Pick-up artist and author Roosh V admitted to raping a girl and has called for the decriminalisation of rape on private property
An online petition has called for Amazon to stop selling books by a self-professed pick-up artist who thinks rape should be legalized.
Roosh V, real name Daryush Valizadeh, is a 35-year-old American blogger who has written a series of books about his exploits with the opposite sex, detailing his tactics for getting unwilling women to sleep with him.
His specialist subject is the "art" of seducing women who, by the sounds of it, probably do not want to sleep with him. He advises men on how to make "casual suggestions" like going for a walk, having a glass of wine or needing to use the toilet as excuses to get women where they want them i.e. in to bed.
In a blog post he wrote in February 2015, ironically entitled “How To Stop Rape”, Roosh claims that if rape is legalized then women will take more responsibility for their behaviour:
“Without daddy government to protect her, a girl would absolutely not enter a private room with a man she doesn’t know or trust unless she is absolutely sure she is ready to sleep with him.
“Consent is now achieved when she passes underneath the room’s door frame, because she knows that that man can legally do anything he wants to her when it comes to sex.”
He has called for the decriminalisation of rape on private property, which will lead women to "protect her body in the same manner that she protects her purse and smartphone". Right.
He can’t seem to decide whether or not rape is acceptable but one thing is for sure: if it happens, it’s the woman’s fault.
The BANG series passes on the lessons he has learned from shagging his way around the world and features editions on how to have sex with women from Iceland, Estonia, Poland, Lithuania and Brazil among others.
In the Iceland edition of his pick-up manual, Roosh admits to raping a girl after she had had too much to drink and therefore was unable to give her consent:
“While walking to my place, I realized how drunk she was. In America, having sex with her would have been rape, since she couldn’t legally give her consent. It didn’t help matter that I was relatively sober, but I can’t say I cared or even hesitated.”
“I won’t rationalize my actions, but having sex is what I do. If a girl is willing to walk home with me, she’s going to get the dick no matter how much she has drunk.”
It (and the rest of his literary canon) carries on in much the same vein, using hatefully misogynistic language like “slut” and “whore” throughout.
He also has a manual called BANG: More Lays In 60 Days, which features pearls of wisdom for men on the pull such as: “You should just lay back, allow her to take off your clothes, and let her please you with deep throat blowjobs”.
An online petition with over 180,000 signatures is calling for Amazon to stop selling these books, some of which are paperbacks, all of them are available on the Kindle.
“To those who'll cry 'censorship' - back off,” claims the petition.
“He's entitled to write and think and say what he likes. He's not, however, protected from the backlash against his output, or removal of platform. This isn't about banning books, it's about ensuring he, and Amazon, can't profit from rape.”
Feel free to sign it, share it, despair about the state of the world we live in where people like this and views like this exist.
Should Amazon stop selling these books?