Jonathan Kay talks to Kay Xander Mellish, author of How to Live in Denmark (2014) and How to Work in Denmark (2018) about the recent Amnesty International report claiming Denmark has a “pervasive rape culture,” as well as what it’s like living in the country ranked number two in the world for gender equality and why a female-led, right-wing political party is on the rise.
Published on March 7, 2019
Quillette Podcast 20 – Danish Expert Kay Xander Mellish on Denmark’s Rape Culture, Gender Equality and the New, Female-Led, Right-Wing Party
As a woman, I thank God, I don’t live in Denmark. I would hate to live in a society where there is no opportunity for a woman to be a homemaker, or even to care for her own child.
I was disappointed that the titled Rape Crisis was barely mentioned.
As a Dane I will claim that there is of course no rape crisis in Denmark. The rape crisis is postulated by people at the Danish department of Amnesty International in order to persuade politicians to change the law so that it becomes more easy to sentence a man for having committed rape. When it is made easier to sentence a man in doubtful cases where it is unclear what actually happened, then decent men get more frightened and passive and anxious not to do or say anything that might be considered by the woman as harassment. Danish men are already unusually passive in their approaches to women, as Kay Xander Mellish described years ago, and this trend will probably be furthered even more now.
Amnesty´s report on rapes in Denmark is full of manipulations and errors. They interview some cheryypicked women who can tell how bad everything is, and how badly they are treated by the police when they try to report a rape. Reality is that the police are doing much to make it better and easier for women to report a rape, and that 85 % of all women who make such reports are satisfied with the treatment they got from the police.
I guess the whole purpose of the report and the PR in relation to the report is that women, and feminists in particular, want more power. Talking much about rape is a means to paint a picture of all men as bad people who do not deserve to be treated well, and to make men frightened. A stricter law will give women more power over men. The whole idea is to throw suspicion on men and burden them with shame. The more men are burdened with shame, the less will they protest when women again and again want special advantages.
In the war between the sexes – and it is a war – one of the most powerful weapons, and therefore one of the most used weapons, is to talk about men raping women. Everybody is against rape, so whenever women talk about rape as a general problem, these women will have their way.
I suggest that everyone reads the amnesty international report. It is quite chilling.
It is suggested that ‘all non-consensual acts of a sexual nature’ must be classified as criminal and goes on to state that a frequent reaction to sexual assault is freezing or paralysis. This is used to argue that the current defintion as rape as sex as a result of coercion, threat or violence or with someone unable to resist is inadequate.
The gap between the two definitions is those ‘victims’ who are capable of communication and/or resistance but make no attempt to communicate that sex is not welcome but later say that they did not consent. It is difficult to see how someone accused of rape could defend themselves as there is no objective element at all. The same actions are a crime or completely legal depending on someones state of mind. The definition of a sex crime is so broad it would encompass holding hands or any remark, or gesture that someone found objectionable enough to complain to the police. The reality is that the police in Denmark prosecute a very high proportion of the cases brought to their attention (60%) but only around 10% of these complaints leads to a conviction. That 10% is probably indicative of over prosecuting rather than any lack of zeal in the police.
Amnesty used ot be an organisation against political prisoners. At that time I was a member and supported it. Why is it now campaigning for the redefinition of sexual crimes in such a way as to make almost any interaction potentially an offence? They are getting close to campaigning to enable false imprisonment.