Posted on 07/12/2013 6:50:53 PM PDT by rickmichaels
EDMONTON – A so-called “men’s rights” group is defending its recent poster campaign that is sparking national outrage for claiming some women lie about being raped.
The posters were a response to the ‘Don’t be that guy” campaign that aims to educate young men on alcohol’s role in sexual assault and define consensual sex.
Men’s Rights Edmonton issued a statement on its website taking responsibility for its “Don’t be that girl” campaign that was highly criticized by police, city officials and women’s groups for sending the wrong message.
“Just because you regret a one night stand doesn’t mean it wasn’t consensual,” the posters read.
“Women who drink are not responsible for their actions… especially when alcohol is involved,” another poster said.
The University of Alberta ordered the removal of the posters because they violated the school’s posting policies.
Alberta’s minister of human services, MLA Dave Hancock, denounced the campaign on Twitter, saying it was appalling, dangerous and indefensible.
However, Men’s Rights Edmonton defended the posters Thursday, saying there is nothing wrong with advocating against both rape and false rape accusations. The group believes the original campaign was hateful towards men and insinuates that all men are rapists.
“We want rapists punished for their crimes. We also want the system to punish those that make false rape claims. How more can you trivialize real victims of rape than by making a false rape claim?” the group said, adding that some studies suggest there are as many false rape reports as real rape reports.
But according to police, that claim is completely false.
Acting Insp. Sean Armstrong said there is no data that suggests false rape claims are common or dilute real reports of sexual assault.
He said after 4.5 years of working as a sexual assault detective, he had only seen one false report.
“And I dealt with numerous files; many, many, many files. So they’re extremely rare,” he said.
The original campaign began in Edmonton after police saw a spike in alcohol-facilitated sex assaults in the city. The eye-catching campaign was subsequently picked up by Vancouver police and organizers hope other cities will do the same.
Statistics overwhelmingly show there is a need for increased education surrounding consent, especially when alcohol is involved.
According to Battered Women’s Support Services, studies involving 18- to 25-year-old men revealed that 48 per cent of the men did not consider it rape if a woman is too drunk to know what is going on.
Another study from the Canadian Women’s Foundation survey found that 19 per cent of respondents think that women actually encourage sexual assault by being drunk.
The survey also revealed 15 per cent of Canadians believe women encourage sexual assault by flirting and 11 per cent think women can provoke sexual assault when they wear short skirts.
Battered Women’s Support Services said that targeting a woman’s behaviour contributes to a culture of victim-blaming and may deter others from reporting rapes.
The idea that some women lie about rape to justify regretful behaviour further muddies the waters.
“We’re really angry and disturbed by the posters,” said Karen Smith, executive director of the Sexual Assault Centre of Edmonton. “People just don’t lie about that.”
She cited national statistics as evidence that false reports are incredibly rare.
“One to two percent of sexual assaults reported to the police would be false. And that would be the same for any other crime that would be reported to the police.”
In 2009, there were nearly 21,000 sexual assaults reported to police, according to Statistics Canada. However, that number doesn’t reflect the number of actual sex assaults, as less than one in 10 attacks are reported.
StatsCan said that 97 per cent of people accused of sexual assault are young men and 55 per cent are known to the victims.
Some women certainly do use the accusation as a weapon... but it’s very tough to fight against headline writers like this.
False accusations of rape are an incredibly serious matter. It can literally destroy a man’s reputation for life.
Unfortunately, society doesn’t really want to address the issue, because it’s easy to distort by militant feminists as being somehow pro-rape.
And these nurses were *all* female.It was determined that none of the male nurses could participate (long story).
The more it is not addressed the more common it becomes.
Real rape is damaging and many go unreported. False rape reports are a means of gaining power and often lead to serial offending.
Does the name Crystal Mangum ring any bells? Tawana Brawley?
“Women who drink are not responsible for their actions… especially when alcohol is involved,”
The same should apply to men then. Equal protection under the law!
I knew someone who was falsely charged with rape by his soon to be Ed during a divorce. The ATM photo in another city at the time of the alleged rape is all that kept him out of more serious trouble.
Yes, this DOES happen.
PS She was never charged with squat, but he did get the kids.
Ed should be ex...
Rape damage is a lot different that sexual bruising. And doctors and nurses know the difference.
No kidding; I knew a guy who was barred form having weapons when he came back from overseas because there was a domestic assault restraining order on him... for an incident which could not have happened as he was already deployed overseas (with actual documentation thereof) at the times of the alleged abuse; apparently the government itself is not a good enough witness (nor his superior officers) to repudiate the claim... hell, as far as I know there was no way he could fight the claim at all.
The solution to most of this would be a) chastity and b) sobriety.
Oh, but we can’t expect anyone to handle that, can we?
“Every year since 1989, in about 25 percent of the sexual assault cases referred to the FBI where results could be obtained, the primary suspect has been excluded by forensic DNA testing. Specifically, FBI officials report that out of roughly 10,000 sexual assault cases since 1989, about 2,000 tests have been inconclusive, about 2,000 tests have excluded the primary suspect, and about 6,000 have “matched” or included the primary suspect.”
The authors continued, “these percentages have remained constant for 7 years, and the National Institute of Justice’s informal survey of private laboratories reveals a strikingly similar 26 percent exclusion rate.”
yup.
let’s not have drunk drivers be responsible for their actions, they’re drunk too, often too drunk to know what they’re doing. idiot logic.
women are not children. they drink and drink and they are not responsible?please.
And if you read the article you would have an idea of exactly how rare a false claim is made. The truth is that some young ‘men’ (and I use that word generously) think it is okay to have sex with a woman if they are to drunk to stand or are passed out. Should the young woman be that drunk? Of course not but that is not license to behave like an animal.
Parents teach your children well
Quit using stupid terms like ‘real rape’. A false police report is just that. As much as men want to think that false claims of rape are common, they are not.
Duke lacrosse players?
Faulty logic. The drunk driver is engaging in an action while drunk that is often times fatal.
A drunk woman has no capacity to give consent to intercourse. What boorish man would want to have sex with a woman so intoxicated that she can’t stand and may very well be passed out....hence non responsive. for all the ment who find that attractive I say shame on you. Your parents should have taught you better....and if they did you should have paid more attention. If a man thinks that all that is important is getting his then he is a lower than an animal rooting around the barnyard.
what if the guy is drunk, how is he responsible? neither should be then.
A relative of mine was accused of rape, only a very expensive Lawyer with a quick and efficient PI that found others that she flipantly accused of rape in other states - got the case dropped....along with lie detector tests, witness statements, etc.
A big expensive mess.
And nothing happened to her.
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