December 2009

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Dec. 8th, 2009

we are not okay

From [personal profile] sugared, here: It appears there are a number of men who are willing to admit to rape provided you don't describe it using the word "rape".

Oh, and I strongly advise against reading the comments. They are largely filled with male commenters continuing to effectively defend certain forms of rape by calling them "gray areas". So.


13-Year-Old Girl Commits Suicide After Classmates Spread Nude Photos

Trigger Warning for discussions of suicide, descriptions of non-consensual sexual conduct, victim-blaming and slut-shaming

As Veronica Arreola said on her Twitter, while the media insists on calling this a "sexting-related suicide," it’s much more accurately referred to as a "slut-shaming suicide." Because the photograph she sent is not what drove this poor girl to kill herself--the non-consensual spreading of the photograph, and the subsequent reaction that her classmates and all adults in positions of authority had to it seems to absolutely have been what drove her to despair. And that is a truly vital distinction to make if we actually care about the fact that a 13-year-old girl is dead, and why.

[...]

And while everyone sure as hell seems to be worried about What! We’re! Teaching! Our! Girls! that they send the photographs, no one seems to be saying a goddamn peep about what we’re teaching our boys when they think that non-consensual sexual conduct is okay. Yet again, apparently consensual female sexuality is seen as a bigger threat to society--and to girls themselves--than non-consensual male sexual behavior perpetrated against them.

[...] And while the article rightfully goes on at length about the certainly awful way that the school dealt with their knowledge that Hope was self-harming and in danger, there is no mention of how the school’s actions also contributed to her being in danger in the first place. The fact is that they punished her--they told her over and over again that she was being called a slut and a whore because of her own actions, that being a "slut" or "whore" are very, very bad things that deserve punishment and bring reason for shame, that sluts and whores deserve to be taken out of school and to be used as an example of what happens when girls display any form of sexuality (with their consent or not), and that sluts and whores cannot be trusted to advise other students, because apparently they have no moral compasses. And the fact is that they apparently failed to punish the other slut-shamers, sexual harassers, bullies, and sexual perpetrators for whom they were responsible.

Hope Witsell made the decision to end her own life. A whole lot of other people seemingly decided that keeping women in their place was a lot more important than protecting a 13-year-old girl, and than stamping out sexual misconduct. A whole society backed that second decision up.


To quote [personal profile] la_vie_noire, whom I got this from: 13 year old girl. Who still is slut shamed even after she is dead. Slut shamed by adults. 13 year old.


Who is taking care of these girls? Who is there for them? I'm sick and horrified and reeling, and I wish I could scream from the rooftops how fucking wrong this is. Not to mention how her parents reacted to it--not helping her or being there for her but punishing her--and how her 'friends'--and trust me, I say that with the deepest contempt, disgust and loathing--reacted to it, telling her it was her fault. She was all alone. Someone was there for me, even impersonally and over the internet, when I began to actually deal with and look at these issues. I wish so badly I or anyone could have been there for her. Could have told her, 'you are not to blame. They are fucking monsters.'

This entry was originally posted at http://shiegra.dreamwidth.org/75146.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

Oct. 27th, 2009

A fifteen year old girl was sent to the hospital in critical condition after being gang-raped for two and a half hours. Fifteen people stood around, watched, and did nothing. Some joined in. She was only found--her life was only saved--because someone heard people bragging about it.

"As people announced over time that this was going on, more people came to see, and some actually participated," Gagan said.....The victim was found unconscious and "brutally assaulted" under a bench shortly before midnight Saturday, after police received a call from someone in the area who had overheard people at the assault scene "reminiscing about the incident."

...."This just gets worse and worse the more you dig into it," Gagan said. "It was like a horror movie after looking at the evidence. I can't believe not one person felt compelled to help her."


I don't have any commentary for this. I'm just full of pure hatred; rage and terror and concern.

This entry was originally posted at http://shiegra.dreamwidth.org/52439.html. Please comment there using OpenID.