Rebuttal Argument- sixfortyfive645

Posted on November 9, 2015 by sixfortyfive645

Women are Liars and Cheats, Right?

Falsely reported rapes are, unfortunately, a reality that is a part of rape culture. However, only 2 to 8 percent of rapes are falsely reported; a statistic that is little known to the public. Of those that know this statistic, many do not believe it is true and insist that far more rapes are falsely reported. Part of this thinking is the dilemma of recanting a rape report. When a woman or a man reports a rape and later recants it, they are immediately assumed to have falsely reported a rape and are punished, either socially or legally.

In legal terms, there are many reasons to why a rape is believed to be a false report. The Philadelphia police department’s response as to why 52% of rape reports were dismissed as “unfounded” explains some reasons: “The victim reports while under the influence of drugs or alcohol (although studies have shown that in 55 percent of rape cases, alcohol or drugs are involved; in acquaintance rape cases, that number is sometimes as high as 80 to 90 percent). Young women report rape to cover up truancy, pregnancy, lost money or sexual precocity. Adult women report rape to cover up infidelity, indiscretion, lateness or pregnancy. A rape is reported so that the survivor can obtain an abortion or the morning-after pill free of charge. Women report rape to ‘obtain revenge’ on a man who has ‘done her wrong,’ or to make her partner ‘feel guilty’ after a ‘lover’s quarrel.’ Girls lie about rape all the time, for reasons ‘known only to [themselves].’” All of these reasons are accountable, and there are indeed instances where false rapes are reported. However, for the Philadelphia police department to find over half of the rape reports as false or improbable is unfair; there are holes in their reasoning. For starters, finding a rape to be unfounded because alcohol was involved is absurd. Just because someone is drunk or high doesn’t mean they weren’t raped, or capable of raping someone. In fact, if someone is under the influence, they are found to be unable to give proper consent. In addition, the Philadelphia police department disregards the accuser’s credibility by saying that “girls lie about rape all the time” for unknown reasons. These reasons may be that she is mentally ill and needs further assistance to help her deal with her illness. Or, the girl may not know what constitutes rape and may be mistaken. Either way, the police department acts ignorantly by dismissing women’s integrity.

The Philadelphia police department’s ignorance presents another issue in disbelieving rape reports, which includes the harshness police officers and investigators may portray when interviewing the accusers. Often times, when victims report a rape to the police they are quickly questioned without sensitivity and sympathy. The brash attitudes of the interviewers may pressure the victim of rape into saying things that can be misconstrued, forcing them to appear as though they are making up facts and are lying. For example, in July of 2004 Sara Reedy was sexually assaulted at gunpoint while she was working at a local petrol station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The attacker stole money from the cash register, forced himself on her, and then left. The detective who interviewed Reedy didn’t believe her and accused her of stealing the money and invented the story as a cover-up, despite the incriminating forensic evidence that was never tested. Reedy was charged with theft and filing a false report and was jailed. A year later, the Reedy’s attacker struck again and was caught, and actually admitted to assaulting Reedy. If the police hadn’t been ignorant to Reedy’s situation and didn’t jump to conclusions based off of judgment of appearance, Reedy would have never been degraded, jailed, and would have not gone through more trauma. Plus, her attacker may have not struck again.

In another instance, in August 2008, an 18-year-old woman was gagged, bound, and raped in her apartment that was part of an at-risk youth program in Lynnwood, Washington. After reporting the attack to the police, the unnamed woman said, “detectives Jerry Rittgarn and Sgt. Jeff Mason didn’t believe her. Claiming police coerced her into recanting her story, the woman was charged with false reporting and fined $500 when she later tried to insist the rape did happen.” Then, two and a half years later, a man was arrested in Colorado for several rapes, when they found pictures of the Lynnwood woman, as well as her ID card in his possession. He was found guilty and is serving a 327-year sentence. In order to find the young woman’s horrible experience true, her attacker had to strike again. The only reason she recanted her story was because of misperception on her part and lack of compassion on the investigators’, which caused the young woman to feel pressured and in the wrong. Based on the report, the young woman was portraying signs that she was lying, like not looking the police officer in the eye and inappropriate body language. When actually, she was just showing signs of traumatization. She had just been gagged and raped by a man; she probably felt uncomfortable opening up to a man in authority, like a police officer. Especially if that man in authority was showing signs of disbelief and was putting “words in her moth.” If the police officers had trusted her integrity and studied the objective evidence gathered (injuries to wrists and genitals, sheets, shoelace used to bound her hands, and the gag), the 18-year-old would never had to go through more trauma.

Works Cited

Matchar, Emily. “’Men’s Rights’ Activists Are Trying to Redefine the Meaning of Rape.” New Republic. 26 February 2014. Web. 9 November 2015.

