Hey internet commenters who believe that is a valid argument - wonder why some women freak the f*ck out when the read that sort of "reasonable people" argument on the internet in their Magic Art thread? Let me explain why, you're so sure that fighting back makes it "not look like a victim" that the woman you are talking too is imagining ( if she has not already lived through) a rape or domestic violence scenario where she fought back and was able to avoid dying ( or maybe even avoid being raped) and presses charges against her attacker and then she goes to court, and you, a person she believes is actually just an average guy and not a rapist said this to defend a friggin' magic card with bad art ( it's bad, don't pretend otherwise) and now there is a real live flesh and blood dudebro in court and she's pretty sure that because she fought back when the defense shows "defensive wounds" you or your brethern in reasonableness will figure that she couldn't have been a "real victim" because you weren't dead. I mean fought back.
Of course if she doesn't fight back she also runs the risk of being told it was consensual because otherwise she would have fought back.
So you see internet "reasonable" people, you are making an argument on an abstract point AND you are teaching women that otherwise nice guys don't see a person who fights back as someone who is subject to sexism or domestic violence or rape and a jury of some rapists peers ( because they aren't rapists) will assume the EXACT SAME THING. So she's not gonna bother to report, and she's not gonna even say anything when you're talking about the card. Hell if she hasn't been raped she might even agree with you because that sort of shit only happens to stupid weak girls not her. God bless the women like this, may they live the sort of lives where they never have to find out otherwise.
This sort of thinking is why women don't report things, they know people feel that way because nice guys on the internet defend the rapey card because FREEDOM and DOMINATRIXES!
If your buds think that what the hell are strangers gonna think.
So your female friend who games that's cool with it, she might be cool with it but she's most likely going to remember it when she thinks about all of the risks of reporting date rape or sexual harassment or domestic violence. Even if her male friends are all uber-cool guys who hate the card and sexism, the fact that this was the kind of thing she saw in her game websites and that these are the guys who grow up to be on juries mean that her having an awesome group of supportive male friends will still not be enough to undo the fact that other people in a less charged setting can't recognize the problem.
Now make that background radiation noise amplify X1000.
Here have some stats
When this methodology is used to screen respondents
for sexual assault victimization, the literature suggests that only about 5-20%
of victims report the crime to law enforcement (Fisher et al., 2000; Frazier, Candell,
Arikian, & Tofteland, 1994; Kilpatrick, Edmunds, & Seymour, 1992; Kilpatrick,
Resnick, Ruggiero, Conoscenti, & McCauley, 2007; Tjaden & Thoennes, 2000).
So this, this is why people are incoherently angry about things like tossing around rape and violence against women being treated like a big joke, because it actually is. You are more likely to get pregnant from a rape than your rape case actually being prosecuted. Awesome.
Yes, Some(TM) gamer boys are the problem, internet idiots are the problem, because no one for a second believes that defenders of these things will actually ever find a rape victim to be enough of a victim when she goes to court.
And that's why "reasonable" people making these arguments on the internet get over the top freaked out reactions from what you think is just a thought exercise or a discussion of acceptable aesthetics. Because you might be on a jury some day.
