“We talk a lot about redemption and second chances. But when the rubber meets the road, we cut and run.” Who is this “we” you’re talking about here? Do you actually know rape statistics. “We” absolutely do nothing of the sort when it comes to rape. Men rape and become presidents, men rape and are rewarded with million…

I’d be ok with him getting a second chance if non-violent offenders got the same courtesy when they applied for jobs.

No I’m not. I’m saying that if he is accepted as a student to the school, then he should be able to join any club or team he wants. Just like any other student. People would be outraged if he wanted to join the math team or chess club.

My husband worked in admissions. If this guy wasn’t a football player he would have been denied admission to the university. What I am against is giving football players more chances than regular convicted fellons.

Disagree. Playing football is a privilege, not a right.

You’re asking people, including his victim, to have a crystal ball. Many rapists are young men with poor impulse control, and not mentally ill. To assume that playing a violent sport famous for harboring male criminals is going to improve this man’s character is pretty mindless.

I was commissioned as an Air Force officer in 76. I kicked, punched and clawed my way through, until they broke me.

I still tried to “run with the boys,” to be a tom boy because that’s what I was taught at school: That smart girls become one of the boys, that they emulate masculinity and embrace male interests.

Men who want their women to be compliant, unambitious, always supportive and always ready to make babies, will get cows.

I’m not sorry at all. I honestly feel like it inoculated me, subconsciously until recently, to the lie that, as you said yourself, there is ANYTHING a woman can do to protect herself from male hate. There isn’t. And once you stop trying you can go where you want and do what you want.

Good point. Tap into the rage.

Thank you! I bring her up all the time too. Cause seriously, she followed all their rules and it still didn’t stop her from get rape and death threats the moment she disagreed.

This is what I wish so many women would understand. Especially Trump-supporting women. No matter if you do everything ‘right,’ they can and will still turn on you. And at some point, you will disagree with them.

We have to do what Madeleine Davies is doing in this piece and tap into other women’s anger. It won’t wake up every woman. There are too many women, and as a white woman I’m willing to admit it, WHITE women especially who fetishize their tribal privilege, and value it more than their anger. Also evangelical women, and…

“...But this is a lie.” Yes, yes, yes it is. Because as Germaine Greer put it, women have no idea how much men hate us. They lie to us about it all the damn time, so that we might believe them and trust them and take care of them and feed them and fuck them and look nice for them. All the while they keep their boots…

This was amazing. Thank you for writing!

I’d like to star this infinity billion times but Kinja won’t let me live.

This is why we need to teach critical thinking skills in schools.