Hallett, Stephanie. “Do Women Lie About Rape?” Ms. Magazine. 7 April 2011. Web. 9 November 2015.

Walters, Joanne. “Sara Reedy, the rape victim accused of lying and jailed by US police, wins $1.5m in payout.” The Guardian. 15 December 2012. Web. 9 November 2015.

Carter, Mike. “Woman sues after Lynnwood police didn’t believe she was raped.” The Seattle Times. 12 June 2013. Web. 9 November 2015.

Posted in Rebuttal Archives | 5 Comments

Rebuttal Argument- haveanelephantasticday

Posted on November 9, 2015 by Dev

Not Asking for it? Oh Well…..

The most common misconception in society is that women are “asking for it.” Whatever “it” is. Whether is be attention or physical contact, people assume that women want it. They are under the impression that all women want the attention, like they feed off of it like it is a drug or something. So when women fall victim to rape or sexual assault, it is automatically assumed that she was dressed inappropriately and she was “asking for it.”

However, in the society we live in today, whether a woman is dressed scantly or not she receives all sorts of unwanted and unrequested attention. A video was released last fall after a woman named Shoshana Roberts walked around New York City for ten hours and received over 100 cat calls. A cat call is a sexual gesture towards a woman, whether is be whistling, shouting or an inappropriate comment. Shoshana dressed in jeans and a black crew-neck t-shirt. Clothes that most would consider moderately conservative (definitely not “asking for it”).

Even without acknowledging the comments of her cat callers, she received unwanted feedback. One man followed her down the block for five minutes.  Shoshana was clearly uninterested and yet these men still assumed she craved the attention and was asking to be acknowledged.

Woman Receives 100+ Cat Calls

Posted in Rebuttal Archives | 5 Comments

LIghtning Crashes, by Live

Posted on November 9, 2015 by davidbdale

Posted in davidbdale, My Music | Leave a comment

white paper-brxttyb

Posted on November 8, 2015 by brxttyb

Practice Opening:

Walk into any teen store today and you will be hard pressed to find a pair of shorts that are of a decent length to abide school dress codes. Turn on any teenaged show on television and you will see teenagers are being portrayed as sexual beings. In most teenage bedrooms, the music that they are listening to is filled with profanity and sexual lyrics. It would seem that parents are not doing enough to protect their teens by being sexualized by the media, entertainment industry, and retail clothing chains. To figure out how the perception of the modern teen shifted from one of childhood innocence to that of a fawn-eyed sexual being would require looking at the origin of when the shift first occurred. Also researching possible solutions may be useful in uncovering the point where things started to change,

Practice Opening:

Teen girls in the United States are over sexualized by the Television, music industry, and by the media. at the same time they are undervalued and their lack of worth as compared to boys their age are constantly being reinforced to them. in the music they listen to and the perception of them they buy into which is exploited by advertisers. somewhere along the line teenaged gild have been told that their identity is based in theyre looks and the shape of their body. boys however rely on athletic ability and the ability to make others laugh to be considered successful. even parents can fall into the trap of valuing daughters for their beauty and their sons for what they can accomplish. despite thee ruthless efforts of advertisers the media and other outlets who conspire to trick girls into buying into what they offering the only firm solution to this criss in american young women is for the parents to reinforce that the girls are worth more than their appearances and to shield their teenage girls by all the sexual things they’re bombarded with. parents need to spend more time evaluating these things that their daughters are exposed to.

Content Description:

▪which companies benefit most from over sexualized teen clothing

▪over sexualization of teen girls in the media

▪teen tv shows- over the top with sex

▪consequences to young girls

▪girls who continue to dress modestly

▪role of parents

working hypothesis:

parent involvement is the solution of the problem of over sexualizing teenaged girls in america.

middle school girls that are over sexualized by the media, big clothing companies, and the music industry lose not only innocence but self esteem which results in decreased ability to reach their goals.

Topics for smaller papers:

  • why kids dressing sexy is profitable to companies
  • why parents give in to buying their children clothes that they do not want them to wear
  • how slut shaming starts with the clothes you wear

Current state of research paper:

I am starting to get the hang of this, and starting to develop my ideas and think more outside the box. I think i need to break down my ideas more and pick a specific direction with where I am going. I also need to catch up on assignments missed to further develop my paper using different techniques.

Posted in You Forgot to Categorize! | Leave a comment

E11: Rebuttal Exercise-peachesxo

Posted on November 6, 2015 by peachesxo

Supportive of Ag-gag laws

Article 2- http://www.hcn.org/blogs/goat/conservationists-join-animal-rights-groups-to-challenge-idaho-ag-gag-law

“The dairy farmer who fell victim to the activist group is well-known for his unquestioned compassion for his animals,” VanderHulst added.

