Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

This country desperately needs a functioning Fourth Estate.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

Everybody saw this coming.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

I conferred with the team and they all agree – still not tired of winning!

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

When they say they’re pro-life, they don’t mean yours.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. Do not congratulate. This is not business as usual.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

You are here: Home / Civil Rights / Women's Rights / Vagina Outrage / Fox News’s Liz Trotta on Sexual Assault in the Military: Men Get Rapey Sometimes. Get Over it!

Fox News’s Liz Trotta on Sexual Assault in the Military: Men Get Rapey Sometimes. Get Over it!

by | 88 Comments

This post is in: ,

Jesus take the wheel

Seriously.  Just take the wheel and drive the car into a tree:

During a segment about new rules regarding women in the military, Fox News contributor Liz Trotta attacked the Department of Defense for increasing spending on support programs for victims of sexual assault. Trotta also reacted to a Pentagon report showing a 64% increase in violent sexual assaults since 2006 by stating: “Well, what did they expect? These people are in close contact.”

Trotta began by claiming “we have women once more, the feminist, going, wanting to be warriors and victims at the same time” and later added that feminists “have also directed them, really, to spend a lot of money. They have sexual counselors all over the place, victims’ advocates, sexual response coordinators. … you have this whole bureaucracy upon bureaucracy being built up with all kinds of levels of people to support women in the military who are now being raped too much.“

Ugh. Women. Always with the complaining and the playing the victim: “Don’t rape me!  I’m being raped too much!  Give me equal rights!  I want to have control over my body and sexuality!  Wah wah wah!”

We’re so high-maintenance.

And by the way, if I were a man in the military, I would be insulted that Ms. Trotta holds me in such low esteem.  As @AmakaWho noted:

Indeed.

[via Media Matters]

[cross-posted at ABLC]

Reader Interactions

88Comments

  1. 1.

    Steve

    I thought we had this whole debate already after Tailhook. Apparently my team didn’t win that debate as convincingly as I thought.

  2. 2.

    Linnaeus

    And by the way, if I were a man in the military, I would be insulted that Ms. Trotta holds me in such low esteem.

    Indeed. It’s not feminists and feminist allies who are the ones who “hate” men.

  3. 3.

    Horrendo Slapp (formerly Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.)

    Well, what did they expect? These people are in close contact.

    Yeah. Since I constantly and continuously rape anybody I’m in “close contact” with for more than 3 minutes. Hell, I rape more than I fart, and I’m one gassy dude.

    And then there’s this:

    you have this whole bureaucracy upon bureaucracy being built up with all kinds of levels of people to support women in the military who are now being raped too much.

    “Raped too much“? What the fuck does that even mean? I’d have thought that any rape was “too much”, but I guess women just need to shut their mouths and open their legs, since some nominal amount of rape is just peachy. What’s wrong with that woman?

  4. 4.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Basically she is saying all men in uniform are rapists or potential rapists. She owes our troops an apology.

    Another case where only a Captain Needa apology will do.

  7. 7.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    And an’t part of the problem is rape is not just for girls anymore? I understand the military has some shocking levels of men being raped by other men.

  8. 8.

    Schlemizel

    Look, I have never forced myself another person in my life, never took advantage of them, never went too far or refused to take no for an answer. I don’t think that makes me a hero or expect any kind of praise; that just what I expect humans should do.

    I had a GF in high school who was very active in a community theater group, it contained 3 openly gay men. This was an eye-opener for a 16YO guy even in the 60s. 2 of them were nice enough but one of them decided to take an interest in me. He was a giant PItA. He simply refused to believe I didn’t find him attractive. He said & did things I saw guys use on girls and that really opened my eyes. I swore I would never act that way myself.

    This type of thing should not be acceptable in society & certainly not within military discipline.

  9. 9.

    SpotWeld

    Not a new concept.

    Wasn’t there a laughably bad conservative comic strip where a characters portraying a couple of female members of the military stated that sexual assault was unlikely since all the women were armed?

    This had to be 4-5 years ago.

    (The rifles were reffered to as “these accessories” and the women were in tank tops, of course)

  10. 10.

    wrb

    How’s a guy supposed to know how much rape is “too much”?

    You can’t expect them to get it perfect.

  12. 12.

    Schlemizel

    I also love that the wingnuts (lead by the that child rapist Rush Limbaugh) seem to think that Teens need to learn abstinence but our military is incapable of being gender integrated because the boys just can’t control themselves.

  13. 13.

    Comrade Dread

    And by the way, if I were a man in the military, I would be insulted that Ms. Trotta holds me in such low esteem.

    Pretty much.

