A Queen’s University professor has found herself in a heated debate with a men’s issues group, which has resulted in posters with her image being put up calling her a “rape apologist.”

Posters displaying a picture of associate professor Adèle Mercier with the caption “rape apologist” popped up around the campus and up University Avenue on Tuesday afternoon.

The Queen’s Journal reported that the posters were put up by two local representatives of A Voice for Men (AVfM), a men’s rights group based out of Houston, in response to a letter to the editor written by Mercier.

The group claims Mercier’s comments minimize the issue of female on male sexual assault.

But Mercier believes her comments were taken out of context.

In the comment section of a different letter to the editor, Mercier responded to a statement by Alison Tieman, a spokesperson for AVfM, which claimed that “95% of abused boys in juvenile facilities reported being attacked/coerced by female staff.”

The professor was under the impression she was having a conversation with a Queen’s student, given the comments were being made on a university press website.

“So I did what any professor should do, and any reasonable person would do,” said Mercier, “which is that I read the studies in question and I realized that she was misunderstanding these studies she herself was quoting and I corrected the conclusions of those studies, which clearly showed that the proportion of men who attack women is grossly higher than the proportion of women who attack men.

“So I was making a point about violence. And they took me as somebody who was suggesting that non-violent unauthorized sexual activity in prisons and the military and juvenile detention centres was alright.

“That is how I became a rape apologist and a pedophile.”

In citing statistics from a report released by the U.S. Department of Justice on sexual assault in youth detention centres, Mercier was hoping to disprove the argument that women are more violent, or just as violent as men.

“I did not say that statutory rape was not rape and did not say that it was OK to rape children and I did not say that it was OK to blame victims and I did not once use the word consensual,” she said.

According to Tieman, Mercier’s comments prove that there is the need for a space to talk about men’s issues.

“Unless there’s an incredibly strong reaction from feminism to her comments, it’s pretty obvious that feminism should not be controlling the dialogue on men’s issues,” Tieman said.

She said that men need a space to understand their vulnerability and society and feminism do not provide that space.

On April 2, Tieman accused Mercier of “engaging in ludicrous statistical diversions and rape-apologia” in an editorial on AVfM’s website.

Mercier asked Tieman to remove the editorial, as well as a video, stating that they were libelous and that legal action may be taken if AVfM did not comply.

“But the problem is that the original rape apology is in her original comment,” said Tieman. “I’m merely saying that you can’t say that.”

Mercier is not sure what actions she will undertake at this point, if any, and is currently investigating her options. She has received much support from students, professors and her faculty association alike.

“The difficulty is you don’t want to give those thugs more attention because that’s what they seek,” she said. “You’re not dealing with ordinary rational people here, you’re dealing with a very, very angry and volatile fringe groups.”