Little bit of girl gang action in spewtown!! Me likey!!! (Taken with Instagram)
Newtown? Damn, that’s nearby D:
Further information: this guy works at Polymorph as a piercer. So, I recommend boycotting that place. He’s known around the traps and is involved in the queer punk anarchist scene.
Read the survivor’s story in full at the associated blog. Major TW for general abusive behaviour, rape and other sexual assault, and grooming. This rapist carefully groomed and coerced his parnter into a vulnerable position before violently raping her.
It should also be noted that we here in Spewtown are a very small community and there are many interconnections between the subcultures. This person is unlikely to be able to maintain their anonymity for long and also likely have started this campaign in awareness of that. As is always the case in such situations, there is likely to be backlash against this person in support of her rapist. Think twice before you suspect of her lying. She has nothing to gain from it.
It should also be noted that I was lucky to get this shot. Most of these posters have been torn down, indicating yet again support of rapists and their actions.
Getting this some exposure, I know a few people from around that area.
Wow I wasn’t going to reblog this, but then I clicked the link to read her personal story behind this poster and I am in shock. Some people are evil.
don’t read the story if you’re sensitive, because it made me physically sick. And I’m not exaggerating.
But reblogging for awareness
Massive fucking trigger warning: But I know people who live in this area who need to know this shit.
“As is always the case in such situations, there is likely to be backlash against this person in support of her rapist. Think twice before you suspect of her lying. She has nothing to gain from it.”
wow polymorph. wow this is so depressing.
A friend of a friend contacted Polymorph. This was their response:
thank you for letting me know, I think you need to read the psychopathic script again. Maybe ask where and when Ben gets to say his side of the story. Don’t throw flippant statements around a subject you have little to no knowledge in. Perhaps you should consider researching FACTS around an as yet baseless, caseless idiots opinion.
We support Ben as a person and his Bio is correct.
Please feel free to call me anytime to discuss the matter further.
David Valenti
0433575265”
So yep, boycott the shit out of Polymorph.
Signal boost.
“As is always the case in such situations, there is likely to be backlash against this person in support of her rapist. Think twice before you suspect of her lying. She has nothing to gain from it.”
requoted in the context of the response from his employer.
Better yet, call the local health authorities on them. If they KNOW he has HPV and allow him to do work that involves clients blood being exposed, that’s illegal. RAT THOSE BASTARDS THE FUCK OUT.
OH HELL NO. THIS is some reactionary bullshit right here. And to be clear - I’m the person who took the photo and posted it on tumblr originally, so I’m behind the general outing.
But basic facts: HPV is very common and there are dozens of strains. If you have been/will be sexually active with someone who has had more than one partner and you didn’t use protection, chances are good you’ve had/will have a strain of HPV. It’s no different to a common cold in many cases - and will often resolve itself. If you’re having regular unprotected sex then of course you should have regular check-ups.
Remember that the demonising and hysteria around STIs has a lot to do with sexually controlling people who are marginalised - women, queers, sex workers - and to perpetuate discriminatory ideas about us as vectors of disease, as dirty sluts, as perverse and undesirable. Many STIs are treatable with a course of medication, like many other infections. It’s that our genitals are involved that gets people so worked up - and we really need to deconstruct how that is related to the way we are groomed to see sex as dirty and disgusting. Those STIs that remain in the system for life - again, how is it any different to something like mono? You learn the facts, you understand what you’ve got and you engage in appropriate practices if you’re having a relapse, both in regards to your own health and that of other people’s. Education goes a long way.
The REAL issue about his HPV status is he is not disclosing it to his partners and having unprotected sex with them. THAT’S the problem, not that he has HPV, in and of itself.
Furthermore, though Polymorph may be staffed with rapist miosgynist fuckwits, they are held to a high standard of hygienic practice. This includes new and/or autoclaved equipment and gloves. Also, HPV doesn’t come out magically on your breath. He would literally have to rub his junk on the site of entry to transmit it to someone he was piercing. I mean, what next, are you going to say you don’t want someone who has AIDS making your coffee?? C’mon.
But really, what we need to be focusing on here is the fact he is a MANIPULATIVE RAPIST who carefully groomed and coerced his partner into a vulnerable position for him to violently rape. That he may repeat this behaviour. Of course it stinks and is more evidence of his general abusive behaviour that he’s not disclosing his HPV status and then having unprotected sex with people - but HPV, overall really is not a big deal esp with early detection and if you’re having unprotected sex with people whose sexual histories you don’t know then you need to take personal responsibility for being checked regularly - but the way bigger deal for me is the fact he is a fucking grotesque abusive rapist and from the sounds of how carefully he groomed his partner in this case is highly likely to repeat that behaviour with other partners habitually.
