Scumbag Emma Sulkowicz

I am cisgender, and I am fully aware of the privilege that comes with that. Regardless of your stance as someone who doesn't look at that stuff, which is great and I wish more people were like that, we live in a world where that stuff is a major factor and we thus have to pay attention to it. Maybe you and I don't care, but the world at large cares and we have to notice that those labels we find silly/meaningless actually make life a lot harder for certain demographics (I'm speaking about women in this case). Also, when an individual states who they are they are merely asking to be seen for who they truly are rather than alienating themselves. Well, some people seek to divide but claiming your space and your identity is often far from intending to alienate.

It is the allies who have the power to change things, you're totally correct. And the fact that that's true is 1) a tactic that has to be acknowledged in the name of actually creating change and 2) indicative of the fact that something needs to be changed as because you can be categorized in certain that give you a leg-up means that someone else's identity puts them down. No one's identity should be greeted with flagrance, so I agree with you there.

In terms of this case, what I'm saying is that her and his evidence are both unsubstantiated. She can't prove he raped her, he can't prove he didn't. He can only prove that they were friendly and even sexually involved at one point. That's simply not enough to say that he couldn't have possibly raped her. I can't definitively say she's right or wrong to have done what's she has done because I don't know what actually happened. I can say that the language in this thread perpetuates rape culture. And we need to be less discriminatory in our language. This guy should be innocent until proven guilty, but where is that courtesy for her? Loudmouths are allowed those courtesies as much murderers are.

I am not defending this woman. I am defending every woman who has spoken out and been torn down. I am talking about something that extends far beyond this suspect situation and trying to comment, however unsuccessfully, on a much larger issue that I have seen glossed over and perpetuated on this site.

Listen to the news about assault. Remember Steubenville? If you don't, check it out because it's a prime example. The language about it was never "This girl was raped! How awful, we should do something!" It was "Look at these poor, promising young men whose lives are ruined" and "that drunk slut should've known better". Perhaps this was a poor situation to pick the fight in, I'll give you that, but it truly does reflect an extremely serious issue that a shocking amount of people don't see.

/r/AdviceAnimals Thread Parent Link - imgur.com