For far too long, civil authorities blamed the victims of sexual abuse by the clergy. 'How dare they say such outrageous things about a man of God!' At long last, these stories began making their way into the media, and members of the clergy were no longer able to hide behind their Bibles and clerical collars. These stories have now become common place. You can only wonder what they got away with in the past.
The Christian nationalist doesn’t acknowledge women suffrage, so don’t be surprised when this same group doesn’t acknowledge the me too movement (treats me too moment as threat to the public).
That is why the US needs more coverage of Gisele Pelicot, the French woman to opened her husband's mass rape trial to the media so that "shame would change sides." She is such a hero. If you don't know about the case, look her up.
Well, we are in a post-"women are property" era, so the laws written by men protect men. 'Cause, you know, that one woman in Duke Lacrosse lied, so every woman is lying and men need the protection from the spells witches - sorry - women weave over them to dazzle and enfeeble their normally strong and intellectual minds.
“”I am just asking you to be open that perhaps God is answering my prayer that you kinda enjoyed it just a little,” he wrote in September 2016, “even though you feel upset afterward.””
“Reynolds and Swinson were both adults, albeit with a major power imbalance. (The article says “Fourteen states have made it a crime for a member of the clergy to have sex with someone they pastor, but Georgia is not one of them.”) The fact that she admitted she didn’t outwardly resist his advances—but instead “go inward and just try to disappear”—also made it harder to charge Reynolds with sexual assault.”
Why? Why is it so hard to charge him with assault when she said she froze with every attack? He admits in his email to her that he knew she wasn’t consenting. This is why only a tiny fraction of rape allegations ever see a courtroom, and why a tiny fraction of those ever get a conviction. People want to protect the rapist. People say it’s too hard to hold them accountable, they’re too good at the crime to be able to prove it, even when the rapists admit to their crimes, even when the actions by the victims are textbook examples of well known responses to traumatic events, it’s just too difficult. Why is it difficult? Because we have been conditioned to assume the victim (mainly women) is lying and the perpetrators (men, nearly always men) are just confused about what rape is, or unsure about if there was consent, or that women are all inscrutable and don’t mean what we say when we are clearly saying no. She has gads of evidence that she was being harassed, that she said she wasn’t interested in a physical relationship, texts and emails, and plenty of evidence that he was crossing boundaries left, right, and center. Our society as a whole is apathetic toward rape, but it seems like the religious bubbles are concentrated with the apathy to rape, especially when it is perpetrated by clergy.
It is getting more and more difficult to deny that society truly, and completely hates women. At least, nowadays the way society is not fighting very hard to protect our rights from those that are comfortable being outwardly hateful to everyone. We should have burned down the court when SCROTUS overturned Roe, but we protected the rapists and harassers on the bench, we arrested the people who protested peacefully and vilified those who spoke out. Me too was a flash in the pan that did little to change minds, in fact it moved the needle the wrong way, as all our cries for justice seem to do. Cosby admits to rape, but there’s a technicality so he doesn’t have to complete his sentence and suddenly he didn’t actually rape those women, over fifty women. We chant “innocent until proven guilty” despite these men bragging about their criminality. Andrew Tate admits on podcasts geared toward young men and boys that he prefers when women don’t consent, he admits to raping women, and still we can’t call him a rapist. Diddy didn’t traffic and abuse, Epstein was just one guy there were no others involved, Weinstein was just trying to challenge the acting abilities of all those actresses. We have scores of women talking about their traumas, reliving their worst moments over and over and over only to be accused of trying to profit off of ruining a man’s life. But men don’t face ruination, they get a short time of uncomfortable discussion while they claim she wanted it. The victims end up being shunned for their claims, and a lifetime of trauma and counseling. But men use their accusations to get more dates, sympathy from college administrators and potential employers and family protection. The more accusations, it seems, the more respected they become, when it’s clear they deserve prison instead.
This case is rape, it doesn’t matter if she was an adult or that he had power over her. She was raped. Full stop.
Regarding the current regime and the files and his new policy to try to turn 14 year olds into adults, the women and girls (or the women who were girls when he raped them) were still raped. They were trafficked, they were unwilling, their age is only one factor in what he did, it makes it worse but it is not the only thing that made it a crime. Same with the 18 year old in Utah related to the state legislator that raped the 13 year old. It’s rape when they don’t say yes, when they can’t say no, when they’re being cajoled into it, when they freeze, when you have to lie to them to get them to not fight you off (it’s gods will), and anything less than enthusiastic consent. You can’t have sex without consent and you cannot force consent, it is impossible. But our world is set up to protect the rapists and demonize the victims.
This is a rant, but I’m not sorry. And I don’t care if you agree or not. I will not argue.
"Why is it so hard to charge him with assault when she said she froze with every attack? "
Since she was not actively resisting, she must have wanted it. As disgusting as that is, that is the attitude built into the purity culture ideology permeating Christian society. Remember the Bible's rules on rape? If she didn't cry out in a city, it doesn't count as rape. This is just one step short of Reynolds paying off Ms Swindon's father to make her his second wife.
That’s my point. Psychologically we know that freezing and even fawning is a trauma response. That women know damned well that if we fight we could die and survival is paramount in these instances, so it is more common for victims to freeze in the situation than to fight off an attacker. The facts show this was clearly rape when you don’t look at it through the lens of a society that is setup for this crime to be accepted. It’s not just purity culture, though purity culture breeds a concentrated dose of this acceptance, it is something wrong with our entire culture. Our systems setup excuses, craft outrageous justifications (it can’t possibly be rape if she wore jeans, they’re too hard to get off so she helped him do it which shows she was willing), setup obstacles for justice (never testing rape kits and destroying them before they can be looked at). I’m just beyond angry nowadays about the rampant, blatant, and complete misogyny we face in every aspect of our lives.
