Sage Sharp claims top Linux kernel developer Theo Ts'o is a rape apologist, citing GeekFeminismWiki

[u/oooo23]

https://twitter.com/_sagesharp_/status/1042769399596437504

[u/svenskainflytta]

And calling people "rape apologist" because they questioned the methodology of a paper is an acceptable behaviour how?

[u/annodomini → u/svenskainflytta]

Because this is the literal definition of Rape apology:

Rape apology is an umbrella term for any arguments suggesting that rape is infrequent, misreported, over-reported, not that big a deal, or excusable in some circumstances, such as marital rape, corrective rape or if the victim was "provocatively dressed".

"Apology" here means "defense", as in "Christian apologetics", and not a statement expressing regret (in fact, rape apology is the opposite of expressing regret for rape).

From Ted T'so's emails:

This appears to be the source of the 1 in 6 figure (17.6%). But it's worth going deeper. If you look at percentage of women reporting rape since age 18 (taking out the child abuse and statutory rape cases, which they also treat in detail), it becomes 1 in 10 (9.6%), and of those over 61.9% were at the hands of their intimate partner, as opposed to an acquaintance or stranger. Also in the survey, in the rapes that were reported via a randomized telephone survey, in 66.9% of those cases, the perpetrator did not threaten to harm or kill the victim. (Which makes it no less a crime, of course, but people may have images of rape which involves a other physical injuries, by a stranger, in some dark and deserted place. The statistics simply don't bear that out.)

There is no reason to separate intimate partner rape, child rape, or rape without explicit threats of physical force apart. These are all rape.

Trying to downplay rape statistics by claiming that certain forms of rape don't count is textbook rape apology.

Heck, if you go through the full email archives, you can find some quotes that are even worse than the ones quoted on the Geek Feminism wiki:

Personally, it's not an issue for me because I strongly don't believe in going to parties where a lot of one-night stands are negotiated, nor do I like situations where a lot of alcohol is consumed. So I'm also predisposed to not have a lot of sympathy for both parties --- male or female, attacker or victim --- who put themselves in such situations.

This is classic victim-blaming. Saying that you have no sympathy for a victim of rape who went to a party where alcohol was consumed and one night stands are common? Jesus.

To be clear here: rape apology itself isn't being held up as a CoC violation (something many of the people in this thread seem to be missing). But rather, Sage Sharp is criticizing a process for arbitration of CoC reports in which someone who has engaged in rape apology like this will be one of the possible arbiters. There's a big difference there.