Real-Life Examples Of "Rape-Free Societies"

In a similar vein as several of my recent articles, I decided to ask Dr. Google, in its infinite wisdom, for some examples of (practically) "rape-free societies", as the late anthropologist Peggy Reeves Sanday had observed.  These are merely mythical utopia's or fantasies, but documented, real-life examples. And here is what I found:

Anthropological studies—most notably by researcher Peggy Reeves Sanday—classify societies as "rape-free" when sexual assault is either completely absent or statistically rare, heavily punished, and viewed as a severe loss of status rather than a sign of masculinity. [1, 2]

Documented Examples of Rape-Free/Low-Rape Societies

The Mosuo: A matrilineal society in southwestern China where family lineage and property pass through women, and male sexual dominance or entitlement is absent. [1]
The Minangkabau: The largest matrilineal society in the world (located in West Sumatra, Indonesia), characterized by high gender equality and shared decision-making. [1]
The Iroquois (Haudenosaunee): Historically exhibited high political and social power for women, who controlled agriculture, land, and a significant voice in clan governance. [1]
The Ashanti (Asante): A matrilineal culture in Ghana where women traditionally held prominent roles in commerce, politics, and social continuity. [1]
The Vanatinai: An egalitarian society in Papua New Guinea where men and women share economic and social authority with minimal gender-based violence. [1]
Additional Cultural Examples: Anthropological data also identifies low or absent rates of rape among the Bougainville, Apache, Guajiro, and Trobrianders. [1]

Key Characteristics of Rape-Free Societies

Gender Equality & Complementarity: Both sexes hold respected, integrated positions in public life, governance, and daily affairs. [1, 2]
Matrilineal Structures: Lineage traced through mothers diminishes male heterosexual authority, sexual entitlement, and structural dominance. [1]
Rejection of "Toughness" Culture: Rather than celebrating aggressive male competition or dominance, social norms value interpersonal connection, mutual respect, and shared consent. [1, 2]
Strong Social Censure: Sexual violence is treated as shameful, dishonorable, and subject to swift communal disapproval or punishment rather than being ignored or normalized. [1, 2]

Thus, such a thing is indeed possible (with the caveat that at least some degree/flavor of Matriarchy seems to be a prerequisite).  In other words, it looks like nurture > nature after all.  Rape is always and everywhere a cultural problem, at its very roots, and thus the "myth of inevitability" has now been completely laid waste.

And while affirmative consent laws (aka "Only Yes Means Yes" laws), consent education, bystander intervention, media campaigns, resistance training, and things like that are necessary to effect cultural change, these surface-level measures are sadly not sufficient by themselves to truly strike the very deep cultural roots of this problem overnight.

So what are we waiting for?  Let the planetary healing begin!  And Goddess willing, let us thus finally make rape as bizarre and unthinkable as cannibalism!

(Mic drop)

Remember In November: The Mother Of All Blue Waves Or Bust!

(Originally posted on the True Spirit of America Party blog)

The way things are going, I just hope we have the Mother of All Blue Waves this November.  MAGA is a cancer on the body politic that needs to be eradicated, root and branch.  That is why, much to the chagrin of some purists, I will continue to "Vote Blue No Matter Who" until such cancer is fully eradicated.  Then, and only then, can we even THINK about taking on what remains of the neoliberal duopoly, which we also need to do, of course. And I have faith that it will be a rout this November.  Because the alternative (Republicans winning again) would be much worse.

Look, we clearly prefer genuine (and especially economic) progressives and leftists over squishy neoliberal centrists and identity politics. But now is NOT the time for any ideological purity tests! If we make the perfect the enemy of the good, we ultimately end up with neither, as we have learned the hard way.

This is our LAST CHANCE to save what is left of our beloved Republic, if it isn't already too late.  Look, we KNOW the GOP will cheat by attempting to rig the midterms, but if enough people vote Blue that would become much more difficult to rig.  Those who don't vote, vote third-party, vote write-in, or vote Republican will thus be asking for a TON of karma when all is said and done.

(Mic drop)

Poem: She Was Asking For It (Never Again)

Poem:  "She Was Asking For It (Never Again)"

By Ajax the Great (Pete Jackson)

(FIVE-ALARM TRIGGER WARNING:  rape, SA, and other violence against women, current and historical atrocities, misogyny, racism, antisemitism, genocide, gynocide)

NOTE:  This poem was written and first posted in February 2024, not about anyone in particular, but is being re-posted in light of current events.

A young woman was raped the other day

Like so many others every day

She was apparently "no angel"

She was a "wild party girl" who "broke all the rules"

What is your first thought, my friends

When you hear this horrible news?

I would hazard a guess you would give a stock answer:

"You know she was asking for it, right?"

I bet you would say the same 

About the Rape of the Sabine Women

Upon which Rome's (vain)glory was founded

They were asking for it too, right?

Would you say the same about the millions of women

Who were murdered, tortured, and raped 

During the Inquisition and the Burning Times?

