What explains the virulence of victim-blaming in sexual-assault cases? Perhaps one clue can be found in an often-cited study of male college students. This study found that one in twelve men admitted to having committed acts that met the legal definition of rape. However, 88 percent of men whose actions came under the legal definition of rape were adamant that their behavior did not constitute rape. This could be a result of confusion about what constitutes rape. This confusion is real in an era when the majority of boys and men are “educated” about sex through pornography, where it is normal in “non-violent” videos to see men treating women with incredible brutality and callousness. But the fact that so many men had committed rape also speaks to the reality of how pervasive the problem is—and how many “average” guys have motivation to ignore it.” Jackson Katz, Macho Paradox: Why Some Men Hurt Women and and How All Men Can Help (via wretchedoftheearth)
ugh so heads up to anyone who goes to see This Is The End: it’s pretty much a two-hour rape and violence-against-women joke. Explanation under the cut, massive TW for rape and violence.
christ
I seriously was thinking about seeing this, because people I repsect and like a lot have raved about it. Not only do I now have to SERIOUSLY question their judgement, but now I feel considerably less safe around them…
TW: RAPE
androphilia: Rape of Iraqi Women by US Forces as…
Rape of Iraqi Women by US Forces as Weapon of War: Photos and Data Emerge | Asian Tribune
By Daya Gamage, US National Correspondent Asian Tribune
October 3, 2009
In March 2006 four US soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division gang raped a 14 year old Iraqi girl and murdered her and her family —including a 5 year old child. An additional soldier was involved in the cover-up.
One of the killers, Steven Green, was found guilty on May 07, 2009 in the US District Court of Paducah and is now awaiting sentencing.
The leaked Public Affairs Guidance put the 101st media team into a “passive posture” — withholding information where possible. It conceals presence of both child victims, and describes the rape victim, who had just turned 14, as “a young woman”.
The US Army’s Criminal Investigation Division did not begin its investigation until three and a half months after the crime, news reports at that time commented.
This is not the only grim picture coming out of Iraq U.S. forces being accused of using rape as a war weapon.
The release, by CBS News, of the photographs showing the heinous sexual abuse and torture of Iraqi POW’s at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison opened a Pandora’s Box for the Bush regime wrote Ernesto Cienfuegos in La Voz de Aztlan on May 2, 2004.
Journalist Cienfuegos further states “Apparently, the suspended US commander of the prison where the worst abuses took place, Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, has refused to take the fall by herself and has implicated the CIA, Military Intelligence and private US government contractors in the torturing of POW’s and in the raping of Iraqi women detainees as well.”
Brigadier General Karpinski, who commanded the 800th Military Police Brigade, described a high-pressure Military Intelligence and CIA command that prized successful interrogations. A month before the alleged abuses and rapes occurred, she said, a team of CIA, Military Intelligence officers and private consultants under the employ of the US government came to Abu Ghraib. “Their main and specific mission was to give the interrogators new techniques to get more information from detainees,” she said.
At least one picture shows an American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner while another is said to show a male translator raping a male detainee.
Further photographs are said to depict sexual assaults on prisoners with objects including a truncheon, wire and a phosphorescent tube.
Another apparently shows a female prisoner having her clothing forcibly removed to expose her breasts.
Detail of the content emerged from Major General Antonio Taguba, the former army officer who conducted an inquiry into the Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq.
Allegations of rape and abuse were included in his 2004 report but the fact there were photographs was never revealed. He later confirmed their existence in an interview with the Daily Telegraph in May 2009.
The London newspaper further noted “graphic nature of some of the images may explain the US President Obama’s attempts to block the release of an estimated 2,000 photographs from prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan despite an earlier promise to allow them to be published.”
Maj. Gen. Taguba, who retired in January 2007, said he supported the President’s decision, adding: “These pictures show torture, abuse, rape and every indecency.
“The mere description of these pictures is horrendous enough, take my word for it.”
In April, Mr. Obama’s administration said the photographs would be released and it would be “pointless to appeal” against a court judgment in favor of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
But after lobbying from senior military figures, Mr. Obama changed his mind saying they could put the safety of troops at risk.
In May, he said: “The most direct consequence of releasing them, I believe, would be to inflame anti-American public opinion and to put our troops in greater danger.”
