Rebecca Watson will be doing a panel discussion for SXSW about Reddit this coming Friday which will probably focus on sexism. My problem with that is that Rebecca Watson is an extremely disingenuous person who is doing a great disservice to the cause of equality for women.
What is the basis of my claim that Rebecca Watson is a disingenuous person? How is she doing a disservice to the cause of equality for women?
There are many incidents which many people believe demonstrate Watson’s manipulative and dishonest character but for this article I will focus on one incident which I believe is a smoking gun which should leave no doubt in anyone’s mind that Rebecca Watson is a liar. I will then make a brief statement about how her behavior is horrible rather than beneficial to women.
Rebecca Watson wrote an article called “Twitter Users Sad To hear They May Be Rapists.”
http://skepchick.org/2012/12/twitter-users-sad-to-hear-they-may-be-rapists
It is ostensibly about the heinous responses she received in response to two supposedly non-controversial tweets.
If you have sex w/ someone who is drunk, they are unable to consent & that is rape.—
Rebecca the Undead (@rebeccawatson) December 17, 2012
If you "took advantage" of someone who is unable to consent, it is rape. End of story.—
Rebecca the Undead (@rebeccawatson) December 17, 2012
In both her article and on Twitter, Watson implies that she meant “drunk” in a way that was reasonable and corresponded to legal standards and people were only questioning these tweets because because they were “assholes.”
I see I've blown a lot of minds. Here's a thought, assholes: don't ask me if your specific situation is rape. Ask the one you're fucking.—
Rebecca the Undead (@rebeccawatson) December 17, 2012
However the full conversation shows that Watson’s claim of reasonableness and legal relevance with regard to her use of the term “drunk” is a complete fabrication. She conveniently omitted important parts of the conversation which showed what she actually meant by “drunk.”
An important part of that conversation that Rebecca Watson conveniently omitted was an argument on Twitter, which occurred just before those two tweets, over whether a scene from “The Big Bang Theory” was rape. Rebecca’s understanding of the scene was informed by an outrageously exaggerated article which she found on Reddit which described Penny as “falling down drunk.” (See the video above to see how drunk Penny actually was)
Rebecca seemingly had the good sense to question if the show was really that bad.
OK so I don't watch Big Bang Theory because it's not funny, but WTF is it really this bad now? bit.ly/Wjvou7—
Rebecca the Undead (@rebeccawatson) December 17, 2012
Yet when people tried to explain to her that the article which claimed that there was a scene where Penny was drunk and Leonard raped her was an inaccurate distortion of an actual scene she abused them. (Read the Twitter conversation which I link to below)
One person sent her a link to the actual scene which the Reddit article falsely described.
After watching it Rebecca Watson decided that the scene was a ‘coinflip’ because of its poor acting.
Terrible acting & writing makes this one a coinflip to me RT @_vulpecula_: the Penny/Leonard clip is bit.ly/TWypKQ—
Rebecca the Undead (@rebeccawatson) December 17, 2012
This in turn led to someone responding that the scene was absolutely not rape (because it wasn’t rape in any legal sense or in any other sense) and that feminism is about taking responsibility for one’s own actions (which isn’t really that controversial.)
@rebeccawatson absolutely not rape. People are responsible for their decisions. Feminism means empowering women to make their own decisions.—
Chris Davison (@chrisdavison85) December 17, 2012
Rebecca then stated that if a person is drunk they are not able to legally consent.
@chrisdavison85 Drunk people are not able to legally consent.—
Rebecca the Undead (@rebeccawatson) December 17, 2012
However her claim is patently false. If you watch the video it is absolutely clear that Penny was not drunk in a legally applicable sense. Thus simply because Penny was “drunk” doesn’t make Leonard a rapist.
Rebecca then retweeted that person’s follow up comment and then wrongly claimed that it’s one example of the supposedly horrible responses she was receiving from people on Twitter.
