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Feminism Run Amok: So-called 'Rape Culture' Redefines and Trivializes Real Rape

The Factual Feminist Christina Hoff Sommers, former philosophy professor and resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, joined Glenn on radio Tuesday to discuss contemporary feminism and how it's damaging to both women and men.

"The feminist establishment is not celebrating the empowerment of women. They act as those things are worse than ever and getting worse every day. I find this baffling, and it's very destructive. It's very harmful to the young women who are told to be victims and taught to be paranoid," Sommers said.

Sommers also addressed her fear for mothers of sons, as well as her theory that the purpose of many college classes is to tear down Western civilization.

GLENN: Hello, America. Welcome to the Glenn Beck Program. We're glad you're here. We have Christina Hoff Sommers with us. She's a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. She hosts a series on YouTube -- fantastic -- called The Factual Feminist. Each episode corrects a feminist myth.

And tomorrow, she is going to be giving a lecture at St. Olaf College. She joins us now to talk about the state of feminism and the -- this new push into the -- into the realm of, I think, insanity.

Welcome to the program, Christina, how are you?

CHRISTINA: Hi. Nice to be here.

GLENN: Thank you very much.

So where do we even begin on this new rape culture and what we're teaching and what millennials are now believing about this rape culture?

CHRISTINA: Well, it -- it's all fiction. It's a fantasy. It was created by radical feminist scholars with an agenda eager to indict the average man in a social atrocity. They have exaggerated statistics. And they change definitions beyond, you know, the meaning of words. And most of us do think of rape as a horrible crime. They now have definitions that include seduction. So if you're willing to do that, you will get a rape epidemic. There is a lot of seduction.

GLENN: So doesn't this -- doesn't this -- you know, I've said for 20 years with the Al Sharptons of the world and then in the last eight years, you know, the cry that everything is racist -- to say the word Chicago was called racist. To do that takes all of the cries of actual racism and makes them meaningless.

CHRISTINA: Exactly. It trivializes it. This is what happens with rape. And the students are not asking that the cases be turned over to the police, which would be reasonable. Because they have the ability to investigate. They turn it over to a campus tribunal that then determines guilt and innocence through what look to be kangaroo courts. And we have over 100 young men suing. And if you read through these cases, it's absolutely terrifying if you're the mother of sons because a boy can be accused -- he's perceived to be guilty because he's accused because along with this idea of a rape culture is the idea that women don't lie. You have to believe women.

Well, women lie. Not because they're women. But because they're human. Human beings lie, especially about sex.

GLENN: Christina, may I take you to probably a different place than you expected.

I am really concerned that we are imploding as a species because we are -- hear me out for a second. I know that's a crazy thing to say.

CHRISTINA: No, no. I worry about that too.

GLENN: Right? We're imploding as a species. We're taking technology and we're going to give you the ultimate pleasure by creating your own little sexual world. You can live in it any way you want. You don't have to interact with anyone. And the -- and the more we go down that road, while at the same time making common sense completely driven into the wilderness, you won't want to have a relationship with somebody. Because it -- you'll be accused as rape. You'll be --

CHRISTINA: Oh, I know. You'll be brought before a tribunal and told that every --

GLENN: Right.

CHRISTINA: -- and told that -- you know, without any possibility of defending yourself.

You can't -- you're just presumed guilty, and you are shamed. They've created a shame culture on campus, based on these strange definitions. And it's -- it is very disturbing.

I worry because our colleges are now just so carried away with this so-called social justice agenda, but it's an agenda of -- of authoritarianism. So this is where we are.

STU: Christina Hoff Sommers is with us. And legitimately one of the bravest people you're going to find, talking about this.

GLENN: Oh, my gosh.

STU: Any issue --

GLENN: You must just be a pariah. Why do you hate women so much?

CHRISTINA: You know, I have been a feminist in the reasonable sense of the word for more years than I care to mention. I was a philosophy professor. I encouraged the young women in my class. I watched as women surpassed men in education. And only to turn around and find that the feminist establishment is not celebrating, that -- you know, the empowerment of women. They act as though things are worse than ever and getting worse every day. And I find this baffling. And it's very destructive. It's very harmful to the young woman who are told that they are victims and taught to be paranoid.

And I will also mention -- I don't want to say most. Many college classes. No one has done a good study of this. They should. The purpose of the class is to tear down western civilization. It's not something to be proud of. Don't be proud of American history. It's a rape culture. It's -- and it's defined by its worst injustices. Don't be proud.