PTSD may be among the most under-diagnosed disorders I am aware of (and no, I'm an engineer, not a doctor!). It's bad enough that troops being rotated back to civilian status are not screened and checked for PTSD, then properly treated if necessary. There are plenty of civilians who experience traumatic events who are similarly ignored.
And that is so in need of correction that words may not express it.
And Complex PTSD, a diagnosis that therapists have used since the 1990s, is not even in the DSM. Complex, or chronic, PTSD is much more common among survivors of religious extremism, with its death by a thousand cuts approach to manipulation and control.
It sickens me to hear men attempt to “understand” how a woman feels after being raped. Greg Abbott comes to mind. Shut the fuck up and do something about it. Fake sympathy from MAGATS is pretty fucking far down on the Totem Pole of Empathy.
And yet why are they not talking to male rape survivors? Not only are they pretending to understand how women feel, they are also pretending the men are not victims of rape too. I've read harrowing accounts of male war victims--in fact, the Russians are doing it to captured Ukrainians. It wouldn't surprise me if many MAGA men are just repressing their own childhood Deliverance trauma....
Don't be sorry. Do please go ahead and BE MAD. Ms. Swindon didn't deserve what happened to her, and that Georgia law enforcement couldn't see their way clear to arrest Reynolds is both ridiculous and damning.
If she sues Reynolds, she damned well could include the police in that same suit.
No, I was also thinking, “What do you MEAN they couldn’t charge him with sexual assault when he’s sending her these awful e-mails and SHE DIDN’T WANT HIM TO TOUCH HER?! That means he raped her! He assaulted her! Charge him!”
I don’t care if he’s God Himself, he hasn’t any right to be shoving his hands or anything else into her pants when she does not want him to.
Edited to add: now that I think about it, it’s kind of wild that even the ancient Bible scribblers understood consent enough to have Mary say yes. They could have written that God was so powerful that he just went ahead and knocked her up, but they didn’t.
No need to argue, Val. Brutal truth welcomed here.
With a crime as despicable and life changing as rape, the law should be extremely strict with enforcement and sentencing guidelines. Guidelines that actually dissuade those sub-human destroyers of our youth.
Yet, here in the Upside-Down, the followers of Jeebus choose to punish the victims and protect the predators. All to keep their tax free nut and gain influence.
It has all escalated with a sexual predator at the White House. And nobody in politics seems to be able to call him out on anything. Except for Gavin Newsom.
And of course Trump has won both times by denigrating his female opponent. Then his social media defenders come up with the totally original name of Jezebel for Clinton and Harris.
This has all set the quest for equality back at least a decade. Overthrowing Roe Vs Wade in itself adds another decade.
If you say, "Set equality back a decade" three times into you bathroom mirror, Justice Alito appears behind you. It's handy way to summon the justices when needed.
To summon the other conservative members:
Drop a twenty on the ground: Thomas
"Who is going to help me with all of these Coor's light: Kavanaugh.
Complain about the supreme court: Roberts wil come a chide you for complaining about not showing him respect.
I think Mayonnaise is too spicy: Gorsuch
You can't summon Barret. She just wanders around aimlessly.
One more point toward injustice for the victims. When a rapist is acquitted or the charges are dropped, he can press civil charges against his victim(s) for defamation.
I agree with you, scum like that make all men like bad! I think all rapist should be castigated with a blowtorch and pliers, and no using anesthetic for the pain. Then pour gasoline on the removed genitalia and make the rapist watch it burn.
It’s more than just the perpetrators, it’s society that allows this to happen. Society makes excuses, blames the victims, coddles the perpetrators. Brick Turner was cast as the victim, he was a good student with a future because he could swim, she ruined his life over a few minutes of action. She had to hide her identity because the backlash towards her was violent. She was blamed for going to a party. She was blamed for drinking alcohol, even when she was drugged. She was accused of agreeing to it, even though she was fully unconscious and he did it behind a fucking dumpster. She was blamed for accusing him when it was two male bystanders that caught him in the act. Turner was brought to some justice, but still his sentence was too short, and he didn’t even have to complete it all, and now when some folks have decided he can’t get off like other men usually do, he’s still being cast the victim. He should be able to move on. It was a youthful indiscretion. He paid his debt to society, let him live in peace. She will never be at peace, why should he be able to? And that’s one guy who caught justice, look at how many never face a policeman for their rapes. Society is setup to allow men to take this from women, they practically expect this to not be adjudicated, because it rarely is. Men are entitled to sex with whomever they want in our society. It doesn’t matter if the women are willing or not.
Yeah, it’s nice to wish pain and suffering on scum, but society allows them to be this. Without changing that aspect, we will never be able to hold rapists truly accountable. The Epsteins and Diddys and Tates of the world will just be replaced with new men doing the same thing. We need to, not just believe women, but respect and love women as a society. We certainly do not. “Women are just people who people come out of.” Nothing more.
Cette ordure de "juge" mckeon in Montana faced no consequence for letting an incestuous father* get scot free after raping his 12 years old daughter for years, under the pretense he was about to retire. His pension should have gone to this poor girl to pay for her lifelong therapy.
* His family and pastor wrote tearfuls letters saying how good a christian he was and his sons needed him. Notice what's lacking here.
Not good enough. Slice off the twig and berries with a dull knife, blowtorch the hole so they don't bleed out. Drop the offending member in a blender. Hit puree. Serve the SOB a fresh smoothie.
I absolutely agree with every single thing you said and we should all be ranting about it. The rapists and harassers keep a low profile for a year or so , then they get dusted off all shiny and new, and poor ol' guy that definitely learned his lesson. Meanwhile, the woman who got raped or harassed or had the nerve to dare speak out about it is a bitch and a shrew for the rest of her life. It's fucking infuriating.
