Germaine Greer's monstrously barbaric idea of a Web site where women can name their 'rapists'

That old feminist dragon Germaine Greer is at it again, this time, with an idea so monstrously barbaric that it merits no serious consideration -- a website where women name their "rapists."  See here.

First, let's briefly mention how this idea was raised.  At a speaking event, Greer was asked to comment about the recent female college grad's "fuck list," where a young woman named Karen Owen rates her sexual encounters with a number of male college athletes, complete with names, photos, and penile descriptions.

Greer said she did not regard the idea as "very female at all."

"It's a website where you talk about what it's like to get off with someone in terms of the size of his tackle. That's not what women are interested in."

Allow me to pause while I clean up the coffee I've just spit out.  "That's not what women are interested in"?  This, from the woman who, when she was 64 years old, posed with an 18-year-old nude male model on a television special that celebrated her book "The Boy."  Greer argued in that show, and her book, that traditionally the figure of the young male represents the ultimate in human beauty. Women, she posited, should be encouraged to look to boys for pleasure. "There are many ways in which a boy is an ideal fantasy partner for a woman."  Apart from being "easier to manage", he has more staying power in bed than an older man, she argued.  After all, she said, the sperm of a teenage boy "flows like tap water."  In the special, Greer visited an art class where the young male model posed nude for female art students. 

The "fuck list" is tame compared with the depravity of suggesting it is wholly proper for women to lust after teen boys' bodies.

But, if the "fuck list" isn't very female, what is?  Hang onto your hats.

"I wish there were an online rapists' register and that it was kept up to date, because we know the courts can't get it right.  When I say that to people, they get so scared, and say 'Oh you can't. What about privacy?'  Years ago I knew we would never get convictions in a court of law for date rape, so I suggested women kept an online dossier, so if a woman had a date with a guy and he did something to her, or frightened her, and she asked him to stop and he didn't, then instead of going to the police she should put him online.  Other women could check this dossier, look up a guy and see that he has form. Then she can say no, or if she does go, goes knowing it's a high risk strategy."

She continued: "I don't think a sexual bully should go to jail for seven years but a couple of months' community service wearing a t-shirt with the word 'rapist' on it would be good.  As it is we get nothing. They are still walking around and doing what they have done the whole time. 'There is always one guy, say at a university who gets through lots of girls like a knife through butter."

"What I suggest is that women keep an online diary and put on it if a man goes too far. Others can then check his 'form'. You want to be able to say 'avoid him because you will come out of the encounter feeling dirty.' 

Such a register, she insisted, would prevent rapes and sex assaults taking place more effectively than the legal system, which simply locks up a small minority of men who are convicted.

So exactly what's wrong with this idea? 

How much time do you have?

For starters, the fact that this Web site supposedly will help stop rapists does not excuse the incalculable harm it will do to the presumptively innocent men and boys falsely accused of rape.

How is it somehow acceptable to allow any woman or girl to unilaterally accuse, libel, and destroy any man or boy by branding him a "rapist" without even the pretense of due process?  With this new Web site, the trial for the hapless male would be over before it has begun. With one click of the computer's "enter" key, he would be convicted in the court of last resort -- the hearts of the general public -- because people would always assume, or at least seriously wonder, if he's a rapist simply because he was named. He likely will never get a decent job, or marry, or even live in peace in a decent neighborhood. He will be damaged goods, always and forever, until the day he dies. All because a lone woman or girl decided to destroy him and society allowed her to do it.

As every reader of this blog also knows, men and boys falsely accused of rape have been beaten and killed and have killed themselves; they’ve been fired from their jobs and lost their businesses; they’ve suffered from depression; they’ve lost their wives, their girlfriends and have been permanently alienated from their friends. Rarely do they ever come out of it whole, and for many, the ghost of a false rape claim trails them for the rest of their lives.

We need to be talking about granting anonymity to men and boys accused of rape until conviction, not naming and shaming -- and destroying -- them in this barbaric manner.

Greer's insane suggestion flows from a mindset that women don't lie about rape, which is simply rubbish.