tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11982691283866293982024-03-14T07:51:04.784-04:00SACOMSS presents: A Media Watch BlogA collection of current media stories and events related to issues of sexual assault, sexual harassment, partner violence, and more.Mediawatchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02824200222407891613noreply@blogger.comBlogger81125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1198269128386629398.post-39819206333642117942011-11-28T19:09:00.001-05:002011-11-28T19:11:07.586-05:00We've Moved!!!Please check out our new site at <a href="http://sacomssmediawatch.wordpress.com/">http://sacomssmediawatch.wordpress.com/</a><br />
<br />
The new site is currently under construction but please check back for further updates!Media Watchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00395751736362068247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1198269128386629398.post-22948973464715475202011-03-11T14:11:00.009-05:002011-03-12T12:17:36.139-05:00The Media's Response to Lara Logan's Assault and the Prevalence of Rape Culture Logic<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTvtEEBkjh_SyMK4m3xNZJgTEM_iQedgfMfqI3i6LkK_pzWCz3-DCYyXYSH0U6xseVMQ4WZUlc6TwWIwlCsGUXRFhWf8xANmZ547HCdmkedeZjF6sfO7cNt3FmK7GGjYYMT8i7S9l65qDO/s1600/tds-lara-logan-061708.jpg"><span class="Apple-style-span"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTvtEEBkjh_SyMK4m3xNZJgTEM_iQedgfMfqI3i6LkK_pzWCz3-DCYyXYSH0U6xseVMQ4WZUlc6TwWIwlCsGUXRFhWf8xANmZ547HCdmkedeZjF6sfO7cNt3FmK7GGjYYMT8i7S9l65qDO/s320/tds-lara-logan-061708.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5582902556825393346" /></span></a><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><b><u><span class="Apple-style-span">Trigger Warning</span></u></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span">Hey ya’ll.<span> </span>It’s been awhile since the last blog post, and this post in particular has been a long time coming. <span> </span>Over the past few months, there have been some reoccurring themes cropping up in the media that are really getting to me. <span> </span>I’m going to try to focus on one of these themes and examine how it is at the heart of so many of the things we struggle against.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span">For those of us following the revolutions around the world, February 11th was truly an amazing day for Egypt, as President Mubarak finally stepped down. For me, however, the celebrations will forever be tainted by what soon transpired.<span> </span>Shortly after the announcement in Cairo, CBS correspondent Lara Logan was beaten and sexually assaulted by a gang of protestors.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span">According to a CBS report, "[Logan] was surrounded and suffered a brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating before being saved by a group of women and an estimated 20 Egyptian soldiers.”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span">Unfortunately, this is neither an uncommon nor an unknown risk to female reporters.<span> </span>Largely, assaults like this go unreported, and it’s kind of a big deal that this one was made public.<span> </span>In consenting to allow her story to be told, Logan took a stand against the silence blanketing this relatively unspoken of issue. I think that was incredibly brave of her and it had the potential to raise awareness of a serious problem in the media business and around the world.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span">However, the inverse seems to have happened.<span> </span>Reading blog posts and forum discussions about the assault makes you feel like you’ve stepped through a wormhole into the 1950s<span>.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:.5in;margin-bottom:10.0pt; margin-left:.5in;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span">“Well, what did she expect?<span> </span>No woman should be over there.”<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:.5in;margin-bottom:10.0pt; margin-left:.5in;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span>“She deserved what she </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'courier new'; ">got.”</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:.5in;margin-bottom:10.0pt; margin-left:.5in;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span">“What was a hot, blonde reporter doing in Tahrir Square anyway?” <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:.5in;margin-bottom:10.0pt; margin-left:.5in;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">“Is there a video of this somewhere?<span> </span>I wish I could see it.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2Rp-KKBr98jrssJXQjEtsELdAYwAAMA6s_QBMCV1QPMypTFQsdtO5xo2HNzfFI6pfbr4KMZhKiSsAmSHekIEl2gzXe9daJb7agsovSpnjO_Qc72Irj2ObDhwiisQ6qif1UC-3s7mgtbJC/s320/finger-pointing-time.jpg" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 255px; height: 299px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5582902822209629762" /> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span"><a href="http://approvalpolls.com/2011/02/16/poll-is-lara-logan-to-blame-for-her-sexual-assault/"><span>An online poll</span></a><span> was even created, asking if people thought that Lara Logan was to blame for her assault.<span> </span>While not all reactions were as outrageous, the sheer amount of victim-blaming and slut-shaming was overwhelming.<span> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p><span class="Apple-style-span">Journalists were no better.<span> </span><a href="http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/02/15/lara_logan_rape_reaction/index.html">Mary Elizabeth Williams</a>, a contributor to Salon.com, writes about a sickening article that appeared in LA Weekly:</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:.5in;margin-bottom:10.0pt; margin-left:.5in;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span>In a </span><a href="http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2011/02/lara_logan_raped_egypt_reporte.php" target="_blank"><span>stunningly offensive blog post</span></a></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span"> titled "Lara Logan, CBS Reporter and Warzone 'It Girl,' Raped Repeatedly Amid Egypt Celebration"…writer Simone Wilson managed to mention Logan’s "shocking good looks and ballsy knack for pushing her way to the heart of the action" before getting to the assault itself. She then went on to imagine how it happened: "In a rush of frenzied excitement, some Egyptian protestors apparently consummated their newfound independence by sexually assaulting the blonde reporter." Well, sure, what other motive for an assault could there be, given that Logan is, in Wilson’s words, a "gutsy stunner" with "Hollywood good looks"? And how else do Egyptians celebrate anyway but with a gang assault? It's not like she deserved it, but well, she is hot, right?</span><span class="Apple-style-span"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p><span class="Apple-style-span">Debbie Schlussel (sort of a neo Ann Coulter figure) wrote a blog post entitled “Islam Fan Lara Logan Gets a Taste of Islam.”<span> </span>She goes on to say</span></p> <p style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:.5in;margin-bottom:5.0pt;margin-left: .5in"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">So sad, too bad, Lara.<span> </span>No one told her to go there.<span> </span>She knew the risks.<span> </span>And she should have known what Islam is all about.<span> </span>Now she knows.<span> </span>Or so we’d hope. Hope you’re enjoying the revolution, Lara! Alhamdilllullah [praise allah].</span><span class="Apple-style-span"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span">Others still accused Logan of simply trying to get the most sensational story.<span> </span>"Lara Logan had to outdo Anderson," Nir Rosen (a liberal journalist) tweeted, referring to correspondent Anderson Cooper, who was physically assaulted during the protests in Egypt.<span> </span>Rosen went on to accuse Logan of warmongering and expressed doubts as to whether she was actually assaulted. (Rosen has since apologized and resigned from his post at New York University.)<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span">These responses to Logan’s assault, to quote a friend, “utterly exemplify rape culture and rape culture logic.”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span"></span></span><span><span>·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><span>That only young, attractive women are sexually assaulted</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><span></span><span><span>·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><span>That sexual assault is seen as the natural consequence of choices the survivor makes</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><span></span><span><span>·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><span>That survivor’s often lie about assault for attention and/or secretly want to be assaulted</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><span></span><span><span>·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><span>That the a person’s attitudes and dress can provoke assault</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><span></span><span><span>·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><span>That rapists cannot control their sexual urges</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><span>The idea that it is the survivor’s fault for being assaulted is still quite entrenched in our culture and it can be painful and infuriating to come into contact with it.<span> </span>However, I feel like it’s something that we need to meet head on, that it is something that needs to be combated.<span> </span>Misconceptions need to be addressed, myths dispersed, and people need to be educated.</span></p><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPXm3fYHZBK3uw9D8AaoCK_n-e9AasI9Uos0kQ3LnLIdfzvce68gXF-qLgXLhE0knbf_uLMHgLnl4Pr2PiOsVEan7-LKjixXMHqCZet5Wp03uOfFePudPaHW6IJRZdW8NqqOrhQe8TLb9c/s320/rape-culture.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5582903455835691250" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px; " /><div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span">Take care everyone,</span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><span><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><i><span><br /></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span">Further reading:<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span"><a href="http://community.feministing.com/2011/02/16/in-defense-of-lara-logan/"><span>http://community.feministing.com/2011/02/16/in-defense-of-lara-logan/</span></a><span><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span"><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1357957/Lara-Logan-attack-Debbie-Schlussel-Nir-Rosen-criticise-CBS-correspondent.html#ixzz1GEnaN9ce"><span style="color:#003399">http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1357957/Lara-Logan-attack-Debbie-Schlussel-Nir-Rosen-criticise-CBS-correspondent.html#ixzz1GEnaN9ce</span></a><span style="color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span"><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1357957/Lara-Logan-attack-Debbie-Schlussel-Nir-Rosen-criticise-CBS-correspondent.html#ixzz1GEmmREDZ"><span style="color:#003399">http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1357957/Lara-Logan-attack-Debbie-Schlussel-Nir-Rosen-criticise-CBS-correspondent.html#ixzz1GEmmREDZ</span></a><span style="color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span"><a href="http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/following_attack_reporter_former_X4WK8V1F1lAjTJePpikvQI#ixzz1G2XU1ovz"><span style="color: rgb(0, 51, 153); ">http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/following_attack_reporter_former_X4WK8V1F1lAjTJePpikvQI#ixzz1G2XU1ovz</span></a><span><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span"><a