So they're replacing pride with shame. I don't know that this is a way to progress. I don't think people react well to being shamed. They recoil or they -- you know, in this case, at the campus, they're acting out these -- lots of mob justice. So it's very unhealthy.

STU: Christina, let's take on one of the big ones here. People hear this all the time. That depending on who you hear it from, one in four or one in five women in college will be raped when they're there. Can you walk us through that statistic and what it actually is talking about?

CHRISTINA: Yes. That sort of statistic comes from -- not from the Bureau of Justice statistics. Not from the FBI. Legitimate data-gathering organizations. You know, they use careful methodology. And they will come up with a figure like one in 50. That's still too many. But it's far different from one in four. One in four is worse than war-torn Congo. They're telling us that, you know, your daughter enters Wesleyan or Bard or Stanford, and she's basically entering a -- you know, a society more dangerous than anyplace on earth for a woman.

How do they get that? Well, the first thing to know, they don't ask on these surveys, were you raped? If you ask that, you get a fairly low number. They describe events, and then they say, did this ever happen?

And some of them do sound like a -- every woman agree that someone said, "Yes, I was violated. Assaulted and penetrated." You would agree that's rape. But they would include things like, did you have sex that you regretted because you were drunk? And if you say yes to that, that counts as rape.

So they change the definition from, you know, an assault to a bad -- a bad hookup, essentially. So that's one thing they do. They enlarge the definition. They ask a nonrepresentative sample. A lot of these studies are computer generated. And they will go send it out and see who responds. They'll send it out to 200,000 people and maybe 1,000 respond. But that's a self-selected group of respondents. It may be people that feel more strongly about it. So you have to be very careful. So they do that. They ask a nonrepresentative sample. And then they project it on to all college students.

So bad definition. And a bad sample. And you can have an epidemic of anything that way.

GLENN: How do we --

CHRISTINA: Claim to have it.

GLENN: How do we look at things like what's happening with Fox News? Where I believe -- we don't know the facts yet. But I believe that there were bad things that happened at Fox. I worked there. I never saw anything. But I believe that some of these things happened. Some of these things most likely also did not happen. And that's for the courts to work out.

But they just fired Bill Shine yesterday, who was the vice president and really one of the stabilizing factors of Fox News. There's no charges that I -- that I'm aware of, that he was assaulting anybody or coming on to anybody.

When you have this witch hunt, nobody wants to stand up and say, "Now, wait a minute. Wait a minute." Because it's just -- it just becomes, I want to protect women. And we should believe the women. And men are bad. And all of a sudden, anyone can be swept up into this.

How do we stop that?

CHRISTINA: Well, it's a moral panic. And those -- you know, it creates a lot of hysteria. And going back to what you said. There was a problem with some people at Fox News.

CHRISTINA:

GLENN: Yes.

CHRISTINA: And here's what -- and here's what distresses me the most as an equity feminist, an equality feminist. Is if we want to help women, we should tell the truth. But it shouldn't be done in an atmosphere of panic and hysteria. Women who are victims need sober analysis. They need truth. Not hype. Not spin. Not panic. We have too much of the latter. So if you want to help people who are at risk for sexual harassment, for sexual assault, these are real criminals -- if we want to help them, then we should tell the truth and not cry wolf and not get hysterical. That helps no one.

GLENN: But how do you do that when -- I mean, I found as a father of three women, I am -- I was -- I found it beyond offensive what President Trump said about women when he was on the bus with Billy Bush. Just like shocking. I thought that was the end for sure.

The left, of course, came out against that. The right suddenly was quiet. But when this happened in the 1990s, they were musical chairs. They were on the opposite side, when it was Bill Clinton.

CHRISTINA: Oh, when it was Mr. Clinton.

GLENN: Yeah. How do we -- how does the average effect something when these big powerful groups don't really care? They're just using it.

CHRISTINA: Exactly. They're using it. And in this case, it's a little harder to fight because it's -- the source are these scholars in the gender studies department. People have to realize, their work is not carefully reviewed. They don't even -- many of them don't even believe in the basic protocols of scientific research. They have their own methods they've invented of just listening to stories and believing people.

And so -- but journalists and even legislators, they take them seriously. They take these scholars seriously. And I'm just saying -- I've been watching this for 20 years -- at the heart of the women's movement today is a body of recklessly false information, and it's not helping women.