I think the days of leper colonies are over. Let’s not get caught up in reactionary hysteria. It’s hard to have an active sex life and not deal with HPV at least once in your life, in the same way it’s hard to be sociable and not get a cold. Education around STIs are key.
Little bit of girl gang action in spewtown!! Me likey!!! (Taken with Instagram)
Newtown? Damn, that’s nearby D:
Further information: this guy works at Polymorph as a piercer. So, I recommend boycotting that place. He’s known around the traps and is involved in the queer punk anarchist scene.
Read the survivor’s story in full at the associated blog. Major TW for general abusive behaviour, rape and other sexual assault, and grooming. This rapist carefully groomed and coerced his parnter into a vulnerable position before violently raping her.
It should also be noted that we here in Spewtown are a very small community and there are many interconnections between the subcultures. This person is unlikely to be able to maintain their anonymity for long and also likely have started this campaign in awareness of that. As is always the case in such situations, there is likely to be backlash against this person in support of her rapist. Think twice before you suspect of her lying. She has nothing to gain from it.
It should also be noted that I was lucky to get this shot. Most of these posters have been torn down, indicating yet again support of rapists and their actions.
Getting this some exposure, I know a few people from around that area.
I am curious as to what constitutes ‘known rapist’? Was he convicted? Did he confess? Was it just an accusation? Also, it is illegal to disclose the sexual health status of someone else, or even claim that they have an STD.
Yeah I’ll second that, I think this kind of direct action could be extremely harmful, because it could be so easily used against somebody totally innocent, who has got on the wrong side of a vindictive person.
Jesus. Read the story. It is a thorough and detailed account. There is no room for confusion. The man himself has acknowledged what he did was rape.
DIRECT ACTION WORKS WHEN THE SYSTEM FAILS. RAPISTS, YOU MADE YOUR VICTIMS AFRAID, NOW FEAR YOUR SURVIVORS.
No, no I totally get that, and I absolutely support the response, and I DID read the story.
However, all I was saying, is that this sort of response, albeit effective in probably most cases, could prove to be extremely problematic.
Backing Dru up. I read the story and I can’t even begin to imagine how hard that must have been for her to talk about, let alone go through. However, I don’t think that perpetrating a violent crime is reason to give people reason to incite more violent crimes, and although this was not the direct intention of the poster, a ‘Public Service Announcement’ such as this could easily provoke people to act violently towards him. Furthermore, we only have one side of the story and I am not in ANY way, shape or form, denying that shit girl could have gone through such a thing, however, I think that taking that poster and the connected story as gospel is a very dangerous thing to do because you just never know someones motives for doing something.
I think you should reflect on the fact you’re more concerned about rapists than the people they rape.
All this concern trolling is so fake.
If the survivor were to press charges, the perp would certainly face violence, but in forms that the state perpetrates i.e. through the criminal justice system.
Yet somehow the survivor speaking out on her own terms is “inciting violent crimes”.
No.
She is speaking out. Nowhere does she incite any violence.
These jerks are implying that speaking out about violence you’ve experienced is a worse act of violence than the actual violence of rape. If you compare the attention you’ve paid in your comment to the supposed (i.e. not real) “threat” of violence against the perp to the attention you’ve paid to the violence actually experienced by the survivor, it’s obvious you’re more concerned about a rapist than a survivor of violence he’s perpetrated.
How about you think about the violence that will be prevented by people knowing that this man is a rapist. The violence that can be prevented with one more brave survivor telling her story and kicking at the myth that rapists are strangers, other to the people & communities we deal with all the time. The violence that could be prevented by people waking up and maybe trying to support other survivors they know. The violence that can be prevented by people trying to make their social circles safer for survivors, and more uncomfortable for violent sexual predators. The violence that will definitely be prevented by more people knowing this dude is a rapist and avoiding him, or warning people who might end up in positions where they could be raped.
As always, ardhra puts into words what I was not able to express. Really good words. READ HER WORDS.
Little bit of girl gang action in spewtown!! Me likey!!! (Taken with Instagram)
Newtown? Damn, that’s nearby D:
Further information: this guy works at Polymorph as a piercer. So, I recommend boycotting that place. He’s known around the traps and is involved in the queer punk anarchist scene.
Read the survivor’s story in full at the associated blog. Major TW for general abusive behaviour, rape and other sexual assault, and grooming. This rapist carefully groomed and coerced his parnter into a vulnerable position before violently raping her.
