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Comment by tomp | Hacker News Reader

Why do you post such non-substantiated arguments on HN? His "admission" of sexual assault was in fact alpha-male-y locker room talk, and he's married to a foreigner, so your accusation of "xenophobia" sounds a bit hollow...

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I'm going to give to the benefit of the doubt and not assume you are intentionally being misogynistic, so here's some light reading to help clear up why what you said perpetuates rape culture and isn't okay.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/oct/11/locker...

http://www.teenvogue.com/story/donald-trump-locker-room-talk...

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2016/10/13/what-did-don...?

https://www.theodysseyonline.com/perpetuating-rape-culture-n...

I disagree. I stand firmly on the side of freedom of speech and judging people on their actions, not words. If anything, equating words with rape is what normalizes and trivializes rape!

Edit: also, this moralizing that locker room talk perpetuates "rape culture" (I even dispute its existence in the West!) sounds eerily similar to the "shooting games encourage crime" panic we had a few years ago. Unless you have data to back it up, I dismiss this whole argument as made-up.

If you actually read those articles and still believe that, I want you to know that I legitimately find you frightening. This is about a person in a position of authority making a statement that normalizes sexual assault. This isn't video games. There are real victims and a culture that perpetuates this. He didn't grope somebody personally and get away with it, he did it in real life and bragged about it. I don't know how to break this down any further and that you tried to flip this into me normalizing rape culture is disgusting. Maybe you need to learn what rape culture is? Maybe it's time to stop pretending that anti-feminism isn't misogynistic. I hope I'm never near you in the real world because your words indicate a lack of care about actions to my body.

I'm out.

> I stand firmly on the side of freedom of speech and judging people on their actions, not words. If anything, equating words with rape is what normalizes and trivializes rape!

I think we're debating two different things: I don't think it should be illegal to brag about (real or imagined) assault, so we probably agree in that regard. However, words, especially from the powerful, affect how we perceive the actions of others, which is a big deal. If Trump approvingly says says that he can "grab 'em by the pussy," that's another voice making sexual assault sound like something people just do, and isn't a big deal. I don't really know what "locker room talk" even is, but when famous people happily tell stories of sexual assault, how could that not contribute to the idea that it isn't a grave offense?

Maybe he was bragging about being dominant? After all, sexual assault implies lack of consent, which is something you just assumed...

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