GLENN: Is there a movement -- a legitimate movement that is out there?

CHRISTINA: You know, right now, there are small groups. There are groups like the Independent Women's Forum. There's a group called the Foundation for Individual Rights and Education. It's a civil libertarian group, not exclusively about women. But it addresses these issues.

Both of those groups are very good, FIRE and IWF. But they're small. It's nothing compared to this juggernaut of women's organizations. And they're all marching in solidarity. And they reinforce one another's messages. It's in the colleges. I've never seen anything like this. It's -- you know, usually, people can only go so far with -- that are alternative facts. And their concocted studies and pseudoscience. This has gone very far because I think a lot of men hesitated to correct the bad scholarship. They would be called sexist. A lot of women didn't want to belittle a cause they believed in at heart. They just thought they would be quiet. And so, well, now we're copying with it. Now we've got this rape panic. And it's very -- it's very destructive on campus. It's leading to fanaticism.

GLENN: Christina Hoff Sommers, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. She hosts a series on YouTube called The Factual Feminist, where she corrects in each episode a feminist myth. And it's fantastic. It's really good. Tomorrow night, she's going to be giving a lecture at St. Olaf College. It is great to have you on Christina. Thank you so much.

CHRISTINA: Thank you.

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RADIO

Meet the pro-Intifada candidate NYC Democrats just elected

New York City Democrats just elected 33-year-old Zohran Mamdani, a "socialist Muslim", as the Party's candidate for mayor. But Glenn Beck argues that his radical beliefs are actually communist and Islamist.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

VOICE: Z10852. Something weird is going on. The World Trade Center is on fire.

VOICE: Seriously the top of the building. We're trying to get information.

VOICE: Top level of one of the --

VOICE: To unfold from New York City.

VOICE: A plane crashed just --

VOICE: My sister is in that believe. I hope she's okay. I have to come to New York.

VOICE: It's pandemonium.

VOICE: It's raining papers.

VOICE: Wait a minute! Stop just a second. Why are we -- why are we -- I've got breaking news. Breaking news, yesterday. New York City just elected as their mayoral candidate for the left. And the Democrats, a -- a Muslim radical, who is also a communist!

So, you know, it only took you 25 years. It only took you 25 years, New York, to go completely insane.

Somebody who is -- well, I mean, if I might quote Michael malice today. I am old enough to remember when New Yorkers endured 9/11 instead of voting for it.

But you've got a -- you've got a communist jihadist apologist now.

Who was -- you know, well, CAIR put $100,000 behind his bid for New York City mayor.

So you have somebody who is endorsed by CAIR. That's really good.

He also was somebody who said, you know, he was -- he was for the shooting of the United Health Care CEO.

Said he was looking forward to driving down magnum Joan avenue. I don't know. Sounds like supporting people in the streets. Maybe it's just me.

Then he also said that he was going to globalize the intifada, which I think that's -- maybe -- maybe that's just me.

I mean, what do I know?

Tim Miller who is a podcaster. Asked him a few weeks ago. Asked him about his pro Palestinian slogan. Globalized the intifada. And he said, for me, ultimately, what I hear in so many, is a desperate desire for equality and equal rights, in standing up for Palistinian human rights. Oh, is that what you hear, Mr. CAIR?

Really? Huh, that's interesting.

Right. So globalize the intifada.

I mean, I mean, sure, that's -- I mean well, let me go on.

Because I don't want to take him out of context.

He then delved into the semantics of the intifada, citing the United States Holocaust memorial museum's use of a word for a translation for uprising, in an Arabic version of an article, a museum published about the Warsaw ghetto.

Oh!

So this is just a comparison, about the -- the armed rebellion against the Nazis!

I don't know if that makes me feel better!

I mean, if we're globalizing that.

We're the Nazis in this scenario.

Because I don't think it's the Palestinians.

I certainly don't think it's anybody who is like, hey.

Global jihad. I don't think it's those guys.

Or the Nazis. Who are the Nazis in that?

And it seems, if that's what you mean, then it's not just a harmless kind of slogan about human rights. It is a call for violence on the streets.

Because I don't know if you know, that's what happened when the Jews had their uprising against the Nazis.

I'm just saying!

But, hey, hey, free Palestine.

Oh, that's not what that means, gang. That is not what that means, but don't worry about it. He's just going to be possibly the new mayor.

And that's great. By the way, the Columbia faculty members signed a letter defending Hamas.