It should also be noted that we here in Spewtown are a very small community and there are many interconnections between the subcultures. This person is unlikely to be able to maintain their anonymity for long and also likely have started this campaign in awareness of that. As is always the case in such situations, there is likely to be backlash against this person in support of her rapist. Think twice before you suspect of her lying. She has nothing to gain from it.
It should also be noted that I was lucky to get this shot. Most of these posters have been torn down, indicating yet again support of rapists and their actions.
Little bit of girl gang action in spewtown!! Me likey!!! (Taken with Instagram)
Further information:
Benjamin McCullagh-Dennis of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, has perpetrated rape and has also knowingly exposed several women to the sexually-transmitted virus HPV (specifically the strain that is at highest risk for causing cervical cancer).
Read the survivor’s story in full at the associated blog. Major TW for general abusive behaviour, rape and other sexual assault, and grooming. This rapist carefully groomed and coerced his parnter into a vulnerable position before violently raping her.
It should also be noted that we here in Spewtown are a very small community and there are many interconnections between the subcultures. This person is unlikely to be able to maintain their anonymity for long and also likely have started this campaign in awareness of that. As is always the case in such situations, there is likely to be backlash against this person in support of her rapist. Think twice before you suspect of her lying. She has nothing to gain from it.
It should also be noted that I was lucky to get this shot. Most of these posters have been torn down, indicating yet again support of rapists and their actions.
So I got in touch with Molly, the woman who was raped by Benjamin McCullugh-Dennis as she made it clear she had little support from the community at large in what she was doing so I wanted to indicate my support to her as well as my willingness to be involved in spreading information/postering around Newtown and such.
Through her and information that has been posted at the rapeisreal.wordpress.com (I strongly encourage you to visit that link and read her story, with a major TW for horrible rape and abuse) blog by others as well as in the various reblogs and comments on tumblr, certain things have been revealed that I think it is important to compile for easy, clear reference as it will be of interest to anyone who maintains doubts about Molly’s methods, Ben’s character and the situation in general, as well of interest to those who are invested in opposing rape culture and supporting a survivor. Molly has read this post and has given me permission to post this information for the knowledge of the general public. A general trigger warning for rape, whorephobia and rape apologism.
Ben admitted in writing to the rape as Molly described it happening. Molly has records of this.
Other women have also come forward since with similar stories of rape and sexual assault by Ben.
It has come to light that Ben raped a sex worker he was dating.
Furthermore he told that sex worker he raped her because she is a sex worker and he felt threatened by that and needed to “prove” himself. When this was told to his community by the survivor, they said they didn’t think he would say or do something like that, further disbelieving the survivor in favour of Ben.
Furthermore, he indicated to the sex worker that if she went to the police, he would out her as a sex worker, something that would negatively impact her life to a very high degree. Ben knew that and took advantage of that to have his rape of her suppressed. The anarchist community knows about this.
The anarchist community closest to Ben have told Molly that if she proceeds with criminal charges (a police report has been filed), they will consider supporting Ben in lying about the rape, even though they were witness to Ben confessing to the rape. Ostensibly this is because they object in principle to prisons and police**.
Molly is an anarchist and a Woman of Colour from a poor background. She is also opposed to the justice system on principle and has been involved for years in activism against it, including having organised against the jail system, organised for prisoner support, and organised against police brutality and taught cop-watch training. She also has a family history with the jail system.. Her decision to utilise the justice system in this instance is therefore informed and aware and comes from a long and serious ACTIVE engagement with the justice system that is based on an actual critique of power and privilege.
Ben is a white, cis male from an upper-middle class background, who has no physical or mental health issues, no dependents and no criminal history. Molly’s decision in reporting Ben came fully alongside knowing his sex, race, and class privilege and she has stated that if he didn’t occupy even one of these very real privileges, she would have seriously re-considered her decision.
The accountability process was initiated 2 and a half years ago, but Ben broke his agreements. Ben agreed to be a part of it again recently and then went overseas to avoid having to deal with it. Ben has agreed to participate in the process yet again and has then consistently avoided it and gone back on his word.
An anarchist community won’t support a survivor going to the cops to report rape but doesn’t blink twice at a cis white man participating in capitalism to the degree he can up and GO OVERSEAS at a moment’s notice to escape the heat of his violent action?? UM??? Ben’s family is also able to offer him money whenever he needs it/asks for it and he has a stable job with a steady income and is a permanent resident meaning he can access government assistance.
