Brooklyn College Professor Defends Sexual Assault As Male Rite Of Passage
Oct. 3, 2018, 10:12 a.m.
"If someone did not commit sexual assault in high school, then he is not a member of the male sex," Mitchell Langbert wrote in a bad blog post.
Ruminating on the Brett Kavanaugh controversy, one Brooklyn professor has come up with a take—and watch out, it is very hot! According to one Mitchell Langbert, an associate professor of business at Brooklyn College, sexually assaulting your peers should be considered a litmus test for manliness.
Langbert espoused this bad opinion—along with a handful of classic, MRA-style myths about sexual assault survivors and relived trauma—in a blog post no one asked for, published September 27th but unremarked upon until now, because everyone had more important things to pay attention to last week.
"If someone did not commit sexual assault in high school, then he is not a member of the male sex," Langbert opined, going on to lambaste the bunch of "tutu-wearing pansies" who comprise the Democratic party for destroying a man's life and career over "a series of supposed spin-the-bottle crimes" dredged from a Supreme Court nominee's wayward youth.
"The Kavanaugh hearing is a travesty, and if the Republicans are going to allow the sissy party to use this travesty to stop conservatism, then it is time found a new political party," Langbert concluded. "In the future, having committed sexual assault in high school ought to be a prerequisite for all appointments, judicial and political. Those who did not play spin-the-bottle when they were 15 should not be in public life."
Kavanaugh, of course, has been accused of a lot more than playing spin the bottle: According to Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, who recounted her experience in a moving and raw testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the same day Langbert sat fuming at his blogspot page, Trump's SCOTUS nominee and his best friend ambushed her at a house party while they were wildly intoxicated, a 17-year-old Kavanaugh muffling her screams as he held her down and tried to rape her. Although Dr. Ford—who, as a psychology professor, is extremely aware of the ways in which the brain recalls and stores experiences—admitted her memory had some holes after three decades of wear, she told the Committee she remained "100 percent certain" it was Kavanaugh who attacked her.
Then there's Deborah Ramirez, who says Kavanaugh drunkenly forced his penis into her face when they were both freshman at Yale. Additionally, former federal government employee Julie Swetnick has stated in a sworn affidavit that Kavanaugh's alleged habit of getting aggressively, belligerently drunk led him to regularly accost women at parties in his teen years, and further, that he actively worked to incapacitate those women so that large groups of boys could rape them, one after another. Another witness came forward last night with a sworn statement corroborating Swetnick's allegations.
When we asked Langbert, an apparent "member of the male sex," to comment on what might be considered a fairly damning self-own, and how he understands the difference between spin the bottle and Dr. Ford's allegations, he responded thus:
"It is a satirical and hyperbolic piece.
There is no evidence that Kavanaugh did anything of the sort.
The arguments are sarcastic, not literal.
I have been threatened with assault by several Democrats. I can forward the hate mail and threats. If this were about disliking assault, why would I be threatened with assault?
The Democrats have become an authoritarian party that aims to silence dissent. This is a characteristic case. My blog is a cry against the authoritarian violence that threatens anyone who does not toe the Democratic Party line.
I am tired of the bigotry."
Speaking to Bklyner, Langbert also asserted that baseless sexual harassment allegations have similarly been leveraged to "defame, lie about, and attempt to harm the careers of faculty." He went on to add that he himself has twice been forced to defend himself against such claims. Speaking to the NY Post, he added: "It's natural for males to be sexually exploratory. As long as there is no coercion or violence it's not a crime."
Please recall, the accusations against Kavanaugh include both coercion and violence.
We have reached out to Brooklyn College for comment, and will update if and when we hear back. This morning, Brooklyn College Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Anne Lopes issued this statement:
It has come to our attention that a Brooklyn College faculty member blogged a gender-biased and homophobic post that advocates sexual assault last week. I view the post as offensive, obviously abhorrent, and contravening the fundamental values and practices of our community. However, the First Amendment to the United States Constitution protects even speech that many experience as offensive, such as the faculty member's post. I understand that in response to the speech students have organized a protest that will take place on the East Quad on Thursday during common hours.
In the meantime, we hope that people will respond to abhorrent speech with persuasion. We have set up a webpage to collect the community’s reflections about the faculty member’s post and related topics here. Over the next week, we will plan a forum to share and discuss the community’s reflections. I will be in touch with the details.
Students and faculty are planning a protest against Professor Langbert on campus Thursday afternoon.
