebaggery, no matter who it’s directed at.
So, while perusing Salon, I read a fascinating piece about sexual assault in the military. Unsurprisingly, female soldiers in Iraq are terrified of being raped by their male colleagues, and some women have even died of dehydration to avoid having to use the latrine at night. It’s an excellent article and worth a read, especially if you’re naive enough to be astonished at the way the military is handling sexual assault cases.
The letters that respond to the article will blow your mind, though. It’s the bitches’ fault for being uppity enough to join the military, don’t you know, and also: well, we gotta rape somethin’! For example:
“it’s a bad situation, some sort of prostitution is needed
you can’t expect some guy to be willing to risk getting killed every day and at the same meekly accept being told he has to go without sex.”
Seriously, buddy. You can’t just expect men to serve in the military without forcing women to fuck them. Talk about inhumane!
“If female soldiers are being rapped as a matter of habit that all but says they’re not fit for service.”
How convenient. The whole raping thing was only a test, Private, and now we know you’re just not fit for military service. Dismissed!
“Every army in history has needed prostitutes or captives, like the comfort women given to the Japanese troops, to satisfy the exacerbated lust of war time. Women soldiers are paying a terrible price for the delusions of the feminists and the politicians.”
The men are raping? Well, we should probably kidnap some women and import them overseas to serve as sex slaves for them, so the raping will stop. Wait, you’re saying that then THOSE WOMEN, the comfort women, will be the ones being exploited and raped? Geez, we just can’t win with you feminists.
I sigh. It’s as if misogyny is so well embedded into men’s psyche that it has to come to a head where sensible guys like me end up having to beat it out of them.