Rabble

“ [TW]

Rape happens. Rape happens a lot. If you know six women, you probably know someone who has been raped. We live in a culture that doesn’t tell men not to rape; it tells women not to get raped. If they do get raped, they are taught by our society, through the images and words our society produces, that it was their fault. Meanwhile, the same images and words encourage rapists to do what they do.

So, what’s the solution? Being educated is a good place to start. Acknowledge and appreciate just how many women are raped or face the risk of rape daily. Read at least some of this post about the actual, tangible effects of rape culture instead of brushing it off as this vague, abstract notion. Consciously note the many depictions of a woman’s sexuality as clearly directed by males for males, and how often this plays into a rhetoric of victim blaming is also a good idea. Don’t stay out of the argument by just flicking it off with a “well it’s okay to like it and it’s okay not to like it” bullshit kind of comment. No. It is not okay to like this. It simply isn’t. It shouldn’t be up to a few brave women to stick their necks out on male-safe websites at the whim of the commenting hive-mind to tell us what the problem is with our rape culture, putting their own online safety at risk. Rape shouldn’t be a women’s issue, it should be a men’s issue because we are the ones that keep fucking doing it and keep perpetuating the culture. It’s about time we took responsibility for that ourselves.

And, gentlemen, that really kind of angry defensive feeling you got in your gut while you read this post where you felt attacked? That was your privilege kicking. Every time you think something is sexist towards men, there is a pretty good chance the playing field is just being leveled out

— Brendan, “Quit Pretending There Isn’t A Video Game Rape Culture” (via theamburglar)

(Source: cnet.com.au)

Notre Dame's Reaction To The Te'o Hoax Vs. Its Reaction To Sexual Assault Allegations

TW: Discussion of Rape

Notre Dame’s response to Seeberg’s accusation:

Police waited 13 days to interview the accused perp (that’s three days afterSeeberg died), who was eventually found “not responsible” for misbehavior by a disciplinary board.

The university president refused to meet with her parents, claiming it would undermine his impartiality in the event he had to make a decision related to the case.

Coach Brian Kellymade light ofthe number ofChicago Tribunereporters asking him about the case.

A university official and a trusteeallegedlyspread rumors that Seeberg was a liar who was in fact sexually aggressive toward the player she accused on the night in question.

Notre Dame’s response to Te’o’s allegation that he’d been falsely led to believe he had a girlfriend on the Internet:

The athletic department hired private investigators to look into the matter.

The school held a press conference the night the news broke at which it denied that its player was complicit in the hoax.

The school held a press conference at which its athletic director called the situation “a really frightening experience” and “an incredible tragedy.”

The school held a press conference at which its athletic director called the situation “an incredible tragedy” and began crying.

Read More

I just want to say that this is pretty much the epitome of showing how seriously we take rape in this country.

A dude who pretty much made up a girlfriend (there is NO WAY he wasn’t in on this hoax, how are you gonna talk to newspapers about being on the phone with someone for 8 fucking hours who never fucking existed?) is more important and worthy of our sympathy than the rape victims of his teammates.

Love,

Rabble

Sexual Assault In Steubenville: A Comprehensive Summary

stfusexists:

I’ve gotten a lot of submissions about different aspects of the gang rape in Steubenville, OH that has become a viral news story. So I thought I would make a master post about what has happened, the rape culture behind it, and how the case has evolved. This is a summary of violent and disgusting behavior, so please be aware before you continue reading.

WHAT HAPPENED: On August 11th, 2012, a party was thrown by Steubenville teenagers, including several members of the beloved high school football team. One of the attendees, a sixteen-year old girl, became heavily intoxicated and passed out. Instead of helping this girl - either by getting her home to a responsible adult, getting her medical attention, or keeping an eye on her vitals - her peers carried her into a bedroom by her hands and feet and raped her. Eventually, it came out that this was not an isolated incident; this girl was talked into going to the parties by a perp’s girlfriend, targeted, drugged, and raped at multiple parties throughout the summer.

The victim was not aware that anything had happened until the day after the August 11th attack, when she saw tweets about and pictures of the incident, and went to her father about it. What happened from there is still being pieced together.

THE COVERUP: It seems that the perps are members of the Big Red High School football team, and high school football is a big deal in Steubenville. At least one of the parties in question is thought to have been held at an assistant coach’s house. Not only is it wholly inappropriate for an adult employed by the school to be hosting students in their house, it is even more inappropriate to allow them to drink underage and assault their peers.

