Steven Crowder on his show Louder with Crowder. (Youtube)
An anti-LGBTQ+ YouTube pundit has said that rape victims are always “blue-haired, would-be lesbians”.
Vlogger Steven Crowder proved you don’t have to be smart to talk at length about a topic after claiming that “not one Victoria’s Secret model has been raped” in an episode of his right-wing pseudo-fact show Louder with Crowder.
He has more than 5.7 million subscribers on YouTube, with videos regularly receiving upwards of 500,000 views, some reaching millions.
During a recent episode of the show, Crowder said claims of rape always came from “would-be lesbian feminists” and said he would expect victims to be “those who are most desirable sexually.”
He then hit a hattrick of misogynistic tropes when talking about victims of rape by comparing them to cars, saying: “You don’t go carjacking a ’98 Oldsmobile.”
He then went on to suggest this meant rape victims are lying, saying that these rapes are “unverifiable.”
Steven Crowder: “It’s always the blue haired would-be lesbian feminist who claimed they’re raped. As far as I know, not one Victoria Secret model has been raped” pic.twitter.com/ZBXgZdqBn3
— Jason Campbell (@JasonSCampbell) September 26, 2022
An estimated one in six women in the US have been a victim of rape in some capacity.
That means somewhere around 27,905,500 women have been or were almost raped in the US.
Additionally, if Crowder were to have used the internet in the past few years for anything other voicing misogynist opinions, he might have noticed the overwhelming amount of women voicing their stories of rape and sexual assault during the “MeToo” movement.
The campaign was designed to help sexual harassment survivors to speak up about the injustices they faced and destigmatise being a survivor of rape.
It also saw a number of celebrities voice their own stories after allegations against convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein first gained prominence. Stars such as Jennifer Lawrence, Uma Thurman, and Ashley Judd all participated in the campaign.
Despite Crowder’s comments, models are not exempt from rape and are often subject to “rampant misogyny, bullying, sexual harassment, and retaliation,” according to a 2019 article from the New York Times.
The late billionaire and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein served as an advisor to former chief executive of Victoria’s Secret, Les Wexner.
Epstein also tried to pose as a recruiter for the brand in order to find women whom he would sexually assault.
Model Alicia Arden spoke about Epstein in the docuseries Angels and Demons, where she said he invited her to a hotel room under the pretence of looking into the new Victoria’s Secret catalogue, but instead sexually assaulted her.
Crowder has previous with making wildy offensive comments, having said an alternate version of Captain America would “contract AIDS” and calling Vox journalist Carlos Maza a “lispy queer” and a “gay Mexican.”