They were asking for it too, right?

How about the First Nations women

Who were murdered, tortured, and raped

In the name of Manifest Destiny 

They were asking for it too, right?

How about the transatlantic slave trade?

You know the women didn't knock themselves up 

Forced to breed more "black ivory" for Master

They were asking for it too, right?

How about the women victims of the Spanish Civil War

Two terrors, Red and White 

Two sides of the same evil coin

They were asking for it too, right?

How about the very literal Rape of Nanjing

Mass murder, mass rape, and mass torture 

In the name of the Empire of the Rising Sun

They were asking for it too, right?

How about the Jews and countless others

During the Holocaust and otherwise 

Half of six million is three million women

They were asking for it too, right?

How about the devil with whom the Allies made a deal

A devil named Joseph Stalin

Whose army raped countless civilian women 

They were asking for it too, right?

Revenge for genocide tastes sweet at first

Then leaves a very bitter aftertaste 

Pay it forward, its name is Nakba, 1948

They were asking for it too, right?

Rape is the gift that keeps on giving

Cycle of violence, see October 7, 2023

A new day that will live in infamy

#MeToo unless you're a Jew, right?

A taste of the enemy's own medicine 

Becomes an overdose in the ruins of Gaza

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind

If everyone is asking for it, then who isn't?

Male desecration of the Sacred Feminine 

Sure as hell knows no bounds

The banality of evil writ very, very large

All masked by, "they were asking for it"

The Keystone Lie is thus laid waste

And with it, the whole stack of lies

Has now collapsed faster than you can say,

You guessed it:  "They were asking for it"

So let me ask you one more time again

About the young woman who was raped

Who was supposedly "no angel"

What is your answer now?

Because if your answer to her now

Is anything other than "NEVER AGAIN!"

With NO asterisks or qualifications

Then you, too, must be "asking for it".

(Mic drop)

ALTERNATE ABRIDGED VERSION:

Replace stanzas 11, 12, and 13 with the following two generic stanzas if one feels it is still too soon to include any references to current/recent events in the Middle East:

Revenge for genocide tastes sweet at first

Then leaves a very bitter aftertaste 

Rape is the gift that keeps on giving

They were asking for it too, right?

A taste of the enemy's own medicine 

Becomes an overdose in the ruins of war

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind

If everyone is asking for it, then who isn't?

Another Great Cute Animal Video!

Excellent Classic Video About Consent

Excellent classic video about consent:

It's really NOT rocket science, folks!

Awake, Aware, AND Willing is the BARE MINIMUM.

(Mic drop)

"Why Has Consent Education Failed?"

In light of current events, I recently decided to ask Dr Google, in it's infinite wisdom, "Why Has Consent Education Failed?", and this is the answer we received, verbatim:

Consent education has often fallen short because it is implemented too late, framed too narrowly as a reactive rule rather than a continuous social-emotional skill, and undermined by systemic and political barriers. [1, 2]

Late Timing and "Too Little, Too Late" Delivery

University-level overload: Many institutions rely on one-off modules or heavy orientation slideshows when students arrive on campus, which fails to overwrite years of pre-existing social conditioning, rape culture, and power dynamics. [1, 2]
Delayed introduction: Formal discussions around bodily autonomy and boundaries frequently start in middle or high school rather than early childhood, missing the crucial developmental window where social norms are first established. [1, 2, 3]

Flawed Frameworks and Oversimplification

Binary "Yes or No" limits: Programs often reduce consent to a simple, isolated verbal transaction, ignoring real-world complexities like peer pressure, intoxication, and heavy power imbalances. [1, 2]
Disconnection from everyday life: Treating consent strictly as a "disaster planning" or abstinence-adjacent tool rather than a foundational life skill (respecting physical boundaries, recognizing non-verbal cues) limits its integration into everyday behavior. [1, 2]
Lack of inclusivity: Curriculums often rely on heteronormative frameworks that fail to address the specific vulnerabilities and intersectional harassment faced by LGBTQ+ youth, students of color, and disabled individuals. [1, 2]

Political and Systemic Obstacles

Curriculum erasure and abstinence focus: Many state legislatures restrict comprehensive sex education, favoring abstinence-only or "sexual risk avoidance" models that completely omit or actively strip out consent instruction. [1, 2, 3]
Institutional protection of perpetrators: Educational frameworks focus heavily on individual accountability while structural environments—such as underfunded schools or universities prioritizing reputation—frequently protect offenders and fail to support survivors.

So after over a decade of consent education, why has that apparently not moved the needle even one iota?  Because it's basically done too little, too late. It needs to begin MUCH earlier than college, and earlier than even high school (in a general and age-appropriate way, of course), and be ongoing.  And it is all too often very poorly designed and executed, and all too often patronizing, paternalistic, and infantilizing, thus it needs to be revamped with best practices.  Is it necessary?  Absolutely.  Is it sufficient?  Sadly, no.  Rapists practically always know and understand consent at least on a rudimentary level, but they simply don't care.  It's entitlement, not ignorance (unless it is willful ignorance born of entitlement), that's the real problem here.  And of course, the culture and institutions full of apologists, enablers, and guilty bystanders that give them "social license to operate".

