Ashlyne Lawrence
In October 2017, Carl
Gallups, a right-wing Christian pastor, had
a conversation with Mike Shoesmith about how when women dress in
provocative ways, this should be considered chemical sexual assault against
men. Mike Shoesmith stressed that when men see women partially dressed or naked
they get an involuntary chemical reaction that gives them a surge of pleasure.
Shoesmith said, "men are in a state of constant sexual assault by women
who either don't understand the severity of what they're doing because it's
cute and they like the attention or worse they do know the feeling it stirs and
they like the control they have over men" (Gallups, 2017). I believe
Gallups and Shoesmith are not right in saying that women are to blame and
responsible for this "chemical sexual assault". This conversation
also perpetuates harmful stereotypes to both women and men. Not only does this
perpetuate the rape myth that women would have been able to prevent their
sexual assault if they had not worn what they wore, it also makes men appear to
be incompetent and incapable of controlling their sexual urges when they are
around women. This is telling women that they need to be conscious of what they
are wearing so they do not further hurt the male by denying him sex. This also
makes women seem to be manipulative and that they only want to control men for
their own interests. But, the large majority of women are not dressing solely
to manipulate men or for the attention they get from it. They just wear these
outfits because that is what they like to wear.
Gallups then goes on to
say that if a male were to be working in an office setting, where professional
dress was expected, and he happened to change into more sexually explicit
clothing there would be claims of sexual assault or harassment from the women
who work with him. But, Gallups contradicts himself here because he says
"women are not nearly as visually stimulated as men as a whole"
(Gallups, 2017), with science backing this claim up later on. If women are
nearly as visually stimulated as men, wouldn't there be zero sexual assault
claims? The only reason there would be any sexual assault or
harassment claims is if this male touched any of the women in a way they did
not want.
Now, Gallups and
Shoesmith both claim they are not excusing the things men have done both in
this conversation and a
blog post, respectively. But, the content they provide in these mediums say
otherwise. Gallups and Shoesmith seem to be unintentionally excusing male's behavior
as not being able to help it. Putting Kimmel in conversation with Gallups and
Shoesmith, I believe that he would disagree that this should be a form of
"chemical sexual assault". I believe he would say that men are
socialized to be extremely sexual and with more women claiming and being open
with their sexuality this puts men at odds with what they've been taught.
Specifically in the US, our society has told us that women shouldn't be upfront
and open about sex and their sexuality. Kimmel says, "Women's sexual
agency...is drowned out by the incessant humming of male desire. A man's job is
to wear down her resistance. Sometimes that hum can be so loud that it drowns
out the actual voice of the real live woman that he's with. Men suffer
from socialized deafness, a hearing impairment that strikes only when women
say no" (Kimmel, 2005). I believe the importance in this statement is when
Kimmel says that men suffer from socialized deafness because,
this implies that men are not to blame for this deafness, but the society that
taught them this is. A lot of our assumptions about people in the world are
learned. They are not things that we have been born with. I believe men might
be given this release of dopamine and serotonin when they see a woman who they
are attracted to, but men also can have control over this
feeling. It should not give them anguish unless sex is all they think about and
they have no other personality features aside from the fact that they want to
have sex when they see a sexy woman.
The fact that Gallups and
Shoesmith are having this conversation is important, though. It is important
that we critique (and agree with) each other on ideas that we present the
world. This critique of thought is important in reversing what we have been taught
that is hurting our society. This is important in starting conversation to move
to a more equal community.
References
Gallups, C., & Shoesmith, M. (2017, October). RWW
news: Carl Gallups says women are sexually assaulting men by dressing provocatively. Right
Wing Watch. Podcast retrieved from https://soundcloud.com/rightwingwatch/rww-news-carl-gallups-says-women-are-sexually-assaulting-men-by-dressing-provocatively
Kimmel, M., (2005). Men, masculinity, and the rape
culture. In E. B. Editor, P. F. Editor, & M. R. Editor (Revised Edition), Transforming a rape
culture (pp. 141-157). United States of America: Milkweed Editions.
Shoesmith, M., (2017, October 19). The woman-on-man
sexual assault epidemic! More serious than
you might think! Retrieved from https://ppsimmons.blogspot.ca/2017/10/the-woman-on-man-sexual-assault.html
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