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veronica_richIt's being reported that the Delhi student who was beaten and gang-raped on a bus, then flown to Singapore for medical care (eventually), has died.
And this is the kind of thing that stems from perpetuating the notion that it's A-OK, for example, to tell half the population they need to take orders on what to do with their bodies - like those bodies are public property, in a way no man's body has EVER been regarded as property outside the institution of slavery (which I think at this point most people in the world regard as a hateful institution).
Also, an interesting essay on how this year, it became en vogue to once again blame victims of sex crimes for their own misfortunes. I find it amazing that some of the same people who don't think a woman should decide what to do with her own uterus or ovaries also seem to think those same women (and girls, for Christ's sake - YOUNG GIRLS!) have the power to regulate men's behavior.
Amazing news today. Not in the good way, mind. But amazing.
(Lest you think I ever exaggerate how little things can lead to bigger, more dangerous things, allow me to summarize a situation from my 20s, in which I reported extensively on the far-too-early release of a convicted rapist from prison. During the trial the man threatened to "get" his victim as well as other women who testified for her, including one who had knowledge of the rape and helped get the man arrested. I was nowhere around for this trial; I only came in years later and wrote articles about it and never met the man. Yet, once he was released, I started getting mysterious phone calls harassing me for merely doing this part of my job. I couldn't sleep well for almost two years and started keeping weapons at my bedside - a habit I keep to this day.)
And this is the kind of thing that stems from perpetuating the notion that it's A-OK, for example, to tell half the population they need to take orders on what to do with their bodies - like those bodies are public property, in a way no man's body has EVER been regarded as property outside the institution of slavery (which I think at this point most people in the world regard as a hateful institution).
Also, an interesting essay on how this year, it became en vogue to once again blame victims of sex crimes for their own misfortunes. I find it amazing that some of the same people who don't think a woman should decide what to do with her own uterus or ovaries also seem to think those same women (and girls, for Christ's sake - YOUNG GIRLS!) have the power to regulate men's behavior.
Amazing news today. Not in the good way, mind. But amazing.
(Lest you think I ever exaggerate how little things can lead to bigger, more dangerous things, allow me to summarize a situation from my 20s, in which I reported extensively on the far-too-early release of a convicted rapist from prison. During the trial the man threatened to "get" his victim as well as other women who testified for her, including one who had knowledge of the rape and helped get the man arrested. I was nowhere around for this trial; I only came in years later and wrote articles about it and never met the man. Yet, once he was released, I started getting mysterious phone calls harassing me for merely doing this part of my job. I couldn't sleep well for almost two years and started keeping weapons at my bedside - a habit I keep to this day.)
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Date: 2012-12-29 03:34 am (UTC)Anyway, the enquiry into this hideous mess has concluded that he abused literally hundreds of kids. But he's dead and can't be touched. Now allegations are surfacing against other entertainers from the time and are revealing a scary world where apparently no-one was bothered by small matters like consent and whether the (usually) girl in question was old enough to give it.
The most sickening thing I've read is some older women making excuses for the milder allegations involving adult women, saying they themselves were used to sexual harassment back then and just laughed it off.
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Date: 2012-12-29 03:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-29 04:11 am (UTC)http://mediamatters.org/blog/2011/11/11/foxs-andrea-tantaros-takes-victim-blaming-to-a/147787
http://youtu.be/2VoL_UJ_QG8
There was an anti-Obama ad before the election that implied that having a gun was the only way women could walk around alone...
One of my Indian Twitters was calling for the death penalty for rapes...certainly, in this case, they did commit murder. I don't believe in the death penalty but they do deserve life imprisonment or something extremely severe to dissuade others.
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Date: 2012-12-29 06:49 am (UTC)