In April 2004, new photographs were sent to La Voz de Aztlan from confidential sources depicting the shocking rapes of two Iraqi women by what are purported to be US Military Intelligence personnel and private US mercenaries in military fatigues. It is now known, Cienfuegos wrote in May 2004, that hundreds of these photographs had been in circulation among the troops in Iraq. The graphic photos were being swapped between the soldiers like baseball cards.
Asian Tribune carries here three of the ‘Rape’ photographs which have brought criticism that the U.S. forces in Iraq have used rape as a weapon of war.
Copyright © 2009 Asian Tribune.
[Related articles:
- Women, Men and Children Are Routinely Tortured and Raped in Iraqi Prisons. The Perpetrators Walk Free | iraqispringmc, November 27, 2012
- Privileges of New Democratic Iraq: Rape & Torture of Innocent Women in Maliki’s Prisons | uruknet.info, February 6, 2013
- For Iraqi women, America’s promise of democracy is anything but liberation | guardian.co.uk, February 25, 2013
- Iraq, 2013: The Horrors Remain the Same — Rape, Executions and Torture Abound | Alternet, March 18, 2013
- Reports surface of rape and torture in Iraq | Women Under Siege Project, March 20, 2013]giant massive trigger warning, not posting the pictures because I know some of my followers are survivors.
holy fuck
[TW: Rape, rape culture] The military's ugly secret: The rape epidemic
“IT IS a wound that doesn’t ever heal. You can make it feel better, but it doesn’t take much to rip the top off it, and there it is again.”
That’s how Lisa Wilken describes the damage inflicted from being raped by a fellow Air Force enlistee 20 years ago. Wilken reported being raped, but military investigators failed to collect evidence, instead focusing on questioning Wilken about her sexual history, forcing her to move out of her basic training dorm, ignoring threats made against her by peers, and ultimately dissuading her from going to trial because her rape wasn’t “violent enough” to lead to jail time for the rapist.
As she explained to reporters for the Indianapolis Star, “The damage that has been done to me hasn’t been by the act of the assault, it has been the treatment that I have received through the process. It basically re-victimizes you.”
Recently, Wilken began organizing and speaking out because she’s seen little change in the two decades since she was doubly victimized. Her story is one among a number of cases of sexual assault within the U.S. military to make headlines over the last month.
A Pentagon report released in May cited a stunning 26,000 incidents of sexual assault among service members in 2012 alone. Mainstream media outlets and politicians suddenly had a lot to say about the problem that Wilken says has “been the military’s dirty little secret for way too long.”
… Meanwhile, the Obama White House joined the chorus opposing the involvement of military prosecutors in determining when and how to take sexual assault claims to trial. President Obama repeated Chuck Hagel’s opposition verbatim, telling reporters assembled at the Pentagon, “The ultimate authority has to remain within the command structure. Taking the ultimate responsibility away from the military would weaken the system.”
And on both sides of the congressional aisle, Democratic and Republican legislators seem to agree that treating sexual assault as a crime with serious legal consequences “weakens” the military’s integrity. Democrat Carl Levin, chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, also opposes Gillibrand’s bill.
… Perhaps the epidemic reflects the priorities of the U.S. government as a whole. After all, Congress spends billions annually on military forces to inflict carnage across the globe, but constantly curtails women’s rights to control our own bodies, and struggles to pass basic measures like the Violence Against Women Act to fund services for sexual and domestic violence survivors.
“This is why a rapist does not have to be physically violent, or state in clear terms that he intends physical violence, for forceful rape to occur. When somebody has illustrated that they are willing and able to step so far outside of the boundaries of human safety, a victim has every reason to expect that there are no boundaries on their behavior. If this person is willing to have sex with somebody who very clearly does not want sex, that person is probably also willing to, or at least capable of, causing physical injury when the lack of consent turns to a physical struggle….
A rapist does not have to use violence. Initiating sex without consent already indicates how little the rapist cares about your consent in the act. How far does that lack of concern extend? Is this the kind of rapist that could continue to enjoy sex when their victim is in obvious physical pain? Could they enjoy causing the pain? Is this the kind of rapist that will happily kill their victim afterwards? A victim has no idea, whether the rapist is a stranger, acquaintance, friend, family member, boyfriend, or husband. Because if a victim could look at a person and know that they were capable of rape, they would not be within physical proximity in the first place. A victim doesn’t know their rapist is capable of rape until a rape begins; and once a victim knows that, they have no idea what else their rapist is capable of. A rapist does not have to threaten further violence. The rape is threat enough.”
http://www.fugitivus.net/2009/01/08/another-post-about-rape/ (via seebster)
This is so true. When I was raped the most terrifying thing was worrying what else he was capable of.
