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The Not-So-Innocent 'Damsel in Distress' on Campus
Townhall.com ^ | September 7, 2018 | Suzanne Fields

Posted on 09/07/2018 11:49:07 AM PDT by Kaslin

The American male is caught in the maelstrom of cultural change. Once the heroic images of World War II faded from bright colors into the darker tones of sepia, "the greatest generation" began a slow fade into history. Barely 500,000 of the 16 million men who fought in World War II are now alive. What has followed the greatest are several not-so-great generations (including my own).

The #MeToo movement, for all of the good it does in righting wrongs, has taken its toll on both innocent men and new standards of masculinity. When villainous men were rightly called to account for their sins, other men were made to look rotten, too. Many times they were not.

Public attention toward sexual harassers has focused on large men in media and movies who have been toppled from their pedestals, and the newest generation of young men on the college campuses has suffered collateral damage. The undergraduate with a shot at being Big Man on Campus now has to be especially wary of how he behaves with women, sometimes making him a more reluctant lover than Romeo.

We remember the young woman who made the cover of Time magazine carrying her mattress as evidence of a crime by the man with whom she had consensual sex. He was exonerated by the university but was nevertheless shamed, mortified and ostracized in the court of public opinion. Bearing false witness carries small stigma.

False accusations on campus have often been tilted against the accused, scorned by weak and intimidated college administrators who submit to government dictates for establishing guilt lest they lose the taxpayer money dispensed by righteous bureaucrats. A notorious "Dear Colleague" letter sent out by the U.S. Office for Civil Rights during the Obama administration in 2011 -- it went to 4,600 institutions of higher learning that receive public money -- set out standards for evaluating sexual behavior between the sexes. A man falsely charged could more easily be an innocent victim because a "clear and convincing standard" of evidence was reduced to a "preponderance of the evidence."

That's a big difference. Such an expansive definition could include accusations of misconduct, "unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal, nonverbal, or physical conduct of a sexual nature." Black-and-white movies of an earlier time demonstrate rites of romance that today would be included in a catalogue of sexual sins. The new standards deny cross-examination of accusers, a crucial element of American criminal law, for fear a campus "snowflake" might melt under rigorous but necessary interrogation.

But corrective help to this sad state of affairs may finally be on the way. The revised regulations that ruined the lives of many falsely accused young men will be revised again. Betsy DeVos, the secretary of education, has rescinded that infamous "Dear Colleague" letter, which led to kangaroo courts on many campuses. She promises a more transparent due process.

Getting to fair standards won't be easy in the current climate. Critics, including Sens. Bernie Sanders and Kirsten Gillibrand, have denounced her reform as a "disgrace" and "shameful." They join a large chorus of people screaming for her head.

She got surprising media support, however, from NBC host Megyn Kelly, who has entertained guests from the #MeToo movement but now criticizes the Obama administration for "completely eroding" the rights of the accused on the college campus. She tells the story of a student she knew at Colorado State University-Pueblo, a football player with a 3.7 grade-point average and aspirations to become an orthopedic surgeon. He had what he thought was a "great" consensual sexual relationship with a campus sweetheart. The sweetheart described their sexual encounter to her roommate, remarking that he did not use protection against disease and pregnancy for a couple of seconds. They resolved the problem, had a great night, but the roommate said that the couple of seconds was rape and reported it to campus authorities. The young man was found guilty of transgression by the university and suspended until after the young woman graduates. Many anecdotes like this reveal a flawed -- and biased -- procedure for establishing guilt.

Robert Shibley, executive director of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, which has worked to restore due process on campus, says the DeVos-proposed new rules could "go a long way toward restoring meaningful due process protections to the campus justice system." This would protect both student accuser and male students accused.

Change won't be easy in the polarized environment, where universities have become exceedingly protective of their "sex bureaucracies" with politically correct attitudes deeply imbedded in what passes for justice. The tradition of male aggressor and the damsel in distress endures, sometimes when there is no distress.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: collegecampus; education; metoo; mgtow; redpill; women

1 posted on 09/07/2018 11:49:07 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

The only hope is all male institutions.
We all know it.


2 posted on 09/07/2018 12:07:00 PM PDT by Da Coyote
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To: Da Coyote

And yet meanwhile, the last all male institution in America, the combat arms portion of our military, has had it’s doors forcibly flung open to women and transvestites.


3 posted on 09/07/2018 12:29:13 PM PDT by Wyrd bið ful aræd ( Flag burners can go screw -- I'm mighty PROUD of that ragged old flag)
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To: Kaslin

#mgtow

#enjoyyourcats


4 posted on 09/07/2018 1:10:34 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man ( Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: Kaslin

her roommate reported the rape? ( i know there was no rape) but why would the school take a 3rd party’s word???


