Aufruhr: Wall-Street-Journal-Kolumnist als Männerrechtler verleumdet, nachdem er Doppelmoral bei Vergewaltigungen kritisierte

Vorgestern veröffentlichte James Taranto, Kolumnist beim Wall Street Journal, einen Artikel, in dem er die ausufernde Definition von sexueller Gewalt an amerikanischen Colleges beklagte und dabei auch auf die damit verbundene sexistische Doppelmoral zu sprechen kam:

Winerip notes that between 2005 and 2010, "more than 60 percent of claims involving sexual violence handled by United Educators" – an insurance company owned by member schools – "involved young women who were so drunk they had no clear memory of the assault." We know from Sgt. Cournoyer that the accused young men typically are drinking to excess, too. What is called the problem of "sexual assault" on campus is in large part a problem of reckless alcohol consumption, by men and women alike. (Based on our reporting, the same is true in the military, at least in the enlisted and company-grade officer ranks.)

Which points to a limitation of the drunk-driving analogy. If two drunk drivers are in a collision, one doesn't determine fault on the basis of demographic details such as each driver's sex. But when two drunken college students "collide," the male one is almost always presumed to be at fault. His diminished capacity owing to alcohol is not a mitigating factor, but her diminished capacity is an aggravating factor for him.

(...) In theory that means, as FIRE notes, that "if both parties are intoxicated during sex, they are both technically guilty of sexually assaulting each other." In practice it means that women, but not men, are absolved of responsibility by virtue of having consumed alcohol. That is self-evidently unjust, yet it turns out to be a matter of high principle for many feminists.

Wie die männerpolitische Website A Voice for Men berichtet, dauerte es daraufhin nicht lange, bis Taranto in zahllosen empörten Wortmeldungen unter Beschuss genommen wurde:

This paragraph was cited in a fusillade of articles appearing in the Huffington Post, Thinking Progress and others today deriding Taranto as a rape apologist and accusing him of colluding with men’s rights activists even though he has never identified as one.

Aus Tarantos Argument – "Wenn ein betrunkener Mann und eine betrunkene Frau Sex haben, warum ist dann automatisch die Frau das Opfer einer Vergewaltigung?" – wurden Schlagzeilen wie "Taranto will Ihnen erzählen, wann Sie vergewaltigt wurden, meine Damen" und "WSJ-Kolumnist behauptet, Opfer von Vergewaltigungen sind so schuldig wie die Täter".

Offenbar weil andere Ansichten als die radikalfeministischen nicht akzeptabel sind, gibt es jetzt ein Twitter-Hashtag #FireTarantoWSJ und eine entsprechende Petition, die bislang über 2000 Unterzeichner fand.