My point in referring to you guys as anti-intellectual is that there is no serious intellectual that denies that sexism and prevalent and ingrained in our culture, and yes I'm talking about academics well outside of gender studies. International relations, my own field, acknowledges the pervasive presence of gender roles, government the same, on down to economics and studies of women's economic empowerment.

The point is that I doubt with more vigor than I have in most things that in 50 years time there will be many people that agree that this society is post-sexist, which is what rape culture is really about. There would be no rape culture without sexism, utimately.

Are you saying that casual sexism does not exist? I know you are saying it has nothing to do with rape; I think you are wrong. Some cultures experience more rapes than others. The Democratic Republic of the Congo illustrates this well enough.

I think when about half of rapes are done by a romantic partner, at home, you have to start to question how you can say that the dominant culture and attitudes toward women have nothing to do with it.

I don't really see how you are profiting yourself by denying the existence of this thing. What do you have to gain or prove? If someone who had nothing to do with feminism presented to you the idea of rape culture, would you have been more likely to accept it?

You cry "lack of evidence", fine. As I said I will begin collecting it now, over time (got to go to bed). In the meantime, it will not be difficult for you to discover for yourself that rape, rape culture, and sexism are all connected and are all serious problems.

You can start with wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_statistics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_in_the_United_States

http://theenlivenproject.com/the-story-behind-the-infographic/

"the anti-intellectualism of many of you is everything that is wrong with American culture."

It angers me when feminism is defended like this. A perfectly rational argument for women's rights, gets reduced to an ad hominem at best and a dismissive posture to any and all critics at worst.

And, much to my dismay, it strengthens the polarization on the issue, as if the world knows only feminists and anti-feminists. NO. Feminism, like anything else in this world, is up for debate, is allowed to be questioned and analyzed, and if found lacking, has the burden of proof. Just like any academic topic, just like any belief.

I've fought on feminist topics some time, but often find myself hampered by feminists who think they - and only they - have a claim on the truth, and all others are misguided. This thread is a perfect case in point. Not only are the opponents of the argument outraged, but you distance yourself from more moderate feminist allies such as myself.

The war for equal rights will be won by convincing and helping others to understand. Not this way.

i am a moderate feminist ally myself.

i cannot agree more with your last sentence. however feminism frankly draws so much flak at its mere mention that it can lead to a rather short fuse. it's something i actively work toward not just for myself, but among the feminists i associate with, being more understanding that is.

I unlike many of my female feminist friends have the benefit of remembering what it was like to be younger and be totally skeptical/rejecting of feminism. There was a time in my life when I thought the only sexism that remained in America were minor nuisances, that women's liberation was largely a finished project.

That was before I ever seriously considered the ways gender affects our lives.

aha, this was written just today

http://www.ourstoriesuntold.com/2013/01/31/rape-do-you-care/

Oh my God! The assumptions and misleading numbers and admitted flaws in that drawing! First, they only talk about false accusations reported to legal authorities. Nothing about the false accusations reported to others to discredit or ruin some guys life but that never get to the authorities. Like the jilted girlfriend who decides to tell everyone that her ex raped her and she was "afraid to say anything until he dumped her."

They talk about these percentages but provide few sources for them or provide wildly disparate sources that vary from 10% to 60% to 33%...

They even admit that the data isn't accurate and is a composite of several wildky disparate and flawed reports and that the chart was to "get the discussion going".

Thucy, you can't honestly expect us to accept this drawing as factual at all especially when the authors admit it isn't, now can you? Did you even read that page you linked? Cause I read every word on it and just went "So they want to get people talking and don't give a fuck about accuracy".

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/01/29/caught-attacking-rape-victims-rep-cathrynn-brown-claims-she-only-meant-to-punish-those-who-help-rape-victims/

Yeah of course I read it. Rape statistics are all over the map.. averaging them makes perfect sense. Check out the sources they cited, they are all legit.

"If you don’t care about rape, you are allowing rape culture to thrive."

Yes, the greatest way to convince somebody is to start off with an accusation, gets the mindset all receptive. *sigh*

Averaging numbers all over the map is *not* legit as any stats major will tell you. You may as well be averaging numbers coming from a random number generator - ping pong balls coming out of the lottery machine. And they even say the whole point was to get a conversation going, not present realistic numbers. If they admit it, why can't you?