I don’t disagree with you. this is what I’ve been trying to say in my comment. There is a lot more nuance to this on both sides, and Victim blaming or perpetrator excusing doesn’t make for clarity, nor does it solve any problems.
I want to be clear. I’m not trying to demonize the victims in my comment, or blame them. But I am looking for a clearer picture of what constitutes responsibility.
Responsibilities fall on the criminal. Full stop. Because she was able to be convinced to go to his basement doesn’t make it partly her responsibility for what he did to her. I see that you are trying to find nuance, but there is none to be found. I have been able to navigate through life going into people’s basements, having drinks, spending one on one time with people of all genders without being raped or trying to rape anyone else. He set himself up to be trustworthy to her, to also have unreproachable power over her, for him to suggest the basement didn’t raise a red flag because he spent a lot of time and effort conditioning her to let him do it all. Do you truly think that it is healthy for women to live their entire lives on guard against any tiny chance they could be taken? We do, yet it’s killing us and we are still victimized and still blamed.
It takes nothing not to rape. But still men can’t stop themselves and try to push some responsibility onto their victims. I know you don’t think you are victim blaming and you want the accountability on the perpetrator, but you are still victim blaming.
Sorry it’s taken a day to get back to you. But I wanted to give my comments some thought and answer you fairly. I’m not looking for huge arguments with regulars here. Mostly we’re in agreement.
And as I already said, I actually do agree with you.
But this is why I told the story of what happened when I was 12 years old. I doubt those counselors would have raped me. I don’t know what they would have done. I doubt they did either. This all falls under the head of “what I want, what I don’t want, what I can pretend I want and what I can pretend I don’t want.” When it comes to matters of sex and shame, I don’t think too many people have their head screwed on straight. Certainly a 12-year-old gay boy 60 years ago did not. And I doubt those counselors in their 20s did.
I suspect we were all yearning for something, but what? The real problem is that for many people, we know what we want to know. I’ve spent most of my adult life learning what it is that I really want, rather than “knowing what I want to know.“
I will admit that I can’t argue with your points. The man was a predator, he groomed his prey, and what happened was the result. The nuance I’m looking for is a better understanding of how people think, rather than trying to assign blame. Because here’s the real issue for me: blame versus responsibility. 50 years ago I was learning the difference. I’m still trying to understand it, though.
There have been a number of stories over the last 10 years or so about conversion Therapists victimizing the confused young men that come to them, the victims looking for someone to help them change from homo to hetero. Not victimizing them in the sense of taking their money for a fake cure that doesn’t work, but using their practices as a means of finding new victims to groom and seduce. I don’t know what to make of those stories. How could it be that a man goes to get help with the problem and the “doctor“ tells them to roll around in the problem with the doctor? I get that they are confused to begin with, but how confused can they possibly be? It would be like going to an AA meeting and having the leader recommend a six pack of beer every night for dinner.
I am thinking back to 12-year-old me and those camp counselors. Part of me wanted to get naked with them, part of me was terrified about getting naked with them, cause that would mean that someone found out my secret.
Again, I don’t have an answer for this. And again, I’m not trying to blame victims. But I want to know what’s going on inside of their heads, understand the psychological dynamics of this.
What constitutes responsibility is a society agreeing that rape is violent assault. There are no mitigating circumstances. It is assault. Period.
A man in DC threw a Subway sandwich at a LEO of some sort. That man has been charged with felony assault.
That seems silly, but it may ruin his life.
A rape is so much more serious in ways those who haven't experienced it may not be able to appreciate. That doesn't make it less a crime. It just requires our acceptance.
Matthew Hale is the 16th century English judge, cited by Alito in the take-down of Roe v Wade, who started the trend of blaming the victim and badgering the victim on the witness stand--the trend that was enshrined in British Common Law. Obviously, other systems of law are not much better. But look up Hale and his influence on SCOTUS. There is no justice when this kind of precedent is allowed to operate for half a millennia.
Amount: Melania Trump is seeking over $1 billion in damages.
Claims: The lawsuit is based on statements made by Hunter Biden during an interview, where he claimed that Epstein introduced Melania to Donald Trump. Melania's legal team describes these comments as "false, defamatory, disparaging, and inflammatory."
Another link to Epstein for the tRump family! No wonder the talentless soft porn “actress” is suing for a Bill. Stranger than fiction, fer sure.
They should. "Faith, power, and abuse." Those things go hand in hand. And what makes it so horrifying is how fucking mundane it has become. Hemant doesn't report on one of these scandals every single day, but it wouldn't take much digging for him to do so.
I hope that Ms Swinson and Reynolds' other victims can find some justice. And of course, Not. A. Drag. Queen.
That is the result of being inbred and brain dead, and trying to impose a version of that goddamm fucking jeezyboy sucks a dead donkey’s dick religion on the rest of us who don’t want it. That is actually be generous to that twit!
For the university, Reynolds didn't do anything wrong, he did not steal any money from them and he never reads stories to children dressed as a drag queen. /s
Quite honestly, this is what Christianity is set up to do; the whole point is an unquestionable male authority who can use or abuse others with complete impunity. Just because most local churches and their members insist that Christianity is the 'faith of love' and use other nice-sounding catchphrases does not change that.
As a result of the above, nearly all Christian organizations, groups, communities, and so on wind up running afoul of leadership gone bad. It's expected, really. While it might not be sexual misconduct or abuse every time, Christian organizations exist to produce victims for the leadership to fleece, consume, or f*** regularly because that is their whole purpose. (Thanks, Mr. Hitchens.) No amount of prayer is going to fix that and Christians honestly think it's how things are intended by their Jesus to be. In this case, Christianity is the problem, it is the whole problem, and those in its clutches are victims who will insist on going back if pulled out by force.