If this dairy farmer really “loved” is animals, they wouldn’t be abused. He would have workers who do not abuse the animals and he would have the best environment possible for his animals. There is evidence of animal abuse and if the farmer noticed a long time ago, he would either fire his workers or create a better living environment for the animals he has.

Article 3-

http://beefmagazine.com/blog/do-you-support-ag-gag-laws

“Of the 300 total votes logged so far, 63% say, “No, livestock ag has nothing to hide and such laws give the impression that we do.” Another 35% are in favor of the legislative measures. ”

Do the 35% of farmers have something to hide? If they really loved their animals and care for their business they wouldn’t be afraid to hide what their farm is like. This statistic makes the intentions of farmers questionable. This statistic doesn’t mean anything for the support of ag-laws. It just raises more questions.

Antagonistic to Ag-Gag Laws

Article 1-

http://www.alternet.org/environment/shocking-reporting-factory-farm-abuses-be-considered-act-terrorism-if-new-laws-pass?paging=off

“In other words, these laws turn journalists and the investigators of crimes into criminals.”

If these laws turn animal activist into criminals then what about the farmers and workers that abuse the animals. Without these people, animal abuse would go undetected. That’s a more serious crime than taking videos of these abuses.

Article 2-

http://www.lcanimal.org/index.php/campaigns/ag-gag-laws-states-of-disgrace/what-is-ag-gag

“Under the proposed Ag Gag bills, the well-being of factory animals and the health of consumers are secondary to the agricultural industry’s demand for secrecy.”

Why keep this a secret? Consumers should be the number one priority. If the consumer asks about the quality of the food, it should be shared. Consumers should get the best quality food and to do so, the animals need to be healthy and held in a good environment. Things like animal cruelty and food quality should not be kept a secret. If the animals are malnourished and raised in a bad environment, the quality of the food will not be good. This will lead to spoiled products going to the consumers.

Posted in Rebuttal Exercise | Leave a comment

Rebuttal – dt2018

Posted on November 6, 2015 by dt2018

Antagonistic 1

Argument: In other words, these laws turn journalists and the investigators of crimes into criminals.

Rebuttal: This was written based off emotions and not facts. Ag gag laws were created to protect the privacy of farms and their animals and businesses. They were not created to turn journalists and investigators of crimes into criminals.

Antagonistic 2

Argument: If recordings are allowed, individuals are forced to submit footage to authorities in an unrealistically short turnaround time, making it impossible to document patterns of abuse.

Rebuttal: The law that requires short turnaround time for video submission is reasonable because it reduces the chances of tampering or editing.

Supportive 2

Argument: Every one of the more than 500 dairy farm families in Idaho practices compassionate animal husbandry and does not condone any sort of abuse towards their animals.

Rebuttal: If every family showed compassion and treated their animals fairly then reports of abuse wouldn’t have been made and evidence wouldn’t have been released. The employees were abusing the animals not the owners, therefore this argument has insufficient evidence.

Supportive 3

Argument: And, these organizations strategically release these videos to wreak havoc on the agriculture industry, which usually results in litigation, loss of jobs and a direct shot at the markets.

Rebuttal: False evidence. The organizations are not trying to purposefully create job loss, and if job loss is the result then it’s earned. The organizations are trying to create justice for the animals, what’s stated in the argument is not their goal.

Posted in Rebuttal Exercise | Leave a comment

Rebuttal Rewrite — crossanlogan

Posted on November 6, 2015 by crossanlogan

Animal and Ecological Terrorism in America

The author of this article is obviously and unabashedly stacking the deck here; while she talks at length about some of the tactics used by “special interest extremists,” she completely disregards the egregious acts of animal cruelty committed at Wyoming Premium Farms and other such factory farms.

Conservationists Join Animal Rights Groups to Challenge Idaho Ag-Gag Law

The author of this article contradicts herself; first she says that the proposed law in Idaho would essentially give “Big Ag” blanket legislation to “[criminalize] a plethora of protected speech that is not even related to animal welfare, including worker safety, food safety, labor laws, and other types of agricultural industry misconduct,” and then later says that “no other Idaho law targets such a specific type of whistleblowing or investigative journalism.” Either the law is much too general, or else the law is much too specific. It cannot be both.

Do You Support Ag Gag Laws?

The author of this article says “[with] 98% of farms and ranches in the U.S. family owned and operated, I know that today’s food is grown by people who care about the animals, the environment and the final retail product.” This is obviously a false equivalency; Walmart, owned by the Walton family, is infamous for providing dismal wages and even worse working conditions to their (human) employees. A business cannot be assumed to be humane simply because it is owned by a family.