Football is such a huge part of Steubenville that the prosecutor and multiple judges have recused themselves because they personally knew the perpetrators. The case is now being handled by the Ohio state attorney.

After the rape was reported, law enforcement pleas for witnesses to come forward were met with silence. The Tweets, photos, and videos that originally alerted the victim to the events of the previous night were deleted - or so the perps thought.

ANONYMOUS GETS INVOLVED: The Steubenville story was picked up by crime blogger and former Steubenville resident Alex Goddard before it made it to major media outlets. She catalogued the aforementioned Tweets, videos, and photos, which are now being used by police.

Meanwhile, two football players have been charged, while multiple others are suspected and have not been benched. Apparently, the football fans in the town are more invested in the players’ rights than siding with the girl who was drugged and assaulted so horrifically.

The famed hacker group Anonymous did not find this satisfactory. The group hacked into the prosecutor’s office, and published photos, videos, and accounts of the assault that have since been spread across major news networks. It’s unclear how this will impact the trial.

RAPE CULTURE REARS ITS UGLY HEAD: Of course, people are already victim blaming the unconscious minor who was brutally raped by her peers. Just the other day, some douchebag on Twitter described the situation to me as, “rape is bad but that girl showed up for it every week like it was her job in tell her dad found out then there was a problem.” What should be a story about the importance of encouraging teenage witnesses of crime to intervene and come forward, as well as a discussion about the entitlement complexes that led these football players to carefully orchestrate multiple horrific sexual assaults has become for some another excuse to shame a teenager whose greatest crime was giving in to peer pressure and attending parties. I don’t know a single person who hasn’t caved to peer pressure at one time or another, and the punishment for it certainly isn’t rape.

Regardless of what you think of underage drinking or partying, it’s clear that this was a deliberately premeditated crime. It’s also clear that this girl at no time consented, and could not legally consent as she was unconscious. It also bears reminding that the photos and videos taken are child pornography - another felony.

THE LESSON: This is a tragedy that will likely affect this young woman for the rest of her life. Hopefully the perpetrators will all be held accountable for their atrocious actions, and the adults who allowed it to happen will be punished as well. At the very least, they have no business working with children ever again.

But a particularly striking thing about this situation is the fact that the teenagers who witnessed at least some of the events, as well as the videos, photos, and Tweets did nothing. They didn’t tell a teacher, a parent, or a law enforcement officer. They didn’t intervene to try and stop it. They didn’t even say anything to the girl who was assaulted, except apparently through online taunts.

So let this be the message to all teens: if you see something, say something. Drunk, drugged, and/or otherwise incapacitated people CANNOT give consent. Look out for each other, come forward about disturbing things that you see. Err on the side of caution - don’t exacerbate a horrible crime by blaming the victim.

MORE LINKS: For more information, check out these stories about the rape and ongoing investigation:

Local Leaks Tipsters Allege Steubenville Victim Was Drugged
Steubenville High School Students Joke About Rape In Video Leaked By Anonymous
Rape Case Unfolds on Web and Splits City
Rape charges against high school students divide football town of Steubenville, OH

[TW: Rape] In 'rape capital' Delhi, women turn to self-defence

sinidentidades:

After nearly three weeks of lurid reporting on a horrifying gang-rape in New Delhi, women in the Indian capital say they are more anxious than ever, leading to a surge in interest in self-defence classes.

New Delhi has long been known as the “rape capital of India”, with more than twice as many cases in 2011 as the commercial hub Mumbai, and special care is taken by most women when travelling at night or on public transport.

But the December 16 gang-rape, in which a 23-year-old student was repeatedly violated on a moving bus and assaulted with an iron bar, has brought concern to new levels amid increased focus on the city’s safety record.

Self-defence trainer Anuj Sharma says he has fielded a flurry of calls from concerned women interested in taking classes with his Invictus Survival Sciences training institute in south Delhi.

“There has been a certain surge in the level of demand for services like self-defence and personal protective training,” Sharma told AFP at a class in a school hall, echoing comments from other martial arts experts in the city.

“I think this infamous case has forced people to think that they can no longer put this (safety issue) on the backburner, self-defence is a priority for them,” he said.

Smriti Iyer, a 23-year-old student like the Delhi victim, says she started coming to Sharma’s classes to protect herself better and her example has sparked interest in other friends.