They were also among the donors to his mayoral campaign.

So, you know, you don't have anything to worry about.

And his father, who used to work at Columbia. Do you know, Stu?

Is his Dad -- is he still a professor at Columbia University?

He said that -- this violent terror thing of Islam, is not a part of Islam. Now, I've read the Koran, and much of the hadith.

And I'm pretty sure the violence is a part of that. But no.

No. This is something entirely new.

And his father while at Columbia university, wanted everybody to know, that this is actually -- this is something that came out of America!

America is really responsible for this.

And, you know, it really started with the Reagan administration, you know, when he started -- when he started with his very religious terms, to finish the war against the evil empire.

So, you know, that's where -- that's where 9/11 came from.

Is what -- don't worry about it! Don't worry about it!

Because who am I? I'm clearly just -- am I an anti-Semite today, or am I an Islamophobic? I can't remember which one.

Oh, it's probably both. Anyway, Islamophobia. Let me just explain Islamophobia. I haven't even gotten to the Communist part of it. Which is really, really -- New York, you're in one for hell of a ride. Buckle up.

It will be a fun rollercoaster for you. My gosh, I've never been happier that I've been away are if New York.

Anyway, I just want I to know, there is Islam. And then there is Islamists. Now, an Islamist is somebody who really wants Sharia law.

That's political Islam!

That's not a faith. That's political Islam.

Now, let me make really -- something really clear. Criticizing Islamism, is not Islamophobia. Pointing out the dangers of, oh. I don't know.

Political Islam. The ideology that seeks to use the tools of democracy, ultimately to destroy democracy, is not an attack on Muslims.

No. Uh-uh.

You know why?

Because Muslims are often the first people in line.

The first victims of the ideology.

So let's draw a bright, bright line between Islam as a faith, millions of people can practice that faithfully and peacefully.

It's mostly peaceful, okay?

Then there's the Islamism.

Islamism is something entirely -- that's a political project.

A theocratic political -- oh. Left loves theocracies. They love it.

Of course, you never see a problem with it.

See it when an Islamist is touting it. Anyway, it's not about prayer. It's not about fasting. It's not about spiritual life.

It's all about power. It's about merging of mosque and state. It's about implementing Sharia, not as a personal code of conduct. But as a governing legal system.

And it's -- it's supremacy.

Absolutely. Faith.

Religion.

It's -- there's one thing that's supreme.

It's misogynistic.

Deeply intolerant of all kinds of things.

Descent. Secularism. Other faiths. Even competing interpretations from inside the faith itself.

It will behead them too.

So let's -- let's be honest here for a second.

You know, CAIR should be labeled an international terror organization.

In my opinion. In my opinion.

Oh, does that make me -- that makes me an Islamophobe. I'm sure. I'm sure they will start a campaign against me on being an Islamophobe.

Stand in line, guys. You've been doing it since 2001, okay?

I don't really care. And I don't think the American people. I think that record, all the grooves are worn-out on that one, okay?

This is not a religion we're talking about. When we're talking about Sharia law. And we're talking about globalize the intifada. What does that mean, actually, to globalize it?

Does that mean we now want to do what is happening to Israel? All over the world?

Has the Palestinian plight become our plight you now, as Americans?

That there has to be an intifada here!

Because it's the kind of the same. You know. It's kind of the same over, you know, with what the Palestinians are going through.

Well, it's very much like what the Jews went through with the Nazis.

That's a weird one. That one makes my head hurt. It's very much the same as that. And very much the same as the fight against Donald Trump.

Oh, this is going to be fun. It's fun!

Really fun. You know, the irony here is, the ones that will scream Islamophobia the most, are the ones in the progressive left, the champions of feminism, LGBTQ rights. And secularism.

They're going to -- no. You want -- they're going to stand with the people, who want to kill them first.

See, this is how smart they are!

This is why it's going to work out well, in New York City.

Let me just say. If you have an ounce of common sense, you run a business, you have an ounce of wealth. And I don't mean wealth like, you know, hey, Lovey.

Let's get on the boat for a three-hour tour with a suitcase full of cash. I mean you saved anything, anything, get the hell out of New York City.

I mean, this is about survival. This is about free speech. This is about women's rights.
Religious pluralism. Secular legal systems. Liberal democracy.

But it's also about failed principles of Communism. Okay?

First, you have to call out political Islam for what it is. Okay?

And we have to do it with the clarity that we call out white nationalism.