href="http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011-02-16/news/28622335_1_lara-logan-sexual-assault-apology"><span>http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011-02-16/news/28622335_1_lara-logan-sexual-assault-apology</span></a><span><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span"><a href="http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/02/16/nir-rosen-apologizes-resigns-from-nyu-over-lara-logan-tweets/"><span>http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/02/16/nir-rosen-apologizes-resigns-from-nyu-over-lara-logan-tweets/</span></a><span><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span"><a href="http://globalcomment.com/2011/lara-logan-julian-assange-two-cases-of-rape-culture/"><span>http://globalcomment.com/2011/lara-logan-julian-assange-two-cases-of-rape-culture/</span></a><span><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span"><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1357957/Lara-Logan-attack-Debbie-Schlussel-Nir-Rosen-criticise-CBS-correspondent.html"><span>http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1357957/Lara-Logan-attack-Debbie-Schlussel-Nir-Rosen-criticise-CBS-correspondent.html</span></a><span><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><a href="http://ca.jezebel.com/5761919/after-lara-logans-sexual-assault-media-helpfully-her-hotness"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">http://ca.jezebel.com/5761919/after-lara-logans-sexual-assault-media-helpfully-her-hotness</span></b></a><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><o:p></o:p></span></p></div>Media Watchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00395751736362068247noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1198269128386629398.post-81127086667054743552010-11-21T20:52:00.004-05:002010-11-21T21:00:27.817-05:00Edmonton Sexual Assault Prevention Campaign Challenges Myths Around Assault<p class="MsoNormal">Sexual Assault and Rape Prevention campaigns often are associated with self-defense classes and the modification of women’s behavior (check out <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2g-XvO-N_t8">this educational video from the Department of Defense 1977</a>), depicting rapists as inevitable predators and ultimately implying that women who are sexually assaulted were too weak to defend themselves or were otherwise responsible for their assault.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">With this kind of precedent, the <a href="http://www.edmontonpolice.ca/News/MediaReleases/Dont%20be%20that%20Guy.aspx">new assault prevention campaign</a> from the Edmonton police department and <a href="http://www.sexualassaultvoices.com/">Sexual Assault Voices of Edmonton (SAVE)</a> stands out and has gotten quite a bit of media attention. The campaign is called Don’t Be That Guy, and it’s targeting potential perpetrators. The images and languages focus on debunking myths surrounding sexual assault, particularly emphasizing that women who are drunk and unconscious or nearly so cannot consent. The launch is timed particularly for the holiday party scene and print advertisements will be posted above the urinals in the bathrooms of bars as well as magazines and bus stops in order to target men between the ages of 18 and 24.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">While it could be said that the campaign reinforces gendered myths around sexual assault, there is something to be said for specificity. The ads not only target a certain audience, but also challenge several pervasive myths around sexual assault. By making it about “That Guy” rather than “an evil rapist”, the ads make it clear that predatory behavior is not inevitable or distant – you could, in fact, be that guy. Your friend could be that guy. Maybe you already are that guy. The guy that sexually assaulted someone. Maybe you didn’t know that having sex without direct consent was sexual assault. Now you know. Rapists aren’t just racialized/mentally unstable/homeless/drug addicted/sociopathic strangers that hide in alleyways and kidnap women. They are just another guy at the party. </p><p class="MsoNormal"><img src="http://www.vancouversun.com/news/3858004.bin" alt="Edmonton Police Service Superintendent Danielle Campbell unveils two posters that are part of the Don't Be That Guy campaign focusing on the issue of alcohol-facilitated sexual assaults." /></p><p class="MsoNormal">(image by Larry Wong for the Edmonton Journal)</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Just the refocusing of attention onto perpetrators seems revolutionary. It is crystal clear from the get go here that this woman did not ask to be sexually assaulted, even if she is blackout drunk. The popular victim blaming strategy, prevalent not only in our common culture but in our courts, does not have a place in this campaign. It directly tells the perpetrator “You are the one exclusively responsible for this sexual assault” and by doing so, implicitly lets all survivors know that it is not their fault. While the ads are depicting a particular kind of assault, the clear responsibility can easily transition to other scenarios. Instead of the copy reading “Just because you help her home, doesn’t mean you get to help yourself” could easily be adapted:</p> <p class="MsoNormal">“Just because her clothes are revealing, doesn’t mean she wants you to touch her”</p> <p class="MsoNormal">“Just because she’s said yes before, doesn’t mean she can’t say no”</p> <p class="MsoNormal">“Just because she likes you, doesn’t mean she wants to have sex with you”</p> <p class="MsoNormal">With all the national media attention around the campaign, we can only hope that this style of assault prevention material continues and catches on. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Article in the Toronto Sun: <a href="http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2010/11/20/16235151.html">http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2010/11/20/16235151.html</a></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Article in the Vancouver Sun: <a href="http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Campaign+targets+prey+drunk+women/3857999/story.html">http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Campaign+targets+prey+drunk+women/3857999/story.html</a></p>Media Watchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00395751736362068247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1198269128386629398.post-23045863830542510162010-11-06T17:05:00.001-04:002010-11-06T17:07:01.117-04:00Yale Frat Proves Itself Particularly Insensitive to Issues of Sexual Assault<style>@font-face { font-family: "Courier New"; }@font-face { font-family: "Calibri"; }@font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }@font-face { font-family: "Cordia New"; }@font-face { font-family: "SimSun"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 10pt; line-height: 115%; font-size: 11pt; font-family: "Courier New"; }h1 { margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 24pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }h2 { margin: 12pt 0in 3pt; line-height: 115%; page-break-after: avoid; font-size: 14pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-style: italic; }a:link, span.MsoHyperlink { color: blue; text-decoration: underline; }a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed { color: purple; text-decoration: underline; }span.Heading1Char { font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-weight: bold; }span.Heading2Char { font-family: Cambria; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }</style> <p class="MsoNormal">Fraternities at North American universities have not been traditionally recognized as particularly sensitive to issues surrounding sexual assault (…or women). </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Thanks so much Yale for proving us right. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Yale’s Delta Kappa Epsilon (DKE) fraternity has recently <a href="http://www.salon.com/life/broadsheet/2010/10/15/yale_fraternity_pledges_chant_about_rape">come under media-fire</a> for making their pledges march around campus (and stopping outside an all-female dorm) and chanting “No Means Yes! Yes Means Anal!” among other declarations mid-October. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">There has been outrage, from within as well as outside of the Yale community. DKE <a href="http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2010/oct/15/forney-and-teicher-how-our-fraternity-failed/">has issued an apology</a> swiftly. Here is an excerpt: </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i>The brothers of DKE accept responsibility for what we did, and want to sincerely apologize to the Yale community. We were wrong. We were disrespectful, vulgar and inappropriate. More than that, we were insensitive of all women who have been victims of rape or sexual violence, especially those here at Yale. Rape is beyond serious – it is one of the worst things that any person can be subjected to. It is not a laughing matter, yet we joked about it.</i></p> <p class="MsoNormal">They have agreed to work with the Yale Women’s Center to create dialogue on campus around sexual violence. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">I think we can all appreciate the sentiment. And while I can recognize that these boys were young, drunk and stupid and accept their apology as sincere, this is certainly <a href="http://feministing.com/2008/04/30/yale_womens_center_harassers_f_1/">not an isolated incident</a> at Yale let alone in a <a href="http://jezebel.com/5673597/rape-me-posters-by-columbia-a-capella-group-surprisingly-unpopular">larger university culture</a>. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">There’s something bigger going on here. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Salon recently <a href="http://www.salon.com/life/violence_against_women/?story=/mwt/broadsheet/2010/10/21/yale_frat">interviewed</a> an anonymous member of DKE. When asked about his previous experience as a member of the fraternity he was quoted as saying: </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i>“Since I've been here, DKE has never actively promoted misogyny. This particular incident is an example of a thoughtless and hurtful joke, not an indication of a dangerous culture.”</i></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I’m not so sure I agree. When a group of men are running around screaming, “No means Yes!” they are not taking consent seriously. Consent does not seem to be important to them at all. It’s even less funny when you take into consideration that 1 in 4 women in university have been sexually assaulted or experienced an attempted sexually assaulted.<sup><span style=""> </span></sup>Or the fact that, in one survey, over half of college men reported that they have engaged in sexual aggression on a date<sup><a href="http://www.aaets.org/article135.htm">1</a></sup></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Words are important. They matter and they represent ideas; in this case dangerous ideas about consent that result in the physical and emotional harm of real people every day. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">The pledges of DKE may feel sorry and embarrassed for doing what they did (or maybe for getting caught) but forgive me if I don’t totally buy the idea that this fraternity or others like it are not misogynistic. McGill is not exempt from this. Remember, that awesome <a href="http://mcgilldaily.com/articles/20126">Engineering Frosh chant</a> from a few years back? </p> <p class="MsoNormal">I’m glad that the Women’s Center at Yale was able to turn this disaster into a learning experience for everyone. We definitely need more forums to discuss sexual assault on university campuses. It just sucks that such an awful event had to occur to spur one. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Related Links:<span style="line-height: 115%;"></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style=""><a href="http://www.broadrecognition.com/yale-new-haven/the-straw-that-broke-the-camel%E2%80%99s-back-dke-sponsors-verbal-assault-on-yale%E2%80%99s-old-campus/"><span style="">The Last Straw: DKE Sponsors Hate Speech on Yale’s Old Campus</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="">via Broad Recognition</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style=""><a href="http://jezebel.com/5667590/yale-frat-punished-for-stupid-chant"><span style="">Yale Frat Punished for Stupid Chant</span></a> via Jezebel</span></p> <h1><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri; font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://feministing.com/2010/10/19/privileged-boys-impoverished-ethics/">Privileged boys, impoverished ethics</a> via Feministing </span></h1> <h1><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri; font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://www.salon.com/life/violence_against_women/?story=/mwt/broadsheet/2010/10/21/yale_frat">Yale frat boy talks about "thoughtless and hurtful joke"</a> via Salon</span></h1> <h2><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Calibri; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal;"><a href="http://mcgilldaily.com/articles/20126">The Daily’s Amelia Schonbek tackles the notion that a song is just a song</a> via The McGill Daily</span></h2> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">1.<span style=""> </span><a href="http://www.aaets.org/article135.htm">http://www.aaets.org/article135.htm</a></p>Media Watchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00395751736362068247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1198269128386629398.post-52097855699591805172010-11-05T00:39:00.003-04:002010-11-08T00:32:21.132-05:00Stranger Rape Subplot Just in Time to Boost Ratings<p class="MsoNormal">This week is <a href="http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1883157,00.html">sweeps week in television</a>, when Neilson Media Research surveys are taken of television viewers and shows try to get the ratings they need to stay on the air. For years this has meant that shows toss crazy plot twists at the viewers left and right, with tense cliffhangers and violence and drama. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_Practice_(TV_series)">Private Practice</a> (you know, that spin-off from Grey’s Anatomy with the red haired lady and Taye Diggs?) is pulling out all three. Charlotte King, a strong, sexual, and sassy female character played by KaDee Strickland, is going to be violently raped by a stranger. This isn’t really being sold as a big reveal or surprise – the show is doing its best to sell the plot in interviews and special features. According to the press, the plot is going to focus mostly on the aftermath of the attack and the way in which it effects the relationships in the show.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin">The idea here is that the show is aiming to give a voice to survivors of sexual assault by validating experiences about being attacked and going through a healing process. The show worked closely with <a href="http://www.rainn.org/">Rape Abuse Incest National Network</a> and the whole project seems very informed. Strickland notes that this experience will be a part of the character for as long as the show is on the air, and in interviews notes that this is surely not the only way that rape or sexual assault is experienced, but that the script includes elements of shame and shock that many women report experiencing. It should also be noted that this is not the first time that this show has discussed sexual assault. A different character, Violet Turner, experienced rape in college, though she never goes into detail, and as a psychologist on the show, she has also had patients who have experienced sexual assault. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" id="ooyalaPlayer_85ax_fhkyfjcu" width="400" height="300" codebase="http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/current/swflash.cab"><param name="movie" value="http://www.ooyala.com/player.swf?version=2&hide=embed&maxAdTimeout=8000"><param name="quality" value="high"><param name="bgcolor" value="#000000"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="flashvars" value="embedCode=VvN3dzMTqUmKpYK5wa005AZ1whmXhjfJ"><embed src="http://www.ooyala.com/player.swf?version=2&hide=embed&maxAdTimeout=8000" quality="high" bgcolor="#000000" width="400" height="300" name="ooyalaPlayer_85ax_fhkyfjcu" align="middle" play="true" loop="false" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" flashvars="embedCode=VvN3dzMTqUmKpYK5wa005AZ1whmXhjfJ" pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed></object></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin">Strickland recently <a href="http://www.tvguide.com/News/Private-Practice-Tackles-1024270.aspx">gave an interview with TV guide</a> (not the video shown here) where she talked about her “joy” at being able to give a voice to this kind of issue, how she is “<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color:black">thrilled because it's a very personal thing to me, especially if you break down the statistics that one in six women will be raped in their lifetime.</span>” The show is clearly trying to do something a little different, “really creating a legitimate experience for the audience in a way that you may not see on network television</span>”. <a href="http://jezebel.com/5663912/private-practices-sweeps+week-rape-episode">Irin Carmon noted on Jezebel</a> that 1. it’s a little strange to hear someone get so excited about rape, and 2. How easy it is to use stranger rape as a source of drama, even though it erases the more common experiences of sexual assault committed by acquaintances or family members. </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin">Update: Ratings for Private Practice experienced <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/blogs/live-feed/private-practice-ratings-surge-assault-36228">an unprecedented 44% boost in ratings</a> for the sexual assault episode. The more detailed plotline includes 2 important details: 1. Charlotte is a recovering drug addict, so she has to endure her wounds without anesthetic and 2. She is refusing to go to the police or report the rape, and has only told one other character on the show that rape was even a part of the assault. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin">The implications of these script choices is interesting, and certainly a lot is yet to be determined. <a href="http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/watch_with_kristin/b209713_morning_after_lets_talk_about_private.html#ixzz14RmGsoyV">Jennifer Arrow, a blogger for E!</a> did bring up an interesting point regarding the recent trend in plotlines where strong female characters do not report assaults committed against them:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; ">"Is that just a more dramatic story to tell, or Is there something in our culture that doubts women who suffer rape and then speak out boldly—but trusts in women who keep their silence?"<span><br /><br /></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">For more on the subject you can read<a href="http://jezebel.com/5682728/private-practices-rape-episode-brings-in-big-ratings-mixed-emotions"> a follow-up by Irin Carmon on Jezebel</a>, or a thoughtful review from <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2010/11/private_practice_rape_episode.html">NY Magazine entertainment blogger Emily Nussbaum</a> which concludes: "</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; ">No matter how well-motivated, a rape scene is a sex scene, and TV shows are fantasies. This one wasn’t sexy, but there was part of me that didn’t want them to show it at all."</span></p>Media Watchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00395751736362068247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1198269128386629398.post-57017598517715651852010-10-17T13:26:00.003-04:002010-10-17T13:36:04.300-04:00Consent Comic!Its a web comic! About consent! Its informative, adorable, important, sex positive, and well drawn! Yay! The blog might not be able to show the entire layout, so you can find the original version by clicking on the title of the post (Consent Comic!). Written by Maisha, you can find more of <a href="http://www.webcomicsnation.com/maisha/">her web comics here</a>.<div>And now, for your viewing pleasure, SEX TALK: A comic about communication, consent, and gettin' it on. <img src="http://www.webcomicsnation.com/memberimages/sex_talk_pg_1_cropsm_copy1.jpg" /><div><img src="http://www.webcomicsnation.com/memberimages/sex_talk_pg_2_cropsm_copy1.jpg" /></div><div><img src="http://www.webcomicsnation.com/memberimages/sex_talk_pg_3_cropsm_copy1.jpg" /></div></div>Media Watchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00395751736362068247noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1198269128386629398.post-50981722547951847262010-09-28T22:11:00.004-04:002010-11-05T00:48:19.652-04:00Pro Wrestler Now Fighting Against Sexual ViolenceMick Foley, pro-wrestler, just wrote a new memoir (his fourth!). His favorite chapter is about how he started listening to Tori Amos, and the place that her music had in her life. Tori Amos, it turns out, co-founded an anti-sexual assault group called <a href="http://rainn.org/">RAINN (Rape, Abuse, Incest, National Network)</a> in 1996. After meeting Amos in person, Mick Foley decided to get involved. Very involved. <div><br /><div>Not only to all of the royalties from the new memoir go to combatting sexual assault (50% to RAINN and 50% to Childfund, giving financial support to survivors in Sierra Leone), but Foley has given much of his time and his face to the group. He <a href="http://www.rainn.org/news-room/news/mick-foley-fights-sexual-violence">volunteers weekly with the group</a>'s anonymous internet hotline and is on the organization's National Leadership Council. He's gotten a lot of press for the new book, and the wrestler has used every interview as an opportunity to talk about the RAINN and the fight against sexual violence. </div><div><br /></div><div><img src="http://www.listze.com/uploads/item-2397.jpg" /></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2267815">Foley wrote an article for Slate</a>, posted today, that talks about all of the things above (it should be noted that he's a very good writer). <a href="http://mickfoley.typepad.com/mickfoley/2010/09/rainn-me-you-and-the-pepsi-challenge-hello-everyone-in-the-past-few-days-you-may-have-noticed-the-occasional-tweet-or-f.html">You can also read his blog</a> to hear more. Here's some highlights about his involvement with sexual assault activism:</div><div><br /></div><div>"<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; "> I'm thankful for everything Tori has motivated me to do inside, and especially outside, the wrestling ring. For many years, I had thought of the fight against sexual violence as one best waged by women and survivors of assault. But then I heard that voice one night, in my beat up Chevy minivan, on my way home from some other road trip I can't recall. "When you gonna make up your mind? When you gonna love you as much as I do?"