Ann Coulter and the Politics of Rape

By Lowell Ponte

Not many decades ago, a judge would weigh such remarks against how a woman dressed and acted. To wear short skirts or low cleavage was sometimes used to justify sexist harassment, or even to defend a rapist’s outrageous claim that the woman was “asking for it.” The good news is that we now are much more enlightened about women’s rights, and that such claims will never again be used to vindicate a sexual attacker.

The bad news is that this same rationale of past rapists is now used by political radicals. Ann Coulter has dressed herself in provocatively stimulating (and therefore dangerous) ideas, the radicals have said. And because this has aroused them emotionally, they are entitled to take her down by force.

The University of California Berkeley refused to guarantee Coulter’s safety. Emerging evidence of the Berkeley mayor’s links to radical activists suggested that, as in the past, city police have been ordered to stand down and let activists engage in violent, destructive behavior. Yet another attempt by Leftist partisans to impose a “heckler’s veto” on non-Leftist speakers seemed likely. [more...]