Molly, meanwhile, has physical health issues, is mixed race, comes from a poor family who is unable to offer her financial support, is a stranger in this country in the process of trying to immigrate and therefore cannot work or access government assistance or medical care, has been seeing a therapist through CASA which was a limit of six sessions which have now completed so has no access to therapy either and is female. These obvious power and privilege inequities play a key role both in how this situation played out originally and how it is being treated by the community now.
When he went overseas, Molly contacted the places he was staying to advise local women/trans/queer communities of what had happened so they could protect themselves by choosing what degree of contact they had with Ben. Someone in the Sydney anarchist scene actually told her she was endangering women who chose to be close to him because Ben might face retaliatory violence when he was out socially with them.
Ben has behaved roughly and rudely as a client to at least one sex worker in Sydney, a different sex worker to the one he was dating. He did not negotiate rough service with the sex worker and did not apologise for the way he treated her. Bluntly, I think how a man treats his hooker says a LOT about his character overall.
Several people who have been pierced by him say that he made inappropriate sexual advances during the process (in which Ben was acting ostensibly as a professional…) and made them feel uncomfortable, including underage girls.
Ben has initiated sex with at least one client while offering to give her “aftercare.”
Ben has currently gone on holiday again to avoid dealing with the heat, breaking his agreements to the process yet again. Despite the fact no violent action has been taken or incited, he is provoking pity and sympathy from the community by recentering himself once again by expressing he “fears for [his] safety”. Please also note his significant privilege in being able to remove himself at a moment’s notice. He has been supported by the anarchist community to do this.
After 2 and a half years of Ben not participating in the accountability process as he agreed to do, alongside the anarchist community advising her that they would stand by Ben over her, Molly finally took drastic action by publicly outing Ben. She did this to WARN OTHER WOMEN ABOUT BEN’S BEHAVIOUR so that we can choose if we interact with him in the future, for our own safety, as he’s repeatedly targeted women for sexual coercion and rape. This was pro-active community-focused action in the interests of disseminating information for the greater good. Whilst I disagree with the specific way the revelation of his HPV status and consequent discussion and focus on that was taken, the information that Ben is a violent rapist is incredibly important for women who may find him in their life.
** I personally believe this is bullshit and is being used as an excuse to continue to support Ben over Molly due to his status in the community. I do not, generally speaking, support the police or the prison system, but I support a survivor always in principle as commitment to my own history and my ethics, and because survivors are generally so minimised and deprioritised overall I believe fostering their autonomy in how they decide to address the assault they were forced to is part of actively recentering them and opposing rape culture.
I also think more complicated dynamics are at work here given Molly is a Woman of Colour calling for support from a community that purports to be focused on the elimination of oppression and yet will actively conspire against someone based on an ideology that does not affect them practically along equal lines. People of Colour face exponentially more discrimination from the judicial system and police than white people (which Sydney anarchist community is predominantly composed of) and yet Molly, as a survivor of violent rape and abuse, wishes to avail herself of that system in an effort to take charge and control of her rape and remove a manipulative serial offender from being able to hurt more women. The Sydney anarchist community would seem to prefer to protect a white man out of a purported loyalty to their political ideology than support a Woman of Colour who faces actual oppression through misogyny, racism, homophobia (as she is queer-identified) classism and ableism. Whether intentional or not, they are therefore engaging in racist and misogynistic action by reinforcing the status quo that the concerns of women come after all else and the concerns of WOC come absolutely last, while the concerns of white men remain dominant. How is this radical or genuinely focused towards anti-oppression principles? No one has any love for the “justice” system but standing against it solely to protect a white man who serially rapes women instead of standing beside someone who faces far greater oppression than he along intersectional lines of race, class and sex, which he knowingly exploited in order to rape her, seems to be incredibly ineffective for those for whom anti-oppression is a complex and layered matter, not to mention racist and sexist.
It has also emerged that Ben got a swastika tattoo under the pretension he was “reclaiming” its “original meaning”. As a white person I DEMAND fellow white people to seriously examine why they feel a compelling need to use this symbol in any way shape or form, regardless of its long and checkered history, precisely because its most recent history is one so tainted with abhorrent, vile, reprehensible racism to the point that symbol can literally not be seen without calling to mind the Nazi Holocaust as well as neo-Nazism and skinheads, practitioners of which continue to perpetuate acts of terrible racist violence against People of Colour to this day. THERE IS NO EXCUSE NOR REASON OF ANY KIND FOR A WHITE PERSON TO GET A SWASTIKA TATTOO and no matter what that person says their motivation is I will assume they are racist because they are putting their own egos and self-interest ahead of the associated and inseparable history of that symbol. The tattoo has apparently now been removed or covered up but this is an example of Ben’s general failure to check his privilege and how he engages in racist behaviour alongside his abusive ones.