</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; "></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; ">Since February, <a href="http://www.rainn.org/news-room/news/mick-foley-fights-sexual-violence" target="_blank" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(0, 102, 204); outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; ">I have been a weekly volunteer</a> for <a href="http://www.rainn.org/get-involved/volunteer-for-RAINN/ohl-volunteer" target="_blank" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(0, 102, 204); outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; ">RAINN's online hotline</a>, doing my best to help victims of sexual violence piece together their lives. Last week, I was named RAINN's <a href="http://mickfoley.typepad.com/mickfoley/2010/09/rainn-me-you-and-the-pepsi-challenge-hello-everyone-in-the-past-few-days-you-may-have-noticed-the-occasional-tweet-or-f.html" target="_blank" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(0, 102, 204); outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; ">volunteer of the month</a>. It's a tremendous honor, and it's amazing to think that it might never have happened if I hadn't heard that haunting voice in the back of Maxx Payne's car. So many years after that first listen, Tori Amos still inspires me every day. Most of all, she still convinces me to believe that I'm strong enough to do the things I already know need to be done."</span></div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; "><br /></span></div>Media Watchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00395751736362068247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1198269128386629398.post-27619950609311138902010-09-19T21:15:00.003-04:002010-09-19T21:45:23.464-04:00Professional Reporter Harrassed by Professional Football Players, Blamed Because of Her Outfit<p class="MsoNormal">Last week, Mexican sports reporter Ines Sainz came forward with the claim that she had been sexually harassed by the Jets football team when she went into the locker room to conduct some interviews. The main debate in the media, of course, surrounds this woman’s attire and her appearance, with headlines like "<a href="http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/jets_flagged_making_passes_qM5MnpvUIkXBaqfZayIsVL">Jets Flagged Making Passes at Hot Reporter</a>" that turn sexual harassment into flirting. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">The story of what happened is often noted in subsequent reports as “unclear”, but what is clearly understood is that there were inappropriate things said to and about Sainz made by Jets team members that made both she and other members of the media in the locker room at the time very uncomfortable. Sainz, in an effort to be professional, says she tried to ignore the harassment of other players and move forward with her interview.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">It should be noted that English is not Sainz’s first language, and her choice of words in interviews in the English speaking press, imply subtly that their difficulty in understanding each other might contribute to the reliability of her story. The reporter’s nationality might also have contributed to the behavior of the players in the first place, but this question has not been addressed in any media prominent media reports. Meanwhile, many remarks have been made by media members about the prevalence of sexual assault in Mexican culture and how she must be used to these kinds of catcalls, because that’s the Mexican “mating call” (that’s a quote by Joy Thomas, actor and radio personality, on <a href="http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/showbiz/2010/09/17/behar.ines.sainz.hln?iref=allsearch">a panel at the Joy Behar Show on Friday</a>). </p> <p class="MsoNormal">The<a href="http://joybehar.blogs.cnn.com/2010/09/13/was-reporter-sexually-harassed-by-jets/?iref=allsearch"> exclusive interview Sainz gave with Joy Behar</a> is also interesting in that Behar, a female comedian and star of the View, spends a lot of time talking about her outfit at the time and her title as “hottest reporter in Mexico,” a question with Sainz avoids answering. She instead makes it clear that her dress is not the point, that she did nothing to provoke this harassment, and that she’s just trying to do her job. Sainz also implies that she has encountered sexual harassment for her entire career, and that she really is bringing this forward at this time at the behest of other members of the media, a point ignored by Behar. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">It should be noted that there has been a varied response in the media, mostly within the frame of a “debate” over whether or not sexual harassment actually happened, but the response from the football community has been quite different. While Jets PR representatives present in the locker room at the time of the harassment refused to stop it, Woody Johnson, the Jets owner, apologized to Sainz directly, and on the same day as the incident, with the message that all team members are expected to act respectfully towards members of the press. The Association of Women in Sports and Media has pursued a series of conversations and investigations within the NFL and has said that they expect all offending participants in the incident to be punished by the NFL and the Jets. In fact, the whole incident seems to be a lot less “controversial” and instead be quite clear within the procedures of the NFL, and is framed as much more of an unclear issue within the news media like in <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/nfl-sideline-reporter-ines-sainz-harassed-jets-11631727">this interview from ABC</a>. </p><p class="MsoNormal">The debate does seem to make a jump from 'Are these outfits professional?' to 'Should anyone this attractive wearing clothing such as this expect to be sexually harassed in the presence of male athletes?' There does also seem to be a bit of a more nuanced controversy in whether or not sexually harassment needs the clear accusation of the survivor in order for behavior such as this to be punished. Sainz has said that she isn't sure if sexual harassment happened, and that it really is up to the NFL and their investigation (at the end of the ABC interview). </p> <p class="MsoNormal">For commentary from the blogosphere, the Bitch Magazine blog has issued a <a href="http://bitchmagazine.org/post/douchebag-decree">“Douchebag Decree”</a> to the media for their coverage of the story, with particular attention to a slideshow by <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2010/09/13/baby-got-back-meet-ines-sainz-slideshow/">The Daily Caller called "Baby Got Back"</a>. </p>Media Watchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00395751736362068247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1198269128386629398.post-82669124842316016552010-05-10T11:43:00.002-04:002010-05-10T11:45:37.549-04:00Miami's Child Sex Offender Homeless ColonyTrigger warning (especially for the articles linked here)<br /><br />In 2005, a powerful lobbyist in Miami Beach named Ron Book (after discovering that his young daughter was the survivor of sexual assault) helped to pass local residency restrictions on child sex offenders found guilty in a court of law. These restrictions barred child sex offenders from living within 2500 feet of any place where children gathered: schools, daycare centers, or playgrounds. These restrictions meant that entire cities became off limits for these perpetrators to live after being released from prison. While probation restrictions may differ, many of them face only a curfew and living restrictions within this curfew, but are free to work or spend their days without spacial restrictions. <br />What ended up happening due to this ordinance and others around the region, is that sex offenders were released homeless, and told that one of the only places that they could live was under the Julia Tuttle causeway, a homeless colony of child sex offenders living under a bridge of the highway. This has caused major problems for the government of the region, as they try to deal with a very specific homeless population. The DMV even started issuing drivers licenses with the address listed as "under the Julia Tuttle causeway bridge". Other regions around the country have found themselves with similar colonies, prompting people to doubt the effectiveness and safety of the original ordinances meant to create a safer space for their children. By destabilizing the sex offenders, experts on sexual crimes were saying that it could create a much less safe environment for children. <br />For more information, you can read an <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/id/208518">article from Newsweek</a> from last July about the situation in Miami (warning, very detailed and very triggering). Embedded in the article is also a short video clip about life under the bridge. And you can also listen to a story from <a href="http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/407/the-bridge">this week's The American Life epis</a>ode - theme Bridges - which looks at the more recent developments and is much less about the offenses of perpetrators and more about the legal and political ramifications of the policiesMediawatchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02824200222407891613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1198269128386629398.post-22453628615408776932010-05-06T02:29:00.004-04:002010-05-06T13:09:24.322-04:00It's About Time We Post About the Catholic Church<p class="MsoNormal">(Trigger warning)</p> <p class="MsoNormal">We’ll start with a basic timeline, mostly taken from the <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126160853">NPR website</a>:</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style=" line-height:115%;Arial","sans-serif";font-family:";font-size:10.5pt;color:#333333;">In 1981, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) was appointed prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican's watchdog agency for faith and morals, including internal investigations of crime within the church.</span> He held this position until his appointment to the papacy in 2005. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style=" line-height:115%;Arial","sans-serif";font-family:";font-size:10.5pt;color:#333333;">During his stay as prefect, the church dealt with several major abuse cases, including the Reverend Lawrence C. Murphy, who later admitted to the molestation of over 200 boys at a school for the deaf in Wisconsin, priest Gilbert Gauthe, who pled guilty 11 counts of molestation in Louisiana, and priest James Porter in Massachusetts, who pled guilty to the sexual abuse of more than 25 children. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style=" line-height:115%;Arial","sans-serif";font-family:";font-size:10.5pt;color:#333333;">In 1992, it was discussed and recognized at a conference of United States Bishops that some Bishops had been involved in the cover-up of sexual abuse within the church. In 1996, letters sent to Cardinal Ratzinger by Milwaukee’s archbishop requesting the investigation and trial of Murphy and another priest accused of abuse are unanswered.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style=" line-height:115%;Arial","sans-serif";font-family:";font-size:10.5pt;color:#333333;">1997, Ratzinger closes the case of Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado, the founder of The Legion of Christ accused of sexually abusing boys under his authority and care in Mexico. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style=" line-height:115%;Arial","sans-serif";font-family:";font-size:10.5pt;color:#333333;">In 1999 that priest John Geogehan is formally charged with child rape. It is brought to light during the trial that the priest had been repeatedly accused of molestation, but had been moved between parishes to avoid scandal. In 2002, Geogehan is sentenced to 10 years in prison, Documents surfaced during this time which proved the cover-up of these abuses by Cardinal Bernard Law, who later fled to Rome and resigned as archbishop of Boston.