Attack on Sweden

Again, I wake up to hysterics, a laughable comment either by President Trump or Sean Spicer. Again, it is deflected. Again, we’re sucked down a tube of misinformation, this time about rape levels in Sweden.

The graph is shocking on its own. And we should be shocked, because Sweden IS ALONE.

Sweden has the widest definition of rape. They record each incidence of sexual violence in a case separately. Digital penetration of the vagina on a woman who is sleeping or intoxicated has been considered rape since 2008.

Compare that to the Canadian judge who couldn’t understand why a victim didn’t keep her knees together, or a US judge who thought (and said) if the victim didn’t want sex her body would shut down.

Sweden ranks #1 in the world for gender equality, women are more willing to report incidents rape, and there’s a higher level of trust in the police and judiciary.

Sweden is indeed alone in this 2012 table and if other countries followed their lead and the standards they have set, incidents of reported rape would sky rocket around the world and then we (men) would see an uncomfortable truth.

The information on Sweden's rape data has been reported widely and explained. It's easy to find, but we live in a world where we are choosing not to find.

I’m sorry people have been whipped up to live a state of fear they think refugees and migrants will step off the plane and rape women.

Maybe they’re right, after all they’re landing in a country whose President who has actively engaged in sexual harassment and perhaps they see the US as a bounty, a free for all, where rape is underreported, the law inadequate, where attitudes towards women around sexual harassment and their bodies may not be so different to their countries of origin.

It is with great irony those who fight against progressive values, such as those found in Sweden, are fighting against what will protect them. If they're so anti-progressive, they may want to take a moment and think: the people they want to ban are more likely to hold their socially conservative values, and in fact are their natural allies who want to participate in the American dream.