TW: Rape
Rapists and would-be rapists are opening up about “the other side of the story” — theirs — on a massive Reddit thread about the motivations behind sexual assault. The conversations range from exasperating to disturbing, and the whole of it may make you want to roll your eyes in disgust. But you shouldn’t dismiss the thread as mere rape apologia. There’s plenty of that, sure, but there’s also a lot more to it.
Yesterday, a Redditor solicited stories of sexual assault from assailants. “Reddit’s had a few threads about sexual assault victims, but are there any redditors from the other side of the story?” he asked. “What were your motivations? Do you regret it?”
Given the disturbingly high amount of men’s rights activists and rape apologist Redditors — arecent Reddit thread counted the many, many ways the site is “anti-women” — it’s easy to see why some would be skeptical about the possibility for productive discussion. “In other words: Yeah, yeah, enough about rape victims, let’s hear from the REAL VICTIMS here: the POOR MENZ,” Shit Reddit Says lamented. A commenter added, “The thought that my rapist is PROBABLY a redditor and could very well be getting patted on the back RIGHT NOW by HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE for relating how rough raping me was for him is making me literally nauseous.”
