#role model analysis

CW: discussion of role model by Rachel Reid and sexual assault

1. Why is a narrative around sexual assault and rape culture in hockey featured around a *man* who 1.5. does not have relationships with or sex with women? Like this isn’t to say that gay men can’t participate in misogyny or rape culture but rather that the participation of bisexual and heterosexual men in misogyny and rape culture differs because they have sex with women.

2. None of Kent’s victims are named in text even though four of them agree to come forward not anonymously. And (granted this is hard because of limited third person pov) it fails the Bechdel test 😭.

3. Dallas is a serial rapist with something like a dozen known victims or something like that, which means statistically speaking the actual number is higher. I think part of the reason RR made him a serial rapist is a thing we see so much in media around rape and sexual assault which is that in order to combat the viewer/reader not believing the survivor they either introduce the volume of accusations of the severity of what happened. Why not just give Dallas Kent one victim that speaks out because:

4.1. People, even men, are a lot more likely to believe men that have multiple accusers, possibly across different states, territories, and countries. Like even in defense of other serial offenders it’s usually not people believing that the guy didn’t do the thing, rather people saying it did happen, but wasn’t a crime because X. One victim, even two or three, is more likely to result in the victims not being believed but when you have as many as Dallas did, generally it’s a numbers game because most people understand they can’t all be lying. Again yes there are outliers especially in the hockey world but like… serial rapists are low hanging fruit for participants in rape culture to be like, “see! We do hold rapists accountable!” because they criticize him. But the other reason why it’s terrible Dallas is a serial rapist is

4.2. It makes it really sus that Troy didn’t know. Because wdym you don’t know that your best friend, who you drink with, party with, go to events with, have hung out and probably spent the night in their house. Your best friend, who, crucially, doesn’t believe he did anything wrong and who believes that you, dear one, agree with him in every area? That best friend is a serial rapist and you had no idea? He never bragged to you or asked you to participate? So had suspicious behavior taking a woman home or to his room? You never realized at any point that his dehumanization of woman was dangerous?

Except, you saw a pattern of him treating women poorly and immediately believed a story of him assaulting a woman because it reflected patterns you had already seen. And you’re telling me that you didn’t notice????? That it was serial????

Like kinda the one thing that most serial abusers have in common is that most people around them know and ignore it or quietly warn people.

5. Troy’s posts on social media focus on resources for survivors and not actually addressing rape culture, whereas Troy would be a very powerful person to help pink pill teenage boys to prevent them growing up in rape culture.

6. Multiple characters in the text question of Troy knew, Wyatt even says he thought Troy would’ve participated, and Wyatt says that it was obvious to anyone they knew Kent that he was guilty, suggesting that someone even closer to Kent would probably have an even better understanding of it. And in my experiences, guys like this are not quiet about it especially when they think they’re in a safe space and can share stories freely. And when it comes to it being serial instead of a one off or a handful of times, that increases the likelihood of Troy knowing and it’s just like… the implications of what Troy was ignoring are just… fucked up.