I remember reading a stat once about the percentage of American men who said they would commit rape if they could be guaranteed of getting away with it. If I ever go looking for that stat for a piece of my own writing, I might use the exact search terms this person did. I’m a woman and a feminist, not a man or a rapist.

Now I have just searched using this person’s search terms, because I’m curious what the other 18 sites were. And hey, the stat I just mentioned was there. I’m glad to have found it. It bolsters my work as a feminist. Let’s hope that’s who your searcher was.

When a (violent or otherwise obvious) rapist is caught dead to rights, he’s hit hard–public condemnation, long prison sentence, registry…which provides the fig leaf covering the fact that other rapists get clean away. “We’re not a rape culture, look what we do to rapists!” And with that, the culture gets away with ignoring the fundamental issue.

That’s what’s behind the MRA position that the accused is unfairly treated. The rape culture has its most deleterious effects in making sure that the perpetrator doesn’t become the accused to begin with. Because the ways in which this happens are often subtle and hidden, it’s too often overlooked.

(The above may be off-topic, but I was reminded of it by an argument I had earlier today).

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime_file/2007/04/16/2007-04-16_pervert_tried_to_kill_her-2.html

www.nydailynews.com/news/crime_file/2007/04/16…

But I couldn’t disagree more with ‘Be careful what you post’ being the take-away message - if we self-edit in pre-emptive fear of ‘contributing’ to misogyny by writing about it, we’re sunk.

Here, here! Or is it “Hear, hear!” ? Whatever the case, I wholeheartedly agree, LOL!

Maybe they are, maybe they’re not. Some of them probably are. Many of them are not.

But I couldn’t disagree more with ‘Be careful what you post’ being the take-away message - if we self-edit in pre-emptive fear of ‘contributing’ to misogyny by writing about it, we’re sunk.

How do y’all know what search strings are being used? Do the engines pass them along to you somehow?

This is a bit disconcerting, to say the least.

If you have a stat counter on your site, depending on what type or version you have it gives you different information on site visitors. The one I use shows referral links and that’s where the search terms show up, for engines like msn.com, google.com, yahoo.com, etc. Or for blog search engines like Technorati, blog catalog and others.

Sometime’s it’s context. I’ve had the word, “nappy” show up in a racist context several times for search terms but if I see “nappy” “Baltimore” for example, then I know that it’s someone probably looking for information on the controversial hair style bans implemented by Baltimore Police Department that disproportionately affect African-American officers and they get the link for my postings on that issue.

Recently, my women’s studies class was given the assignment to find out about working conditions for women in our campus community, and the college’s administration shockingly shot the whole assignment to the ground rather than bring it up with the professor. The administration assumed we were digging for conspiracies, which we weren’t.

At any rate, this guy could easily be searching blogs for information. In fact, my commenting (aside from personal interest) is part of an assignment for women’s studies where we had to follow a blog all semester. Besides, I don’t think your common variety rapist does research before committing such a crime. Then again, I’m no expert…

This is a bit disconcerting, to say the least.

I don’t write much about pornography.

The strange and sad thing is that you don’t have to write about it at all to get sexually based search terms to bring people to your site.

I wrote on the racist, sexist and homophobic email scandal involving a police department in Washington state. For several days after, I had visitors from all over the world finding that article through the search terms, “arab sex videos”, which had nothing to do with the post or my blog. Occasionally “sexual positions” and other similar language will bring them there.

But like you, many of the search terms used do match what’s on my site.

-Rape them
-Batter and abuse them
-Murder them and throw their bodies into garbage dumpsters

Why should this man who wrote to you think any different?

We live a rape/murder glorified culture that celebrates the destruction of women.

And people wonder why Don Imus (”nappy-headed hos”), Enema (”all black women are bitches”), and so many men think and go out of their way to practice femicide against women.

This is a society that considers women as expendable and that women are to live only to serve the purposes of men.

As for rape, of course this man would think what he does.

With the way women are treated in this society when they are raped, it is a wonder that ANY woman would come forward to report rape.

Women’s lives are held in so little regard in this country.

That we are able to get up and face each day and carry on is a testament to our inner strength and fortitude.