In other words, what typically passes for "consent education" all too often fails to play to the MUSIC of what really happens in practice much of the time.  And that needs to be fixed.

Emily Nagoski's model of consent seems to be one of the best ones out there that we could find.  In her model, consent is not a binary, but rather a spectrum from enthusiastic, to willing, to unwilling, to coerced.  The real dividing line to truly watch out for, where the slope gets slippery, is between willing and unwilling, and then it quickly goes downhill from there.

All that said, ultimately, rape and sexual assault are always and everywhere a cultural problem.  We need to change the culture to reflect enthusiastic consent as the standard:  "if it's not a HELL YEAH!, it's a HELL NO!".  Or at the very least, it must be awake, aware, AND willing consent as the bare minimum.  And furthermore, anthropological evidence has shown that it is entirely possible to have relatively "rape-free" societies as well. In such societies, which are typically matrilineal and matrifocal and where women are highly valued members of community and society, rape is NOT considered "macho" or virile behavior at all, but rather quite the opposite, and those very few men who would dare do so roundly face much ridicule and shame for it. It is basically seen as the ultimate loser, failure, and weak behavior, and it is not at all tolerated. (Nor would a "real man" feel the need to prove himself a man by "scoring" just to get proverbial notches on his belt, as true virility is self-evident.) Rapists thus have no "social license to operate" there at all. In other words, nurture seems to be far more important than nature, as male violence against women and children is a cultural problem at base.

(The late anthropologist Peggy Reeves Sanday had a LOT to say about this!  We should really heed her words of wisdom.)

When rape and sexual assault (and male violence against women and children in general) are seen as not only dishonorable and degenerate, but also the most unmanly thing a man could possibly do as well, that really seems to be the "Achilles' Heel" to eradicating this pandemic of sexual violence for good.

We need to take away rapists' "social license to operate", and stop enabling them.  Yesterday!

"Awake, Aware, AND Willing" is the BARE MINIMUM.

(Mic drop)

WILLIAM RESPONDS:

I think it’s going to be difficult for women to get fair treatment with rape in any patriarchal country. The worse case is countries like Pakistan where if a woman was go to the police complaining of being raped, she would be arrested and go to jail rather than the rapist. But it’s not a lot better in Western countries. Two of my female friends both had been raped as young women, but both didn’t go to the police because they knew the police would give them a hard time if they did. Which is not what they wanted to go through, having gone through the trauma of rape. 

The point is that many male politicians, judges, lawyers and policemen are more on the side of rapist than on the side of women, in patriarchal countries. But even men who take a more neutral opinion on this, also do fear that women will wrongly accuse them of rape if the law was to favour women. And unfortunately there are some women who will do this, giving all women a bad name. This is why any rape law will fail in any patriarchy country, because the law makers want the rape laws to fail. So the only solution for problem of rape is a matriarchal government. 

PETE RESPONDS:

Indeed, that is sad but true, William. Even the most progressive countries in the world still have this very grave problem, and some countries even seem to be regressing a bit after decades of relative progress. That doesn't mean that reforms cannot be made in the meantime; in the interest of justice, they certainly should! Partial solutions do still have useful value, after all.  But under patriarchy, using the law to try to solve this problem will always have its limits, and the problem will never be truly solved until we have a fully Matriarchal government, and then Goddess willing, rape and sexual assault will ultimately become as rare and unthinkable as cannibalism.

We need to see the forest for the trees, in other words.

And I will add, there is truly a special place in the Lake of Fire (or according to your theology, William, a place called "The Void", which really doesn't sound any better!) for those who would violate and desecrate the Sacred Feminine and Her representatives, in any way, shape, or form!  And a fortiori for those who would do so to children!

And Rasa, if you are seeing this in Heaven, THANK YOU for all you have done for the movement!  The Rubicon has been crossed, and after this temporary detour through these current dark times is through, Women and Mother God will ultimately win!

AMEN

The TSAP's Statement On The Cornell Seven Case

We at the True Spirit of America Party absolutely and wholeheartedly condemn the vile and disgusting actions of the Cornell 7 and all of their apologists, enablers, and guilty bystanders, from the other members of their Chi Phi fraternity who knew and did absolutely nothing, all the way up to and including the administration of Cornell itself who let them off relatively easy for "allegedly" drugging and raping a woman who was clearly incapacitated and could not consent. ("Allegedly" is doing a LOT of work here!)

May their names forever be MUD, the world over!  And may the victim FINALLY get (belated) justice for the atrocities that these vile monsters put her through!  Yesterday.

(Mic drop)

EDITOR'S NOTE:  All opinions expressed herein are those of mine and the True Spirit of America Party and Twenty-One Debunked, and not necessarily those of anyone else. Legally speaking, all suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.