She falsely accused someone of rape. The phrase "crying rape" is a loaded term. It can be, and is, used against rape survivors who come forward to silence them or diminish the severity of their accusation.
I'm sorry, but I don't understand your point at all. Saying that rape survivors "falsely accused someone of rape" has the exact same effect. Meanwhile, we're not talking about any rape survivors here, we're talking about someone who actually did lie.
Rape culture is about the ways in which all of us contribute to the normalization of sexual violence against women (and men). That does not mean that you or I support rape. What it means is that we were born into a culture where women are undervalued, where their control over their own bodies is limited, and where violence against women is underreported, excused, and often encouraged. The phrase 'rape culture' is used to raise our collective awareness of the fact that we have been born into this culture so that we can actively and collectively challenge it. When we use phrases like "she cried rape", even when we are legitimately angry about false accusations, we perpetuate the usage of language that diminishes all rape accusations.
To repeat myself, you can't blame anybody for describing something which actually happened. Facts are facts, and if your cause requires people to ignore them, you're doing something very wrong. I think the one to blame here is the woman who REALLY DID LIE ABOUT BEING RAPED. She is the one making actual victims' claims less believable.
As for the line about jokes, I have to assume that since it came from a college website, the context has to do with classroom/workplace environments wherein sexually explicit jokes can create an environment conducive to sexual harassment. You can still be a feminist and make sex jokes.
Well, I certainly hope that is the case, because I'm sure you see how ridiculous it looks out of context.
In the context of this thread, everyone is pretty focused on the woman's false accusation. If you're speaking more broadly, I don't know what you are referring to.
Everyone's probably focused on it because that's what happened. If you want to talk about how this shouldn't be exaggerated and doesn't happen often at all (big shock, that's what makes it news), then provide some facts or data that supports that and you'll have done a good thing. Beyond that, there's nothing wrong with discussing an event that actually, really happened. More broadly, it's hard to think of specific examples besides the dirty joke -> rape culture thing. To put it generally, even in this thread, you see people acting as if decreasing rape is literally the most important thing in the world, and seems to be the only thing they think about or consider. This extreme attitude is polarizing and unhelpful; it makes people take the cause of reducing rape less seriously. Take this story, for instance. It seems like some people practically wish we weren't talking about it at all, that it never saw the light of day, and no one knew about it. I am even willing to believe that, if that were the case, future rape would diminish very very slightly. But at the same time, the story's a matter of fact, and should not be censored or buried in any way. No fact should.
Edit: Another example is this "cry rape" thing. I'm under the assumption that I still don't properly understand it, though.