What Is Ag Gag

The author of this article makes a false equivalency when he says that Ag-Gag laws are “the agricultural industry’s attempt to hide the abuses and horrific conditions animals on factory farms must endure.” He would seem to imply that every single animal on a factory farm endures abuse and horrific conditions. Assuming that’s true, there are still 44 states that currently do not have Ag-Gag legislation, and those states presumably have activists monitoring the agricultural industry. The USDA says there are about 1.3 million farms in the United States. Assuming an even distribution across state lines, there are roughly 1.1 million livestock farms in states that do not have Ag-Gag laws. It stands to reason, then, that if virtually all animals endure abuse it would be a much more common news story than it has been.

Posted in Rebuttal Exercise | 3 Comments

Rebuttal Exercise – jcirrs

Posted on November 6, 2015 by jcirrs

Antagonistic 3: Strikes Down Ag-Gag Law

“Idaho’s so-called “ag-gag” law, which outlawed undercover investigations of farming operations, is no more. A judge in the federal District Court for Idaho decided Monday that it was unconstitutional, citing First Amendment protections for free speech”. This quotes shows that Ag-Gag laws violates farmers privacy rights because this law is used to eliminate undercover investigations on private farms without the consent of the farmer. These laws were designed and crafted to try and protect First Amendment rights while also trying to provide some personal property protection.

Antagonistic 1: Reporting Abuse Will Become “Terrorism”

“New Hampshire, Wyoming and Nebraska are the latest states to introduce Ag-Gag laws aimed at preventing employees, journalists or activists from exposing illegal or unethical practices on factory farms”. Ag-Gag laws passed 20 years ago payed more particular attention to prevent the occurrence of people from destroying property, or from either stealing animals or setting them free. Today’s ALEC inspired bills take direct aim at anyone who tries to expose horrific acts of animal cruelty, dangerous animal handling practices that might lead to food safety issues, or blatant disregard for environmental laws designed to protect waterways from animal waste runoff.

Supportive 3: Daily: Do You Support Ag-Gag Laws?

“But, Amanda, I know animal abuse is real; I’ve watched all those videos on YouTube of factory farmers beating their animals”.

Posted in Rebuttal Exercise | Leave a comment

Rebuttal Exercise – Marinebio18

Posted on November 6, 2015 by marinebio18

Antagonistic 2-

According to Last Chance for Animals: What is Ag-Gag? , “Ag Gag legislation criminalizes employees who attempt to document unsanitary and hazardous working conditions, and any illegal or unethical conduct by other employees or supervisors.”

Rebuttal: The law makes it nearly impossible for a person inside the business to report that their job has been conducting illegal acts. The company is mostly protected under the law. Although the law is not meant to criminalize it could further harm the employees because of the harsh working conditions.

Antagonistic 3

“The legislation was designed and crafted to try and protect First Amendment rights while also trying to provide some personal property protection.”

Rebuttal: The law contradicts the First Amendment rights because it does not allow people to speak about what they found while in a farm that harms animals. The laws are meant to protect the business not the reporters or any witnesses’ First Amendment rights. 

Supportive 3

“98% of farms and ranches in the U.S. family owned and operated, I know that today’s food is grown by people who care about the animals, the environment and the final retail product.”

Rebuttal: A family could own a factory farm and may not have a lot of care about handling animals. The author is claiming that anybody who owns a farm is a caring individual. The authors is also saying that the other 2% are factory farms that have no care for animals.

Supportive 2 

According to Conservationists join animal rights group to challenge Idaho ag gag law “The bill protects farmers and their families from misrepresentation, lies and deceit by individuals that intended to damage what they have worker a lifetime to build”

Rebuttal: Instead of talking about animals the main purpose of these laws are to protect the people who take part in horrible acts toward animals. Although the business they spent a lifetime to build is being protected, they could further harm people with the laws.

Posted in Rebuttal Exercise | Leave a comment

Rebuttal Exercise – gemfhi

Posted on November 6, 2015 by NSLincoln

Last Chance for Animals

Antagonistic 2 – Limiting the use of video and audio recording is unconstitutional.

This Article, while vague in its exact focus, seems to be trying to demonstrate how Ag-Gag is a violation of the first amendment. It cites and quotes the first amendment and the first amendment seems to address the application of religion, speech, and press. This article however addresses such devices as video and audio recordings, and how limiting their use is unconstitutional. I am going to need it explained to me how exactly limiting the use of film and audio equipment is unconstitutional for the constitution doesn’t address their use, it only addresses freedom of the press. Freedom of the press is only freedom of the printed word, not digital audio and video recordings. When it comes to unauthorized video and audio recordings it is perfectly constitutional for the party being recorded to refuse to have their image used in ways they do not approve of.

Judge Strikes Down Ag-Gag Law

Antagonistic 3 –

Posted in Rebuttal Exercise | Leave a comment