In the classes, Sharma teaches her basic self-defence, including how to squirm free from the grip of an attacker and disable them with a punch or kick to the groin.

“I think women have always known that they have to look after themselves, but after this incident a lot of people of my age have really started taking this up,” said Iyer.

Across the sprawling city of 16 million, shopkeepers say sales of pepper spray and rape alarms are up, while many young women report that relatives have become more concerned than ever about their welfare.

One newspaper reported this week that women had started coming forward to apply for gun licences.

Women Strip and Beat Indian Congressman Accused of Rape

treesandair:

“Congressman Bikram Singh Brahma was attacked by a mob of women in northeastern India before being taken into police custody after he allegedly raped a woman in her home.

Women in northeastern India took the law into their own hands Thursday, attacking a politician accused of raping a woman in her home. Congressman Bikram Singh Brahma allegedly assaulted a married woman while staying at her family’s home in Santipur, Assam. When villagers learned of the rape accusation, a mob of women surrounded the politician and attacked, stripping him of clothing and slapping him. A local television station captured footage of the assault.

The mob was in the process of lynching the congressman when police arrived on the scene and arrested him, according to the Indian Express.”

This story is directly from buzzfeed. More information regarding it can be found by clicking “Indian Express” above.

[TW: Rape] Delhi gang-rape victim's boyfriend speaks out

sinidentidades:

The boyfriend of a young Indian student whose gang-rape and murder sparked nationwide fury recounted Friday the savagery inflicted on her and his own trauma over his failed efforts to fend off the rapists before “begging them again and again”.

The 28-year-old man, who suffered a fractured leg and other injuries in the December 16 attack, is currently at his parents’ home in rural northern India where he is taking time out from his job at a software firm in New Delhi.

“What can I say? The cruelty I saw should not be seen ever. I tried to fight against the men but later I begged them again and again to leave her,” he told AFP in an interview by phone from Gorakhpur, a town in Uttar Pradesh state.

The couple had been out to watch a movie that night and decided to get into a private bus when several rickshaws had refused to drive them back to the victim’s home in a New Delhi suburb.

Once in the bus, he was attacked and his 23-year-old girlfriend was gang-raped by six allegedly drunk men, including the driver, who also violated her with an iron bar causing immense internal damage that would lead to her death last weekend.

The horrifying crime has appalled India and brought simmering anger about widespread crime against women to the boil amid angry calls for better protection by police and changed social attitudes.

The boyfriend, who asked not to be named, also recounted how passersby had failed to come to their rescue after they were thrown out of the moving vehicle at the end of their nearly hour-long ordeal.

He was critical of police for failing to be sensitive to his and his girlfriend’s mental condition and also raised questions about the emergency care given in the public hospital where she was admitted.

“A passerby found us (after the attack), but he did not even give my friend his jacket. We waited for the police to come and save us,” he told AFP.

Later Friday, he appeared for the first time in public since the attack, giving an anguished interview to Hindi-language Indian cable channel Zee News.

The police have arrested six suspects for the crime — five men and a minor believed to be aged 17 — who were charged with murder, rape and kidnapping in a city court on Thursday.

fuckyeahsexeducation:

TW: victim blaming, rape, sex shaming

Because a lot of people have been talking about this lately here is your quarterly reminder to not shame people for being sexually active or being sexual people and to not call women “sluts” or any other related word unless they are reclaiming the word for themselves and you use it in a positive way that they gave their explicit permission for you to do.

If you are angry at someone and dislike them instead of going straight to calling them “sluts”, “hos”, “bitches” or any other word think about why you dislike them and then call them out on that. Did they cheat on your best friend? Just tell people that they cheated on your best friend! Do they not know how to have safer sex? Just tell people they don’t know how to have safer sex!

If you find that whatever the reason you dislike them is something that people call you out on “They got raped”, “They have an STI”, “They sleep with lots of people”, “They have one night stands”, “They have had an abortion” well then maybe you shouldn’t be calling people sluts.

Here’s the thing

This is a novel idea for some

HAVING SEX IS OKAY

Having a lot of sex is okay

Dealing with the repercussions of sex is okay (getting an STI, getting pregnant, dealing with a relationship or breakup)

Someone can get pregnant or get an STI the first time they have sex. It could be after being in a long lasting relationship, it could be after they’ve been married, they may have been born with an STI, or they may have been raped and sexually abused. It’s a slippery slope. Even if someone has tons of sex and never uses protection and has millions of STIs and abortions or adopts off all the babies or whatever you can’t judge them because you’re also going to be judging all the other people in similar situations. And chances are that person had next to no sex education and didn’t know any better and maybe had other problems going on as well.

