If you want to see what car crash Twitter looks like, look no further than the account of US journalist Will Saletan, who spent his weekend getting absolutely dunked on by half the website so some tone-deaf comments.
To fully understand the story, we first need to highlight Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Waters, whose steadfast refusal to let Trump‘s treasury secretary avoid answering a direct question went viral.
https://twitter.com/SarahLerner/status/890984776592572416
Inspired like so many others with Waters’ repeated use of “reclaiming my time”, Saletan decided to use this as a parenting lesson about teaching one’s daughters to say “no”.
https://twitter.com/saletan/status/891328604356956163
It’s a dumb, awful argument that’s at the heart of rape culture, putting the onus on women to say “no” (and supposedly in a way that men can understand??) instead of on men to not overstep boundaries in the first place.
This was very, very quickly pointed out to Saletan, who made the astoundingly brave decision to, er, ignore it all.
https://twitter.com/FakeEmily65/status/891329727817949184
You’ve witnessed “many” women being raped/sexually assaulted?
— Caroline Orr Bueno, Ph.D (@RVAwonk) July 29, 2017
Insufficient according to whom?
— Caroline Orr Bueno, Ph.D (@RVAwonk) July 29, 2017
So it’s the woman’s fault that saying “no” isn’t enough to stop a man?
— Caroline Orr Bueno, Ph.D (@RVAwonk) July 29, 2017
You are promoting a toxic normative belief that perpetuates the tolerance of rape. It’s literally an item on the Rape Myth Acceptance Scale.
— Caroline Orr Bueno, Ph.D (@RVAwonk) July 29, 2017
You just gave advice about how women should respond in “rape context” based on your observations of women in “conversation context.”
— Caroline Orr Bueno, Ph.D (@RVAwonk) July 29, 2017
No to this tweet. I mean business. https://t.co/xrJelMiZzh
— Cameron Esposito (@cameronesposito) July 29, 2017
Saletan responded to the widespread dunking by doubling down on his argument.
I wrote that girls should be taught to assert themselves, like Maxine Waters. What happened next on Outrage Twitter won’t surprise you. https://t.co/3FBNodWJkv
— Will Saletan (@saletan) July 29, 2017
Spare me the piety about victim blaming. I want my daughter to hold her ground as Waters did when a boor like Mnuchin pushes her. That’s it. https://t.co/dsT8RiR9Gx
— Will Saletan (@saletan) July 29, 2017
TBH, the whole thing can be summarised here.
https://twitter.com/SarahLerner/status/891424750450335744
2. This is one reason why a lot of women have trust issues with men who think they’re helping.
— John Scalzi (@scalzi) July 30, 2017
If you’re going to ‘woke feminist ally’ all over the place, at least have the common sense to actually listen to women.
