daterape.org: advocacy or satire (fwd)

[Heiko Recktenwald <uzs106@ibm.rhrz.uni-bonn.de>]

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It is interesting to note the split between those who think that
daterape.org is advocating date rape, and those who think it is
satire (along the lines of Swift's ``Modest Proposal'' for those
of you who also frequent the C18 List).

In support of the position that daterape.org is intended as satire,
I would cite the following passage from the daterape.org home page:

  A beautiful essay was written by Venom Online about the page.
  This essay couldn't express my feelings any better. Here it is, check
  it out.

And then I would quote from that essay, which appears at
<http://www.venomonline.com/fucking_feminists.htm>.

  I wish I had never seen the Daterape site.

  I wish I had never seen it, not because it offended me, not because I
  was outraged, not because I think it promotes its subject, but because
  I am male.

  For me, rape is a problematic topic and one that I have avoided on
  this site until now. I am male, and the chances of me being raped
  are, thank God, a lot less than for women. Do I have any idea of the
  feelings a woman who has been raped has? Do I have any idea of the
  post-event trauma that an ordeal like that has? I would say to all of
  those questions a resounding 'no', because I am male. In that case,
  do I have the right to discuss it? Well, yes, I think I do.

  By now you will no doubt be aware of the Daterape site that has been
  given more than ample coverage in the press. The site claims to be a
  tool for learning how to 'properly daterape a girl'. Outraged? Okay. You
  should be. Want it taken down immediately?  You shouldn't. The site is,
  quite obviously a satire . . . , designed to bring a much needed light
  upon a much ignored subject. Does it work? I think so. Yet the majority
  of people who see the Daterape site demand it be taken down. Now! It
  is, they say, not a topic to be satirised, to be made fun of.

  Rubbish.

  . . . .

  Forget ranting about the site, forget sending hate mail to the owners of
  the site and the web hosts. Start discussing the subject itself. Talk
  about it, write letters about it, make web sites about it. Make the
  subject known and it is a beginning to an end. Do that, and you will
  be doing something.

Do you still think that the site described in this ``beautiful essay''
is actually advocating date rape?

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