Finally, it should be noted that many people who know/knew Ben are unanimous in having a generally high opinion of him, find him charming, friendly, decent, kind, etc. Ben is not a bogeyman. He is not a moustache-twirling villain. He’s just a guy, like many other guys, who has successfully concealed his abusive behaviour to the point other people refuse to believe he is capable of it, even when he says himself that he has done what he’s been accused of doing. This is not at all unusual in these situations when well-respected or high-status figures in a community are exposed for abuse, rape or pedophilia. This doesn’t mean that underneath it all these guys are demons in human skin, evil people who plot and plan their acts of heinous assault the way a comic book villain plots their world domination scheme.
It means rapists literally can be and are anyone. That even nice guys rape. That even politically sensitive people can be abusive fuckwits. That what creates a rapist or an abuser is systemic and intersects absolutely with misogyny and sexism, as well as racism, ableism, classism, etc. It means we have to let go of our ideas that rapists can be identified on sight , that they are strangers and outsiders and realise that our friends may be rapists, that they may have raped people that we know and care for, that they are part of our social circles.
And in realising all of this – believe and prioritise the survivor who is brave enough to come forward.
So if after all this, you still feel Ben should cut a break or that we need to be thinking about him, or that Molly did the wrong thing outing him so publicly, or that people haven’t been incredibly fucked in how they’ve dealt with this and responded to it, or that Ben still needs to tell his side of the story (as stated above – he has – and it was in accordance with Molly’s testimony) or that this sort of action is “dangerous” - look, there’s no hope for you. And you’re a rapist apologist asshole. And we have nothing to say to each other.
The rest of you, spread this information around. People deserve to know.
AND START SUPPORTING MOLLY IN WHAT SHE HAS STATED SHE WANTS AND NEEDS FROM THE COMMUNITY.
You need to read this. You all need to read this. I will never, EVER, disbelieve a woman (cis or trans) who tells me she has been raped or abused. Because it happens to too damn many women. And that’s not okay.
Why does everyone beleive you, even though they don’t know you? Your blog description.Seems like an act of a revengeful princess ‘bitchface’.
This message motivated me to start writing more personal follow-ups to something I wrote that was a pretty big deal in lots of peoples lives. This gets long and full of my feelings. Sidenote: this girl is friends with the little sister of Nino, my rapist. His partner told me tonight that he hasn’t told any of his family, which was against the terms of our initial accountability process. Personally I’m really fucking angry that something that has dominated my life and interactions with my family has managed to be easily hidden from his, and I’m really a bit scared that teenage gals are being allowed to socialise with him while he refuses to accept what he has done. Gross.
I grew up around lots of stubborn women, and a very conservative mother who raised me with all the traditional narratives about rape and DV “fight tooth and nail if someone attacks you, go straight to the police, never let them get away with it”, as if it’s always that easy. And I always thought I would. As a teenager, I looked down on women who DIDN’T report their assaults, I thought they were weak and probably said things like that in discussion (fuck I hope I had the manners not to say it to their faces). I hadn’t been exposed to feminist thought and honestly, I didn’t know any better. I wanted to feel safe and powerful and the only way I knew how to do that was by agreeing and siding with men, and shit was never ever their fault, was it?
Getting to know better was a gradual process; starting uni and studying a little more, coming out as queer and seeing how people who didn’t conform to the gender binary were treated by institutions (like hospitals, the police, Centrelink etc), and big-time when I started sex work and was in all-female workplaces where people spoke intimately about the relationships with the men in their lives: fathers, husbands, boyfriends, ex’s, brothers. I heard stories about abuse (physical, sexual and psychological), dripped out over years of grooming and degradation. I learned how women are trained to accept violence and aggression as a part of male expressions of love: from boys pushing you in the playground in kindy meaning that they like you, to the pressure to be sexual in high school, to putting up with having sex in a relationship because ‘men have needs’.
When I started dating women and people who were raised as such, when I started to develop more mature friendships with women I started to hear more personal stories of assault. I can only think of a few CAFAAB people I know who haven’t been sexually assaulted or raped. It’s insidious.
You obviously already know a little bit about Nino, so maybe you can look up what it’s like for queer people accused of assault in the prison system, which is one of the initial reasons I didn’t take police action. My story also has credibility because in a way, these people do know me. We haven’t met, but they know what I look like, what annoys me, my job, my girlfriend, my friends, I’m a 3-D person to them, not just some random girl with a sob story (being a random girl with a sob story is ok too).
