Feminists don’t hate men. (But after a week like this, one kind of wonders why not.)

This past week the brutal issue of men raping women has featured prominently in the news. First, there was the horrific gang rape of an internationally prominent female journalist in Cairo’s Tahir square during the “celebrations” over the ouster of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Then there was the report that several current and former members of the U.S. military are suing the U.S. government over its continual failure to address the epidemic of the rape of military personnel by their brothers-in-arms.

Antifeminists often spread the lie that feminists hate men. That is of course a ridiculous accusation. But given the events of this past week, a person could be forgiven for thinking that some feminists might be justified in not feeling all that good about us guys right now. And as a guy, I gotta say that I am not feeling all that good about us guys right now, either. Not when so many of us do such horrible things.

Tyranny even in the midst of liberation. The gang rape of the CBS reporter in Cairo’s Tahir Square has, for me, totally eliminated the elation I was feeling at the sight of a people rising up and shedding the yoke of tyranny, of overthrowing the despotic Hosni Mubarak.

Some people have voiced concerns that whatever form of government that replaces the Mubarak regime might turn out to be at least as repressive as he was, especially when it comes to the rights of women. Will what comes next free women? Or will a socially conservative government come to power – a government that only increases the ability of Egyptian men to engage in the intimate oppression of women and girls?

That second option would be tragic. Because a revolution that limits the rights of women is no revolution at all! Women’s rights are human rights, and any government in the world that ignores that fact is itself a tyranny, whether it be in the form of one man holding power for himself, or of all men exerting power over women.

And of course it should go without saying that a celebration that includes the gang rape of a woman is no celebration at all. It is a disgrace. It is an atrocity. It disgusts me. And it makes me want to vomit.

The rape of women transcends borders, religions and cultures. Much of the public comment in the wake of the gang rape of the CBS reporter in Egypt has suggested that the attack tells some fundamental truths about Islam and about Arab cultures. The film critic Rodger Ebert (who should probably stick to reviewing films) tweeted that this attack “brings Middle East attitudes toward women into sad focus.”

While it is true that many Muslim states severely limit the rights of women, someone needs to tell Rodger Ebert that rape is an epidemic even in the world’s most “liberal” secular democracies – even in places where women have the right to vote, even where women have the opportunity to explore many roles in public life, even where women are said to be equal to men under the law.

As evidence of this, one need only consider the 15 women (and 2 men) who have just filed a class action lawsuit against current and former U.S. Secretaries of Defense alleging that the Department of Defense protects sexual abusers and punishes any survivors who come forward to report the brutality. According to the website foreignpolicy.com, fully 1/3 of women serving in the U.S. armed forces report experiencing sexual violence at the hands of their male comrades – and this number likely represents a grave under-reporting of the real incidence of rape in the military. In other surveys, over 75% of women in the U.S. military have reported experiencing sexual harassment from peers and superior officers.

Hey, Rodger Ebert! If the gang rape of the reporter in Tahir Square is supposed to say something about Islam and the Middle East, what do these obscenely high numbers of sexual assaults within the U.S. military say about our western, Judeo-Christian values?

While we wait for Ebert to respond to the question, let me just say that in my opinion what the high rate of rape throughout most of the world says is that no matter the theological and moral traditions that divide our various societies, most of our cultures remain models of male supremacy that continue to hold women, women’s bodies, and women’s sexuality in contempt. East or west (or somewhere in between), most of our cultures still teach that women are inferior, and that men can use women’s bodies in whatever way we wish.

Feeling the hate. The antifeminists like to say that feminism is about the hatred of men. But I think that the horrid events of this past week show that it is not men who are the targets of gender-based hatred – it is women. When feminists take on the patriarchy and attack men’s unearned power and privilege, that just means that they hate sexism, not that they hate men. But the rapists in the square in Cairo and throughout the ranks of the U.S. military clearly do seem to hate women. And they make that hatred extremely personal.

In the midst of my feelings of despair and frustration about the week’s news, I have to admit that I find myself feeling some hatred as well – hatred toward men who rape. I hate the rapists in Tahir Square. I hate the rapists who wear the uniform of the United States of America. I hate that so many of my brothers throughout the world do such horrible things to women.

I am sick of rape. I am sick of men who rape women. And to any guys out there who sexually harass and abuse women, please know that I am not feeling very good about you right now.

In fact, I think I hate you.