not language but a map

callingoutbigotry:

Congrats on promoting rape, Heineken

Dear Heineken:

Long time drinker, first time loather! I write to you today to clear up a couple of quick points about your Premium Light ad, the one with “Now Seduction Can Happen Anywhere” emblazoned across the top.  

1. Seduction is defined by Merriam-Webster as “the act of persuading someone to have sex with you.” So, uh, hate to break it to you and everything, but that could (and does!) already happen anywhere. Prehistoric caves, plague-ridden shacks, hotels, motels, Holiday Inns, aaaactually pretty much any location that can sustain human life for long enough for copulation: if people can live there, people can probably fuck there. If people have lived there, people have probably fucked there! Shit, I personally have been ~seduced~ in such locations as a golf course, a train station, and a bush (go ahead, judge me, I dare you) without the aid of your product. I mean, this is like advertising toothpaste with the tagline “Now You Can Scrub Your Teeth To Clean Them!” No fucking shit, dillholes.
2. Oh, but wait, wait, I get it. You packaged an incredibly obvious fact in phrasing meant to imply that your product has something to do with the truth of that fact, when, in reality, it doesn’t at all; excellent marketing strategy, way to go! Shame what you’re talking about is seduction and your product is alcohol, because that means this ad is really saying, “Now the act of using alcohol to persuade someone to have sex with you is possible anywhere!” You know, in the state where I live, that’s rape. Cheers, Heineken. Real nice. 
3. But wait! Just in case the implication wasn’t clear enough, you’ve got that word beneath it, the name of this whole ad campaign, “Irresistible,” to really drive home your point. Heads-up-seven-up, Heinekin, but an “irresistible seduction” — that is, a “seduction” that someone is not capable of resisting — is not in fact a seduction at all. Denying someone their ability and right to resist sex is not persuading them to have sex with you, it is forcing them to have sex with you, which, just so we’re really clear, is what the word rape means. And if you want to claim that you were using “Irresistible,” to describe your beer and not to make horrific rapey implications, then I still have you on false advertising, because I can personally prove to you starting right now how very very easy it is to resist absolutely any product with your name on it. You just watch me not drink your beer, Heineken. You just watch me never, ever give you my money again. 

In conclusion: I’m going to take your advice to heart, and enjoy Heineken responsibly by way of ensuring that neither I nor anyone I know ever enjoys any brand of yours again. Thanks so much for being the sort of repulsive shitstain fuckheads who use rape as a marketing tool; I’ve been meaning to switch to Rolling Rock. 

Yours Sincerely,
A Former Customer

P.S. Just in case you want to defend yourselves by pointing out that this ad seems to have been released way back in the ancient times of 2007, and claim, as such, that I am uninformed and you’ve changed, really, of course you have, I invite you to check out this fucking disaster of an ad from 2012, in which you instruct Heineken drinkers on how to buy a girl a drink despite “coy objections” like “no means no,” on the theory that “some girls insist on playing games.” Aaaaaand I also invite you to go fuck yourselves, because, seriously. Go fuck yourselves.  

(Source: ad-busting, via drinkmasturbatecry)

chawsaoz:

‎”THROUGH A RAPIST’S EYES” (PLS TAKE TIME TO READ THIS. it may save a life.) Reblog this!

  
It seems that alot of attackers use some tactic to get away with violence. Not many people know how to take care of themselves when faced with such a
situation. Everyone should read this especially each n every girl in this world. THOUGHT THIS WAS GOOD INFO TO PASS ALONG…

FYI - Through a rapist’s eyes! A group of rapists and date rapists in prison were interviewed on what they look for in a potential victim and here are some interesting facts:

1] The first thing men look for in a potential victim is hairstyle.
They are most likely to go after a woman with a ponytail, bun! , braid, or other hairstyle that can easily be grabbed. They are also likely to go after a woman with long hair. Women with short hair are not common targets.

[Snipped for length and bullshit, but the full post is here, as well as on the Snopes page disproving it, linked below.]

Reblog this. Only the picture will appear on your blog.

