I was reading this shoddy anti-feminist column on Fox News about the merits of legislation protecting prisoners (of both sexes) from rape, titled "Confronting Prison Rape." Don't ask me why I read Fox News -- I think it's because I like to get angry. In any case, there was this line towards the end of the column:

"Thus, it was the "anti-feminist" Concerned Women for America, and not NOW, who lobbied for the Prison Rape Elimination Act."

And then the article goes on to lambaste NOW for defending the rights of the female victims of rape and not the male victims, as well as defining rape as a gender crime and its victims as females.

To be clear, NOW is an organization for women. It defends the rights, or what its members believe to be the rights, of women. As we all now know, rape is a crime of power, and most often it is a crime of men against women, right? When men rape other men, it is also a crime of power in a similar way as it is with women. It is wrong both places, but it isn't the job of NOW (the National Organization for Women) to defend male prisoners against rape, is it?

Basically, this is the job of every member of society. In fact, it's completely insane that in any civilized society that it should be necessary to create a specific law against prison rape -- this should be intuitive. Simply because NOW doesn't act on this issue doesn't make them some kind of pariah: it's pretty clear who their constituency is.

Ultimately, the most chilling thing in the article is how transparent the agenda is in the article. If find it quite depressing that a group of "ifeminists" can only find a raison d'etre in juxtaposing themselves to an organization that has a proven track record of making things better for women in this country. The saddest thing is that, what was an enraging article about a horrifying injustice ended up being only a covenient vessel by which the author could espouse her dislike for NOW.

Another injustice for the victims of prison rape, I suppose.