These people believe me for many reasons, but one of the main ones being that they themselves or a woman in their life (sister, mother, lover, friend) has been assaulted by someone they were dating, someone they were in love with (and I was very much in love with him at the time). Maybe they know someone who tried to get justice from an abusive partner and watched them struggle against bureaucracy and the boys club, not to mention their own destroyed self esteem.
I can quote statistics about DV at you, I can tell you about conviction rates and how abuse effects your ability to stand up for yourself, but you don’t really sypmathise until it happens in your life. Honestly, the main reason why most of these people believe me is that they remember what it was like. They remember when they were assaulted and told someone and got it dismissed, or told it was their own fault, and how much that hurt. People believe me because they made a choice at some point in their life to ALWAYS believe a woman if she says she is accused of rape, because it’s probably true and the consequences of believing otherwise are pretty fucking dire.
uh, Oz and Nino, I have your IP adress tracked and I know how often and when you look here. I mean you’ve looked at my tumblr nearly a hundred times this week alone! Why u so obsessed with me?
I know when you’ve been on my ask page and asking me nasty things. I know when you’ve been looking me up on your phone (you have an android still, right Oz?). I know when your little sister reads my blog (still on your mothers computer and you should really update your version of Explorer btw). You look PATHETIC.
Oh, you’ve also viewed my screencaps from that little girl at least 5 times so far, and there’s still another two hours of pageviews to catch up on. So it’s pretty clear you put her up to it, or at least are still telling some bullshit sob story to your families and friends, not admitting to them what you have to me and the people involved in your accountability process.
Do you feel like a big man now, encouraging someone who looks to be barely in their late teens to harass and insult me? I always knew the two of you were anti-woman, anti-sex work misogynistic knobs but this is almost as low as the time you tried to steal money from my mother to pay off your dealer but then she lent it to you anyway.
Give up. I’m smarter than the two of you, and you are only making it worse for yourselves. Oh, and from the amount you look at my GPOYs it’s really obvious that you are both still wildly attracted to me. I mean you look at that tag EVERY DAY. Flattering, but creepy.
This is what creepy stalkers do. I’m so proud of my brave friend for being so fucking unapologetic about calling these fuckers out so openly.
wow. There is some serious victim-blaming and whorephobia going on here. I do not even know how to deal.
This is why so many women do not talk about their abuse. This is why so many sex workers do not talk about sex work. No one believes us when we tell the truth about our experience because of the work we do.
a - fucking- gain. It’s all fuel to the fire though. I’m posting links to the new, non-tumblr sites I’ve made, however if you chose to reblog this can you also please visit the blog post so that it gets the website hits? I don’t expect these to get the attention the last one did, and frankly I don’t want it (he has a pretty unique name, it doesn’t need 8000 pageviews).
I mean, if wordpress won’t remove the names of some of the attendees of MWMF, they’re definitely going to leave this up. Right?
TRIGGERS: sexual assault and some serious rape apologism
I have an announcement to make. Actually, we should all be in the habit of talking about this every few months at least until a day comes when he is finally accountable, and until our communities do not harbor attitudes that enable this behavior.
Kael T. Block, the founder and photographer of the XX Boys project, is a serial rapist who fled the United States for France in order to avoid prosecution. Based on the information available online, he has sexually assaulted multiple women in the San Francisco Bay Area and at least one in Paris and probably more.
When the details of his behavior became public, all sorts of excuses went flying. He said the survivor is allowed to feel raped, but that doesn’t mean he raped her. His friends said he’s just a dominant who hasn’t mastered safewords, no big deal! Those silly girls are just jealous, mentally unstable, and attention-seeking! And, worst of all, hey, he’s a trans man, not like those other men!
Well thankfully, not everyone bought that. Do watch this video, it is amazing:
I would love to be able to read or see his entire talk, but it has never been made available.
XX Boys currently has 5,984 fans on Facebook. Unsurprisingly, anyone who mentions the fact that it’s run by a rapist has their comments deleted and is blocked from commenting the Wall. This isn’t even Roman Polanski - the guy takes pinup pictures of trans guys. That is all, and apparently he is so vital to the world that the people he has raped have been told to shut up for the good of “the community.”
Do not support this piece of shit, and do not support the transphobic idea that trans men are harmless, elfin dudes who cannot possibly take part in male domination and commit abuse or assault.
Oh and by the way, Lynee Breedlove of Tribe 8 is one of his staunchest defenders. Really. Let’s think before we celebrate queer “heroes” who so quickly go from writing songs about castrating rapists to defending and supporting fellow trans and “feminist” rapists.
