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| More than 60% of rapes go unreported. Given how our society blames the victims, it's no wonder why. |
The reason that more than 60% of rapes go unreported is because many women are too scared. Some of them are scared of their attacker, but most are more afraid of being labeled, libeled, and left longing for justice and feeling like it's their fault.
Sexual assault, "victim blaming" and sexism go hand-in-hand. No matter how heinous the crime or how clear the circumstances, women are constantly blamed for their misfortune in allowing themselves to become a victim. If she's attractive, she should have been more careful. If she was dressed provocatively, or even if she was wearing anything short of a burka, she was asking for it. If she had a healthy sex life, she was a slut and therefore her "claim" of assault is suspect. If she was a woman in a predominately male profession or doing a particularly risky job, then she was just a silly girl who should have known her place.
All of these accusations have been thrown at the incredibly brave, exceedingly talented Lara Logan.
Lara Logan Gets Blamed
Logan is a tough, fearless journalist and chief foreign affairs correspondent for CBS news. She has more than enough experience to qualify her for a dangerous assignment like covering the Egypt revolution. However, within moments of the official announcement of her attack, the hounds were unleashed.
Men and women alike questioned her decision to return to Egypt to DO HER JOB. They focused on her beauty, with only a cursory mention of her "guts," but barely a breath about her actual skill as a journalist. They brought up her sexual history, called her a "homewrecker" because of events that transpired years ago and had NO relevance to her assignment in Egypt.
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| Lara Logan on assignment in Iraq. |
They claimed she was faking, exaggerating, and should have known better.
Beautiful, blonde, helpless Lara Logan--didn't she realize she was asking for it? Didn't her bosses realize
that they should never have sent a GIRL to do a MAN'S job?
Some of her accusers even tried to justify WHY they felt the need to highlight her beauty and point out that she had a sex life in their snarky, sexist, insulting coverage of her brutal attack, all while ignoring the fact that she is a well qualified journalist.
Women Doing Men's Jobs & The Price They Pay
Lara Logan's situation is not unique; this type of sentiment looms large in any line of work where women are doing jobs traditionally done by men. For these women, victim shaming meets sexism as their talents are ignored while they are, instead, derided for daring to be successful doing a man's job in a man's world.
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| These individuals are part of the Class Action Lawsuit against the Pentagon regarding MST (Military Sexual Trauma) |
In a world where women regularly choose to live in fear and suffer in silence rather than risk the ridicule which often follows reporting, we must do EVERYTHING we can to show women that we're on THEIR side, not the side of their rapist/attacker.
Enter the Grand Old Party and their recent attempt to redefine rape for the purposes of restricting access to abortion.
Redefining Rape & Reinforcing "Victim Blaming"
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| Rep. Chris Smith, R, NJ Primary Sponsor of HR 3 |
Would the law make any changes to the criminal charge of rape and how it's prosecuted? No. But in their effort to restrict access, their "redefinition" sought to codify which type of rape is emotionally damaging enough to warrant special treatment. To women who have been victimized, this just serves to affirm what so much of society already says: Be very careful, ladies...if your rape isn't rape-y enough, and you asked for it, then you don't only have to be concerned about retribution from your rapist, but also the judgment of your community. Your attacker is innocent until proven guilty; you're not.
Lara Logan's sexual assault would certainly meet ANYONE'S standard of "forceable." And just look at how she's being treated.
Sexual assault is never the fault of the woman who was victimized. It is the fault of the man who could not control himself and chose to deprive another human being of their choice and dignity. If only Representative Chris Smith and the other 209 co-sponsors of HR 3 realized that.
