High School Gets a "Rape Culture"

As much as I thought high school sucked, I never had to deal with even a whisper of rape happening at parties around me.  Of course, I can't be sure whether that's because no one talked about being raped or because girls weren't really getting raped.

Well, just down the Peninsula at Palo Alto High School, a group of female journalism students have taken the bull by the proverbial horns - their latest publication, Verde magazine, exposes the "rape culture" that persists at "Pali":

Aside from the rude awakening that results generally from becoming aware that there is so much rape and grey rape happening at this relatively affluent high school,  it's painful to consider the numerous girls who are now scarred, but it becomes even more painful as you hear what the journalism class' follow-up surveys of students reveal.  Among other shocking findings: 

-57% of Palo Alto High School students surveyed - FIFTY SEVEN PERCENT - believed that certain women are more likely to be raped than other women because of their "promiscuous" behavior

- 26% thought if a woman gets drunk and is raped, she is responsible for what happened.

Those stats were not separated by gender.  But, ye gods, is this mentality truly the result of growing up in one of the most technologically progressive, affluent, and liberal areas in the country?  How could this happen?  How could a clear majority of students believe that promiscuity in one circumstances is a free pass for sexual assault in another?

I have one answer, and it's a sad one: These kids are spouting the exact same worldviews of Renaissance Italian nobility, of the Spanish Inquisition, of Roman Empire ideals of masculinity and gender responsibility.  The same cultures that decided it wasn't a crime to rape one's wife, even in a world of arranged marriages between strangers.  The same cultures that couldn't fathom allowing women to own property.  So, while we've managed to change SOME of the laws that supported gender discrimination in this way, we have not managed, after 2000 or so years, to correct the misconceptions about sexual responsibility that created those laws in the first place.

If I have any high school readers, please take note:  Your attire or your past behavior, sexy or boring, is never a free pass for someone to rape you.  Boys have the responsibility to control their urges no matter how you are dressed and no matter how drunk either of you is.  We can all stem the tide of unfortunate happenings in our lives with slightly less rambunctious drunkenness, it's true.  But the fact that you're drunk isn't a license to take advantage of you either.  When men respect women as equals and humans, this idea that women must take the first blow for anything that happens simply because they are one of two drunk persons evaporates.  It's important for you to recognize that you're not responsible or this, because if you think you are responsible you are demonstrably less likely to report the crime against you.  If you don't report the crime, the offender and his friends will continue to think they can freely rape all over your school.  If you don't speak up, other girls suffer - so many already have, it seems -, and that in itself should be sufficient to show you that what's happened before is not your fault.

It's a sad day in Palo Alto.

Dinah Shore and the mystery of Mariah

It's 4AM Sunday morning, and I'm walking the halls of the Hilton with four lesbians I've never met before.  Looking around, it seemed the common thing to be doing in that Palm Springs Hilton - so much so that my random group was beckoned into at least three different parties.

"Mariah"

Earlier on Saturday, I'd bitten the bullet and paid the hefty price of admission to the Hilton's "official Dinah Shore" pool party.  This was a party San Francisco would have if it were warm enough - predominantly nude queers dancing the day drinking away, almost.  From my perch at the edge of the pool, I enjoyed an excellent view of girls dancing in bathing suits, girls making out in the pool, and a slightly older new friend named Denise just letting it all hang out.  By the way, we love you, Denise.  My dear shy friend (#3 in my ages-old list of flexible sexuality fiends) even managed to make out with a random girl in front of her girlfriend.

A very kind PE teacher sitting beside me explained that a woman name "Mariah" had hooked her up...

After all that, a fruitless quest for a dispensary open at 7PM, and a nap, Shy #3 and I ventured out to meet a hot tattoo girl we'd engaged earlier at the pool at the evening's party.  By midnight the party had clearly begun to dwindle (continuing drunken lez booty dancing notwithstanding), leaving copious space for Shy #3 to scope out (but fail to game on) a "hot basketball player chick" she was into.  We followed the tattoo girl back to the Hilton to begin wandering the halls.

To find who, what? Mariah! Tattoo girl knew her too.  At 4AM, some rather annoying lez details how she's avoiding Mariah because she "wasn't working this year." This Mariah seemed to be the key to getting into anything Dinah at a reasonable price.  Google suggests this is Mariah Hanson of Club Skirts.  One of the random rooms we walked into had her in it; I know because I kept hearing people whisper "Mariah."  But I still don't know what she looks like.

Anybody know where this mystery Mariah can be found? Fifty dollar reward...

Big Gay Jesus?

The blogosphere has produced a particularly entertaining viral piece asserting that one scholar reads a fourth-century gospel to indicate that Jesus was gay.

credit: Kersplebedeb.com

So, I took it upon myself to look up the Gospel of Judas Iscariot itself and have a look-see.  Now, I can turn almost anything into a gay metaphor, but I'll be damned if I could find one even indirect suggestion in this text of any Messianic homosexual behaviors.  Still, I love the idea of Big Gay Jesus so much I've decided to explore reasons why we might suppose Jesus was gay.

1. We know Jesus lived in a Roman province, and that means the laws of his home country would not have addressed homosexual behaviors at all.  Many, if not most, Romans would be termed "bisexual" under our modern definition of the term.  You know the saying, "When in Rome..."

2. Jesus died unmarried at 32 (roughly).  Well, if you're the prophet of a religion that so strongly encourages marital procreation (ahem), how could you not be married?  There is of course the argument that he really was married to Mary Magdalene (cite: Dan Brown).  Well, you can't have it both ways, Christians!  Was he a nice married boy whose relationship was rejected by you for some unknown reason, or did he just not fancy the ladies so much?  We only hear about one woman in his life...

3. Disciples, twelve of them, all dudes.  Sounds a lot like Peter Thiel.  Did Jesus also buy an island off the coast to play with his boys?

4. The Last Supper.  Thesis: ya'll eat my body!  Frankly, that sounds like a Saturday night show in the Castro.

5. But no, seriously, there's even shit in the Bible Constantine chose for us that can be read this way.  John 21:20: Then Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following; which also leaned on his breast at supper, and said, Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee?  Sounds mighty loving, there, Christ.

6.  The best excluded Gospel for our purposes, according to  US Biblical scholar Morton Smith, is a fragment of manuscript he found at the Mar Saba monastery near Jerusalem in 1958. What he found said in Chapter 10 of Mark (Verses 34-35):

And the youth, looking upon him (Jesus), loved him and beseeched that he might remain with him. And going out of the tomb, they went into the house of the youth, for he was rich. And after six days, Jesus instructed him and, at evening, the youth came to him wearing a linen cloth over his naked body. And he remained with him that night, for Jesus taught him the mystery of the Kingdom of God.

So, Jesus was "gay" with a twink fetish?  There seems to be as much biblical suggestion that Jesus was intimate with men as with women.  I'm pegging him at a 4.5 on the Kinsey scale, cause we don't see the intimacy of the Gospel of Mark with any ladies anywhere in the Good Book, do we...?