On Game of Thrones on Sunday night, fictional character Sansa Stark was raped by fictional villain Ramsay Bolton while being watched by fictional character Theon. This prompted real American Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) to say that she had had enough of this horrific treatment of women on HBO:
McCaskill has been hailed as a feminist hero for her objection to the scene. Maya Rhodan of Time headlined her piece, “This Politician Just Said What Everyone Is Thinking About Game of Thrones.” Vox’s Matthew Yglesias wrote, “She’s far from the only viewer upset by the scene in question from ‘Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken’ and Vox’s Jen Trolio argues that viewers are right to be angry.”
McCaskill isn’t alone, of course. Feminist website The Mary Sue announced it would no longer promote Game of Thrones, with editor Jill Pantozzi writing, “There’s only so many times you can be disgusted with something you love before you literally can’t bring yourself to look at it anymore.” Deadspin stated, “‘Game of Thrones’ Is Gross, Exploitative, and Totally Out of Ideas.”
And this is far from the only fictional rape that has major government figures upset beyond belief. On Sunday, speaking at the commencement for Barnard College, UN Ambassador Samantha Power cited an allegedly fictional rape on a college campus to compare it to Afghan women fighting against murderous Muslim terrorists. She then tweeted about it:
Power’s reference to a “wmn carrying a mattress on her campus” was a shout-out to the so-called “mattress girl,” a Columbia University student who carried a mattress around campus to bring focus to her charges of sexual assault against another student. Unfortunately, her story was debunked long ago.
And, of course, the entire Obama administration infrastructure continues to push the campus rape epidemic hoax; Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) said that even after University of Virginia hoax rape victim “Jackie,” who was featured by Rolling Stone, was exposed as a liar, Americans had to avoid “victim blaming or shining the spotlight on her for coming forward.”
As for the media, they have fought with tooth and nail every fictional act of sexism they can find, from Joss Whedon’s supposed sexism to #GamerGate to DC Comics featuring Joker torturing Batgirl. Never mind that in each fictional instance of rape, the rapists are portrayed as deeply malicious and evil, and that the point of portraying such rape has generally been to condemn rape. Fictional rape designed to rip rapists is too much of a trigger for too many never-raped fragile snowflakes.
When it comes to actual rape, however, the story changes. Then the feminists and the leftist politicians and the media all go silent.
In 2008, Claire McCaskill stated on MSNBC that President Obama would not change course regarding withdrawal of American troops even if it meant sacrificing stability in the Middle East. She voted yes on redeploying troops from Iraq by March 2008 and co-sponsored legislation opposing George W. Bush’s troop surge in Iraq. After Obama pulled troops, McCaskill said, “I’ve always supported the plan to withdraw all American troops from Iraq by this year, and I’m glad to see this day finally arrive.” Senator Gillibrand called for a full-scale withdrawal in 2007.
How about Power? Despite being a longtime vocal opponent of genocide, she wrongly prescribed forgoing a surge in 2007, and advocated instead abandoning the country after attempting to craft some sort of “political compromise.” She also ripped Senator John McCain (R-AZ) for suggesting that a withdrawal would precipitate human rights abuses. Since joining the Obama administration, she hasn’t had much to say about ISIS at all other than denying the involvement of American ground troops while acknowledging the need for them.
Meanwhile, ISIS continues mass rape and baby murder in precisely the territory abandoned by the Obama administration. Just last month, Human Rights Watch reported, “a system of organized rape and sexual assault, sexual slavery, and forced marriage by ISIS forces. Such acts are war crimes and may be crimes against humanity.”
Not a peep from Senator McCaskill. Or Gillibrand. Or Power. But they’ve got plenty of time to sound off on the horrific nature of watching an actress pretend to be raped for pay on television, or to worry about made-up rape stories from America’s safest campuses.
And all of that leaves aside the supposed feminists’ support for an actual alleged rapist on the homefront.
It’s always safe to draw plaudits by complaining loudly about television shows everyone watches. But it takes a special kind of cowardice to do it while actual women face rape and murder every day thanks to the policies you espouse.
Ben Shapiro is Senior Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News and author of The People vs. Barack Obama: The Criminal Case Against The Obama Administration (Threshold Editions, June 10, 2014). Follow Ben Shapiro on Twitter @benshapiro.
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