Violence Against Women: Audrie Pott

Audrie Pott

On September 12, 2012, 15 year old student at Saratoga High School in California, Audrie Pott took her own life as a result of bullying happening from a picture of her circulating throughout her school. The content of the picture is the alleged sexual assault of Audrie, supposedly by a friend she had known since middle school. She had gone to a party with friends where she got drunk and passed out. While she was unconscious, her “friend” had sex with her. Pictures of the event were taken and posted on social media the next day (Sound familiar? Steubenville. Parsons). As a result of the pictures, Audrie reported that she was being bullied because of it. As a result of the sexual assault and the subsequent bullying against her, Audrie took her own life. Before she died, she posted a message on her Facebook wall stating “My life is ruined. I can’t do anything to fix it. I just want this to go away. My life is over. The people I thought I could trust f-ed me over and then tried to lie to cover it up. I have a reputation for a night I don’t even remember and the whole school knows.” Pott’s Facebook messages also revealed she did not know why she had woken up with her pants off, and believed the boys had sent the photo of her assault to the entire school.

Vigil for Audrie Pott

This month, three young men have been arrested on suspicion of sexual assault against Audrie Pott. According police reports, to boys also wrote humiliating messages all over Pott’s body because they thought it was funny. This is another sign of the rape culture we live in. One where in which young men think it is okay to sexually assault and rape a young woman and then deface her body by writing over it? These young men clearly have no respect for this young woman. The boys will face a juvenile court on charges of misdemeanor sexual battery, felony distribution of child pornography and felony forcible sexual penetration. Pott’s parents also plan to sue them in a wrongful death lawsuit.

Violence Against Women: Steubenville Rape Case

Official seal of Steubenville, Ohio (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In honor of April being Sexual Assault Awareness Month, we are going to bring awareness to some cases concerning violence against women that have recently been in the media. We start with the Steubenville Rape Case.

 

In Steubenville, Ohio during December 2012, a young girl was publicly and repeatedly sexually violated by several high school football players. Though the young girl was passed out, the young men dragged her from room to room as well as from party to party while continuing to sexually violate and digitally rape her. As if that wasn’t enough, the young men then proceeded to post photos and videos of these horrendous actions to Facebook. Throughout a roughly six hour period, this young woman was repeatedly victimized. She was unconscious, undressed and taken to a separate party where she was photographed nude and semi-nude, assaulted in the car, and forced into the basement where one of the young men tried to force her to give him oral sex.

Just a few days ago on March 17, 2013, both of these young men were found guilty of raping the young woman digitally. The judge ruled that it would have been impossible for the young girl to have given consent considering she was unconscious at the time. The pictures that the young men posted to social media proved this. Also, the young woman said she remembered very little of the time that she was unconscious, other than throwing up on the side of the street. She said she woke up the next day in the basement with the two young men, missing her underwear as well as other clothing items. The judge set the minimum sentence of one year for one young man who was found guilty of using his fingers to penetrate the girl while she was unconscious. The other young man, who was found guilty of penetrating the girl while she was unconscious and disseminating pornographic pictures of her, was given the minimum sentence of two years.

Justice was served in this case. Both young men were punished for the acts of violence they committed against this young woman. However, this doesn’t address the bigger problem at large, the rape culture of our society. Maya at Feministing.com highlights the fact that throughout this case, the victim is barely mentioned while the media discuss the effects of a guilty verdict on the promising lives of the defendants. The media focus on how the defendants lives have already been ruined and this will haunt them for the rest of their lives. What about the victim? What about her promising life that is now ruined? Will she not be haunted for the rest of HER life by the actions of these young men? The young men involved tried to downplay the case, tried to get the victim to lie about what happened to her and also recruited a school coach to help develop a coverup.

As noted by Maya, it’s hard to reconcile the fact that a boy describes a girl as “like a dead body” yet still claims that the acts were consensual. It’s hard to reconcile a lot of the facts about the case. The fact that any young man would think that this is an acceptable thing to do to anybody is a sobering fact about the society we live in. One in which blames the victim and excuses the action of the rapist. Maya also highlights the fact that we live in a society where kids take pictures and videos of these actions instead of taking a stand and stopping it.

