Feminists are freaking out today after Rolling Stone magazine apologized for printing a story that had inspired protests and anger but now appears to be at least partly fabricated. When the story first came out feminists excoriated conservatives for daring to question the story that seemed incredible and inconsistent:
Wow, @JonahNRO, I’m curious when you last demanded that reporting on a burglary be independently corroborated by other outlets? Or a murder?
— Sally Kohn (@sallykohn) December 2, 2014
Now that the Rolling Stone has retracted the story, no apologies are forthcoming from bitter angry feminists who have to protect the rape narrative:
While aspects of UVA rape story now in question, still unsettles me that pouncing by skeptics mirrored sort of doubt rape victims often face
— Sally Kohn (@sallykohn) December 5, 2014
Interesting how rape apologists think that if they can “discredit” one rape story, that means no other rape stories can be true, either.
— Amanda Marcotte (@AmandaMarcotte) December 5, 2014
Recommend everyone who expects victims to have perfect memory sit down and construct, word for word, the last dinner conversation they had.
— Amanda Marcotte (@AmandaMarcotte) December 5, 2014
It really begs the question, what kind of dinner dates does Amanda Marcotte go on that she has to compare them to rape??! I don’t think I want to find out.
What I don’t get is if rape apologists are so sure rapes are hoaxes, why oppose investigating them and getting out that fact?
— Amanda Marcotte (@AmandaMarcotte) December 5, 2014
This is, in fact, the opposite of what happened in the UVA rape case.
Others are sad that the gang-rape seems fabricated – they’d feel better if a women were gang-raped for the sake of their precious rape narrative:
A terrible blow to both journalism and rape victims in one fell swoop. Devastating. #uva
— Vivian Schiller (@vivian) December 5, 2014
If the threshold for reporting on rape is 100% verifiable facts, there's going to be a lot less reporting on rape. And there's the point.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) December 5, 2014
Again, no one is saying that is the standard for proving rape, but they seem to say that the mere allegation should never be questioned.
The reason we believe her is because it sounds like a hundred, a thousand, a million other stories. Which have been wrongly disbelieved.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) December 5, 2014
Gang-rapes happen all the time, and the friends of the victims tell them to not go to the authorities because they don’t want to be unpopular. Millions of times.
This is my favorite:
I can't state this more emphatically: If Jackie's story is partially or wholly untrue, it doesn't validate the reasons for disbelieving her.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) December 5, 2014
Protect the narrative despite lack of evidence at all costs!!!
Irin is on MSNBC a lot, talking about the patriarchy:
It shouldn’t have taken one horrific story to get lots of people worked up about campus sexual assault. Problem is bigger than one story.
— Irin Carmon (@irin) December 5, 2014
It’s almost like she doesn’t even know the story is false… it just can’t be!
The shifting the blame onto the alleged victim in the RS article instead of taking it for themselves is so gross.
— Amanda Marcotte (@AmandaMarcotte) December 5, 2014
See, investigating rape allegations is “blaming the victim,” which is why we should just accept every allegation as true and imprison all men.
Here’s another freak out:
Well fuck you very much, @RollingStone
— Jessica Valenti (@JessicaValenti) December 5, 2014
I trust women.
— Jessica Valenti (@JessicaValenti) December 5, 2014
.@RollingStone: "our trust in her was misplaced." Kudos on throwing this young woman under the bus for your failures. Assholes.
— Jessica Valenti (@JessicaValenti) December 5, 2014
On @RollingStone: 1) This DOES NOT mean this woman lied about being raped – many victims have trouble recounting details of trauma
— Jessica Valenti (@JessicaValenti) December 5, 2014
2) What it does mean is that @RollingStone threw her under the bus to protect their own asses, after their own mistakes
— Jessica Valenti (@JessicaValenti) December 5, 2014
3) No matter what the truth is behind this story, rape survivors will suffer because of the @RollingStone's fuck up
— Jessica Valenti (@JessicaValenti) December 5, 2014
What’s amazing here is that feminists defended Rolling Stone’s terrible journalism when it supported their rape narrative, but now they’re actually blaming them for the thing they previously defended! That’s how deeply ingrained their political articles of faith are – they can contradict themselves with the ease of a rabid cultist.