INKOLLO SONG IS A RAPE APOLOGIST, VICTIM BLAMER AND AN EMBODIER OF RAPE CULTURE

tw Rape Culture, Rape Apology, Victim Blaming

Cheers everyone! Been a while since I posted, but I find this something that needs to be said.

Earlier today the comic book artist known as Song Inkollo (Instagram | Tumblr) posted a vile strip on “his truth” as he called it about Weinstein sexual harassment scandal. Now, Inkollo has made himself a small cozy niche as a proud gay mak making comic strips about his life as one. I think that considering the big problem that misogyny is in the gay comunity something like this must be addressed.In it he hits pretty much all the bulletpoints for trash person, gay man who believes that because he’s gay he can speak for women, judge over their lived experiences:

- Bictim blaming

- Rape apology

- Rape culture

- “Fake feminists”

- #NotAllMen

I’m currently only in posession of screencaps of the strip gathered from Instagram users who helped me- I GOT THE CAPTION. he claims it was Instagram that took it down, but one has to wonder since I flagged it and got back a negative response from them, not to mention it was taken down in less than 6 hours, which would be a record. His caption was even more hateful.

If you head over his IG and read the comments on his newest post (that he posted immediately after deleting “his truth”) you’ll see come of the fallback from those who were fast enough to catch the last strip.

If you or someone you know happens to be a patron on his Patreon, I would strongly recommend you revoke your support for someone that not only speaks hate and perpetuates hate towards women, but has also reacted with hostility and name calling when he got rightfully called out, no matter how well-worded, diplomatically reasonable the calling out.

What’s the difference here?

The first woman is a real human being. She controls her own body and has her own personality. She has control over her own actions and can make autonomous decisions in her life. She also has to directly deal with the people around her and the bigotry, stereotyping and harassment that she is exposed to. She is real, she has emotions, she has thoughts, and she has rights. 

The second woman is fictional. She was created by other people who exert full control over her body, appearance and actions. Her sole purpose is to be literally bought and sold for the entertainment of an audience. She cannot make her own decisions, she cannot control her own body and she is not real. She is not responsible for her behavior or appearance: She is the product of the environment that she was created in. 

The first woman, by virtue of being a human being who identifies with the feminist movement and acts in accordance to those beliefs, is therefore a feminist. She is actively participating in feminism and is choosing to dress herself in a manner of protest that best demonstrates that she alone controls her body, and that no others have a right to access her body without her consent. She is a multi-faceted person who has agency, and part of that agency includes the ability to look sexy while refusing to consent to her own dehumanization. Her actions are not only one small part of what makes her a person, but she is also participating within a cultural trend of protesting rape culture. 

The second woman, because she is not autonomous and was designed by a series of outsiders, is sexist because she is the passive product of sexist content creators. She exists as an ornament. Her clothes were chosen as fan service so that she can be sexually available and gratifying at all times, most likely for straight male gamers. Her erotic appearance has little functional purpose other than to please an audience. And since she exists within an industry that is consistently criticized for ostracizing female participants and creating a large gap between the depictions of male and female characters, her appearance is simply one detail within a much larger array of sexist problems. 

Get it?

I swear the people who don’t understand this

It’s also worth noting as a corollary that the real person is more sensibly dressed- she’s wearing an actual bra, while the poor video game woman (Quiet from MGS5, BTW) is gallivanting around with a handkerchief tied over her boobs. This despite the fact that the real woman dressed for standing around, walking, and holding a sign in a protest that relies on her being dressed “sexily,” while Quiet is supposedly dressed for combat. If you try to treat Quiet as a human being within the context of the story, it instantly falls apart- she has no reason to dress like that, and a whole lot of reasons not to, starting with “running could actually be painful.”

