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Don't complain about 'rape culture' if you're OK with boys in the girl's locker room
(Sara D. Davis/Getty Images)

Don't complain about 'rape culture' if you're OK with boys in the girl's locker room

President Trump this week rescinded the rule unconstitutionally imposed by Obama's White House requiring that all schools across the country allow gender confused boys (or any boy who feels like pretending he's confused that day) to invade the bathrooms and locker rooms of their female classmates.

Leftists, of course, reacted as if Trump had taken some extraordinary and unprecedented step, when actually Trump was simply dialing back an extraordinary and unprecedented step recently taken by his predecessor. It's always interesting to note just how quickly an item on the Leftist agenda goes from unimportant to utterly crucial to the survival of the species. Five years ago, nobody, including Obama, was talking about bathrooms or "transgenderism." None of these Leftists, who are now quite certain that bathroom segregation is a violation of human rights, had anything to say on the subject prior to about the year 2012. Suddenly it was discovered that boys can be girls, and if they are not treated as girls in every aspect of life, they will literally die. Nobody can say how this was discovered; we're expected to accept it as a matter of faith.

Sure, cross dressing existed prior to Obama's second term, and the word "transgenderism" was familiar to some, but the vast majority of the human species did not believe that biological sex was some kind of irrelevant or incidental detail. The vast majority still don't believe it, but liberals have arbitrarily decided that we should, even if they didn't themselves believe it up until 78 seconds ago. I say all of this just to remind everyone that Leftists started this bathroom fight on their own and for no coherent reason, so when they panic over Trump's "attack on transgender rights," what they're really panicking over is the Right's refusal to immediately cave to their every deranged whim. They complain of something being "taken away" which they just a moment ago imposed without the consent of most of the people they imposed it upon.

With that established, there's another point that bears frequent reiteration: The very people who so often claim that we're living in a "rape culture," and who are apt to cry harassment when a man so much as compliments a woman in the wrong way, and who often say that America is such a misogynistic hellhole that women can't even walk down the street without fearing assault or rape, are the same ones who tell young girls to shut up and stop complaining when men with penises stroll into their locker rooms and bathrooms. In every other context, men are chastised for their "male privilege" if they act in a way that makes women uncomfortable -- even if the behavior in question is completely innocent and non-threatening -- but if a girl is uncomfortable looking at penises in her locker room, suddenly she's the one who gets yelled at for being inconsiderate. In the minds of our nation's Leftists, a man has persecuted a woman when he spreads his legs too wide on the subway, but if he disrobes in front of her in the bathroom and she feels uneasy, it is she who has persecuted him.

"Male entitlement," "male privilege," "rape culture," all of these terms are thrown at men for any and every reason under the sun, except as it pertains to men who want to enter the room while a woman is on the toilet or taking a shower. How could a person not under the influence of drugs and not suffering from brain damage possibly look at this dichotomy and think it makes sense? Leftists are allegedly so hypersensitive about a woman's feelings and a woman's desire for safety, how could they be the ones calling women bigots and "transphobes" for simply wanting to have a place where they can change or use the toilet in private? How could they, who see the ever present Male Threat everywhere they turn, not see that threat when it comes barreling into the showers with its genitals hanging out? Even if they don't see it, how could they not at least respect the women and young girls who do see it? How could they put the emotional and physical security of women below the fetishes and fantasies of mentally confused men? How could they demand that women submit to the desires of men in this case?

The Left doesn't simply disregard women and girls who feel unsafe with men in their private spaces; it treats them with actual contempt. Take just one example: Yesterday on Twitter, CNN's Chris Cuomo was asked what he would say to a 12 year old girl who wishes not see a penis in the locker room. Cuomo responded that this girl and her parents are a "problem" and must learn to be more "tolerant." Think about that for a moment. A 12 year old girl is a "problem" and "intolerant" for feeling uncomfortable around naked men. What kind of a person pulls a guilt trip on a child who doesn't want to be the victim of indecent exposure or worse? A progressive person, apparently.

Now, if such a response is not an example of "rape culture" -- blaming a child for feeling unsafe around nude men -- then the term "rape culture" means absolutely nothing. And if the attitude Cuomo and his ilk demonstrate here is not an example of "male entitlement" -- insisting that men are entitled to enter whatever locker room or bathroom they want, no matter how it makes women feel -- then, again, the term lacks all meaning.

Leftists will argue that the concerns these girls express are unfounded. Women aren't being assaulted in bathrooms by people posing as "transgender," so it shouldn't be an issue, they claim. But to that assertion there are are two obvious responses:

1. Women are being harassed and assaulted in bathrooms. There have been many such incidents. Of course there have been. There are lots of sick and perverted people in this world, and when you give them a mechanism by which they can gain access to women in compromising positions, they will take it. And they have. And they will continue, wherever these "transgender" bathroom rules are in effect.

2. We shouldn't have to cite incidents. That shouldn't matter. The fact is that most women do feel uncomfortable with men in their bathrooms, and their feelings on the subject are far more relevant and important than the feelings of a small smattering of cross dressing men. Women are saying that they don't want men in the bathroom with them, and Leftists respond, "Well, unless you're getting raped in there, you have no room to complain." Since when is that an acceptable response to the valid concerns of the vast majority of our nation's women? Since when is it OK to tell a girl she has no right to worry about sexual assault in the bathroom until she has actually been sexually assaulted in the bathroom?

It is revealed, once again, that the Left has no real concern for women. Their ideology comes first, as always. Leftist policies and ideas protect and respect women as long as "protecting and respecting women" can be used as an effective cover for some ideological goal. But the moment the cover gets in the way of the goal, it's thrown to the side and women along with it. The agenda reigns supreme on the Left. "Women" are only useful as a vehicle for it -- until, of course, they aren't. When that happens, they need to shut up and go with the program. Even if it means putting themselves and their daughters at risk.

To see more from Matt Walsh, visit his channel on TheBlaze.

Order Matt's new book, "The Unholy Trinity," here.

To contact Matt for speaking engagements, click here.

 

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