I wish I knew of a cure. I find situations like Miss Swinson's heartbreaking and hate that she went through all that; I hope she recovers well and quickly. I just wish she would be the last victim of the Christian victimization machine.
Ladies, this is where you stop. Immediately. An older married man does not need to have one-on-one study sessions or prayer sessions with you in his basement.
If it's innocent, have it at the breakfast table with the wife there. Or at the dinner table after dinner. If you want to study the bible, join the church's bible study group, I'm sure they have one. Heck, for all their sexual abuse, even the catholic church puts a wooden wall in the confessional booth to keep confessee and priest separate.
This is not to blame the victim. Ms. Swinson is not at fault. It is more about the future, about other women recognizing the warning signs of a potential abuser. Intentionally private/solo basement meetings are a big warning sign.
No freaking kidding! This is the ploy that predators and groomers and abusers use ALL THE TIME and especially with innocents or seekers. I'm not certain how or in what venue that lesson should be taught, but it needs to be delivered on a wide scale.
As a conservative Christian, I am aghast that you whitewashed the the bigger scandal.of educating women. If you feed their weak and feeble minds, they will start to generate opinions of their own. Once that happens, those women are ruined
On a related note, do not visit that sandwich shop in Texas. Better, just avoid any Texas sandwich shop. Better yet, just avoid Texas. Who knows what ungodly act he is doing with the buns and cold cuts.
Also, I hope Mr Reynolds has an accident with the meat slicer and is no longer able to count to eleven, or ten and an half if the room is cold.
Reynolds might be a Baptist, but it's clear that he had Roman hands.
Once again, we see a morality merchant who rants against sex out of wedlock from the pulpit but can't seem to control his own impulses. It's more than obvious those impulses are far more powerful than his god.
Grooming and sexual predation ... AGAIN. Stipulated that this time, it was with an adult, but I don't see that that makes much of a difference. In this case, the victim started out confused, but she pulled herself and her situation sufficiently into focus that she was able to take positive action, particularly when it became clear that law enforcement was not going to support her.
My only question now is why Ms. Swinson hasn't filed a civil suit against Bradley Reynolds. He damned well deserves it.
Pray, no, but they'll come up with any number of excuses to isolate the victim. Definitely not strictly a religious problem, but it is a more conducive environment.
For far too long, civil authorities blamed the victims of sexual abuse by the clergy. 'How dare they say such outrageous things about a man of God!' At long last, these stories began making their way into the media, and members of the clergy were no longer able to hide behind their Bibles and clerical collars. These stories have now become common place. You can only wonder what they got away with in the past.
Tip of the iceberg, fer sure. This, too, shall be normalized by the Pedo in Chief.
What his supporters think of E Jean Carroll sums that up. Changing victim into villain. Saying Trump would not have touched her with a barge pole.
It is almost like the 'me too' movement never happened.
The Christian nationalist doesn’t acknowledge women suffrage, so don’t be surprised when this same group doesn’t acknowledge the me too movement (treats me too moment as threat to the public).
That is why the US needs more coverage of Gisele Pelicot, the French woman to opened her husband's mass rape trial to the media so that "shame would change sides." She is such a hero. If you don't know about the case, look her up.
No, today they go to court and declare (fraudulent) bankruptcy.
Sadly, we don't really have to wonder. We've found enough of the mass graves to make a pretty good educated guess.
I've been following that story, and it sickens me.
“ You can only wonder what they got away with in the past.”
Up to, including, and beyond murder & genocide.
The horrors are both unimaginable and totally predictable. H. sapiens is a fucked-up species.
Do we really ? They used to brag about it before the US* and French* Revolutions who opened the path to secular governments.
* We helped the first to fuck with the Brits. It really bite our king in the ass 🤣
Abuse by Christians shocking? Not to anyone paying attention to the pattern.
The only thing here that might be shocking is that there was an investigation in the South.
"Christian leader doesn't prey on young women," would also be a shocking headline.
Acknowledging sexual predation is bad PR. Reporting sexual predation is persecution.
And the laws that apply seems to sort of protect the predators and rapists, not the ones that are assaulted.
Well, we are in a post-"women are property" era, so the laws written by men protect men. 'Cause, you know, that one woman in Duke Lacrosse lied, so every woman is lying and men need the protection from the spells witches - sorry - women weave over them to dazzle and enfeeble their normally strong and intellectual minds.
This
USA, USA, USA … Unconditional Sexual Abuse, Unconditional Sexual Abuse, Unconditional Sexual Abuse.
Christian theism at the heart of it.
When I read a story like this one, it reminds me how fucking stoopid it is to force humans NOT to do that which is natural and essential for them.
“No Father, you may not marry, nor may you procreate. And never, EVER touch yourself. Dedicate your celibacy to GAWD!”
Meanwhile, here are all of the child servants you need to carry out your every whim. We call them, “Altar Boys.”
Ahh, a plan made in heaven. What could go wrong?
This predator was married.
And his wife said nothing about the Bible study in the basement. 🤔
She is undoubtedly, complicit.
Or groomed to obey and blame the victim if they are baptists (my guess since it's a baptist brainwashing factory).
"Or groomed "?
She was married with her former Youth Pastor. How could she not be groomed?
Trad wives aren’t allowed to question anything
She has INTERNALIZED MISOGYNY.
Even though that is probably how he groomed her.
What’s the old commercial line…NO RULES!
Shocking? No.
Revolting, exhausting, nauseating, and disturbing? Very much yes.
“”I am just asking you to be open that perhaps God is answering my prayer that you kinda enjoyed it just a little,” he wrote in September 2016, “even though you feel upset afterward.””
“Reynolds and Swinson were both adults, albeit with a major power imbalance. (The article says “Fourteen states have made it a crime for a member of the clergy to have sex with someone they pastor, but Georgia is not one of them.”) The fact that she admitted she didn’t outwardly resist his advances—but instead “go inward and just try to disappear”—also made it harder to charge Reynolds with sexual assault.”