Of course, the game isn’t out yet, and the director swears up and down that there’s a reason they designed her that way, so it’s possible the storyline will subvert all our expectations and redeem this character design. But right now all it tells us is that it’s more important for us to be able to see her skin than for her to avoid being covered in dirt and scraped by rocks, getting sunburned, being stung by insects or scorpions, or any of the other reasons you’d prefer to have clothes if you were fighting in the middle of the desert in Afghanistan, let alone being able to move comfortably (she’s got a significant wedgie when you see her render from other angles, and see above re: lack of breast support).

And like they said, it’s less about her design in particular and more about her design as part of a huge, huge pattern within the gaming industry. Check out bikiniarmorbattledamage sometime if you want to see the tip of the iceberg. (Speaking of which, here’s their thoughts on Quiet.)

Bolding mine.

Big thanks to the-exercist and downtroddendeity for the invaluable commentary!

~Ozzie 

Thought it’s time to bring back this comprehensive explanation of what constitutes of agency and why real people (like feminists attending slut walks) can actively choose to show up half-naked in public, while fictional characters (like Quiet) can not.

~Ozzie

more about agency on BABD

Really, this comes down to the same point: They don’t think women are actually people or that they should have agency of their own.

if anybody asks me why i hate men, i’m just gonna redirect them to this post.

it’s pretty fucking obvious that men only want to invest in breast cancer research to further degrade, objectify, and jerk off to body parts they already feel 100% entitled to. that’s what is at stake for them. 

what about the women whose “tatas” weren’t saved? how must they feel being surrounded by awareness ads that focus more on keeping women’s sexy-sexy-titties-to-continue-titillating-the-males than saving real life human beings and helping survivors? 

If anyone’s wondering, those posts came from here. It’s a forum for breast cancer support. Give it a read, and you’ll see how many women are outright abandoned by their husbands, sometimes after being married for decades, because their “tatas” couldn’t be saved.

This culture of “save the tatas” even goes as far as the doctor’s offices themselves. Most doctors request that the husband be present during surgical consultations, as though he has an equal say in the patient-professional discussion.

If the woman is single, as was my case, doctors have actually recommended postponing surgery until she finds a relationship, because “it could be nearly impossible to find someone who accepts it [your unnatural tatas] in years to come”. 

I’m 15 months post-mastectomy, and the date I had this past week was the first time since then that a guy hadn’t reacted negatively to my scars. The relief was so overwhelming that I was fighting back tears. When I told him —essentially warning him that my body wasn’t what he must be expecting — I felt so guilty; it seemed to have the same weight and shame as telling someone I had some sort of an incurable STI or a felony record.

I shouldn’t have felt that way. I should not be ashamed of choosing to live. 

Thank you for your important commentary! I hope you find someone who can love you for who you are and admire your strength as a survivor.

I saw a little girl today who was absolutely riveted by the life in the rotting seaweed around the harbour. I love seeing these little moments, because it takes me back to some of my first experiences as a ‘young naturalist’ of sorts.

[clipped]

I am finding it very interesting that over 2000+ people, presumably mostly women, have indicated over the past few hours that this experience resonates with them.

For those of you struggling to understand the connections I’ve made: this commercial actually lays it out quite well.

I am also finding it interesting that the only people objecting are young men (and this lone female anti-feminist blogger). Criticisms so far include: “are you sure that’s what you saw,” “you’re being dramatic,” “are you sure you’re not blinded by feminist bias,” “feminists say this to hurt boys,” “stop making everything into feminist propaganda,” “jesus christ not everything is social justice,” “this has nothing to do with gender,” and “this is economics.”

The thing is, I’m not pulling these connections out of thin air: I’m drawing on scholarship, my observations (data), and my own experiences, in that order.

I am wondering what it would take for me to be taken at my word about my perception of reality, and my academic background. In order to be objective, should I have a male witness come with me at all times, and notarise my observations? Should I get a male co-author to peer-review my life? I’m half-joking here.

