I'll do my best to clarify. No one is suggesting we ignore what was done. I am pointing out that there is a difference between saying, "she falsely accused him of rape" and "she cried rape". The former is a matter of fact statement. The latter is an incendiary and loaded comment. It's something that can be used against women regardless of whether or not they are telling the truth. It also creates the impression that false rape reports are common, when in reality rapes are underreported.
As someone's already pointed out, that last sentence contains a non sequitur. Nonetheless, I do sort of see what you're saying. Not because it can be used against women regardless of their honesty (this is just as true for "false accusation" or any synonym), but because it could imply commonality, because in the story of the boy who cried wolf (where the term presumably comes from), the problem is that the boy cries wolf too frequently. Your complaint makes sense if we view the crier as women in general. I (and some others I suspect) were only looking at the "false call for help" aspect. I think this is an honest mistake, maybe not even worth noting, but more on that later.
Where? Also, is it bad for someone to make combating rape the issue that is most important to them? Also, who is taking the cause of reducing rape less seriously as a result?
Don't do the "who really thinks that" thing. I'm just following your lead here. Who really is led to feel that rape is acceptable purely from the use of the term "cry rape?" The whole rape culture argument is based on these subtle connotations and mental effects that you can't possibly prove with hard data. I'm willing to accept the argument to a point, and I'll try to explain my own point better. Hopefully we can see eye to eye.
Wouldn't that individual be the one with the serious problem and not the person passionately trying to challenge rape culture?
Okay, here is what I mean. You're trying to attack rape culture. To do that, you have to accurate identify instances of rape culture. I (for example), your potential ally, am with you so far. Then I hear some claims along the lines that we can stigmatize instances of rape culture such as dirty jokes or the use of the term "cry rape." Now, what do I think of this "rape culture?" I think it's some oversensitive BS. The next time you try to inform me of rape culture, even if you're talking about frat boys discussing how best to get a woman drunk, I'm more likely to ignore you before even hearing you out. You've done damage to your cause by focusing on silly little things with little or no real impact.
That's what I mean. This stuff you're talking about, does it really matter? I doubt it. If you spend effort on the wrong thing, then you've lost effort you could have spent better, and you've made your cause look ridiculous. This is not constructive.
You know what I think might be good? Education. That "teach men not to rape" thing. Sounds like it's worth a shot. Maybe that is worth focusing on, not subtle details of how people phrase things.
It doesn't.
"Cry rape" is a loaded in a way that "She made a false accusation of rape" is not. I know you think that because they mean the same thing, there's no difference, but that is not accurate.
Sometimes because of the way language is used in popular discourse, it takes on social connotations that are not actually present in the strict meaning of the words. Another example might be the phrase "you people"; someone who wasn't aware of American culture and how the phrase is often used might use the phrase "you people" towards a group of black people, meaning it quite innocently, without realizing how their comment that follows might be viewed as being applied to all black people, rather than just that specific group.
"Cry rape" isn't quite the same (and someone can probably think of a far better example than that), but because of the long-term association with accusing actual rape victims of "crying rape," it is a more loaded term than "making a false accusation of rape." There is a conception that some people have about rape where they conceive of rape accusations like this: "Girl decides to go party. Girl drinks too much and sleeps with a guy. Girl regrets it in the morning. Girl cries rape."
You can see examples of this sort of rape culture in the OP article here, where rather than admitting that their school has a problem with sexual assault, they instead choose to place all responsibility on the girls making the accusation, accuse them of actually being sluts who are crying rape, and place more emphasis on protecting the accused than getting justice for the victim. It's an almost textbook example of rape culture in action and the way that rape culture facilitates rape, if you're having trouble conceptualizing this.
I am thoroughly unconvinced. This IS an accurate use of that term so I don't understand the problem you're trying to describe. Kame-sennin did a much better job here.
In what world are you living that decreasing rape isn't one of the most important things, and in what world are you living that you consider that position "extreme," "polarizing," and "unhelpful." Would it be more helpful if we considered it "sort of important, but not really a priority"?
I'm not really sure you thought this through when you said it.
First of all, see above for an explanation of what I mean about what exactly you deem important. Put forth the solutions that can actually work, not tiny things that might have some marginal impact. This gets the cause taken more seriously, I think. Furthermore, reacting to people basically just discussing facts is the kind of thing I'm talking about. Rape is not so important that you get to do fundamentally wrong things in order to stop it. Censoring true information is not acceptable. Thought police is bullshit. Killing a tiny, recently-conceived person is just plain wrong, if you believe it is possible to be a "person" while being recently-conceived. Rape changes none of this. You can still only fight it within the realm of acceptable actions. I say again, education. Great. Go. Do. Awesome. That is a thing you can do and maybe it could work, so great.