    Though I’m curious if she only feels this way about the troops or if we should go back to sex segregation in the office, schools, churches, and other places where men and women are in close contact.

    I’m starting to think that the only thing some of these folks see that’s wrong about places like Saudi Arabia is that the people worship the wrong God.

  14. 14.

    Slugger

    Why are these people upset over women in the military? I thought that conservatives stand with Israel without one inch of seperation. Women have served in the IDF since the beginning and are guaranteed equal access to all positions including combat roles.

  15. 15.

    The Other Chuck

    @SpotWeld:

    Yeah, because service members carry their rifles with them at all times on base, keep it pointed at their CO, and blowing him away will of course not result in any consequences.

    But really why bother with the response, people who draw strips like that are impervious to reason anyway.

  16. 16.

    jlow

    So I guess she’s also saying that she regularly (but not too much) gets raped by her male colleagues over at Fox?

  19. 19.

    SenyorDave

    Seriously? If I ride mass transit and am packed in tightly I now have the freedom to do anything because I’m in “close contact”. This woman is demented, and in any sane universe would be fired.

  20. 20.

    slag

    “we have women once more, the feminist, going, wanting to be warriors and victims at the same time”

    Yes. Because the only reason military men aren’t beating the crap out of each other all the time is out of fear. It’s not as if there are any rules against such things nor any punishment for breaking those rules.

    You got a complaint against a fellow service member, you resolve it in the foxhole, buddy! What could go wrong?

  22. 22.

    dmsilev

    @wrb:

    How’s a guy supposed to know how much rape is “too much”?

    Maybe they think it’s like Goldilocks? The first rape was too little, the second too much, and the third was *just right*.

    Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go wash my brain now.

  23. 23.

    Shawn in ShowMe

    I know this is Fox but who exactly is the audience for Trotta’s comments? Is there a pro-rape conservative lobby I don’t know about? I mean, other than the Catholic bishops.

  24. 24.

    wrb

    @dmsilev:

    Maybe they think it’s like Goldilocks? The first rape was too little, the second too much, and the third was just right.

    So if you’ve raped her too much what you gotta do is rape her again?

    Brilliant.

  27. 27.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Comrade Dread:

    The problem of course is that they just call their invisible sky buddy by a different name, it’s the same invisible sky buddy.

    On edit: Refreshing fizzy beverage to Horrendo (etc) above. Whee!

  28. 28.

    wrb

    @SenyorDave:

    Seriously? If I ride mass transit and am packed in tightly I now have the freedom to do anything because I’m in “close contact”.

    Were you raised in a barn? You don’t rape people in public. You gotta respect the commons.

  30. 30.

    James Gary

    @Shawn in ShowMe:

    It’s more the “if them liberals are for somethin’, why then Ah’m agin’ it.” Even in reductio ad absurdum situations like the one now under discussion.

  31. 31.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @wrb:

    Were you raised in a barn? You don’t rape people in public. You gotta respect the commons.

    This is why rapes only happen in two person fox holes, not in larger trench structures. There are some standards in our military, after all. The menage a trois is, after all, French.

  32. 32.

    Horrendo Slapp (formerly Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.)

    And something else I thought I’d chime in about. I’m a guy. And we have a little 4 and a half year old girl. She’s great. I love her more than I ever thought I could love anything or anyone. And I don’t know what she’s going to want to do when she grows up, but as long as it isn’t banking, I’ll be happy for her. And, you know, I don’t want her to get raped. Is that so fucking weird?

    Truthfully, I don’t understand this. Some of these people, at least, must have girls. Do they not give a shit whether or not their little girls grow up to get raped as a matter of course in their lines of work? Does their unhappiness at the thought that their daughters might get raped hinge on whether they (the daughters) choose an “acceptable” livelihood?

    And is not raping women so burdensome to men now that we can’t even ask this of them? Maybe there’s something wrong with me, but I’ve never raped anybody, and I’ve never felt especially aggrieved that most people–aside from Fox news people and their listeners, evidently–would have thought somewhat less of me if I had. I guess that’s more than we can reasonably ask of these turds.

  33. 33.

    Sir Nose'D

    you have this whole bureaucracy upon bureaucracy being built up with all kinds of levels of people to support women in the military who are now being raped too much.“

    On one hand, maybe a free market approach might end rape.

    On the other hand, I just might put a gun to my head and blow my brains out today rather than have to live with the notion that Liz Trotta and I are members of the same species.

  34. 34.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @Shawn in ShowMe:

    The intended audience is the people who don’t think that women’s place is in the military. They think women and men should have defined roles. When people venture outside of what is proper and good in their warped little 1950’s worldview, then they deserve what they get. There really are people who still think that way.