NOPE, NOPE, NOPE, NOPE, NOPE. This is a link to the Snopes page that disproves the first 3/4 of this post — which, FYI, has been circulating since early 2000. The Snopes article details the specifics of what about this post is incorrect (hint: everything up to the list of self-defense tips at the end, which I have no idea of the accuracy of, although I do know that you can kick the tail-lights out of some cars) and where it came from originally (hint: a lying liar who lied, sold this pile of fear-mongering garbage for money, and made most of it up) and what people who actually know what they’re talking about have said (hint: that it’s garbage). It is a very comprehensive read! I suggest you flip through it. And this is what I would like to add:

You know what lists like this do? They reinforce the incorrect idea that if rape victims had just worked a little harder, had just been a little more vigilant, they wouldn’t have gotten raped. They reinforce the incorrect idea that all rape is large men jumping out of dark alleys to attack small, attractive, unsuspecting women (nice photo at the top, by the way, not playing into any horrible racist stereotypes at all). They reinforce the incorrect idea that rape is something one must AVOID, rather than something one MUST NOT DO. They reinforce the incorrect idea that rape is about sex or attractiveness, rather than power and control. They reinforce the incorrect idea that only women get raped, and that only men rape.  And they reinforce the incorrect idea that rape victims just weren’t intelligent or informed enough to ~save themselves~ from this, the same idea that guarantees that at least one person will reblog this from me saying, “Yeah, you can argue that nobody should rape, but people do anyway, so there’s nothing wrong with saying people should be smart about it.” As though intelligence has anything to do with this. As though, if you just follow all the rules, this will never happen to you. 

I mean, holy shit, this post — which, by the way, any number of adult women sent to me when I was a teenager, which I didn’t find out was a crock of inaccurate made-up garbage until I was in college — is basically just a checklist of arbitrary-ass shit to be afraid of doing. If you don’t want to get raped, don’t wear your hair long or, god forbid, put it up a ponytail! Talking on your cell phone at night or looking in your purse is an invitation for rape! If you go and get your car out of your office parking garage at the end of the day, you’re asking for it! If you go to the grocery store, you’re asking for it! If you don’t put up a fight, you must have wanted to be raped (which, hey, fun fact: in addition to all the shit the Snopes page details about what’s wrong with this one, in situations of extreme trauma, like assault and rape? The human brain can retreat into a state where it basically shuts down to avoid feeling as much as possible. Retreating into this state is not a conscious choice! Some people don’t fight back against their rapists because they fear for their lives, and some people don’t fight back against their rapists because it becomes evident that this makes their rapist more violent, and some people don’t fight back against their rapists because they literally, physically cannot. Because they have retreated into a shock-like state. The more you know!) 

Look, I want to be clear here: I am absolutely not advocating wandering around dark alleys late at night alone. But I also can’t imagine anyone I know — especially not the women at whom this post is targeted, women who, like me, were sent these emails and told these stories and raised sucking the bitter teat of this fear — doing that. And it’s not because we’re ~too smart~ to do that, and it’s not because we’re ~more careful~ than that; it’s because for our entire lives there’ve been people, emails, movies, television shows, all saying to us: IF YOU WALK ALONE AT NIGHT, YOU’RE GOING TO GET RAPED. IF YOU PARK IN A GARAGE, YOU’RE GOING TO GET RAPED. IF YOU DON’T LISTEN TO ME, YOU’RE GOING TO GET RAPED!! IF YOU DO GET RAPED, IT’S ALL YOUR FAULT FOR NOT BEING MORE CAREFUL.

And the truth is, that’s fucking bullshit. For one thing, it’s just not ~men in dark alleys~ out there raping folks; it’s men we know, and women we know. It’s significant others and family members. It’s people in bars dropping GHB into your drink, or lacing your recreational drugs; it’s people you trust, or have been told to trust. It’s old friends! It’s new friends! It’s people you work with and people you would, until you’re proved otherwise, swear would not hurt a fly! And if they rape you, if they prove themselves to be someone other than the person you thought they were, whether they jump out at you from a dark alley or force themselves upon you in the aftermath of a date, that shit is their fucking fault. Rapists. Are to blame. For rape. Rapists. Rapists. Rapists. Not rape victims, and definitely not hairstyles of rape victims, what the fuck.

I mean, look, I’m sure whoever put this post up originally did it with the best of intentions; I’m not suggesting otherwise. I’m sure they saw this list and, like the disheartening number of people who’ve reblogged it, like all the people who have been circulating it since early 2000, thought they were being helpful, and had no idea that this entire thing is a list of of pseudo-facts made up by a random guy who wanted to play on fear to make a quick buck. But I do know that’s what it is, and the hell, the hell, if I am going to let another unfounded bullshit list of ways rape victims can blame themselves for something that will never be their faults circulate without pointing out that it’s crap. Crap, I tell you! Crap. Please insert nopetopus.gif and carry on. 