@rebeccawatson Sex isn't a legal contract and is not in of itself a crime. The initiation of the act was entirely on her part, her choice.—
Chris Davison (@chrisdavison85) December 17, 2012
I gotta say, some of these responses (eg prev RT) are horrible. Regardless of whether or not there was a rape in BBT, you need to know this:—
Rebecca the Undead (@rebeccawatson) December 17, 2012
Then her next two tweets are the ones that I started this article with; which were the subject of her article about the supposedly awful responses she received in response to her supposedly reasonable tweets.
Somebody asked her what all the fuss was about and she said it was just a bunch of men upset because they aren’t allowed to have sex with women when they are blotto.
O you know, just a bunch of people SO MAD bc they're not allowed to have sex w/ someone who's blotto. RT @Neoriceisgood: What happened?—
Rebecca the Undead (@rebeccawatson) December 18, 2012
Let me Google that for you.
Define:Blotto
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=define%3Ablotto
I think I’ve done enough to show that Rebecca Watson is a liar. Rebecca Watson might think that her work is clever, edgy and progressive. Though she also might simply enjoy trolling people for the lulz. Either way, I think that treating a serious topic such as rape in such a dangerously frivolous manner is horrible.
—
To fully understand what is going on here you may need to review a few resources.
1. The short transcript of the scene so you understand that the Youtube video and the description of that scene which was posted on Reddit are about the same scene.
http://bigbangtrans.wordpress.com/series-3-episode-23-the-lunar-excitation/
I paste binned the important parts of that transcript.
2. The YouTube video which Rebecca Watson watched after individuals on Twitter told her that the Reddit article wasn’t accurate. Linked to above in the tweets.
3. The Reddit article which prompted Rebecca’s discussion and debate about the relationship between alcohol consumption and consent. Linked above.
http://www.reddit.com/r/feminisms/comments/1501mk/getting_tired_of_the_big_bang_theory/
4. The SkepChick article which is sensationally entitled “Twitter Users Sad To Hear They Might Be Rapists.” This is the article which contains egregious and blatant lies about the discussion she had on Reddit.
http://skepchick.org/2012/12/twitter-users-sad-to-hear-they-may-be-rapists/
5. You should also review the Twitter conversation which Rebecca lied about.
I summarize it in this article but I also have a post which shows most of the important aspects of the conversation.
http://culturecritic9.wordpress.com/2013/03/06/twitter-conversation-revealing-rebecca-watsons-lies/
It would be even better if you went to @rebeccawatson ‘s Twitter account and reviewed her Tweets for Dec 17th. (Honestly, it’s not that hard to do.)
Keep on fighting the good fight, eventually someone will listen.
Thanks.
Ugh. These people are absolutely disgusting and the fact that she is being invited to “represent” Reddit at a major event like that is just sad.
Agreed. It’s kind of scary too.
I wish I has read this before I ended the SXSW event… ugh it was disgusting. Every person on the panel took turns portraying Reddit as a cesspool of hate with no redeeming qualities. By the end of the session the audience was clearly turning on them and when someone tried to say there are some good things about Reddit, the sexist girl cut him off and said he was being “rude” by saying good things about Reddit. The whole talk was just a disturbing, misplaced, angry rant.
Thank you. I can’t imagine it was very balanced. Adrian Chen once tried to prove that Reddit was sexist by posing as a dying cancer patient. Douche move. It upset some cancer patients that confided in him. He didn’t prove anything because he wasn’t asking for money but the cancer girl who reddit was skeptical of did ask for money. They should have been skeptical for that very reason but Chen wants people to think that their skepticism proves that Reddit is sexist. I think it just proves that Chen is a liar and a douchebag.
I don’t know if Chen and Watson are coming from a place of anger. I think they are both liars and trolls.
It was probably an ugly experience and I pity the people at that conference who were subjected to their abuse.
Yes, but…. Adrian Chen never impersonated someone with cancer on Reddit.
I’m not sure if you are trying to bait an argument. This link is to a story about how Chen impersonated a cancer victim.
http://www.urlesque.com/2011/03/10/gawker-adrian-chen-cancer-lucidending/
Umm…
http://www.urlesque.com/2011/03/10/adrian-chen-reddit-cancer-hoax-followup/
I wonder how Rebecca Watson would describe it when two persons have sex after having a bottle of wine together or two (which I think is a very common phaenomenon).
Mutual rape?