Mumsnet defines a rape apologist as “someone who seeks to excuse rape. Normally by finding a way to blame the victim...”
Finally, a Feminism 101 Blog summarises: “A rape apology is any argument that boils down to the myth that rapists can be provoked into raping by what the victim does or does not do”.
Cathy Nugent (Solidarity 346) defends her claim that the SWP is “rape apologist” by quoting reports from SWP oppositionists of responses by SWP members in the “Comrade X” and “Comrade W” cases. They are bad. But not all bad is “rape apologist”.
The reported responses are not “yes, there was sex without consent, but such-and-such excuses it”. And we are even further from proof that the SWP corporately, collectively, institutionally, is “rape apologist”.
Anger against the SWP is justified. Verbal inflation blurs, not clarifies.