According to Valenti, there is a widespread cultural message here that cannot be clearer. Men’s sexual urges are uncontrollable  and therefore anything that happens is not their responsibility. This view allows our culture to put the blame for men’s bad and criminal behavior on women’s shoulders.  However, as highlighted by Valenti, making women responsible for men’s sexuality isn’t just about excusing rape and sexual harassment. It is a cultural rule that enforces the idea that this is a man’s world and women just live in it. Valenti suggests that there is a lot of work to be done to dismantle current rape culture, but a simple first step is to stop focusing on making the world more comfortable for men, and instead making it SAFER for women.

Sexual Assault Awareness Month

Welcome to April – Sexual Assault Awareness Month!

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month

According to information provided on the Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM) website, the goal of SAAM is to raise public awareness about sexual violence and to educate communities and individuals on how to prevent sexual violence.

A teal ribbon, which is an awareness ribbon for Sexual assault (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The 2013 Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM) campaign national slogan is: “It’s time … to talk about it. Talk early, talk often. Prevent sexual violence.”  The 2013 SAAM campaign  focuses on healthy sexuality and child sexual abuse prevention. This April, join the conversation. Start talking about healthy childhood development to prevent child sexual abuse. This campaign provides tools and information on healthy childhood sexual development for adults to use in approaching our responsibility to protect children. Learning about healthy childhood sexual development helps adults promote positive characteristics, skills and behaviors. These tools support parents, communities and organizations in identifying risk factors, supporting healthy boundaries and challenging negative messages.

In 2003, based upon feedback from the field, the NSVRC instituted a National Day to End Sexual Violence to focus attention across the country on one specific day in April. In 2008, NSVRC decided to change the name to “SAAM Day of Action.”

On Tuesday, April 2, 2013, all individuals are encouraged to participate in an awareness-raising activity in their community.

If you would like further information, please contact the National Sexual Violence Resource Center. You can reach them at 877-739-3895 or by e-mail at resources@nsvrc.org.

Violence Against Women: Blaming the Victim

The Skirt is NO EXCUSE for Rape

This is what I was wearing. Tell me I asked for it. I DARE YOU.

As described by feminist scholar, Jessica Valenti, we live in a “rape culture” that essentially accepts and almost welcomes rapes against women. Our society has placed a requirement on women that takes away their right to move freely throughout the world without punishment. When a woman is victimized, the perpetrator generally has an argument placing fault on the victim, and blaming the victim for the violence that has happened to them. Valenti highlights several arguments used to blame the victim.

• One of these arguments introduced by Valenti includes the idea that if a woman is wearing something slutty, like a skirt, then that woman is asking to be raped. Because women would ask to be victims of sexual abuse? Women should be able to wear what they want without having to be in fear of rape.
• Another argument introduced by Valenti used to blame the victim for sexual crimes against them includes the idea that if a woman is really drunk and inebriated, they should have seen it coming. Of course women need to be aware of how alcohol and drugs can affect them and try to be as safe as possible. However, the focus here really needs to be on the perpetrator, not the women.
• According to Valenti, if you don’t fit into the good girl standard, or if people can at least convince others that you don’t, then the odds are against you. In a California legal case highlighted by Valenti, the defense team called the victim of the rape “trash” and a “slut who wanted to make a porn tape.” However, Valenti highlights the fact that this young girl was unconscious at the time the rape occurred.
• Ultimately, the arguments are saying that women should know better. Women should know better than to wear a skirt. Women should know better than to get drunk at a party. Women should know better than to walk home alone. This breeds a culture where the idea of rape happening to a woman is essentially inevitable.

Don’t tell us how to dress. Tell them NOT 2 RAPE

Women are supposed to be sexually pure, not active. These representations  of the sexualized female body being an object of desire are supposedly bad women. This can produce the image that all women are only sexual objects, unlike men who are sexual subjects. Whereas subjects act based on intellectual reasoning and individual  moral and ethical understanding, objects do not. There has been a long history of identifying  the female body as a sexual object,  as a way of redefining  the subject, the reasonable,  rational man in opposition to the other, the object, the sexualized, irrational, emotional woman. Men are subjects while women are the objects or the other.