Why? Why is it so hard to charge him with assault when she said she froze with every attack? He admits in his email to her that he knew she wasn’t consenting. This is why only a tiny fraction of rape allegations ever see a courtroom, and why a tiny fraction of those ever get a conviction. People want to protect the rapist. People say it’s too hard to hold them accountable, they’re too good at the crime to be able to prove it, even when the rapists admit to their crimes, even when the actions by the victims are textbook examples of well known responses to traumatic events, it’s just too difficult. Why is it difficult? Because we have been conditioned to assume the victim (mainly women) is lying and the perpetrators (men, nearly always men) are just confused about what rape is, or unsure about if there was consent, or that women are all inscrutable and don’t mean what we say when we are clearly saying no. She has gads of evidence that she was being harassed, that she said she wasn’t interested in a physical relationship, texts and emails, and plenty of evidence that he was crossing boundaries left, right, and center. Our society as a whole is apathetic toward rape, but it seems like the religious bubbles are concentrated with the apathy to rape, especially when it is perpetrated by clergy.
It is getting more and more difficult to deny that society truly, and completely hates women. At least, nowadays the way society is not fighting very hard to protect our rights from those that are comfortable being outwardly hateful to everyone. We should have burned down the court when SCROTUS overturned Roe, but we protected the rapists and harassers on the bench, we arrested the people who protested peacefully and vilified those who spoke out. Me too was a flash in the pan that did little to change minds, in fact it moved the needle the wrong way, as all our cries for justice seem to do. Cosby admits to rape, but there’s a technicality so he doesn’t have to complete his sentence and suddenly he didn’t actually rape those women, over fifty women. We chant “innocent until proven guilty” despite these men bragging about their criminality. Andrew Tate admits on podcasts geared toward young men and boys that he prefers when women don’t consent, he admits to raping women, and still we can’t call him a rapist. Diddy didn’t traffic and abuse, Epstein was just one guy there were no others involved, Weinstein was just trying to challenge the acting abilities of all those actresses. We have scores of women talking about their traumas, reliving their worst moments over and over and over only to be accused of trying to profit off of ruining a man’s life. But men don’t face ruination, they get a short time of uncomfortable discussion while they claim she wanted it. The victims end up being shunned for their claims, and a lifetime of trauma and counseling. But men use their accusations to get more dates, sympathy from college administrators and potential employers and family protection. The more accusations, it seems, the more respected they become, when it’s clear they deserve prison instead.
This case is rape, it doesn’t matter if she was an adult or that he had power over her. She was raped. Full stop.
Regarding the current regime and the files and his new policy to try to turn 14 year olds into adults, the women and girls (or the women who were girls when he raped them) were still raped. They were trafficked, they were unwilling, their age is only one factor in what he did, it makes it worse but it is not the only thing that made it a crime. Same with the 18 year old in Utah related to the state legislator that raped the 13 year old. It’s rape when they don’t say yes, when they can’t say no, when they’re being cajoled into it, when they freeze, when you have to lie to them to get them to not fight you off (it’s gods will), and anything less than enthusiastic consent. You can’t have sex without consent and you cannot force consent, it is impossible. But our world is set up to protect the rapists and demonize the victims.
This is a rant, but I’m not sorry. And I don’t care if you agree or not. I will not argue.
"Why is it so hard to charge him with assault when she said she froze with every attack? "
Since she was not actively resisting, she must have wanted it. As disgusting as that is, that is the attitude built into the purity culture ideology permeating Christian society. Remember the Bible's rules on rape? If she didn't cry out in a city, it doesn't count as rape. This is just one step short of Reynolds paying off Ms Swindon's father to make her his second wife.
That’s my point. Psychologically we know that freezing and even fawning is a trauma response. That women know damned well that if we fight we could die and survival is paramount in these instances, so it is more common for victims to freeze in the situation than to fight off an attacker. The facts show this was clearly rape when you don’t look at it through the lens of a society that is setup for this crime to be accepted. It’s not just purity culture, though purity culture breeds a concentrated dose of this acceptance, it is something wrong with our entire culture. Our systems setup excuses, craft outrageous justifications (it can’t possibly be rape if she wore jeans, they’re too hard to get off so she helped him do it which shows she was willing), setup obstacles for justice (never testing rape kits and destroying them before they can be looked at). I’m just beyond angry nowadays about the rampant, blatant, and complete misogyny we face in every aspect of our lives.
Another problem I see. Judges, cops and often even therapists refuse to acknowledge PTSD with rape/abuse victims.
PTSD may be among the most under-diagnosed disorders I am aware of (and no, I'm an engineer, not a doctor!). It's bad enough that troops being rotated back to civilian status are not screened and checked for PTSD, then properly treated if necessary. There are plenty of civilians who experience traumatic events who are similarly ignored.
And that is so in need of correction that words may not express it.
And Complex PTSD, a diagnosis that therapists have used since the 1990s, is not even in the DSM. Complex, or chronic, PTSD is much more common among survivors of religious extremism, with its death by a thousand cuts approach to manipulation and control.
Wow, didn't know that. I appreciate that input, thanks!
It sickens me to hear men attempt to “understand” how a woman feels after being raped. Greg Abbott comes to mind. Shut the fuck up and do something about it. Fake sympathy from MAGATS is pretty fucking far down on the Totem Pole of Empathy.
And yet why are they not talking to male rape survivors? Not only are they pretending to understand how women feel, they are also pretending the men are not victims of rape too. I've read harrowing accounts of male war victims--in fact, the Russians are doing it to captured Ukrainians. It wouldn't surprise me if many MAGA men are just repressing their own childhood Deliverance trauma....