Sources and Required Reading:
Salon.com: What NOT to say about Lara Logan (About how blogs are blaming the victim)
Lara Logan, CBS Reporter and Warzone 'It Girl,' Raped Repeatedly Amid Egypt Celebration (Blames the victim)
How Muslims Celebrate Victory: Egypt’s “Peaceful, Moderate, Democratic” Protesters (Right-Wing Blogger Debbie Schlussel)
CBS News reporter Lara Logan vows to return to work in a few weeks: report (NYPost Story)
Lara Logan Assault: For Female Reporters, the Added Peril of Turbulent Places (Politics Daily)
The Lara Logan Opportunists: Crimes After the Fact (Time Magazine)
A thank you to CBS reporter Lara Logan for speaking out (Washington Post Blog)
Anti-Abortion Bills Crowding House Agenda (Politics Daily)
Abortion Fight Centers on Strategy (Congress.org)
3 comments:
The gf told me over lunch that she thought the redefinition of rape was in that bill so they could get out of paying for abortions for teenagers that were statutory rape victims.
Me, I'm even more cynical. I think there was a partisan game afoot. Because they did this, when we say "Republicans don't compromise", they can point to this and pretend to be accommodating.
Who knows? Perhaps it's a little of Column A and a little of Column B.
I do know that the GOP is about to reap the whilrwind.
Hmm...interesting. I lean more toward a combination of all of the above. They don't see "date rape" or "statutory rape" as rape, it gets them out of paying for abortions, AND it gives them something to point to and say, "See!?! I have so TOO tried!! Aren't you proud of me??"
As you know all too well, political moves are always best when they have SEVERAL motives.
I connect here on two levels. As a male who suffered from sexual abuse as a child, I think I share a more sympathetic, most definitely empathetic viewpoint than many in my gender pool. I bristle at those jokes that follow in the vein of, "You can't rape the willing," that creep up on you from the y side of the chromosomal divide, and it's because of how utterly wrongheaded it is.
Of course, there's a million reasons behind this. Male dominence and entitlement, the belief that it could never happen to me, etc. The most important thing that seems to be ignored by the blatantly oblivious, though is that sexual assault is far less about the sex than it is about the assault. It is, as I'm sure you know, about establishing dominance and will over a weak and helpless target. it is all of these things, and because some people can't seem to wrap their head around that, it is as though victims are constantly fighting a battle just to establish that there is a crime, that there is wrongdoing, and that there are boundaries that should never be crossed with no exceptions.
But these stories you outline here point to a broader trend and one that I find truly horrific. It has become increasingly popular, it would seem, to find ways to blame the victim. The irony inherent in this rising trend is that it coincides with the ascension of the Tea Party and modern movement conservativism which professes as one of its chief tenets the sanctity of personal responsibility.
Of course, the concept of personal responsibility to these people in all actuality means that those with whom they disagree should be forced to pay for whatever behavior they partake in that is arbitrarily considered wrong by the ideological superiors. Personal responsibility has become little more than a dog whistle to indicate "we're right, and if you don't fit into the positive side of our world view, go fuck yourself."
And, as Al Franken once pointed out, if Muslim extremists want to return the world to a 15th century caliphate, conservatives want to revert the world to a 19th century patriarchal society. I would argue that the aim is shooting more for 1950's nuclear family era, but you get the point. And if that's the ideal, you have to look at what was accepted behavior then, and you all of a sudden start seeing the roots behind what you're talking about here.
In any case it is disheartening to say the least. Just look at recent history; within hours of the Rep. Giffords shooting, you started seeing some blogs and news outlets combing her legislative record to see what she did that would bring the shooting upon her, or Jay Newton Small's twitter quip blaming Anderson Cooper for the attack he sustained in Egypt.
Somehow, we've degraded to a point where it's almost a kneejerk reaction to ask what the victim did to bring this upon themselves, and the prime problem with this is that it draws attention away from the ACTUAL problems, and the ACTUAL perpetrators of the crimes.
There are a TON of factors which affect the number of rapes that occur in this country, from poverty and unemployment levels to education to the status of mental health care to the quality of police protection just to name a few. But instead of focusing on those causal factors, we get caught up in this bullshit debate on what would be considered an acceptable place for a skirt's hemline to fall.
And with that, sorry for the ramble. Hopefully some of it made sense. And great post.
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