Valenti suggests that there is NOTHING that you can do that warrants being raped by someone else. It doesn’t matter if you are drunk, naked, passed out or a prostitute, there is nothing that warrants the act of rape. In an article with thenation.com, Jessica Valenti discusses the concept of victim blaming. She highlights the fact that Americans bend over backwards to make excuses for male violence. According to Valenti, this refusal to place responsibility with the perpetrator means we need to place it somewhere else—most often, with the victim. “And while victim-blaming is nothing new, its pervasiveness serves as a stark reminder of women’s second class status—where we’re not actual people, just catalysts for men’s actions.”

Violence Against Women: Rape Culture

What exactly does “rape culture” mean? According to Jessica Valenti, is a term that can be used to describe the culture that we are currently living in that breeds guys who think rape is not only accepted, but also a reasonable and even cool behavior. Though rape is illegal, Valenti suggests that social and political conditions implicitly allow for rape to happen. What Valenti means by this is that perpetrators of rape are allowed to get away with their crimes. Also, many times, the victims of the rapes are accused and blamed for the rape. Unfortunately, in this type of society, it is up to the women to protect themselves from rape. Having to live on the previously mentioned ‘rape schedule’ and also take extra precautions in every way necessary, including taking self defense classes, carrying around pepper spray and walking briskly through parking lots. All in an effort to keep themselves safe. As Valenti noted, we should be able to walk the streets without fearing violence.

As can be see from the attached flyer , rape is all too common. Valenti also highlights the daunting statistic that at least 1 in 5 US women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape. This flyer also brings attention to some scary facts about rape. Rape cases are extremely underreported, as it is estimated that less than half of all rapes are actually reported. If the rapes aren’t being reported, then the rapists aren’t being sent to jail. According to the flyer, it is estimated that only 3% of rapists spend even a day in jail. An extremely frightening trend in rapes is that people think rape victims are making it all up. This can be attributed to the cause of the underreporting of the crimes as well. If the victim is going to have to try to get people to believe her, but they won’t, that is like being victimized all over again. While only 2-8% of rape charges may be false, some people have a false idea that up to 50% of rape reports are fabricated.

Violence Against Women: Harassment

Harassment against women happens everyday in many different ways. Women are subjected to cat calls while walking down the street and sexual harassment in the workplace among others. Feminist scholar, Jessica Valenti, highlights a new type of harassment that women are facing, especially blogging women. As well as the everyday harassment that women faced mentioned above, women are also subjected to an increased prevalence of extreme instances of stalking, death threats and hate speech while using the internet for various reasons. Valenti suggests that on some online forums, the mixture of anonymity and misogyny can make for a gang-rape mentality among the harassers against the women.

Jessica Valenti (in grey sweater)

Valenti had her own run-in with hate bloggers after being invited to attend a lunch meeting with Bill Clinton. As the event was coming to a close, the bloggers took a picture with Clinton which rapidly circulated through the internet. The abusive comments and harassment of Valenti followed just as rapidly. She was criticized for the way she was standing, likened to being an intern, a la Clinton’s famous sex scandal – it was suggested she add a green beret and a blue dress to complete the look, the way her body looked, her perceived whorishness, and how she couldn’t possibly be a feminist because she showed up to an event with her breasts hanging out. Please keep in mind that Valenti was not flaunting anything, but rather the opposite in that she was wearing a Gap crew-neck sweater.  Valenti says that this experience of “boobgate” has been, without a doubt, the most humiliating of her life. Hundreds of blogs and websites linked to the controversy about her and it was all over the internet. All of this caused because of a decision to merely take a picture with a political figure.