  35. 35.

    balconesfault

    @jlow: So I guess she’s also saying that she regularly (but not too much) gets raped by her male colleagues over at Fox?

    Awesome!

  36. 36.

    Cat Lady

    Didn’t Liz Trotta used to be somebody? I remember her from the mists of memory as a “reporter” from some other decade. Victoria Jackson takes over her beat when she calls in sick, right?

  37. 37.

    jwest

    I must say that I’m surprised any liberal blog would bring up the subject of rape so soon after the details of John F. Kennedy’s actions with a 19 year old virgin were brought to light.

    The silence on this despicable act is deafening.

  38. 38.

    Comrade Dread

    So let’s see, so far, what I’ve learned from Republicans in the last year:

    It’s not rape rape if both parties are soldiers, if she’s an illegal immigrant, or rape if she doesn’t report it right away because she’s just lying to get an abortion.

    Hmm… any other exemptions I’m missing?

  39. 39.

    Horrendo Slapp (formerly Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.)

    @jwest:

    Huh?

    1: I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.

    2: If Kennedy raped somebody, then that was wrong. It would change my opinion of him. But,

    3: So what? We’re talking about some Fox news pinhead who seems to think that spending money on trying to stop rape in the military os a waste of time and money. So, lastly,

    4: Go fuck yourself.

  40. 40.

    Comrade Dread

    @jwest: Oh, just possibly because the man’s been dead for nearly 50 years.

    But I’m a part of the secret librul conspiracy, so take my words with a grain of salt.

  42. 42.

    Redshift

    @Horrendo Slapp (formerly Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.):

    Do they not give a shit whether or not their little girls grow up to get raped as a matter of course in their lines of work? Does their unhappiness at the thought that their daughters might get raped hinge on whether they (the daughters) choose an “acceptable” livelihood?

    Zero empathy. They’ll care about it as soon as it happens to someone they know and care about, and not a minute before.

  43. 43.

    Emma

    @jwest: Nineteen years old (adult), check. Consensual (adult), check. Screwed up power relationship in politics (adult), check.

    Nope. Sorry.

  46. 46.

    Alex Milstein

    I think people like Trotta and her ilk at Fox have trapped themselves, in a mad dash for the cash. They know they will never get more money by doing anything real for a living, so they just play to their boss and their viewers. And once they opened the Pandora’s Box of hatred, they could do nothing else but get more and more extreme. I surely hope that karma exists for them.

  47. 47.

    DK Green

    Um, how much is too much? I tend to fall on the side of ‘any rape is too much rape’, but Ms. Trotta seems to think some is ok. So, ask her, please. Ms. Trotta, how much rape are you prepared to endure, before it is too much? I doubt it is very much.

  51. 51.

    Shawn in ShowMe

    @Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:

    OK, that makes sense. But from a free market point-of-view, catering to vievers who feel so strongly against female inclusion that rape is an acceptable outcome … I’d love to see Fox’s internal numbers on this.

    I don’t believe even 27% buy into this level of malevolence. There are quite a few conservative women in the military, many of them with the support of their conservative communities.

  52. 52.

    Short Bus Bully

    So does “too much rape” mean that there is then something called “too little rape” in the military?

  54. 54.

    Dave

    The thing I like about ABL posts is the thoughtfulness with which they are so obviously constructed.

  56. 56.

    Woodrowfan

    @Emma:

    jwest is a rightie, so he’s uncertain about the whole “consensual” thing.

    JFK and the 19 year old were inappropriate, but it was not rape.

  59. 59.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @jwest:

    Considering he died before I was even born, I don’t see how that has anything at all to do with what a Fox commentor said this week. Old people… still obsessed with things that happened back in the day.

  61. 61.

    Mary

    @Horrendo Slapp (formerly Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.):

    Truthfully, I don’t understand this. Some of these people, at least, must have girls. Do they not give a shit whether or not their little girls grow up to get raped as a matter of course in their lines of work? Does their unhappiness at the thought that their daughters might get raped hinge on whether they (the daughters) choose an “acceptable” livelihood?

    A lot of people, including many women, need to believe that the only people that get raped are those that have done something wrong; worn the wrong clothes, walked on the wrong street, worked int he wrong profession, etc. They firmly believe that rape is not their problem because they never do the wrong thing.

  62. 62.

    Anoniminous

    I see Ms. jwest is a member of the Radical Lesbian faction of the Womyn’s Separatist Movement.

  63. 63.

    Citizen_X

    “Well, what did they expect?”

    Yeah! To serve their country, or some damn thing? Sheesh!