More information, including survivor accounts here:
Signal boosting! I’m still surprised by how few people in Australia queer scene know about Kael’s history as a rapist - but HEAPS of Oz queers know about his art. Just goes to show, queers can be complicit in suppressing information to protect abusers as much as anyone can!
I am overwhelmed and humbled by the support coming into my inbox. I was REALLY not expecting this to blow up like it did, but I can’t say I’m upset that it happened. I am going to reply to everything you have sent, but here is an FAQ about some of the more ~sensitive matters that I will only answer once.
I have chosen not to go to the police because both my abuser and I belong to minority groups the police doesn’t treat very well, to put it mildly. Heck, even nice white middle class hetrosexual cis women get treated like shit by the police when they are trying to get justice for abuse. I don’t believe in using the police. If you’ve had only positive experiences with them then good for you, but please realise not everyone is in your position. I was upset that my community did not respond at the time but there is no fucking way I was going to let him take my ~*~morals~*~ from me.
I am aware I have immense privelige in having the choice to not use state institutions, and I am not judging anyone who does use them, work with or for them.
He is not a teenager or a child, he is 21. He was 20 when he raped and assaulted me.
I do not want a facebook page set up about him, or at least I’ve chosen not to do it. I don’t have a fb account but many people close to me do and honestly I’m a bit iffy about how that corporation treats sexual assault (remember all the pro-rape pages they left up?) so yeah.
I made this post for the sole purpose of future employers, lovers and friends googling his name and reading that. That’s the reason some minor personal details are in there too. I don’t know about you guys, but I’m a big creeper who googles everyone. If I have to explain what he did to me to everyone I live with and am intimate with for the rest of my life, he can too.
I’m enjoying a lovely valentines day with a lover in the new, safer life I have built for myself today, so if you have sent me a non-anon message of support be sure I have read it and will reply to it as soon as I possibly can. Thankyou so much to everyone who’s shown support, in doing so you have put yourself at risk of backlash and thankyou for feeling that survivor justice is more important than being well-liked.
The loathsome Maggie Alderson (Australian-based author of chic-lit, prior editor of several fashion magazines and a self-proclaimed feminist) has written a misogynistic and grotesque column where she polices exaggerated-feminine fashion styles, is whorephobic and transphobic, and reduces Dita Von Teese’s worth as a human being to the type of shoes she occasionally wears.
Several of my friends and I posted comments critiquing her and in an act of prejudice, she is moderating them - while allowing comments that praise her and engage in similar woman-hating rhetoric - to go through.
SO.
I’m reposting mine and my friends’ comments here. I encourage you ALL to go and add your critiques, and reblog this post with them included. There’s a twitter hashtag going - #maggiealderson - where I urge everyone to expose her prejudice.
This kind of woman-hating crap being passed off as feminism is insulting to everyone.
(Starlet)
As a Stripper and Burlesque Performer and mother, I was so put off by your ‘proud old school feminist’ ideals. From the very first sentence in this article, you have insulted my life, my choices, my art, all I hold dear. And you call yourself a Feminist?
Was this supposed to be a serious article? Do you actually get paid to do this? Gossip and Police what others wear?! And you think all strippers and burlesque performers have been somehow MK Ultra-ed into Sex Kitten Programming?…. (are you serious about the whole Fundamentalists ‘men’ and ‘mental’? do some research into etymology PLEASE!)
If you want to self identify as a Feminist, maybe you should search a little deeper into what that means.
We are meant to be sisters. We are meant to help each other up, not pull everyone down. We should be breaking the patriarchy and dispelling rape culture and legalising abortion and educating others and a million other things other than what your article does.
You are hurting people by doing this. Just think a little harder about what you are saying.
![musingsfromhedon:
telegantmess:
freedominwickedness:
engenderandendear:
grrrlstudies:
sailor-goon:
venusd:
farrahtales:
hello-worldxx:
rats-in-the-walls:
clownyprincess:
maniclaughter:
clownyprincess:
Little bit of girl gang action in spewtown!! Me likey!!! (Taken with Instagram)
Newtown? Damn, that’s nearby D:
Further information: this guy works at Polymorph as a piercer. So, I recommend boycotting that place. He’s known around the traps and is involved in the queer punk anarchist scene.
Read the survivor’s story in full at the associated blog. Major TW for general abusive behaviour, rape and other sexual assault, and grooming. This rapist carefully groomed and coerced his parnter into a vulnerable position before violently raping her.