(via feministarmchairregime)
[TW: Rape, rape culture] For once in my life, the majority of the comments on an article concerning rape culture (specifically, this article) restored my faith in the internet.
[TW: sexual assault] Milton High girls track coach arrested on charge of indecent assault on a female student
A Milton High School chemistry teacher and the girls track coach was arrested Friday on charges that he indecently assaulted a young female student, according to Milton police. Dale Snyder, 64, of Abington, was charged with indecent assault and battery on a child over the age of 14 and two counts of assault and battery; he was held on $25,000 bail and will be arraigned in Quincy District Court on Monday morning. In a statement, Milton Superintendent Mary C. Gormley said that the district was first informed of the alleged unlawful conduct on the evening of Monday and that Snyder was immediately placed on paid administrative leave. The district has been cooperating with Milton police, she said.
PAID ADMINISTRATIVE LEAVE.
PAID.
How Can I Show Feminists That I Am Smarter Than Them? (NCITW)
I think this is the best response this guy has given yet. (Don’t worry, the title is regarding what he’s been asked.)
Change.org: Help appeal decision for a retrial of a guilty rape verdict
TW: rape
“I want to take a moment to explain how painful the court system in Puerto Rico made the trial for me the first time around. It was the hardest 2 months of my life. Everyday I was on the stand for hours at a time, and when I was not, I was shut in a 10 ft by 10 ft room with no communication to the outside world. I felt like I was the criminal. I felt like I had done something wrong. I was told by the defense attorney that I was a slut, I was asking for it, I wanted money, I made up the whole story, I was a liar. I was beat down more and more everyday I took that stand, even though the hospital had the DNA evidence. I started going crazy in my own head. I remember one day breaking down so badly when I was asked to stand up and demonstrate to every one in court the exact position I was being held in when I was raped. I collapsed to the floor sobbing in tears after doing so. The defense attorneys response to this was that I needed to do it again because the jury didn’t get a long enough view to understand. Talk about sickening. You know, the worst part was that after this painful trial, I was sent back home another month before the jury had determined the verdict.
I got the call during finals week of the first semester of senior year at WPI. The verdict was in. I was to fly down to Puerto Rico immediately. The head juror handed the judge the verdict. I closed my eyes and felt my body shaking uncontrollably. The judge began reading. The voting was unanimous. All 12 Puerto Rican jurors agreed that he was guilty of rape. Sentencing to be determined at a later date. That was it. My mother was gasping for breath and crying all at the same time. I ran to my prosecutor, jumped on top of her, cried, and thanked her far more times than necessary. The prosecutor was even crying with me. I will forever remember this day as the most successful, powerful, thing I have ever accomplished. But now, this is all being taken away from me. I will have to relive this experience all over again and if I don’t, this man will be set free. I should not have to have another trial to prove him guilty.. again. Please sign my petition and help me fight against this retrial. Help me make sure that this man never causes the pain I experienced to another woman ever again. “
Thank you in advance for your support and love.
Sincerely,Jackie Lynch, Alex Dustin, Hillary Chesson, Jenna Simakauskas, and Melissa Leonard
I am a victim of sexual assault, but I am NOT:
- A Rolex watch or a fancy car in a bad neighborhood. I am not the basis for a ridiculous victim-blaming metaphor based on theft. I am a person, not an object.
- Your sister or daughter or wife. I exist independently of my relationships with and importance to men. It is not wrong that I was sexually assaulted because I am someone’s daughter. It’s wrong because I am a human being.
- To blame. I didn’t ask for this. I didn’t want it. It doesn’t matter what I wore or if I was intoxicated or if I flirted. I never wanted this. No one ever would.
- A punchline. Rape is not a joke. Rape is not funny. If you think it is funny, it’s probably because you’re a rapist.
- Impure. I am not worthless or dirty or sullied. The person who did this to me is.
- An opportunity to play devil’s advocate. The devil has enough advocates. They’re called 90% of our society, and they’ve already said every single thing your puny, unimaginative brain could possibly think of.
- Going to be silenced. Not by my abuser, and not by you or anyone else.
