The Douchebag Bible (62 page)

say to me, “I shouldn't have to do those things! They

impinge on my freedom!” My response to that is that

I fully agree that women should not have to do these

things. They should be able to walk the streets alone

without the slightest fear that a rapist is stalking

them. They should be able to walk about unarmed

without concern. They should be able to conduct

themselves as they see fit without having to consider

who might be plotting to rape them.

The world, however, does not give a fuck about

how you or I think it should be. I don’t think I should

have to buy an alarm for my home—people should

just respect my personal property and not attempt

to steal from me! However, that’s not how the world

works. I have to take scumbags, liars and thieves

into account everyday and adjust my conduct

accordingly. Why should rape be exempt from

taking precautions against?

Now, if I get robbed, beaten or swindled, is it

my fault if I didn’t take the proper precautions? No.

However, if you let me off the hook completely,

where is the lesson? Am I to be excused entirely for

my lack of preparedness simply because it was

ultimately up to the burglar or attacker to act against

me? Is it really so wrong to simply make note of what

a victim could have done better? Is it really so

heinous to simply suggest that victims should be

aware of risks and take reasonable precautions?

A rape victim, of course, suffers more trauma

than a victim of robbery. Having your house violated

can be chilling, but having your body violated is

several orders of magnitude beyond that. However,

the emotional pain caused by rape is immaterial

when it comes to assessing the responsibilities of

potential victims to safeguard themselves. If

anything, the severity of the trauma involved is all

the more reason why stressing the importance of

rape prevention is paramount.

Of course, personal preventative measures are

a small part of rape prevention. Far more important

is changing societies attitude towards rapists from

evil to impaired and setting up a net to identify the

character traits of rapists before they rape and

urging them into treatment.

No one on this planet should have to suffer

rape. And I believe that rape can largely be stopped,

but only if we accept it for what it is and work from

there, rather than basing policies on moral outrage

and politically correct indignation.

Many feminists say that our society shouldn't

teach women not to get raped, but should teach men

not to rape. I don't think that we should teach either

sex anything like that.

We won't eliminate rape by making girls and

women so afraid that they're going to get raped that

they become neurotic worrywarts who can barely

function because they're so frightened that men are

nothing but a gaggle of rape-hungry fiends.

Nor will we eliminate rape by merely

proscribing it and admonishing those who commit

it. Rapists are already hated, shunned, castigated,

imprisoned and looked down upon by the whole of

society. There are movies out there where the

protagonists are hitmen, mafiosos and even serial

killers—but when is the last time you saw a movie or

TV show where a rapist was the hero? When is the

last time you read a flattering news article about a

rapist? When is the last time you heard a friend say,

“Yeah. That's my buddy, Charles. He's a rapist, but

he's still pretty cool.” Despite feminist cries about

how we live in a “rape culture” there is actually

nothing about our culture that sends the message to

anyone that it’s okay to be a rapist.

The way that we can eliminate rape is by

treating the underlying causes of rape. We need to

fund a lot of research into understanding the

mentality of rapists and what causes them to act out

so that we can identify at risk behaviors and

attitudes before they offend. We can prevent victims

with higher awareness and rational compassion.

A popular feminist argument is to say that the

opinions of people like me need not be taken

seriously or addressed because I have a number of

“privileges”. I have what they would label “male

privilege” and “white privilege.”

Privilege, as it is used by feminists, is an

entirely meaningless term. It's a mantra that they

spout like dolls with broken draw strings: MALE

PRIVILEGE!

MALE

PRIVILEGE!

MALE

PRIVILEGE! YOUR OPINION IS INVALID

BECAUSE YOU HAVE MALE PRIVILEGE!

I think the reason that they're so fond of citing

male privilege is because they have no argument

beyond acting persecuted.

The term doesn’t even make sense. What does

it mean to have male privilege? What exactly is my

privilege? Peeing standing up?

And what of female privilege? What of the fact

that men disproportionately lose custody battles for