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style=" line-height:115%;Arial","sans-serif";font-family:";font-size:10.5pt;color:#333333;">In 2004, <a href="http://www.jjay.cuny.edu/churchstudy/main.asp">a report</a> by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice finds that between 1950 and 2002, about 10,000 people have filed abuse accusations against about 4,000 catholic clergy members</span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="line-height:115%; Arial","sans-serif";font-family:";font-size:10.5pt;color:#333333;">. The US conference of Catholic Bishops creates a report which details these allegations. That same year, several parishes in the US declare bankruptcy caused by the millions of dollars spent on reparations to survivors of the abuse. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style=" line-height:115%;Arial","sans-serif";font-family:";font-size:10.5pt;color:#333333;">After elected Pope Benedict XVI, the Vatican investigation of Rev Maciel is reopened and he is found guilty of several incidents of sexual assault. The Pope orders the Reverend to resign and take up a life of “prayer and penance”. This occurs among more declaration of bankruptcy by various American parishes, which also prompts speculation that the bankruptcy declarations are being made in an effort to further conceal the details of abuse claims that might otherwise be revealed in court. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style=" line-height:115%;Arial","sans-serif";font-family:";font-size:10.5pt;color:#333333;">Earlier this year, sexual assault cases against catholic priests in Germany, Ireland and Brazil join the mass of cases coming from the United States. Included in the evidence emerging for the cases includes the Pope’s communication with Bishops in California and Tuscon who wrote asking for the trial and defrocking of priests in their diocese found guilty (within a court or church tribunal) of sexual assault. The lack of action, as well as messages which warn about the price of scandal and otherwise delay the defrocking, are just a part of this current scandal. The Pope was also a part of a possible cover-up of a perpetrating priest as archbishop of Munich. Although his responsibility and role are unclear, it seems that Ratzinger, at first reports of abuse, sent the priest for therapy and rehabilitation. [More details of all these cases can be found on <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126160853">the same NPR page</a> as the timeline,</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">To supplement these news based resources, we can also look at some opinion based pieces on the issue. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">The week of April 12<sup>th</sup>, Newsweek’s cover features the following title: “What Would Mary Do? How Women Can Save the Catholic Church From Its Sins”. There are two articles inside, “<a href="http://www.newsweek.com/id/235882">A Woman’s Place Is In the Church</a>" by Lisa Miller, where the subtitle says a lot. “The cause of the catholic clergy’s sex-abuse scandal is no mystery: insular groups of men often do bad things. So why not break up the all-male club?”. The article feels a little contrived, specifically because it seems to be looking at one issue – the disempowerment of women in the Catholic Church and the sexist nature of such exclusions, particularly in the clergy – and tries to tie it in with another. The subtitle, and other passages, would have you believe that the article is trying to argue that women are incapable of sexual assault or cover-up of sexual assault, and that their inclusion in the church would lower inherently reduce such crimes. The article itself states that this is “obviously” untrue. The connection that it actually makes, albeit less clearly, is that the assault issues in the church are about power, and that this power is also at play in the institutional mistreatment of women by the church. Of course, this is never said directly, and if I could pinpoint a thesis for this article, I would say that Miller’s main point is that the church needs to modernize in order to fix its problems, including the long awaited inclusion of women. . </p> <p class="MsoNormal">The next pages of the issue are filled with a response, “counterpoint” article which actually ends up saying almost the same thing. The article, “<a href="http://www.newsweek.com/id/235885">What Went Wrong</a>” by George Weigel, concerns itself more with<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>countering of the women issue than the sexual assault issue, by asserting (correctly) that “there are no gender guarantees when it comes to sexual abuse.” This article also uses examples of child sexual assault in schools and families, ALL examples of power imbalances and abuses thereof, to argue that this is not a problem unique to the catholic church and the religious policies (such as celibacy for the clergy) are not the thing that needs fixing. He uses the vows of the clergy to make the case that the church must emphasize these strict policies rather than modernization. The subtitle for this article was “Don’t blame celibacy. To fight the plague of sexual abuse, the church needs to become more catholic, not less,” one which I thought was more true to the article it preceded than the subtitle for Miller’s article.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">[interestingly enough, Weigel’s article contains the following statement: “The Catholic Church in America has taken more rigorous action since 2002 to protect the young people in its care than any <span style="mso-bidi-mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;font-family:Calibri;">other similarly situated institution, to the point where the church is likely America’s safest environment for young people.” <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I’m not sure what he means by ‘similarly situated institution’ or even ‘rigorous action’, but it’s an interesting claim.]<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;font-family:Calibri;color:#333333;">When it comes to a discussion of sexual assault and the root of the problem, both of these articles almost say the same thing. They both deny that it has anything to do with religious practices such as celibacy. They both accuse the church of being concerned more with its image than with its youth. They both analyze the crisis by putting the abuses within the context of power, though neither of them directly say that this is the cause of the assaults. The closest quote I could find was in Miller’s article, was actually a quote taken by the Reverend Marie M. Fortune, founder of the multifaith organization <a href="http://www.faithtrustinstitute.org/">FaithTrust Institute</a> which aims to end sexual violence</span>. “You can make a good argument that part of the problem is hierarchy,” doesn’t quite approach the conclusion which both authors hint at in their respective articles. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">For more interesting articles: The recent coverage implies that survivors are usually boys – inspiring <a href="http://www.bravenewtraveler.com/2010/04/23/abuse-in-the-catholic-church-what-about-the-girls/">this article</a> and more concerning the voice of girls also surviving abuse. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I would suggest browsing <a href="http://www.catholic.org/">www.catholic.org</a>, because their defensive articles are met with a very interesting discussion in the comments section with contributions by skeptics, survivors, converts, and many people struggling with their relationship with their church and identity. Jezebel has also commented on the scandal, with <a href="http://jezebel.com/5370532/vatican-clergy-sexual-abuse-blown-out-of-proportion">this article</a> (a response to an article in the Guardian) as well as others. If you have any other suggestions of interesting links, feel free to suggest them in the comments</p>Mediawatchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02824200222407891613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1198269128386629398.post-10262091370815743982010-04-22T14:47:00.004-04:002010-04-22T15:42:10.165-04:00Nike still sponsoring athlete accused of sexual assaultYesterday in the New York Times, Timothy Egan wrote an <a href="http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/21/nikes-women-problem/?scp=1&sq=egan&st=cse">opinion piece </a>about recent events concerning Pittsburgh Steelers Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif;font-size:130%;color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 21px;font-size:14px;">, who has been accused of rape by a 20 year old woman last month in Georgia. This comes in addition to a rape accusation <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20000143-504083.html">from less than a year ago</a>, after which the charges were dropped, and further accusations from a third woman. Roethlisberger has not been charged with any crimes, but the allegations led to a six game suspension from the NFL, and local Pittsburgh sponsors have dropped the star athlete. But Nike has stuck by and continues to use the athlete to sell products. </span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif;font-size:130%;color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 21px;font-size:14px;">Egan's article is mainly directed towards the shoe company, highlighting corporate responsibility and siting the continuing sponsorship of Tiger Woods as another example of poor moral corporate character. He also compares the case with that of <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/sports/football/story/2007/07/17/nfl-falcons-vick.html">Michael Vick</a>, who was dropped from Nike after pleading guilty of conducting a dogfighting operation in 2007. The message, says Egan, is that abusing animals is unacceptable, but "cruelty towards women is OK." </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif;font-size:130%;color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 21px;font-size:14px;">Other sports writers have also contributed their opinions to the discussion, including <a href="http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/why-big-ben-really-deserved-the-suspension">Fox Sports' Jason Whitlock</a> who strongly accused the women of lying about their experiences by saying "<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(37, 37, 37); line-height: 18px; font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Statements made by drunken sorority girls are not facts" among other things. His article focuses on the poor judgment of Reothlisberger, who should have known better than to have public sex with such a high profile position. He uses 'common sense' advice that women are generally told to follow at frat parties to avoid getting raped as a means of accusing the girls of behaving irresponsibly, and uses an email that he received from a former sorority girl to make the case the girl's accusations were probably just a means of excusing themselves for embarrassing, sexually aggressive behavior. </span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;font-size:130%;color:#252525;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 18px;font-size:14px;">Another interesting part of the whole deal is the comments section of Egan's article, almost all of which fall into 4 categories with few exceptions:</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;font-size:130%;color:#252525;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 18px;font-size:14px;">1. Egan is totally right and they will never buy Nike again</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;font-size:130%;color:#252525;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 18px;font-size:14px;">2. Egan is totally wrong - how dare he assume guilt in a case that was never actually brought to court? Innocent until proven guilty, after all. