Is Duke the Waterloo of Radical Feminist Policies on Rape?

2007-04-18
By

Former Boston Globe columnist Cathy Young has written a number of excellent pieces over the years on “rape crisis feminism” and the way rape laws have become stacked against male defendants. Her newest is Last Call for “Rape-Crisis” Feminism? (Reason Online, 4/16/07). Young writes:

“…’rape-crisis feminism’ (as the writer Katie Roiphe dubbed it) replaced one set of prejudices with another, such as the notion that women virtually never lie about rape. As the radical feminist law professor Catharine MacKinnon wrote in her 1987 book, Feminism Unmodified, ‘Feminism is built on believing women’s accounts of sexual use and abuse by men.’

“Making the credibility of women’s accusations against men a cornerstone of your belief system is a sure prescription for bias. The Duke case amply illustrates this. As Cooper pointed out at his press conference, there were serious questions about the woman’s credibility from the start. Her claims were not corroborated by any physical evidence, or by the other stripper who was with her at the party. She herself gave contradictory accounts of what happened. Yet for a long time these questions were swept aside.

“The Duke case also makes it clear that the feminist dogma on rape is far from benign. It is hostile both to men and to basic principles of justice.

“Consider the hateful rhetoric of Wendy Murphy, a former sex crimes prosecutor who is now an adjunct professor at the New England School of Law in Boston. She appears frequently as a legal analyst on CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, and other channels. On the air, Murphy made numerous false statements about the Duke case (documented by K.C. Johnson, a history professor at Brooklyn College who blogs about the Duke case at Durham-in-Wonderland) and repeatedly referred to the accused men as rapists. On one occasion, she fumed: ‘I’m really tired of people suggesting that you’re somehow un-American if you don’t respect the presumption of innocence, because you know what that sounds like to a victim? Presumption you’re a liar.’”

Read Young’s full piece here.

Wendy Murphy is something else. Marc Angelucci and I debated her in print on the Kobe Bryant case and the issue of false rape accusations a few years ago–see Research Shows False Accusations of Rape Common (Los Angeles Daily Journal, San Francisco Daily Journal, 9/15/04). We wrote:

“In her recent Daily Journal column, high profile feminist professor Wendy Murphy dismisses the problem of false accusations as an ‘ugly myth,’ and calls for ‘boiling rage’ activism to address what she perceives as the anti-woman bias of the criminal justice system. Like many victims’ advocates, Murphy cannot seem to fathom the possibility that Bryant could be innocent. However, research shows that false allegations of rape are frighteningly common.”

Is being a Disneyland Dad taking its toll?
Does your ‘career’ get in the way of seeing your kids?

Learn How To Take Advantage of An Opportunity That Will Change Your Life & Improve Your Financial Situation
www.FreedomQuest.net
21 views

  • amfortas

    It is pointless ‘debating’ the Wendy Murphys of the world, in print, on radio, on Fox, NBC or on a friggin’ graffiti wall. Debate a dog. A cat. Give’ em a tickle or a belly rub. Give femonazis a FMJ. Would anyone seriously debate say, Ribbentrop or Himmler?

    Waterloo? Dig up The Duke of Wellington’s bones and thrash a femo with them.

  • mruffolo

    My head is still on tilt from the State Attorney General’s decision not to charge Crystal Mangum with giving false witness against another.

    A woman causes national trouble and she is not held accountable. Instead of punishing the guilty woman, the media focuses on charging another man, Nifong.

    I observe that Nifong did what the community that he served desired for him to do – charge the white rich men. He did this and he got re-elected.

  • Denis

    Bill O’reilly discussed the Duke rape case months ago with Wendy Murphy on The O’Reilly Factor. She exhibited this “boiling rage”activism whenever O’Reilly simply asked questions based on facts. She called these men rapists repeatedly and continuously dismissed with exagerated rage that anything but guilt could be the truth. This woman is VERY dangerous. Especially considering that she teaches law and considering that she is hired on by the media for her opinions.

  • BobH

    “Boiling rage” only makes sense if the women sees absolutely no reason to have men as political or social allies. It is nothing more than a demand that men be totally subservient to women, and statements to the contrary are quite simply lies. Wendy Murphy apparently sees “The Law” as a tool to attack men and not as a means of codifying social agreements.

    Fine Wendy, if that’s the way you want to do this…

  • Denis

    http://www.mediaradar.org/docs/Vanishing-Rule-of-Law.pdf

    The above link gives a thorough discussion of how feminists have been working to reshape the law in areas such as DV and rape. Some excerpts:

    Rule of Law, or Feminist Jurisprudence?

    In 1780, John Adams of Massachusetts advanced the notion that the fledgling American democracy should be a “government of laws and not of men.” Indeed, rule of law is considered to be a prerequisite to democracy because it promotes fairness and justice. Rule of law rests on the notion that legal offenses should be defined by concrete actions and verifiable harms, and are amenable to subsequent legal verification or refutation.

