"That Girl" is Sickened!

To those of you who are currently stateside, these articles are probably old news. But as I get a bit behind on my depressing American news these days, I've only recently stumbled across them. And I think they bear mentioning in conjunction with one another, as a pretty grotesque example of the war on women currently being waged in the United States. The first article is a New York Times piece (!!!) that deals horribly with a case in Texas of an 11 year old girl who was gang-raped by 18 men. That explanation alone repulses me, but, believe me, the article compounds my disgust. The article can be found here for those who haven't seen it.

In this piece, reporter James C. McKinley, Jr. has managed to craft a piece in which blame for the attack goes to the "provocatively dressed" child victim, and asks for sympathy for the gang of men who thought it was all right to rape a child. According to the residents of the town that McKinley interviewed, much concern goes to the perpetrators who, although innocent until proven guility, will "have to live with this for the rest of their lives." Yes, they will. But I don't think that makes them the victims here. The outrage is incorrectly placed in this matter. Let's forget for a moment that the victim here is a child. That in and of itself should be a compelling reason why she should NOT have been a victim of a vicious assault. One person quoted in the article says the victim dressed more like a woman in her 20s than a child. So, the obvious question for me then is, what if she were a woman in her 20s? Would this be ok, as she was clearly 'asking for it?' No person ASKS to be the victim of sexual violence. As a woman, I should not have to live in fear because I wore a skirt and some heels out of my house one night. As a human being, I should be able to walk down the street naked without worrying about what some jerk thinks that entitles him (or her) to do to me. As a reporter, McKinley does have a duty to report on what public opinion is in his stories - but as a thinking human being, he could also have sought out some balance in his story, so as to not blame an elementary school-aged child for the hellish ordeal some adults decided to put her through.

And then we move to a charming email sent out by a fraternity brother at USC, in which women are not even considered people anymore, but "targets." The entire piece is fairly offensive, but do have a look if you are of strong stomach. Jezebel.com has printed the entire here. (At this point, I will mention that there is a suspicion that these could be a potential intra-fraternal prank. That however does not excuse its light-dealing with sexual assault and misogyny.)

While I could fill volumes with the reasons why this philosophy is heinous, I will instead focus on the one line that nearly made me vomit. According to our intrepid emailer, "non-consent and rape are two different things. There's a fine line so make sure not to cross it." No, sir, there isn't. Non-consent is what qualifies a sex act as rape. This is where the handy phrase "no means no" comes into play. By replacing 'woman' with 'target,' our writer justifies treating her as an inconsequential piece of the pie (pardon the terrible pun). We make less than men when we're employed full-time, we're treated as second-class citizens from time to time by our goverments, but goddamit, we have the right to determine our sexual limits. According to our writer, I, a strawberry pie, am just out there for the picking. To that, I say fuck off.

To me, taken in tandem, these two situations are a clear indicator that women are in danger in our country. Either we're overtly asking for it, by the way we behave and dress and act, or, even if we're not, it's okay to treat us like we are, as we don't count for much anyway. It's a classic case of "damned if we, damned if we don't." It would be easier to brush these two articles off, were it not for mainstream American political issues of late that seem to reinforce these damaging ideas. Recent legislation proposed in the form of HR3, superficially an anti-abortion law, would have sought to change the definition of rape, making a distinction between forceful an non-forceful sexual assault. Under this definition, spouse rape, date rape and all sorts of other types of sexual violence would be considered lesser form of assault, as opposed to those rapes which resulted in broken bones and bruises. A black eye is not what defines rape - non-consensual sexual acts are. Period. And then, in addition, when you consider the current fight in the US Congress to defund Planned Parenthood, the battle gets even hotter. Without Planned Parenthood, low-income women (and men, and children!) will not have access to affordable medical care. So, women are in effect targets: targets for sexual violence and then targets for subsequent abuse by our own government.

Perhaps this all sounds a bit reactionary and overblown to you. If it does, I must say that I envy you, because that must mean that you have been blessed to never know a person who has been a victim of rape. You could not feel that way, I'm sure, if you'd been woken up in the middle of the night by a freshman student who was your responsibility in college, who had just been raped by her then-boyfriend. I am positive that, as an empathetic human being, if you had seen first-hand the sadness, anger and confusion on her face, you would not in any way believe that there was any grey area when it comes to legislating against sexual assault. As you've clearly not had to look face-to-face with a woman like her, you wouldn't understand. Sadly, that's not my only brush with sexual violence. It happens more than most people want to believe. And I envy your disbelief - frankly, I'm a little jealous of you. To me, these are crucial issues because they're part of my life. And because of that, I ask you to consider very seriously the way that we treat women (and men and children) who are plunged into this ordeal. They didn't ask for it, but they are asking for our help. Please, if you are a woman, love a woman, or are raising a woman, take a stand against misogyny, and start making other do the same.

TGI