Rapestock

I was watching Real Time on HBO and Bill Maher says that the sexual assault of Lara Logan is due to Muslim men's contempt for women. I don't know if it's primarily a Muslim thing, but it sounds like it's certainly a cultural thing. It sounds like Egypt hasn't built up the mores that make people ashamed of harassing a woman. But I have trouble using this episode to point my finger at backward Arab culture; something I normally love to do. For one thing, there are much better statistics to make the point. I have read astounding percentages of female genital mutilation in Egypt, from Christians and Muslims alike. But also, I remember the horrendous rapes at Woodstock '99. As in Egypt, it was a jubilant crowd of men and women, all crushed together. The difference in this case is that there were multiple rapes at Woodstock and nobody in the crowd tried to help. I remember Dexter Holland of the Offspring decrying all the molesting during there performance.  I suppose one could argue that all the rapists at Woodstock '99 were Muslim, but then one would be a fucking moron. Also, there are numerous reports of women being gang-raped in the American armed forces.

It does sound like Egyptian society has a great deal of contempt for women as sexual beings; more so than in America. But where ever a woman is enveloped by a group of macho men they seem to have a good shot of being raped. This point is also illustrated in the movie Jack's Living Dead Girl. It is a movie I helped make, and, while it is not exactly a celebration of womanhood, it comes down firmly on the side of anti-rape.