Don't be sorry. Do please go ahead and BE MAD. Ms. Swindon didn't deserve what happened to her, and that Georgia law enforcement couldn't see their way clear to arrest Reynolds is both ridiculous and damning.
If she sues Reynolds, she damned well could include the police in that same suit.
No, I was also thinking, “What do you MEAN they couldn’t charge him with sexual assault when he’s sending her these awful e-mails and SHE DIDN’T WANT HIM TO TOUCH HER?! That means he raped her! He assaulted her! Charge him!”
Oh, but he's a PREACHER! He's a Man Of God™! That makes him SPE-SHUL!!!
[excuse me a moment ... 🤢🤮]
I don’t care if he’s God Himself, he hasn’t any right to be shoving his hands or anything else into her pants when she does not want him to.
Edited to add: now that I think about it, it’s kind of wild that even the ancient Bible scribblers understood consent enough to have Mary say yes. They could have written that God was so powerful that he just went ahead and knocked her up, but they didn’t.
I hear you and utterly agree. My comment above was meant to lampoon those who are convinced that anyone with a priest's collar is beyond reproach.
I know, I’m just still seething.
Believe me when I say, you're in good company.
No need to argue, Val. Brutal truth welcomed here.
With a crime as despicable and life changing as rape, the law should be extremely strict with enforcement and sentencing guidelines. Guidelines that actually dissuade those sub-human destroyers of our youth.
Yet, here in the Upside-Down, the followers of Jeebus choose to punish the victims and protect the predators. All to keep their tax free nut and gain influence.
It has all escalated with a sexual predator at the White House. And nobody in politics seems to be able to call him out on anything. Except for Gavin Newsom.
And of course Trump has won both times by denigrating his female opponent. Then his social media defenders come up with the totally original name of Jezebel for Clinton and Harris.
This has all set the quest for equality back at least a decade. Overthrowing Roe Vs Wade in itself adds another decade.
If you say, "Set equality back a decade" three times into you bathroom mirror, Justice Alito appears behind you. It's handy way to summon the justices when needed.
To summon the other conservative members:
Drop a twenty on the ground: Thomas
"Who is going to help me with all of these Coor's light: Kavanaugh.
Complain about the supreme court: Roberts wil come a chide you for complaining about not showing him respect.
I think Mayonnaise is too spicy: Gorsuch
You can't summon Barret. She just wanders around aimlessly.
Sometimes I wonder if Barrett knows which side of the fence she wants to be on.
Handmaidens do as they're told.
Some of them do. I wouldn't say that too loudly around June Osborne!
Are you saying that having a Pedo President could impact how laws are enforced? Shirley, you jest, Chris!
It is already happening, and don't call me Shirley and Chris.
One more point toward injustice for the victims. When a rapist is acquitted or the charges are dropped, he can press civil charges against his victim(s) for defamation.
I agree with you, scum like that make all men like bad! I think all rapist should be castigated with a blowtorch and pliers, and no using anesthetic for the pain. Then pour gasoline on the removed genitalia and make the rapist watch it burn.
It’s more than just the perpetrators, it’s society that allows this to happen. Society makes excuses, blames the victims, coddles the perpetrators. Brick Turner was cast as the victim, he was a good student with a future because he could swim, she ruined his life over a few minutes of action. She had to hide her identity because the backlash towards her was violent. She was blamed for going to a party. She was blamed for drinking alcohol, even when she was drugged. She was accused of agreeing to it, even though she was fully unconscious and he did it behind a fucking dumpster. She was blamed for accusing him when it was two male bystanders that caught him in the act. Turner was brought to some justice, but still his sentence was too short, and he didn’t even have to complete it all, and now when some folks have decided he can’t get off like other men usually do, he’s still being cast the victim. He should be able to move on. It was a youthful indiscretion. He paid his debt to society, let him live in peace. She will never be at peace, why should he be able to? And that’s one guy who caught justice, look at how many never face a policeman for their rapes. Society is setup to allow men to take this from women, they practically expect this to not be adjudicated, because it rarely is. Men are entitled to sex with whomever they want in our society. It doesn’t matter if the women are willing or not.
Yeah, it’s nice to wish pain and suffering on scum, but society allows them to be this. Without changing that aspect, we will never be able to hold rapists truly accountable. The Epsteins and Diddys and Tates of the world will just be replaced with new men doing the same thing. We need to, not just believe women, but respect and love women as a society. We certainly do not. “Women are just people who people come out of.” Nothing more.
Cette ordure de "juge" mckeon in Montana faced no consequence for letting an incestuous father* get scot free after raping his 12 years old daughter for years, under the pretense he was about to retire. His pension should have gone to this poor girl to pay for her lifelong therapy.
* His family and pastor wrote tearfuls letters saying how good a christian he was and his sons needed him. Notice what's lacking here.
John, I like your style.
Not good enough. Slice off the twig and berries with a dull knife, blowtorch the hole so they don't bleed out. Drop the offending member in a blender. Hit puree. Serve the SOB a fresh smoothie.
https://d2w9rnfcy7mm78.cloudfront.net/11563391/original_d917bcf60f8a4ea4c00d9b5a94772d70.gif
No argument. I wish I could lay it out as clearly.
I absolutely agree with every single thing you said and we should all be ranting about it. The rapists and harassers keep a low profile for a year or so , then they get dusted off all shiny and new, and poor ol' guy that definitely learned his lesson. Meanwhile, the woman who got raped or harassed or had the nerve to dare speak out about it is a bitch and a shrew for the rest of her life. It's fucking infuriating.
I don’t disagree with you. this is what I’ve been trying to say in my comment. There is a lot more nuance to this on both sides, and Victim blaming or perpetrator excusing doesn’t make for clarity, nor does it solve any problems.
