THIS IS BASICALLY MATERNAL OP-ED-RAPE: Jody Allard: My teen boys are blind to rape culture.
“Oh boy,” my son said, rolling his eyes. “Not rape culture again.”
We were sitting around the dinner table talking about the news. As soon as I mentioned the Stanford sexual assault case, my sons looked at each other. They knew what was coming. They’ve been listening to me talk about consent, misogyny and rape culture since they were tweens. They listened to me then, but they are 16 and 18 now and they roll their eyes and argue when I talk to them about sexism and misogyny.
“There’s no such thing as rape culture,” my other son said. “You say everything is about rape culture or sexism.”
I never imagined I would raise boys who would become men like these.
I’m proud of them. And you’re a terrible mother to write this column. Especially stuff like this: “And in this broken system, anyone who isn’t with us is against us. Particularly, and especially, men. Even my own sons — even yours. It’s not enough to teach our sons about consent; we have to encourage them to have the courage to speak out against rape culture, too.”
You’re a feminist activist first, and a mother second. You should drop to your knees and give thanks that your boys still speak to you, if, in fact, they still do after this column.