And neither should general assholery. I do get that people want to defend Julian Assange, Michael Moore, and Keith Olbermann. These are men who have done good things in exposing corruption and greed wherever it lurks and in fact I have seen Michael Moore's films and am a faithful watcher of Countdown. But I take serious issue in how they are handling the Assange case, as if his work at Wikileaks should automatically cancel out the likelihood that Assange could be a grade A asshole when it comes to women.
Now, obviously, Assange should get his day in court. But at the same time, his female accusers should not be maligned as "liars" and the charges against him should not be so belittled (especially as Sweden is light years ahead when it comes to victims of sexual assault than we are here) as "hooey". Yes, it is tempting to believe that this could all be a conspiracy, especially considering the explosiveness of the most recent Wikileaks cables and the timing of Assange's arrest. But we should not also forget that rape apologia and the rape culture are the reasons why rape is the most under-reported crime because victims are scared (and rightfully so) of coming out and reporting the crime, especially doubly so if the perpetrator happens to be someone well known in the world stage or extremely wealthy and powerful enough (director Roman Polanski coming to mind here). By all means, allow the defendant his day in court, and let a jury convict or set him free of their own volition, but do not malign the women who brought the charges in the first place.
The reason I post this is that Keith Olbermann (I follow him on Twitter) has temporarily suspended his Twitter account because of the backlash for his interview with Michael Moore in which much rape apologia was splayed out for all the world to see. As a rape survivor, it saddened me to see two men that I admired in otherwise good work to misrepresent the sexual assault charges against Julian Assange.
I don't however, feel anger towards them, mostly just disappointment. I mostly blame the rape culture for their unfortunate statements and a society that just doesn't seem to fully understand that rape is not about sex, but about power and that it doesn't always have to be violent in order to be considered rape.