(If you sincerely need a man to vouch for my rationality, my legal partner oz7am – scientist, electrical engineer, radio amateur, and most importantly, male person – will be happy to provide you with assurances that I am not suffering from hysteria.)

In all seriousness, I’m a person who spends about two hours a day photographing and doing some pretty detailed writing about plants. I took a break from regular programming to talk about this incident, because it took a long time for me to overcome some pretty noxious – and astonishingly similar – socialisation I received in my own upbringing, and really dive head first into applied science.

I’m not trying to have a conversation about laundry: I’m trying to talk about girlhood, because for many women, it was full of nebulous little moments of deprivation like these that are difficult to even see or comprehend when you haven’t lived them.

I don’t want young girls to have to overcome their stifling childhoods the way I did: I want their childhoods to be full of nature, adventure, play, and curiosity. I’m just trying to do my part to make a slightly better future.

i think it’s funny how men use myths of female inadequacy to cover for their own shortcomings. 

like how women are supposed to be horrible drivers, when four out of five serious or fatal crashes in new york are caused by male drivers and research shows that young men (18-24) have a tendency to take high risks, over-evaluate their driving skill and disrespect the rules. 

or how “women are stupid”, especially with regards to the debate of the wage gap, where men often claim that women earn less because they are less capable, when there are more women studying in higher educations, women are less likely to drop out of higher educations and are more likely to end up with a better degree than men. 

or how men claim that women talk too much, when research shows that men talk 65% of the time within the family and are more likely to talk in long monologues, whereas women more often offer commentary. Men also are more likely to interrupt; in fact, during a political debate, the former (female) minister of state in denmark was criticized in the media and made fun of for interrupting the current (male) minister of state too often - study found that he had interrupted her 28 times, whereas she only interrupted him 13 times.

or literally uncountable other scenarios. the truth is, male pride today is so inflated and builds on so many lies that it would be laughable - hadn’t it been for the fact that these things affect women’s lives every day. these jokes mean that white women earn 78 cents to a white man’s dollar. they mean that women can be ridiculed even for the things they haven’t done. they mean that women, as a gender, are assigned less worth even in the fields where they succeed. they mean that women, as a gender, are devalued and disrespected in every aspect of their professional and private lives. 

“Yes, being in a female dominated field, I do know what it means to be marginalized. “

oh

my

god

omg

oh my fucking god

The really ugly part is they’ve actually done multiple sociological studies on this, and guess what the result is? Men in female-dominated fields aren’t marginalized at all; they get special treatment and are fast-tracked to the top, getting more credit for their work, faster promotions, and greater pay and benefits than their female colleagues.

Here’s one study. Here’s another. And another.

^phenomenon known as the glass escalator

I highlighted some of my favorite bits. I love how men are CONSUMED by their certainty that feminism is actually all about them. Because everything MUST be. Or literally ruining the Earth, or literally tearing out our own DNA, I forget what our agenda is this week.

These feminists, much like the Orcs of Mordor

Me when I see a stray male who has wandered away from his flock:

phases of feminism:

phase 1 (100% patience): i’m all for equality, but women should stop with the mysandry… no to radical feminism!

phase 2 (80% patience): i’m all for equality, men are previledged, it’s unfair and i acknowledge this

phase 3 (0% patience): VALAR MORGHULIS

if only anti-feminists took rape even half as seriously as they take this supposed epidemic of false rape accusations maybe then as a society we could get justice for rape victims like ever

Because only feminists get raped or something?? This post is gross.

I never even approached saying that but okay

No, you’re just generalizing an entire group of people because they don’t label themselves the way you’d like. Lots of non-feminists have been raped, lots of non-feminists actively work to help rape victims AND to help teach proper consent. But guess what? False rape accusations are an issue, too, because they HARM rape victims. It’s possible to care about both simultaneously. Both ruin lives.

you have absolutely not only wildly missed the point of this post but you quite possibly proved it

The new Mad Max movie features a woman who is trying to help sex slaves in a post apocalyptic hellscape revolt against their masters and find a sanctuary where they can be free. There are men who are protesting this movie because they think it is feminist propaganda that promotes the idea of women killing men and making an all female utopia.