(via arineat)

ginnie-lee-r:

rebekahloves:

folkandfemme:

aynrandinaminiskirt:

Korean poster which has been making it’s way around

Translation:

Protesting sexual harassment and violence against women

ETIQUETTE FOR MEN AT NIGHT

1. Remember that your presence can be threatening to women walking alone at night
2. If a woman is walking in front of you alone at night, slow down. You walking quickly or speeding up can be and in most cases is threatening
3. If you’ve been drinking and are drunk, go straight home.
4. Do not pick a fight or aggravate women walking at night
5. Do not take off your clothes or publicly urinate
6. Be careful to make sure you do not touch or hit someone, even on accident.
7. If, late at night, you come to a situation in which you and a woman have to ride an elevator together, let her go up first and wait for the elevator to come back down.
8. If there’s a woman in a public restroom (There are Korean public restrooms with no gender or sex markings that are open to all people), wait for her to finish and come out first before using the restroom.
9. Report broken streetlights to the police
10. Tell other men about these rules and that they have a responsibility to not threaten women walking at night

reprinting, pasting around earth

in like 5th grade they need to start teaching this shit in the US, along with a class on “Girls Don’t Call each Other Sluts and Whores. It Just Makes it Okay For Guys to Call You Sluts and Whores.”  But no, really.

Why is a guy taking an elevator ride with you threatening? I have an issue with the “every time you are alone with a man, even for the five to thirty seconds you’re on the elevator, he is going to try to rape you” mentality. I think it breeds fear, rather than caution.

And, really, the main conversation had on elevators is, “What floor?” “Seven, thanks.”

And then you don’t even make eye-contact.

I like some of the other guidelines, but taking it to that extent, at least to me, just implies that men have absolutely no control over their need to have sex with women, even when they’re unwilling, even for the thirty seconds that they’re on the elevator.

I very much appreciate the fact that this flier gives the responsibility of preventing rape to people other than the potential victims, but that one point bothered me. Quite a bit, apparently.

Right, so, I thought it might be worth breaking this down and explaining why I, personally, think the elevator rule is a pretty great one! All the respect in the world for your viewpoint, and YMMV, obviously.

• I’ve spent time in elevators with men late at night, both before and after I was raped. Beforehand, the experience would often make me jittery, uncomfortable, and sometimes panicky, especially if the man I was sharing the car with was significantly larger than me, silent, visibly checking me out, or verbal in an agressive/sexual way. The few times I’ve found myself in that situation since my rape, on the other hand, have been more or less torture. Five to thirty seconds feels a lot longer when you’re running through, in your head, every possible way the person in the car with you could take advantage of your being trapped with them in a tiny room with no exits, no ways for other people to see in, and no places to hide. Five to thirty seconds kind of feels like an eternity when you’re spending every one of them wondering when the person in the car with you is going to hit the alarm button, stop the car, and harm you. 
• I agree with you that the idea that men are uncontrollable rape-machines is ridiculous, not because it’s insulting to men but because it takes responsibility for rape away from men who commit it (“Oh,” says Rape Culture knowingly, “well, you can’t blame him for that. Boys will be boys!”). However, the idea that stuff like this is breeding fear rather than caution is, er, kind of unfair and more than kind of wrong. This isn’t….fear that’s being bred? This is fear that exists already, because a whole shit ton of people are getting raped and assaulted on the extremely regular. Like. Seriously. Check this shit out. Google some stuff. Poke around for awhile, and keep in mind that the stuff you’ll find on that site I linked is just stuff from the States. There is a lot of rape and assault. Happening. A lot. All over the world. Right now! For real. 
• I know a lot of stand-up, class-act, grade-A, quality dudes who genuinely don’t want to make women feel uncomfortable at night. Like, a whole fucking bunch of dudes like that, who both don’t want to rape anybody and don’t want to make anybody feel like they are in danger of being raped. And while the late-night elevator ride may not ping as a danger zone for you? It does for a lot of people. It does for enough people that it shows up on this widely-circulated, heavily-supported list. And arguing that we shouldn’t circulate information about that fear, to men who want to know how to avoid making women feel uncomfortable at night but don’t know how because we don’t teach it, and for the many many many many women (and others, because not only women get raped, and not only men rape) who already do feel that sharp bite of fear every time this stuff comes up, on the theory that it might increase the fear? Is kind of what’s gotten us into this mess to begin with. The whole, “Let’s not talk about rape because rape is horrible and scary!” thing has produced, er, rape culture. Where rape is something we dance around but don’t talk about honestly, where rape is something we encourage with our silence (by making it seem like something no one will care about), where blame is so often wrongly placed on the victim, not the perpetrator. 

So! My vote is always going to be for Plan More Signs/More Information/More Knowledge, rather than Plan Less Fear. Plan Less Fear doesn’t really work, you know? But informing the populace has a long track record of success, on other issues if not (yet) this one. Just my two cents. <3 

(Source: dkyubey)