5 posted on 09/07/2018 2:15:24 PM PDT by ronniesgal ( I wonder what his FR handle is??)
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To: Kaslin

What do you get when you rescue a damsel in distress?

A distressed damsel!


6 posted on 09/07/2018 2:42:38 PM PDT by utax
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To: Kaslin

I was a bit surprised to find that since it’s publication several decades ago, The HandMaiden’s Tale, a work of fiction, has, over the past several years, become Required Reading on many college and high school campuses. It’s a book, recently made into a tv series, that paints men in a terrible light. One wonders if the resentment in the book carries into being practiced by impressionable women in campus life.


7 posted on 09/07/2018 2:43:50 PM PDT by blueplum ( "...this moment is your moment: it belongs to you... " President Donald J. Trump, Jan 20, 2017)
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To: Kaslin

Too many women on campus have lost sight of their reason for being

To reproduce

If they do not bear children, the difference they make is negative


8 posted on 09/07/2018 2:50:35 PM PDT by bert ((KE. N.P. Neverthe less, they are co N.C. +12) Muller..... conspiracy to over throw the government)
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To: Kaslin

I bet frats start having “consent” parties where the women have to sign a consent form before entering the premises.


9 posted on 09/07/2018 2:52:01 PM PDT by Rebelbase (Consensus isn't science.)
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To: blueplum

I remember that it was “required” in my days.

I laughed about it. My teacher got mad. I said that none of my sisters nor my friends’ ever put up with that. Simply put we (The brothers) shoot and so do our sisters.

Got an “F” on that book report if I remember right.


10 posted on 09/07/2018 3:03:53 PM PDT by redgolum
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To: Rebelbase

Many frats are banning open parties.

To much legal risk.


11 posted on 09/07/2018 3:04:47 PM PDT by redgolum
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To: Da Coyote

Yep. Freedom of Association.

The communists have used the word “discrimination” as a weapon to destroy actual rights and establish ersatz rights.


12 posted on 09/07/2018 3:55:43 PM PDT by YogicCowboy ("I am not entirely on anyone's side, because no one is entirely on mine." - J. R. R. Tolkien)
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To: blueplum

Not men: Christian men. That literary offal quotes the Bible, does it not? I have not heard or read that it quotes the Koran. I have not heard or read that it quotes any of the heathen Alpha Male manuals on womanizing.

That published derangement joins Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States as among the most egregiously and pathetically disingenuous pieces of propaganda ever penned. (Thank Matt Harvey-Weinstein’s-Guy-Pal Damon for making that crap famous.)


13 posted on 09/07/2018 4:08:45 PM PDT by YogicCowboy ("I am not entirely on anyone's side, because no one is entirely on mine." - J. R. R. Tolkien)
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To: Kaslin
During the witch hunt of the Obama years, Democrats and the regime targeted the US military.

EVERY one of our brave male warriors was turned into a suspect, a potential rapist, and a criminal.

EVERY service member had to endure hours and hours of lectures by Social Justice goons with a political agenda.

By the Pentagon's own data, false accusations went up 17% in one year. The same year that the Obama regime launched is campaign to falsely smear the US military as a hotbed of rape and harassment.

Soldiers, sailors, and airmen were falsely convicted and punished. The military took the extreme

The military justice system was corrupted. Massive political pressure was brought to bear to convict, regardless of the evidence. Victims even were given "counselors" who encouraged them to lie.

And all so Obama and the Democrats could launch a false "War on Women" mantra during an election year.

14 posted on 09/07/2018 5:28:19 PM PDT by SkyPilot ("I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6)
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To: ronniesgal

I have seen people fired due to an “offended third party”.


15 posted on 09/07/2018 7:21:27 PM PDT by Fred Hayek (The Democratic Party is now the operational arm of the CPUSA)
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To: Da Coyote

It can make a case that women’s education should end at high school. College? No.


16 posted on 09/07/2018 7:24:16 PM PDT by Fred Hayek (The Democratic Party is now the operational arm of the CPUSA)
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To: redgolum

I’d make every one of those slags sign a consent form before entering the house.


17 posted on 09/07/2018 7:26:55 PM PDT by anton
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To: Kaslin
The undergraduate with a shot at being Big Man on Campus now has to be especially wary of how he behaves with women, sometimes making him a more reluctant lover than Romeo.

Body Cams for Boys is the solution.

18 posted on 09/08/2018 4:39:24 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Da Coyote
Thank you for clarity; Father Obvious.


19 posted on 09/08/2018 4:43:06 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: blueplum
One wonders if the resentment in the book carries into being practiced by impressionable women in campus life.

Thank you for calling Ask a LUG.

A representative will be on the line to comfort you shortly: Please hold.


Romans 1:26-29

20 posted on 09/08/2018 4:46:03 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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