    Lock this lady in an office with O’Reilly for an afternoon and see what she says. OK, that’s going too far.

    Oh, and I have a statement from Andrew Breitbart: “STOP GETTING RAPED BY PEOPLE! STOP GETTING RAPED BY PEOPLE! STOP…”

  64. 64.

    Tonybrown74

    @Dave:

    The thing I like about ABL posts is the thoughtfulness with which they are so obviously constructed.

    Shorter Dave:

    SCARY BLACK VAGINA!!! RUUUUUUUUNNNNNN!!ELEVENTY-ONE1!

  65. 65.

    Mike G

    “Well, what did they expect?”

    It’s not like Fox News even pretends to hire these harpies for their intelligence. They’re supposed to look and act the part of brainless bigoted bimbos for their audience.

    The only thing that’s missing is the Bush-era sneer “They volunteered”, directed at any soldier daring to complain about shoddy equipment, showering in sewage, PTSD, and nonexistent WMDs. Yet somehow the Repukes are considered the “support the troops” party.

  66. 66.

    Woodrow/asim Jarvis Hill

    Bonus Round, from the Media Matters article on this asshole:

    TROTTA: I think the Lara Logan thing is a completely separate thing. Any woman – and I’ve been in those crowds – any woman who’s going to be in one of those highly passionate crowds in the Middle East where Islamics are running around yelling “Allahu Akbar” is taking her life in her hands.

    Victim Blaming and Racist psychobabble, in such very few words…

  67. 67.

    Kyle

    @Redshift:

    Zero empathy. They’ll care about it as soon as it happens to someone they know and care about, and not a minute before.

    The conservatard mantra: It’s not a problem until it’s MY problem.

    They care about their tribe; everyone else is subhuman.

  69. 69.

    eric

    What is the relationship between “too much rape” and “honest rape?” Can you get an abortion if there was too much rape, but you can’t if it was “just right.” So, the goldilocks theory of rape leads to a working definition of honest rape. good to know.

  72. 72.

    Soonergrunt

    @jwest: That’s only because you have shit for brains. To mature adults, what happened between consenting adults 50 years ago has little to no bearing on the what’s happening today when the question of consent is central to the issue.

  74. 74.

    Maus

    you have this whole bureaucracy upon bureaucracy being built up with all kinds of levels of people to support women in the military who are now being raped too much.“

    isn’t that pretty much the opposite of the way things works? Like a megaPaterno?

  75. 75.

    Maus

    @jwest:

    surprised any liberal

    This is pretty much everything jwest posts, with the words varying slightly on every single topic.

    Lazy troll.

  76. 76.

    Betsy

    @jwest:

    1. He’s been dead for nearly fifty years. How do you propose that outrage will help?

    2. Why does it matter if she was a virgin? Is it OK to rape a woman who’s not a virgin?

  77. 77.

    AMD

    @Short Bus Bully:
    No, there’s too much rape in the military and not enough rape amongst us civilians. So if women stop joining the military, there will be less military rape and more civilian rape and the proper balance will be restored.

  78. 78.

    Svensker

    @Mark S.:

    Hey, me too! The rapist has to be a liberal tho, cuz I get vewy vewy cwoss when those tricky conservatives rape me. Harummph.

    And contra the stupid troll, there was a very interesting discussion about JFKs relationship with his intern on TNC last week.

    But look, over there, a JFKalope!

  81. 81.

    TenguPhule

    “Well, what did they expect?

    Uh, not to be raped?

    The Final Solution for Declared Republicans just can’t happen fast enough.

  85. 85.

    Mayken

    @Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: Don’t you know we cannot criticize something a conservative has done without first repeatedly condemning every single act by a liberal (as defined by conservatives of course) that might even be remotely “as bad” as what said conservative did?
    But of course any given conservative can criticize any bad act by any “liberal” with nary a peep about the bad actions of their side.

  86. 86.

    vernon

    ABL, would you just fuck off about this already, Led Zeppelin is an EXCELLENT band and to deny this only proves you’re ignorance! I don’t see why you constantly have to go negative. Especially on the greatest band of the late 70s and early 80s, known as Zep. To MILLIONS of adoring fans. Known as The great-grand fathers of heavy Metal. “England’s answer to The Beatles.” And there Drummer, Hellena Bonham could play on 1 base drum while choking on his own vomit, I doubt you could play it on 2!

    You come back, for better or for worse, you create all this drama. All “Plant & Co.” tried to do was rock out and make the world a more rockin place. Why do you want to take a crap on all that? Your not perfect either, you know.

Comments are closed.

Trackbacks