Good Men Project: Their Misogyny isn't really a Surprise.

I've been quite surprised at the response to the Good Men Project's* current foray into rape apologism. I thought most people were aware that the Good Men Project was nothing more than a front for Misogynist Rights Activists with an extremely reductive construction of masculinity based on an incredibly harmful gendered binary of sexes. I didn't realise anyone still took them seriously. I've had them on my list of arseholes for years. I had always assumed that their name was just another example of patriarchal hypocrisy. 

Personally, I'm not surprised that they ran an article written by Alyssa Royse which was nothing more than a handbook on how to be a rapist or that they've actually ran an article written by a man who is proud to be a rapist. They've been waltzing about the issue of rape apologism for a while now. They certainly have form for minimising male violence against women. And, they have form for all sorts of victim-blaming behaviour. The Good Men Project are nothing more than an attempt at mass gaslighting women into thinking that male violence is normative behaviour.

Frankly, I struggle to take anyone who who writes for the GMP seriously. I snorted with laugter at Ozy Frantz's declaration that he was parting ways with GMP because of the pro-rape article whilst simultaneously calling the editor Noah Brand a feminist. I'm glad Ozy Frantz is leaving GMP. More of their writers need to remove their collective patriarchal blinkers and part ways with GMP, but, no one who publishes an article by a rapist bragging about being a rapist is a feminist. This isn't a multiple POV issue, like GMP were claiming on twitter. 

There are only two stances on rape: either you support rape or you don't. It is a dichotomy. There are no grey areas or women who encouraged their own rape. There are only rapists. You don't get to call yourself a feminist if you make excuses for rape. Yes, we live in a patriarchal society in which rape myths are endemic but the true test of feminism is being called on your  behaviour and then reassessing your stance. Pretending that whatever issue raised isn't relevant is just the normal reinforcement of the Patriarchy (Vagenda might want to take note of this issue too). And, we all make mistakes. No one is a perfect feminist but when you publish blogs written by people defending rape, you aren't a feminist. 

I don't care what brand of feminism you think you are, once you try to defend a rapist, you aren't a feminist. That is our base line. You defend male violence against women in any form and you aren't a feminist. So, Ozy Frantz you are just wrong in your defence of Noah Brand. He is not a feminist and he clearly never was. 

UPDATE: Feministe has written a very good rebuttal to the rape apologism at GMP. They are also calling for a boycott of all the writers who either blog for GMP or who cross-post on them. I will be joining them. 

*I'm not going to link to their blog because it will increase their advertising revenue.