I want to be clear. I’m not trying to demonize the victims in my comment, or blame them. But I am looking for a clearer picture of what constitutes responsibility.
Responsibilities fall on the criminal. Full stop. Because she was able to be convinced to go to his basement doesn’t make it partly her responsibility for what he did to her. I see that you are trying to find nuance, but there is none to be found. I have been able to navigate through life going into people’s basements, having drinks, spending one on one time with people of all genders without being raped or trying to rape anyone else. He set himself up to be trustworthy to her, to also have unreproachable power over her, for him to suggest the basement didn’t raise a red flag because he spent a lot of time and effort conditioning her to let him do it all. Do you truly think that it is healthy for women to live their entire lives on guard against any tiny chance they could be taken? We do, yet it’s killing us and we are still victimized and still blamed.
It takes nothing not to rape. But still men can’t stop themselves and try to push some responsibility onto their victims. I know you don’t think you are victim blaming and you want the accountability on the perpetrator, but you are still victim blaming.
Sorry it’s taken a day to get back to you. But I wanted to give my comments some thought and answer you fairly. I’m not looking for huge arguments with regulars here. Mostly we’re in agreement.
And as I already said, I actually do agree with you.
But this is why I told the story of what happened when I was 12 years old. I doubt those counselors would have raped me. I don’t know what they would have done. I doubt they did either. This all falls under the head of “what I want, what I don’t want, what I can pretend I want and what I can pretend I don’t want.” When it comes to matters of sex and shame, I don’t think too many people have their head screwed on straight. Certainly a 12-year-old gay boy 60 years ago did not. And I doubt those counselors in their 20s did.
I suspect we were all yearning for something, but what? The real problem is that for many people, we know what we want to know. I’ve spent most of my adult life learning what it is that I really want, rather than “knowing what I want to know.“
I will admit that I can’t argue with your points. The man was a predator, he groomed his prey, and what happened was the result. The nuance I’m looking for is a better understanding of how people think, rather than trying to assign blame. Because here’s the real issue for me: blame versus responsibility. 50 years ago I was learning the difference. I’m still trying to understand it, though.
There have been a number of stories over the last 10 years or so about conversion Therapists victimizing the confused young men that come to them, the victims looking for someone to help them change from homo to hetero. Not victimizing them in the sense of taking their money for a fake cure that doesn’t work, but using their practices as a means of finding new victims to groom and seduce. I don’t know what to make of those stories. How could it be that a man goes to get help with the problem and the “doctor“ tells them to roll around in the problem with the doctor? I get that they are confused to begin with, but how confused can they possibly be? It would be like going to an AA meeting and having the leader recommend a six pack of beer every night for dinner.
I am thinking back to 12-year-old me and those camp counselors. Part of me wanted to get naked with them, part of me was terrified about getting naked with them, cause that would mean that someone found out my secret.
Again, I don’t have an answer for this. And again, I’m not trying to blame victims. But I want to know what’s going on inside of their heads, understand the psychological dynamics of this.
What constitutes responsibility is a society agreeing that rape is violent assault. There are no mitigating circumstances. It is assault. Period.
A man in DC threw a Subway sandwich at a LEO of some sort. That man has been charged with felony assault.
That seems silly, but it may ruin his life.
A rape is so much more serious in ways those who haven't experienced it may not be able to appreciate. That doesn't make it less a crime. It just requires our acceptance.
Cops and persecutors have a history of overcharging people to intimidate them into taking plea deals.
Matthew Hale is the 16th century English judge, cited by Alito in the take-down of Roe v Wade, who started the trend of blaming the victim and badgering the victim on the witness stand--the trend that was enshrined in British Common Law. Obviously, other systems of law are not much better. But look up Hale and his influence on SCOTUS. There is no justice when this kind of precedent is allowed to operate for half a millennia.
Stories like this remind me that tRump's name is all over the Epstein files.
https://ibb.co/5xFdPw5W
Ahh ha!
Amount: Melania Trump is seeking over $1 billion in damages.
Claims: The lawsuit is based on statements made by Hunter Biden during an interview, where he claimed that Epstein introduced Melania to Donald Trump. Melania's legal team describes these comments as "false, defamatory, disparaging, and inflammatory."
Another link to Epstein for the tRump family! No wonder the talentless soft porn “actress” is suing for a Bill. Stranger than fiction, fer sure.
Jackie Hussein Clinton ?
And the threatened lawsuit by Melania adds fuel to that fire. With the added bonus of perceived revenge against the Bidens.
A lawsuit by Melanoma? I am not knowing!
“𝐹𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑡𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑠 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑚𝑎𝑑𝑒 𝑖𝑡 𝑎 𝑐𝑟𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑎 𝑚𝑒𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑙𝑒𝑟𝑔𝑦 𝑡𝑜 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑠𝑒𝑥 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑝𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟, 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝐺𝑒𝑜𝑟𝑔𝑖𝑎 𝑖𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚.”
They should. "Faith, power, and abuse." Those things go hand in hand. And what makes it so horrifying is how fucking mundane it has become. Hemant doesn't report on one of these scandals every single day, but it wouldn't take much digging for him to do so.
I hope that Ms Swinson and Reynolds' other victims can find some justice. And of course, Not. A. Drag. Queen.
There ain't enough days in the week to cover all of these stories with a full article each.
Keeps Georgia on my mind.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qIp9TwSEgFg
Well the Ukraine girls really knock me out
They leave the West behind.
Shall I say it?
Reynolds is the latest in a seemingly-endless parade of groomers who's not a drag queen.
OT:
UK Restaurant Turns Away Vance After Staff Mutiny
https://www.joemygod.com/2025/08/uk-restaurant-turns-away-vance-after-staff-mutiny/
Way to go Brits!!!
And definitely check out the screen shot of the last tweet.
We know a complete tosser when we see one.
Does tosser = wanker ?
Oui.