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;font-size:130%;color:#252525;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 18px;font-size:14px;">3. The concept of "corporate ethics" is a myth and Nike's stance is hardly a surprise</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;font-size:130%;color:#252525;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 18px;font-size:14px;">4. Comparing the sexual assault case for Reothlisberger to the (assumedly consensual) adultery of Tiger Woods is an unfair comparison</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;font-size:130%;color:#252525;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 18px;font-size:14px;">One comment (number 17) is particularly telling of some of the common misconceptions about sexual assault in today's society. It accuses Egan of making claims where he is not qualified and says <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 17px; font-family:georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif;font-size:13px;"> "If this football player had *raped* this girl, you best believe he would be charged." Unfortunately, the statistics tell a very different story, with the <a href="http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/rsarp00.pdf">US Department of Justice</a> finding that between 1992 and 2000, only 67% of sexual assault cases were ever reported. And while statistics can certainly be flawed, these results are certainly telling of a trend which the media tends to ignore. </span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;font-size:130%;color:#252525;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 18px;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 17px; font-family:georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif;font-size:13px;">A sum up of the events can also be found on <a href="http://jezebel.com/5521862/despite-rape-accusations-nike-stands-by-its-man">Jezebel.com</a>. </span></span></span></div>Mediawatchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02824200222407891613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1198269128386629398.post-24370403045274601232010-04-21T16:28:00.000-04:002010-04-21T16:29:22.406-04:00A Question of Humor<p class="MsoNormal">Last season on SNL (the current season just started 3 weeks ago), a repeat sketch emerged that caught my eye. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">The sketch features cast member Kenan Thompson as an ex-con, brought in to the police station to give a speech to three young male trouble makers about staying out of trouble. The dialogue of the sketch follows a very dependable formula. Thompson (plus the guest of the week as another ex-con) starts talking about how small misdemeanors turn into bigger crimes which can land a guy in jail. Thompson offers his own story as an example, and retells the plotline of an iconic movie – the Sound of Music, the Goonies, Back to the Future, etc. When one of the kids calls him out on the stolen plotline, the ex-con’s pull him out of his chair or otherwise get in his face and tell him that this is NOT a joke. Here Kenan starts talking about rape in prisons, using pretty graphic imagery and yelling loudly. The thing about this part is that he describes the rape almost exclusively using puns from the movie he just summarized. For instance, in an episode with Taylor Swift he uses the Back to the Future to describe the “1.21 Jizzawatts” awaiting the young man in jail. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">I’m afraid I couldn’t find available clips on the internet that would play in Canada, but all three installments of the sketch, called Scared Straight (with guests Taylor Swift, Tracy Morgan, and Charles Barkley) can be viewed from the US on Hulu. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">The clip brings up some interesting questions, particularly because of its nature. The puns themselves are pretty silly – and do not require the violent scenario in order to be valid sexual puns about innocent movies. The guests themselves look equally ridiculous, especially Taylor Swift, acting like tough punk ex-cons. I would say that there are (just an opinion though) a handful of very funny elements present in the piece, not the least of which is Bill Hader fighting back laughter towards the end of the sketch. However, the sexual assault allusions make me uncomfortable. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">The issue here is using sexual assault and humor. The sketch walks a funny line though, because it isn’t quite saying that sexual assault is funny, but using sexual assault as a excuse to make silly puns about iconic films. However, by using the puns, it creates a dialogue whereby the inclusion of sexual assault is funny . . . Its altogether a little confusing. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">There are several questions being raised here:</p> <p class="MsoNormal">What does the sketch say about sexual assault? How far is too far? What makes something funny? Where is the line between harmless and harmful humor?</p> <p class="MsoNormal">I imagine that because everyone has a different relationship with humor that the answers will vary, but this is also a conversation that goes far beyond a few SNL sketches. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Share your thoughts, comments, additional questions!</p>Mediawatchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02824200222407891613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1198269128386629398.post-73842333221513138732009-11-05T12:17:00.004-05:002009-11-05T12:22:30.600-05:00Rihanna Speaks Out, "I didn't Cause This"<p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Rihanna speaks out about the assault she faced from Chris Brown. Some people are claiming this is a publicity move because of her new album, but whatever the reason, she has some very powerful things to say to other survivors of domestic violence.</span></span></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', -webkit-fantasy;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b>~~~~~~~~</b></span></span></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Rihanna: Going back to Brown after beating 'wrong'</span></b></span></span></p><p>NEW YORK — Rihanna said Thursday that she regrets going back to ex-boyfriend Chris Brown after he left her bruised and battered during a February assault, warning other women facing domestic violence to not let themselves become blinded by love.</p><p>"It's completely normal to go back. You start lying to yourself," the 21-year-old singer said on "Good Morning America" in her first TV interview following the beating. "I'll say that to any young girl who is going through domestic violence: 'Don't react off of love.'"</p><p>Brown, 20, was arrested Feb. 8, hours after he was accused of beating Rihanna after the couple attended a pre-Grammy Awards party. He later pleaded guilty to felony assault and a judge ordered Brown and Rihanna to stay away from each other.</p><p>In the interview, Rihanna, who is no longer with Brown, said she was ashamed to go back to him after the attack. "That's embarrassing — that's the type of person I fell in love with. So far in love, so unconditional, that I went back," she said. "That's not what I want to teach people."</p><p>The attack occurred in Los Angeles' Hancock Park neighborhood as Brown drove a rented sports car. A Los Angeles police detective described a brutal attack in a search warrant affidavit filed in the case, stating Brown hit, choked and bit Rihanna and tried at one point to push her from the car. A photo of her bruised face was circulated on the Internet. In an interview with Glamour magazine, posted online Tuesday, she said about the leaked photo, "I felt like people were making it into a fun topic on the Internet, and it's my life."</p><p>In her interview with "Good Morning America," Rihanna said she soon realized that, as a role model to young women, her returning to Brown sent the wrong message. "When I realized that my selfish decision for love could result in some young girl getting killed, I could not be easy with that part. I couldn't be held responsible for telling them, 'Go back,'" she said.</p><p>"I didn't realize how much of an impact I had on these girls' lives until that happened," she added. "It was a wake-up call for me, big time, especially when I took myself out of the situation."</p><p>Brown's career suffered after his arrest, with sponsors dropping him and radio stations refusing to play his music. Both he and Rihanna had to cancel several high-profile appearances, including planned performances at the Grammy Awards the day of the attack.</p><p>Brown has apologized to fans and has said he has repeatedly apologized to Rihanna for the attack.</p><p>In August, Brown said he was still in shock about his actions. He also revealed that he called his mother, who was a domestic violence victim, the night of the attack and broke down.</p><p>ABC will air more chunks of the interview on Friday's "Good Morning America" and then Friday evening on the news magazine "20/20." Brown also will recount his perspective in an interview to air Friday on MTV.</p><p>Rihanna's interview coincides with the debut of her new single, "Russian Roulette," from her upcoming album, "Rated R." It's her first CD since 2007's multiplatinum "Good Girl Gone Bad."</p><p>In Thursday's interview, Rihanna said, "I am strong. This happened to me. I didn't cause this. I didn't do it. This can happen to me and it can happen to anybody."</p>Mediawatchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02824200222407891613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1198269128386629398.post-23305014853091496212009-10-24T14:14:00.000-04:002009-10-25T16:04:22.774-04:00Rape Victim's Choice: Risk AIDS or Health Insurance?<span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 16px; font-family:Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;"><p style="list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Christina Turner feared that she might have been sexually assaulted after two men slipped her a knockout drug. She thought she was taking proper precautions when her doctor prescribed a month's worth of anti-AIDS medicine.</span></span></p><p style="list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Only later did she learn that she had made herself all but uninsurable.</span></span></p><p style="list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Turner had let the men buy her drinks at a bar in Fort Lauderdale. The next thing she knew, she said, she was lying on a roadside with cuts and bruises that indicated she had been raped. She never developed an HIV infection. But months later, when she lost her health insurance and sought new coverage, she ran into a problem.</span></span></p><p style="list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Turner, 45, who used to be a health insurance underwriter herself, said the insurance companies examined her health records. Even after she explained the assault, the insurers would not sell her a policy because the HIV medication raised too many health questions. They told her they might reconsider in three or more years if she could prove that she was still AIDS-free.</span></span></p><p style="list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Stories of how victims of sexual assault can get tangled in the health insurance system have been one result of the Huffington Post Investigative Fund's </span></span><a href="http://huffpostfund.org/blog/2009/09/18/join-our-investigation-how-often-do-health-insurers-deny-claims" style="list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; color: rgb(43, 0, 115); text-decoration: none; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">citizen journalism project</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, which is calling on readers to provide information and anecdotes about the inner workings of the insurance industry. The project aims to uncover details and data that can inform the larger debate over how to fix the nation's health care system. As the Investigative Fund </span></span><a href="http://huffpostfund.org/stories/2009/09/health-care-number-claims-denied-remains-mystery" style="list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; color: rgb(43, 0, 115); text-decoration: none; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">reported in September</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, health insurance companies are not required to make public their records on how often claims are denied and for what reasons.