If you see liberation of sex slaves as a threatening idea, I think you transcend being simply anti feminist and are probably actively supporting sex slavery. To the people protesting this: you’re probably on a government watch list.

Feeling a tad reckless tonight, so I’m going to go all out with an unpopular opinion or three. I suppose I may lose followers, but… eh.

Going to put the Moffat part of this aside for the moment and focus on what Fink says above, because holy shit, it’s so fucking true it hurts.

Joss Whedon is not a feminist, and in fact has actually contributed to an entire generation’s corrupted idea of what feminism is. I won’t say he’s not talented. He has a gift for writing dialogue, and is fairly decent at plotting, too. I’m pretty darn happy with what he’s contributed to the MCU so far. But I am so freaking tired of him and his work being held up as some sort of great thing for women when he’s really no different from every other fanboy with a fetish for Badass Babes.  

1: He did not invent action heroines. 

Wonder Woman was kicking ass decades before he was even born. He also didn’t do anything new on TV when he did Buffy. As I posted about a couple of days ago, there were a TON of women heroes on TV in the ’70s and early ’80s before the Backlash kicked in. Buffy wasn’t even unique in her era. She debuted in a landscape that included Xena, Janeway, Ivanova, and many, many more. The only thing different about her is that she was a high school girl, which meant a lot of girls around the same age identified with her in a way they didn’t with the older women. But that still doesn’t make her groundbreaking. Saturday morning cartoons already had teen heroines way before she came along. 

2. He seems to be allergic to women who aren’t young and conventionally attractive.

Granted that this is a problem across all mass media, but only a handful of his female characters have been older than 35 without being someone’s mom or a very minor role. None of them have been fat or genuinely butch, either. He doesn’t allow his women to have power unless they’re also attractive.

3. The only queer characters he has are het-dude-fantasy friendly. 

Where are the queer men? Where are the older lesbians? Where are the queer women whose bodies and sexuality don’t appeal to straight guys? 

Again, this is a problem with all mass media, but someone who brags about being a feminist should know better. 

4. He has a thing for victimizing his women in titillating ways

Yes, he tortures most of his characters, when he’s not actually killing them off, but let me give you one image for Exhibit A: Naked River in a box. Ew. 

Generally speaking, Joss only writes women that he would personally want to fuck. The fact that his particular fetish is for women with combat and weapons skills doesn’t change that.

You want a truly feminist writer? Show me one who writes women who aren’t to his or her personal sexual taste and who also aren’t either stereotypical mother figures or one-note villains. Show me one who writes lesbians who don’t have sex scenes that look like something out of het-dude-aimed porn. Show me one who writes identifiable women of color, trans women, and women with disabilities. Luckily, we’re finally starting to get writers who do this, but they’re still rare, and almost non-existent among mass-distribution media. And they’re still not Joss Whedon. 

WHY IS THIS SO HARD TO UNDERSTAND

So for all you feminists out their who think that all men should die, remember, you are not a feminist.

reblogging for the last comment

Yes

Legit question, I’m not trying to hate on feminists or anything. Why is it called feminist if they’re for equality?

That’s a very good question and thank you for asking so politely. 

The word feminism was coined by Charles Fourier in 1837, a French philosopher who advocated for the emancipation of women because he believed society treated women as slaves. We weren’t allowed to vote, own anything, or work a real job. Women were ruled by their fathers/household patriarch until they married at which time they’d be under the rule of their husband. If a woman did not belong to male household she was shunned by society and had very little means to make money, most of them unsavory. You know the idiom “rule of thumb”? That comes from a running joke that started in the 1600s, and was still around in Fourier’s time, that said it was okay for a man to beat a woman with a stick as long as it wasn’t any thicker than his thumb. 