I be worried that Vance would try to fuck the furniture, so I would definitely turn that goddamm inbred, brain dead fucker away too!
Good things should be shared and I did it.
FAFO, you nasty little fascist goblin!
https://xkcd.com/1357/
It'd be nice if JD would get the message ... but I'm not holding my breath.
Vance is a complete couchfucking blockhead.
And those may be his good qualities!
That is the result of being inbred and brain dead, and trying to impose a version of that goddamm fucking jeezyboy sucks a dead donkey’s dick religion on the rest of us who don’t want it. That is actually be generous to that twit!
Surprised he didn't go to that arse Clarkson's pub. I guarantee he would have been served there.
For the university, Reynolds didn't do anything wrong, he did not steal any money from them and he never reads stories to children dressed as a drag queen. /s
Quite honestly, this is what Christianity is set up to do; the whole point is an unquestionable male authority who can use or abuse others with complete impunity. Just because most local churches and their members insist that Christianity is the 'faith of love' and use other nice-sounding catchphrases does not change that.
As a result of the above, nearly all Christian organizations, groups, communities, and so on wind up running afoul of leadership gone bad. It's expected, really. While it might not be sexual misconduct or abuse every time, Christian organizations exist to produce victims for the leadership to fleece, consume, or f*** regularly because that is their whole purpose. (Thanks, Mr. Hitchens.) No amount of prayer is going to fix that and Christians honestly think it's how things are intended by their Jesus to be. In this case, Christianity is the problem, it is the whole problem, and those in its clutches are victims who will insist on going back if pulled out by force.
I wish I knew of a cure. I find situations like Miss Swinson's heartbreaking and hate that she went through all that; I hope she recovers well and quickly. I just wish she would be the last victim of the Christian victimization machine.
Paging M. Diderot, M. Denis Diderot...
You can call all of them but don't put Voltaire and Rousseau in the same city.
How many commenters have beaten me to “not a drag queen”?
Only two so far, I think. It DOES bear repeating.
𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 ℎ𝑜𝑙𝑑 𝑠𝑡𝑢𝑑𝑦 𝑠𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑎𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑖𝑛 ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑏𝑎𝑠𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡.
Ladies, this is where you stop. Immediately. An older married man does not need to have one-on-one study sessions or prayer sessions with you in his basement.
If it's innocent, have it at the breakfast table with the wife there. Or at the dinner table after dinner. If you want to study the bible, join the church's bible study group, I'm sure they have one. Heck, for all their sexual abuse, even the catholic church puts a wooden wall in the confessional booth to keep confessee and priest separate.
This is not to blame the victim. Ms. Swinson is not at fault. It is more about the future, about other women recognizing the warning signs of a potential abuser. Intentionally private/solo basement meetings are a big warning sign.
𝐿𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑒𝑠, 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑖𝑠 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑝. 𝐼𝑚𝑚𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑦.
No freaking kidding! This is the ploy that predators and groomers and abusers use ALL THE TIME and especially with innocents or seekers. I'm not certain how or in what venue that lesson should be taught, but it needs to be delivered on a wide scale.
Gotta isolate the victim for the best results.
I wouldn't go into anyone's house I had doubts about, much less the basement of no escape.
Sounds like common sense to me, Eric. Can you translate that into “Catholic” for me?
As a conservative Christian, I am aghast that you whitewashed the the bigger scandal.of educating women. If you feed their weak and feeble minds, they will start to generate opinions of their own. Once that happens, those women are ruined
On a related note, do not visit that sandwich shop in Texas. Better, just avoid any Texas sandwich shop. Better yet, just avoid Texas. Who knows what ungodly act he is doing with the buns and cold cuts.
Also, I hope Mr Reynolds has an accident with the meat slicer and is no longer able to count to eleven, or ten and an half if the room is cold.
Better, just not set foot in the USA altogether (especially if you are a woman or a trans man of childbearing age).
Holytape, what a mixed message? Are for real and think women shouldn’t be educated?
Holytape is the Chief Master Sergeant of snark here at FA.
It's sarcasm.
Assume 9 comment# out of 10 written by Holytape and Maltnothops are tongue in cheek.
Reynolds might be a Baptist, but it's clear that he had Roman hands.
Once again, we see a morality merchant who rants against sex out of wedlock from the pulpit but can't seem to control his own impulses. It's more than obvious those impulses are far more powerful than his god.
Thanks to purity culture bullshit, he will get support and forgiveness by blaming the victims and making the Public Apology to the Ceiling.
Grooming and sexual predation ... AGAIN. Stipulated that this time, it was with an adult, but I don't see that that makes much of a difference. In this case, the victim started out confused, but she pulled herself and her situation sufficiently into focus that she was able to take positive action, particularly when it became clear that law enforcement was not going to support her.
My only question now is why Ms. Swinson hasn't filed a civil suit against Bradley Reynolds. He damned well deserves it.
Find all of his victims and make it a class action.
ABSO-FUCKING-LUTELY! I SERIOUSLY doubt this was Reynolds' first time around.
They rarely get caught the first time. He’s been at it for years, fer sure.
OT https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9wyv1r0yjeo
Pupil in Glasgow who invented device to help homeless named 'girl of the year' in Time magazine. She designed a solar powered blanket.
Meanwhile 3,000 miles from Glasgow, looking for excuses to put them in jail.
VERY FREAKING COOL ... or should I say, "WARM!" Brava!
The kids are alright.
Xtians: "It happens in secular systems too."
Sure, secular professors always ask their students to "pray" in their home basements.
🤣🤣
Pray, no, but they'll come up with any number of excuses to isolate the victim. Definitely not strictly a religious problem, but it is a more conducive environment.
It's a power problem. Religions aid in gaining power over others. I think that was their original purpose and it hasn't changed.
More likely in a religious system and far more frequent.