</span></span></p><p style="list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Some women have contacted the Investigative Fund to say they were deemed ineligible for health insurance because they had a pre-existing condition as a result of a rape, such as post traumatic stress disorder or a sexually transmitted disease. Other patients and therapists wrote in with allegations that insurers are routinely denying long-term mental health care to women who have been sexually assaulted.</span></span></p><p style="list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Susan Pisano, spokeswoman for the health insurance industry's largest trade group, America's Health Insurance Plans, said insurers do not discriminate against victims of sexual assault and ordinarily would not even know if a patient had been raped.</span></span></p><p style="list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">"These issues you are bringing up, they deserve to be brought up," said Pisano. "People who have experienced rape and sexual assault are victims and we want them to be in a system where everyone is covered."</span></span></p><div style="list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; "><p style="list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Turner's story about HIV drugs is not unusual, said Cindy Holtzman, an insurance agent and expert in medical billing at Medical Refund Service, Inc. of Marietta, Ga. Insurers generally categorize HIV-positive people as having a pre-existing condition and deny them coverage. Holtzman said that health insurance companies also consistently decline coverage for anyone who has taken anti-HIV drugs, even if they test negative for the virus. "It's basically an automatic no," she said.</span></span></p><p style="list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Pisano, of the insurance trade group, said: "If you put down on a form that you are or were taking anti-HIV drugs at any time, they [the insurance companies] are going to understand that you are or were in treatment for HIV, period," she said. "That could be a factor in determining whether you get coverage."</span></span></p><p style="list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Some doctors and nurses said that the industry's policy is not medically sound. "The chance of a rape victim actually contracting AIDS is very low. It doesn't make any sense to use that as a calculus for determining who get health insurance," said Dr. Alex Schafir, faculty instructor at Providence St. Vincent Hospital in Portland, Ore.</span></span></p><p style="list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Nurses who deal with sexual assault cases say the industry's policy creates a significant problem for those treating women who have been assaulted. "It's difficult enough to make sure that rape victims take the drugs," said Diana Faugno, a forensic nurse in California and board director of End Violence Against Women International. "What are we supposed to tell women now? Well, I guess you have a choice - you can risk your health insurance or you can risk AIDS. Go ahead and choose."</span></span></p><p style="list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Turner, now a life and casualty insurance agent, said she went without health coverage for three years after the attack. She second-guesses her decision to take the HIV drugs. "I'm going to be penalized my whole life because of this," she said.</span></span></p><p style="list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Several women told the Investigative Fund that after being sexually assaulted they had been denied care or ruled ineligible for health insurance because of what were deemed pre-existing conditions stemming from their assaults -- particularly post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.</span></span></p><p style="list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">A 38-year-old woman in Ithaca, N.Y., said she was raped last year and then penalized by insurers because in giving her medical history she mentioned an assault she suffered in college 17 years earlier. The woman, Kimberly Fallon, told a nurse about the previous attack and months later, her doctor's office sent her a bill for treatment. She said she was informed by a nurse and, later, the hospital's billing department that her health insurance company, Blue Cross Blue Shield, not only had declined payment for the rape exam, but also would not pay for therapy or medication for trauma because she "had been raped before."</span></span></p><p style="list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Fallon says she now has trouble getting coverage for gynecological exams. To avoid the hassle of fighting with her insurance company, she goes to Planned Parenthood instead and pays out of pocket.</span></span></p><p style="list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">A New Mexico woman told the Investigative Fund she was denied coverage at several health insurance companies because she had suffered from PTSD after being attacked and raped in 2003. She did not want to disclose her name because she feared that she would lose her group health insurance if she went on the record as a rape victim. "I remember just feeling infuriated," she said.</span></span></p><p style="list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">"I think it's important to point out that health plans are not denying coverage based on the fact that someone was raped," said Pisano of the insurance trade group. "But PTSD could be a factor in denied coverage."</span></span></p><p style="list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">"That might not be a discriminatory action, but it certainly would seem to have a discriminatory impact," said Sandra Park, staff attorney at the Women's Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union. "Insurance discrimination against rape victims will only further discourage them from coming forward to law enforcement and seeking medical help."</span></span></p><p style="list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Even when patients have coverage, there are fundamental disagreements between insurance companies and doctors about what mental health treatment is medically necessary. The Investigative Fund spoke with doctors, psychologists, and licensed clinical social workers around the country who work regularly with victims of sexual assault. They said that their patients have been experiencing an increase in delays and denials, particularly for talk therapy.</span></span></p><p style="list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">"There's a lot of anger about this in the medical community," said Dr. George Shapiro-Weiss, a psychiatrist in Middletown, Conn. "You don't realize what an Alice in Wonderland web this has become."</span></span></p><p style="list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">"A lot of my patients are being told that their treatment isn't medically necessary," said Keri Nola, an Orlando, Fla., psychologist, who said about 75 percent of her patients are victims of sexual violence.</span></span></p><p style="list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Several therapists cited problems with managed care companies that specialize in mental health. Such firms generally work under contract with health insurers to hold down costs while still authorizing appropriate care.</span></span></p><p style="list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; "></p><p style="list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Some therapists and patients said the managed care companies have cut off necessary treatment for sexual assault victims in the name of cost containment. "The companies are peppering them with questions about their symptoms, and about their histories, and asking, 'Well, are you sure you really need therapy?'" said Jeffrey Axelbank, a New Jersey psychologist. "For someone who has been traumatized, it can feel like another trauma, and it makes the therapy less effective."</span></span></p><p style="list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Pisano, of the insurance association, said it was not fair to draw a larger pattern from such anecdotal evidence. "These situations are evaluated on a person-by-person basis," she said. "There is nothing routine about this."</span></span></p><p style="list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Jim Wrich, a Madison, Wis., a consultant who helps employers evaluate the companies that manage their mental health care, said his work has made him wary of the industry. "This is absolutely routine - these denials," Wrich said. "The default position is to reject care."</span></span></p><p style="list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Magellan Behavioral Health Services, Inc., one of the nation's largest managed-care companies with more than 58 million customers, said that it does not routinely turn down treatment requests from victims of sexual assault or other clients. "We're not denying care. We are exercising our responsibility to make sure that medical necessity is met," said Dr. Lawrence Nardozzi, Magellan's medical director. "I think the process works well."</span></span></p><p style="list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Asked if cost is a factor in the company's decisions, Magellan spokeswoman Erin Somers said: "If all the safeguards are in place to determine whether treatment is medically necessary and appropriate" then "the cost takes care of itself."</span></span></p><p style="list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">A former care manager for Magellan said in an interview that she felt pressure to deny care for cost reasons. Lois Gorwitz, a psychologist with thirty years of experience who went to work for Magellan in California in 2000, said her superiors would tell her: "We are not denying this person treatment, we are denying them their benefit. If they want the treatment they can still pay out of pocket." But, Gorwitz said, "You know that means that the person is not going to get the treatment because they can't afford to pay out of pocket."</span></span></p><p style="list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Gorwitz quit after two years. "It's a very uncomfortable feeling of not being able to offer help," she said.</span></span></p><p style="list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Asked for a response, Magellan's Somers said, "I think you should keep in mind that there have been a lot of changes at Magellan in the last seven years. I think the people who work at Magellan now are not having that experience."