Got to do it with that. Got to -- you know, the Klan. Really bad people.

Really bad people.

Anybody who is shouting for globalized intifada?

Pretty bad. Pretty bad people.

Okay?

Now, let's get to communism.

Because that's another cool, cool angle of the new Democratic candidate for -- for mayor of New York City.

That I just -- I think is cuddly and cute. Sure, it led to 100 million deaths. But this time, New York is going to be radically different. Oh, did I use the word radical?

I didn't mean to use that. What's radical about this guy?

Nothing. He's just like you!

Well, not exactly.

But let's talk about communism, next!

Now, the new mayoral candidate that's running there in New York City. That so many young people rushed to defend and vote for. He's promising free buses.

That's going to work out.

Where are you going to get the money for free buses.

It's free!

City-run grocery stores.

Oh, rent freezes. And finally somebody has done it. A 30-dollar minimum wage.

So under the banner of equity. And, you know, we will tax the wealthy. And the corporations. You know, we're going to squeeze another $10 billion out of them.

Really?

Because they're going to call a U-Haul.

You know, they will call something like U-Haul. There will be a lot of -- there will be a lot of movers that are like, how do I get the truck back from Texas or Florida back up to New York? Nobody is moving up there.

But he's going to do it.

Now, his vision isn't really new. You know, just -- just tax people, so we could have city-run grocery stores. You know, I remember -- I'm old enough to remember those city-run grocery stores in Moscow.

They were great.

The shelves were empty.

But that's just Moscow.

It worked out completely different in Venezuela.

Where, oh, no.

It didn't. That's right. The grocery store.

They were eating the zoo animals.

But it will be different in New York.

Because they have rent controls too.

And that will just choke the housing supply, but don't worry. As a young family.

You know, you voted for it.

You know better.

It will work this time.

So, you know, I like building ideas, I just don't like usually building on the graves of 100 million people.

But, you know, why not? Why not?

You know, use this dogma.

And this time, it will be different. It's not like it was in China. Where the great leap forward, was a gross -- a gross parody of progress. Venezuela, which was oil rich. One of the richest nations in the hemisphere now sees 90 percent of its population in poverty!

Yeah. Darn it. You know what they did?

They decided to take state control of things.

You know, like grocery stores. And it worked out well. How is that free busing working out in Venezuela?

I just want to -- I just want to know.

Anyway, then you've got the globalize the intifada. Which is going to drop a little violence in, and anti-Semitism in with your communism.

Which is weird!

Because violence and anti-Semitism, always happen. When it -- when it comes to -- when it comes to communism.

This is weird!

I've got to play something for you. Because this has talked about on me earlier this morning.

Oh, wow.

Wait a minute. This is -- this is the whole coalition coming together here.

So this is going to be good. New York, this is going to be great.

It's going to be great for you.

No. He's going to uplift you. Then the social fabric of New York City is just going to be -- just one.

It's going to be fantastic. Don't worry about your 120 billion dollars in debt. Or your 10 billion-dollar deficit that you have right now.

You are going to charge the rich more taxes, and they will stay right there.

They will be like, you know what, that 46 percent in taxes that I'm paying, this is just not enough. It's just not enough.

I need to pay 60 or 70 percent to be able to pay my fair share. So that's good. That's good. That's good.

You know, they're not risking 100 million people. It's just 8 million people.

This time, it's just 8 million people.

But, hey. For those of you in upstate New York. That aren't going to be part of this experiment.

Don't worry, you get to pay for it. Because they'll kick it up to the state. The state will have to subsidize everything. And don't you love it?

Really, don't you want to subsidize the really crazy ideas of New York City?

I mean, why don't you have a -- why don't you have a democratic socialist. A/k/a communist mayor.

Why haven't you done that? Are you not progressive enough? Are you not looking into the future?

Are you stuck in the past?

I don't know. I don't know. The graveyard is pretty big. I have a hard time getting past that one. You know, yeah, so I'm stuck in the past. Because I can't seem to pass that graveyard, and get to be down the path with you. But it's going to be a paradise.

Forget arithmetic. You know, or human nature. This time, it's going to work. It's going to work. So all right!

Wish I lived in this morning.

No wait. Nope. I don't. Nope, I don't.

And Ted Cruz, stop it. Stop writing, hey, come to Texas. No. No. Don't come to Texas. Don't come to Florida. Go to California. It's beautiful this time of year. Go there. Go there.