    Beginning in the 1980s, feminist lawyers set out to reverse centuries of legal tradition. Attorney Martha Chamallas advocated that equal protection under the law should be phased out in favor of “an asymmetrical approach that adopts the perspective of the less powerful group with the specific goal of equitable power sharing among diverse groups.”

    An allegation that cannot be refuted becomes a clear invitation to abuse. In the former Soviet Union, for example, citizens were often accused of a variety of thought crimes—allegations that could never be disproved.

    The result is that divorce attorneys openly advise women to file false allegations of abuse. One New Jersey lawyer revealed, “A number of women attending the seminars smugly—indeed boastfully—announced that they had already sworn out false or grossly exaggerated domestic violence complaints against their hapless husbands, and that the device worked!”

    And bias is widespread throughout the legal system. “Police, prosecutors, judges, social workers, psychologists, parenting evaluators, counselors, et al, have been indoctrinated with propaganda by certain women’s and victim advocacy groups that men commit 95 per cent of all domestic violence, [and] are more likely to abuse their children,” warns one family law attorney.14

    A New Jersey judge admitted that his state’s domestic violence law “blew up…all my concept of constitutional protections.”15 One legal commentator recently noted, “This criminalizing of ordinary private behavior and incarceration without due process follows classic police-state practices. Evidence is irrelevant, hearsay is admissible, defendants have no right to confront their accusers, and forced confessions are a common feature.”

    When almost any action counts as domestic “violence,” our legal system is no longer based on rule of law. It becomes an open invitation to persons who wish to manipulate the system because of vindictiveness, greed, mental illness, or ideology.

    It begins to resemble a gender tyranny.

  • fourthwire

    Individuals like Wendy Murphy are today’s Goebbels. Murphy would cheerfully have all or most of America’s men imprisoned simply for the “crime” of being born with a penis.

    She’s a very, very dangerous bitch…… and the fact that she’s a law professor means that she’s no doubt mentoring other women to become misandrists within our nation’s legal systems.

    As for “debating” her, she’s an ideologue to whom actual facts are irrelevant and to be dismissed when those facts do not fit her sleazy world of man-hatred.

    Vermin like her are breeding more man-haters…… and she must be targeted by men’s rights activists with increasing levels of volume until the very sound of her name evokes revulsion.

    As was the case with Andrea Dworkin…… the day that Wendy Murphy stops polluting society with her hysterical misandry will be a happy one.

  • donnieboy57

    i have e-mailed fox 3 times concerning wendy murphy. i don’t think she is challanged enough. by that i mean, orielly strives to be far and balanced. fine, then put someone on “With” her who can speak out ….perhaps mark rutov or glenn sacks. anybody! if they have, i missed that show.

    no response to me from fox.

  • scottkirk

    we can only hope that the duke case is the rape hysteria waterloo…
    maybee some victims of the (false rape scourge) of the late 90′s till now ; are good writers and will join the fray for mens rights…the pen is mightier than the sword!!!

  • Joi

    I am glad this social disaster regarding false sexual assault allegations is finally coming out. I was a victim of a false sexual assault allegation. This things happen all the time.

    I knew another fellow who was going through the same thing, his was worse because his case went all the way to the grand jury. It was no billed, but still a close call. His name was Collin. We use to talk about our experience often.

    False rape allegations happen all the time, and DNA evidence constantly clears men whom have been imprisoned for years for a sexual assault they never committed.

    Men now live in a state of fear because a woman can accuse them of sexual assault, or domestic violence and off to jail they go. It’s also a way for women to control men through fear and intimidation.

    And don’t think being accused of sexual assault and if she recants it won’t affect you. It is still a truamatic experience you never forget and you also don’t want to have sexual relations with women anymore.

  • http://www.antipeonage.0catch.com Roger Knight

    Don’t forget the financial incentives behind the gender bias in the system: It is to fleece the breadwinner and the taxpayer.

    And, as Nifong’s re-election shows, to pander to the ignorance and prejudices of some of the voters.

  • wls1

    It _is_ true that 95% of criminal DV _convictions_ are of male defendants, which says only who gets punished and nothing directly about who _commits_ violent acts.

    The social science data says the later is more like 50-50, so draw your own conclusions about the efficacy of the justice system.

    It appears Western civilization has progressed from the rule of man to the rule of law, and then continued to move on to the rule of woman.

  • scottkirk

    joi…im starting a list of men who have been falselly accussed..can i ad you to the list???

  • tooktheredpill

    Radical Feminism has become a religion that permeates every University campus throughout the US.

    I refer to it as a religion, because both feminism and religions are defined by a set of dogmas and a faith in the unseen. It is these feminist dogmas and the faith that the enemy of the world is all men that defines feminism. The true believers of feminism are willing to dismiss all evidence to the contrary to maintain this faith that all men are evil.

    In addition, all believers are called to actively make apostles of the unbelievers, and to preach the faith to everyone who has ears to hear. Sound familiar? It should, these are some of the basic tenants of Christianity.






Search