The thing is we are human. Don’t judge someone for the amount of sex they have. Sex is fun. There are ways to have sex responsibly and chances are the people that don’t just had horrible sex education. How about we work towards making sure everyone has great sex education so that they can make informed decisions instead of making sex a shameful thing that usually just makes people hate themselves and have unsafe sex anyway while feeling incredibly guilty about it and making everything a million times worse.

People don’t get STI treatments or tests because they are ashamed

People don’t tell their partners they’ve had STI treatments because they are ashamed

People don’t get help for sexual abuse because they are ashamed

People stay in abusive relationships because they are ashamed

People don’t take care of themselves because they are ashamed

People hurt themselves because they are ashamed

People are forced into marriages or being parents or getting abortions when they don’t want to because they are ashamed

People think it’s okay for them to feel like crap because they deserve it because YOU shame them

So before you shame that person for having sex or taking pictures of themselves naked (or even people who never have had sex or never want sex) take a moment to think about what affect you’re having on the world.

Stop the cycle that makes people ashamed of their bodies and their urges (or lack thereof) and help people feel empowered enough to realize they deserve to have their needs taken care of and they deserve to do it in the safest way possible and they deserve to get treatment if something does happen and they deserve love and great sex AND a great life after.

“ Those of us who’ve experienced abuse, rape and other violations don’t keep it quiet because we’re ashamed. Or because it’s intensely personal. The main reason we keep it quiet is because we know how you’ll treat us if we tell you. We know you have a culturally-granted privilege to remain ignorant. To not know, and therefore not to be responsible. Not to bother. Not to think about it.

— Non-survivor privilege and silence (The whole article is well worth reading, seriously.)

(Source: darziel)

“ In 2011 alone, 3,192 sexual assaults were reported in the military. That number only includes reported sexual assaults; the Department of Defense believes that the number of actual assaults is much higher, around 19,000. Furthermore, it was found that service members who receive a sexual assault waiver to join the military are more likely to commit sexual assault. It is surprising that someone felt the need to conduct an investigation to figure that out, but it is even more surprising that sexual assault waivers were issued in the first place. Rape in the military is not some sort of new phenomenon, and victims have been trying to speak out for years. The Boxer Amendment may be able to make serving in the military a bit safer, especially for women, but will it help combat the pervasive rape culture present in the military?

— Senate Passes Boxer Amendment to Prevent Felony Sex Offender from Joining Military (via stfusexists)

Denver Police Refuse to Test 44% of Rape Kits

jonathan-cunningham:

Trigger Warning for Rape

Colorado police departments are collecting hundreds of rape kits, but a CALL7 Investigation found many of those are not tested. And experts and victims tell us that is a problem because those kits may allow police to identify serial rapists by putting any DNA into a national database.

Kelly Binder says she was drugged and raped two years ago by a man she met at a bar in downtown Denver. She is upset police didn’t test her rape kit because she is concerned her attacker could still be raping other people.

“He physically restrained me,” Binder said. “And while he was raping me, I said ‘No. I don’t know you. I don’t want to do this.’”

Within hours of the assault, Binder contacted the Denver Police Department. The officer recommended she go to the hospital for a rape kit.

“You’re lying on this white sheet under these bright lights. Every intimate part, they’re taking photographs, and pulling hair out of your head,” Binder said.

She says the four-hour process felt like a second assault.

“The experience was just a nightmare,” she said.

Her rape kit was given to police. But just a few weeks later, Binder says the DPD detective assigned to her case told her it would be too hard to prove that she didn’t give consent. She says the detective told her that her rape kit would not be tested to see if her attacker had raped anyone else.

“I was raped. This man raped me. And they did nothing, they did nothing at all,” Binder said.

The CALL7 Investigators found hundreds of others rape kits remain on the shelf, untested. Since 2008, DPD has received 1,064 rape kits, but 44 percent of those kits have never been tested.

This is unacceptable and frankly disgusting. How can DPD let these assaults go without proper documentation? They are directly responsible for any recidivism in any of these assailants from here on out.