It should also be noted that we here in Spewtown are a very small community and there are many interconnections between the subcultures. This person is unlikely to be able to maintain their anonymity for long and also likely have started this campaign in awareness of that. As is always the case in such situations, there is likely to be backlash against this person in support of her rapist. Think twice before you suspect of her lying. She has nothing to gain from it.
It should also be noted that I was lucky to get this shot. Most of these posters have been torn down, indicating yet again support of rapists and their actions.
Getting this some exposure, I know a few people from around that area.
Wow I wasn’t going to reblog this, but then I clicked the link to read her personal story behind this poster and I am in shock. Some people are evil.
don’t read the story if you’re sensitive, because it made me physically sick. And I’m not exaggerating.But reblogging for awareness
Massive fucking trigger warning: But I know people who live in this area who need to know this shit.
“As is always the case in such situations, there is likely to be backlash against this person in support of her rapist. Think twice before you suspect of her lying. She has nothing to gain from it.”
wow polymorph. wow this is so depressing.
A friend of a friend contacted Polymorph. This was their response:
[TW: rape culture; rape apologism; victim blaming]”Hi there *****,
thank you for letting me know, I think you need to read the psychopathic script again. Maybe ask where and when Ben gets to say his side of the story. Don’t throw flippant statements around a subject you have little to no knowledge in. Perhaps you should consider researching FACTS around an as yet baseless, caseless idiots opinion. We support Ben as a person and his Bio is correct.Please feel free to call me anytime to discuss the matter further. David Valenti
0433575265”
So yep, boycott the shit out of Polymorph.
Signal boost.
“As is always the case in such situations, there is likely to be backlash against this person in support of her rapist. Think twice before you suspect of her lying. She has nothing to gain from it.”
requoted in the context of the response from his employer.
Better yet, call the local health authorities on them. If they KNOW he has HPV and allow him to do work that involves clients blood being exposed, that’s illegal. RAT THOSE BASTARDS THE FUCK OUT.
OH HELL NO. THIS is some reactionary bullshit right here. And to be clear - I’m the person who took the photo and posted it on tumblr originally, so I’m behind the general outing.
But basic facts: HPV is very common and there are dozens of strains. If you have been/will be sexually active with someone who has had more than one partner and you didn’t use protection, chances are good you’ve had/will have a strain of HPV. It’s no different to a common cold in many cases - and will often resolve itself. If you’re having regular unprotected sex then of course you should have regular check-ups.
Remember that the demonising and hysteria around STIs has a lot to do with sexually controlling people who are marginalised - women, queers, sex workers - and to perpetuate discriminatory ideas about us as vectors of disease, as dirty sluts, as perverse and undesirable. Many STIs are treatable with a course of medication, like many other infections. It’s that our genitals are involved that gets people so worked up - and we really need to deconstruct how that is related to the way we are groomed to see sex as dirty and disgusting. Those STIs that remain in the system for life - again, how is it any different to something like mono? You learn the facts, you understand what you’ve got and you engage in appropriate practices if you’re having a relapse, both in regards to your own health and that of other people’s. Education goes a long way.
The REAL issue about his HPV status is he is not disclosing it to his partners and having unprotected sex with them. THAT’S the problem, not that he has HPV, in and of itself.
Furthermore, though Polymorph may be staffed with rapist miosgynist fuckwits, they are held to a high standard of hygienic practice. This includes new and/or autoclaved equipment and gloves. Also, HPV doesn’t come out magically on your breath. He would literally have to rub his junk on the site of entry to transmit it to someone he was piercing. I mean, what next, are you going to say you don’t want someone who has AIDS making your coffee?? C’mon.
But really, what we need to be focusing on here is the fact he is a MANIPULATIVE RAPIST who carefully groomed and coerced his partner into a vulnerable position for him to violently rape. That he may repeat this behaviour. Of course it stinks and is more evidence of his general abusive behaviour that he’s not disclosing his HPV status and then having unprotected sex with people - but HPV, overall really is not a big deal esp with early detection and if you’re having unprotected sex with people whose sexual histories you don’t know then you need to take personal responsibility for being checked regularly - but the way bigger deal for me is the fact he is a fucking grotesque abusive rapist and from the sounds of how carefully he groomed his partner in this case is highly likely to repeat that behaviour with other partners habitually.
I think the days of leper colonies are over. Let’s not get caught up in reactionary hysteria. It’s hard to have an active sex life and not deal with HPV at least once in your life, in the same way it’s hard to be sociable and not get a cold. Education around STIs are key.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m6o4s4peBT1qc6p00o1_500.jpg)