The point of the word feminist, and the feminist movement, has never been to say that women are better than men. The point is that women and things associated with women have been given a lesser place in society and we want to bring those things up to a place of equality. The focus is on the feminine because that’s what’s being pushed down. However, focusing on the feminine does not mean we’re focusing only women. Men are belittled and called “less of a man” anytime they portray a trait that is associated with femininity. If women and the feminine were equal to men and masculinity then that wouldn’t happen. Feminism is about raising up things associated with females to have an equal place in society as the things associated with males. It’s called feminism, not equalism, because the focus is on raising up not tearing down. Equalism would suggest that male things need to come down to a lower level so that female things can meet it in the middle. That’s not the point. The point is to raise up the feminine so that it’s on the same playing field that the masculine is already on. We don’t want men to lower themselves, we just want them to make room for us.

i wish men understood that when women are talking about feminism and rape culture and shit, it’s not just a political conversation. it’s not about being a “social justice warrior” or whatever. it’s about our actual lives being shaped by misogyny since childhood, and the daily reality of living in fear of violence. this isn’t a fucking game or philosophical debate. this is our fucking lives. 

this post is picking up like 100 notes per minute its outta control 

shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit

emasculation - lit. ‘turned into a woman basically’

Did I reblog this already? I don’t care

This is why there’s no feminine version of ‘emasculate’. There’s no power to take away.

all i’m saying is if an all-girls school crashed on the island in lord of the flies then they would’ve been off the island in a week

lord of the flies doesnt show the base human condition, it shows the base privileged straight white male condition, incredibly when i point this out people get kind of annoyed

Might I direct you to Beauty Queens by Libba Bray, a YA novel in which a plane full of teen beauty pageant contestants crashes on a deserted island.  Instead of descending into violent savagery, the girls are able to work together and become more truly themselves than they could in the patriarchal world outside.  They repurpose the tools of beauty into tools of survival (and some of them work to keep up their appearances too, because that’s what makes them feel happy, while others decide they’re done with all the pressure to be a certain sort of beautiful.)  They fight against evil corporations.  Beauty Queens is enthusiastically feminist.  (Never fear, the feminism is intersectional, exploring issues of race and sexuality as well as gender.)  Also, this book is HILARIOUS, not to mention surprisingly exciting!

Oh, look at this thing I’m going to add to my reading list.

srsly read Beauty Queens, one of the girls is trans!!!

I wish in 10th grade I had the language to talk about these dynamics. My book reporta/essays would’ve looked a lot different.

Lucy, When Worlds Collide: Fandom and Male Privilege  (via intensional)

This is so ridiculously important. 

(via comtessedebussy)

Interesting

(via bustysaintclair)

If you’re ok with using the word “feminazi” please just unfollow me. 

I don’t feel like reblogging the offending post, but I’m not kidding. 

Don’t disrespect either the feminist movement or the reality of the Holocaust that way. 

You think someone’s feminism is problematic, cool. Critique it. But don’t throw that word around. 

If someone is putting men down because they’re men I will call them a feminazi because it’s similar to what Hitler did - put groups of people down without any good explanation.

I’m sorry, by “putting men down” did you mean IN FUCKING GAS CHAMBERS????

Because I’m pretty sure you can’t equate feminism to THE BLOODY HOLOCAUST. 

You can’t even equate BAD feminism to the Holocaust. Because bad feminism hasn’t  KILLED MILLIONS OF PEOPLE. 

I’ll say it one more time: if you’re ok with using the word “feminazi” get out. You cannot equate the systematic obliteration of people with the desire for equality among the genders. 

Any woman who says she wants to destroy all men IS NOT A FEMINIST. So the contraction of “feminism” and “Nazi’ isn't appropriate by definition of either word. 

DON’T DISRESPECT THE SURVIVORS AND VICTIMS OF THE HOLOCAUST WITH SHITTY TERMINOLOGY.