Valenti highlights the fact that once again, women are being blamed for the harassment they are facing. Another case of blaming the victim can be seen in the response of the female blogger who attacked Valenti on her own blog. She argued that Valenti asked for it with the way she was posing and that this is expected, and even acceptable behavior. Valenti cites a study by the University of Maryland that highlights the fact that when the gender of an online username appears female, they are 25 times more likely to experience harassment, and that female user-names averaged 163 threatening and/or sexually explicit messages a day. Unfortunately the promises of an early utopian internet society have been overlapped with the reality of the current internet, one in which the default user is a white-male. Sounds eerily familiar.

Violence Against Women: Rape

English: Profile picture of author Jessica Valenti (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In her book Full Frontal Feminism, Jessica Valenti stresses information relating to rapes against women. According to statistics highlighted by Valenti, a guy who you may think is otherwise a normal guy, may turn out to be a perpetrator of rape because if you happen to be a victim of rape, it is likely to be by someone that you know. According to the 2004 National Crime Victimization Survey, over 2/3 of rape were committed by someone that the victim knew. As Valenti highlights, what is even scarier is that young males in our generation have been brought up to think that they have open access to women’s bodies and sexuality because everything in American culture tells men that women are there for them. Valenti says that this type of attitude breeds a culture where rape is expected and practically obeyed.

Only Yes Means Yes Campaign (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As a matter of fact, Valenti suggests the idea that women live on a rape schedule and that their lives revolve around  preventing rape and sexual crimes against them. Valenti highlights just a few of the routines women must go through to keep themselves safe. These routines include: only going out at certain times at night, avoiding certain areas of the city, always walking around with keys in hand, locking doors immediately after entering the room, etc. Valenti likens these routines to living in a prison and says that women cannot assume they are safe anywhere. The same survey mentioned above states that every two and half minutes, someone is sexually assaulted in the US and that at least 1 in 6 women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape. A scary trend is underreporting in rape cases, especially in the most victimized group, young women. Another common and also scary trend is the fact that many young women don’t even realize that they have been raped. Often thinking they “deserved it”  or they “owe” the guy for buying them something. According to Valenti, women excusing this behavior is because of women buying into the “whole guys-deserve-access-to-women” thing, which our culture has taught them from early on.

Violence Against Women: Three Components

There are three components to the overall problem of violence against women. These three different aspects really have nothing to do with sexuality, but are rooted in issues of power and control. These three components include:

1. Rape and sexual assault 

According to the Department of Justice, “sexual assault is any type of sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient. Falling under the definition of sexual assault are sexual activities as forced sexual intercourse, forcible sodomy, child molestation, incest, fondling, and attempted rape.” In addition to this definition for sexual assault, penetration without consent is rape. Feminist scholar, Jessica Valenti explains that the definition of rape varies from state to state, but the generally accepted definition is forced intercourse, whether vaginal, anal or oral. Force  being physical or psychological coersion. In addition, according to Valenti, men can also be raped and it is not always heterosexual.

2. Physical and emotional abuse in intimate relationships 

Physical and emotional abuse in intimate relationships is also known as Intimate Partner Abuse (IPA) or Intimate Partner Violence (IPV). According to the Department of Justice, “we define domestic violence as a pattern of abusive behavior in any relationship that is used by one partner to gain or maintain power and control over another intimate partner.  Domestic violence can be physical, sexual, emotional, economic, or psychological actions or threats of actions that influence another person. This includes any behaviors that intimidate, manipulate, humiliate, isolate, frighten, terrorize, coerce, threaten, blame, hurt, injure, or wound someone..” According to Valenti, physical, sexual, emotional, economic and psychological abuse are all considered IPA.

3. Physical and emotional public harassment 
According to Valenti, almost every female has a favorite street harassment story. A favorite? There is something wrong with this picture and it is a result of our culture socializing men that women exist solely for them and their desires. Harassment is not limited to only the streets, but also places of employment and other public places. Though workplace harassment based on sex is illegal, it still happens. Public harassment of women takes place in many forms. As Valenti mentioned, most women have a ‘favorite’ story. The most common way of understanding harassment as a form of abuse is to think about a woman walking down the street and the amount of strange men, that do not know her, make sexual remarks about the woman, or about performing sexual activities with her.