</span></span></p><div style="list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /><br />WATCH a video about a rape victim's efforts to obtain mental health services and read more at: </span></span></div><div style="list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; "><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/21/insurance-companies-rape-_n_328708.html" target="_blank_" style="list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; color: rgb(43, 0, 115); text-decoration: none; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/21/insurance-companies-rape-_n_328708.html</span></span></a></div><p></p><p style="list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; "><br /></p><p style="list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; "><br /></p></div></span>Mediawatchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02824200222407891613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1198269128386629398.post-70728739799074310912009-07-10T16:03:00.005-04:002009-07-10T16:49:02.158-04:00The story of prisoner F95488<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOZvCDb98NqV9Alo_LJpKgpPOnpOWNP0s-47aVxKZq2SFJ_GwW28ZECTkmlK1H8HBpvk-W0q9KWsE48MGfdc_68S4BtDNy7mYhRX1T64xpd4pRJlKlGqzPNMW4C4P_pcbzqcuCpcJ0Png/s1600-h/0702Frim1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 180px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOZvCDb98NqV9Alo_LJpKgpPOnpOWNP0s-47aVxKZq2SFJ_GwW28ZECTkmlK1H8HBpvk-W0q9KWsE48MGfdc_68S4BtDNy7mYhRX1T64xpd4pRJlKlGqzPNMW4C4P_pcbzqcuCpcJ0Png/s320/0702Frim1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356935407548939218" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >Something bad happened in Santa Barbara. On Feb. 17, 2007, sometime after midnight on a fast-eroding bluff of beach right below 6547 Del Playa Drive, Jane Doe was raped. She said Eric Frimpong did it, and an all-white jury agreed. But the nature of the case, and some of the more slippery details surrounding it, has divided the community, raising questions about the reliability of the victim's memory, the true character of the accused, the motives and tactics of law enforcement, even the fairness of the justice system. Amid all the controversy, though, two simple truths remain: A young woman was victimized, and a young man's dream was shattered.</span><br /><br />This article discusses the story of a man who was convicted with and sentenced to 6 years in a California state prison for raping a woman, both students at the time at University of California at Santa Barbara. This might be controversial, but the whole thing is just really, really interesting -- it's well-written and sheds some light on the hell both parties go though once the charges are filed; you might have to read a little deeper to find the survivor's, but it's there.<br />________<br /><br />By Sam Allpour<br /><br /><p> It's March 3, 2008, a brilliant day in Santa Barbara. But for Eric Frimpong, it feels like hell. He's in Superior Court, encircled by sheriff's deputies, making one more trip to the Department 2 courtroom. This is his last stop on the outside for a while, a painful reminder of how far he has fallen. He left his native Ghana in 2005 to play soccer for UC Santa Barbara; a year later he became a campus hero while leading the Gauchos to their first-ever national championship. If the immigrant experience can have a sound, Frimpong's sound was a raucous stadium. But in 2007, just weeks after being selected by the Kansas City Wizards in the MLS draft, he was accused of raping another student on the beach near his house. Now he's a convicted felon. </p><p>Frimpong enters the courtroom, which is packed with students and parents, former teammates and coaches -- row upon row of supporters. They've come for the sentencing that concludes a trial that has rocked this community: <i>People v. Eric Frimpong</i>. Or more accurately, <i>People v. Eric Frimpong</i> and His People. </p><p>A victim's advocate reads a statement on behalf of the accuser, referred to in this story and in news coverage throughout the trial as Jane Doe. "I don't care that he's a soccer star…and I'm a nobody," the statement says. "Eric Frimpong ruined my life." </p><p>There's a rumble in the gallery. If his supporters could chime in now, they'd say that the kid in the prison garb has never spoken an unkind word or acted aggressively toward anyone. They would remind the court of the points made at trial: that his accuser was a woman with little memory of what happened that night because of a near-toxic blood alcohol level; that Frimpong's DNA wasn't found on the victim; that semen found on her underwear belonged to a jealous boyfriend, a white student who was never a suspect. They would argue that overzealous law enforcement was determined to nail a high-profile athlete, facts be damned, and that this was the Duke lacrosse case all over again -- except that the defendants in the Duke case were white men from affluent families with the means to navigate America's justice system, unlike Frimpong, who is poor and an immigrant.</p><p>Judge Brian Hill, citing Frimpong's clean record and "a lot of community support," delivers his sentence: six years in state prison. As Frimpong is led away, many people in the gallery are crying. Out in the hall, Paul and Loni Monahan stand solemnly while the courtroom empties. Their son, Pat, was Frimpong's teammate, and the Monahans -- a white, middle-class family -- had embraced "Frimmer" like a son and a brother. Loni distributes copies of a printed statement: "We will continue to fight for Eric. We will not rest until he is exonerated and the ugly truth of his wrongful prosecution and conviction comes out." When the leaflets are gone, she leans against a wall, tears flowing. "Eric believed in our system," she says. "He believed justice would prevail." Then she straightens. "Before I was sad," she says. "Now I'm mad."</p><p>Something good happened in Santa Barbara. Even now, as Frimpong sits behind a glass partition in the visitors' room of a California jail, he smiles easily while talking about where he's come from and what he has achieved. The way he sees it, he has always been fortunate. </p><p>Back in Ghana, in western Africa, he and his three younger siblings were raised by their mother, Mary, in the poor farming community of Abesin, but her job as a typist with the government forestry department allowed the family to have plumbing and electricity, unlike many of their neighbors. Eric was an engineering major and a midfielder for Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, in Kumasi, when he caught the eye of UCSB assistant Leo Chappel, who attended a 2005 match to scout the son of a Ghanian pro but ended up offering a scholarship to Frimpong instead. The first words out of Frimpong's mouth? <i>Thank God</i>. The next: <i>What's UCSB?</i> </p><p>By that August, the Gauchos had a crafty midfielder with intangibles to burn. Frimpong's intelligence, instinct and vision, along with his speed and touch, made him an on-the-ball force. He also had a winning personality. "Frimmer was very humble and considerate, on and off the field," says head coach Tim Vom Steeg. </p><p>As a senior the next year, the 5'6" Frimpong developed a reputation as a lockdown defender in leading the unseeded Big West champs to a string of improbable NCAA tournament wins. When the final whistle blew on the 2006 national championship game, the Cinderella Gauchos had defeated four-time king UCLA. Frimpong earned All-Big West honors, a spot in the MLS supplemental draft and the gratitude of his peers. "He was the heart and soul of the team," says Pat Monahan. "Eric won us that championship."</p><p>Everyone around Frimpong was buoyed by his success: his mother, friends and classmates, prominent locals who had helped him out along the way with invites to dinner, rides to the store and, when he struggled with homesickness during his junior year, a fund-raiser that yielded $3,000 for a ticket to Ghana. "We all tried to pitch in, because Eric's so darn likable," says Tim Foley, a booster who made Frimpong a regular guest at his family's home. "He was an American success story."</p><p>The Monahans were especially proud. Frimpong had met his "American parents" on move-in day in 2005, and they promptly invited him to spend Thanksgiving in San Diego. They gave him his first cell phone and laptop and took him on family vacations. They sat in their kitchen for hours listening to his stories about Ghana. They were also impressed by his knowledge of the Bible, and his quiet spirituality helped bolster their own faith. "He was going to graduate, play professionally, make more money here than he ever could in Ghana and bring it back to support his family," Loni says. "Eric really had it all."</p><p>Something bad happened in Santa Barbara. On Feb. 17, 2007, sometime after midnight on a fast-eroding bluff of beach right below 6547 Del Playa Drive, Jane Doe was raped. She said Eric Frimpong did it, and an all-white jury agreed. But the nature of the case, and some of the more slippery details surrounding it, has divided the community, raising questions about the reliability of the victim's memory, the true character of the accused, the motives and tactics of law enforcement, even the fairness of the justice system. Amid all the controversy, though, two simple truths remain: A young woman was victimized, and a young man's dream was shattered.</p><a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=4300383">Click here to read the rest.</a>Mediawatchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02824200222407891613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1198269128386629398.post-45628811379431608892009-07-10T15:56:00.003-04:002009-07-10T16:02:45.426-04:00Savage Love: Rape ReliefThis is from an advice column that sex columnist/podcast host Dan Savage writes. The reader writes in about his partner's intimacy issues because, well, you can read it for yourself. We think Savage's response is straight-up outrageous. Is he always like this?<br /><br />____________<br /><br /><p class="savage_question"><b><i>I have a problem</i></b> <span style="font-style: italic;">with my happiness; he is a wonderful man who has a beauty that overwhelms me; we have a beautiful home; I am monogamous for the first time in a decade. But I just learned that I am the spitting image of a man in jail for raping my boyfriend.</span></p> <p style="font-style: italic;" class="savage_question">He says he is not in a place to dig up his emotions about the subject and wants to hold off on sex—fine by me. I admire him and his courage to be with me despite my appearance. I still love him, but I feel like there is something I could do to help him, to help us. So I guess I am asking for suggestions.</p> <p style="font-style: italic;" class="savage_question">Asking Not Begging</p><p class="savage_response"><span style="font-weight: bold;">First suggestion: </span>Verify his story.</p> <p class="savage_response">If you have a stunt double out there rotting in jail somewhere for raping your Wonder Boyfriend, ANB [Asking Not Begging], then there are police reports and trial transcripts and a mug shot that looks just like you. Go find 'em.</p> <p class="savage_response">I'm an asshole, of course, for casting doubt on your beautiful boyfriend's dramatic explanation for why his wonderfulness can't have sex with you right now—or ever, potentially, since he's "not in a place to dig up his emotions" and wants to "hold off" on sex. But cast I must, ANB, because one of two things is going on: Either your boyfriend is making this rape story up or he failed to share hugely pertinent info with you before moving in. Whichever it is, ANB, your boyfriend is at fault.</p> <p class="savage_response">Why would he make it up? Well, it could be that he's not attracted to you, ANB, and manipulating you with a victim story allows him to reap the rewards of being with you while earning him a "Get Out of Fucking You Free" card.</p> <p class="savage_response">If the story checks out—if you find that mug shot—then your boyfriend has my sympathies. But if he wasn't ready to resume his romantic and sexual life, ANB, he had no right to be out there dating anyone, least of all a man who looks exactly like his rapist. When we date, ANB, we're telling people that we're in a place where we're ready for love, romance, and sex. If we're not, we have no business dating anyone seriously. Period. At the very least, the onus was on him to disclose this information—his rape, your resemblance to his rapist—before moving in, not after.</p> <p class="savage_response">And finally: If you're not having sex with your boyfriend, or anyone else, and there's no sex in your foreseeable future, ANB, that's not monogamy—that's celibacy.</p>Mediawatchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02824200222407891613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1198269128386629398.post-7064957360477267362009-05-01T21:21:00.003-04:002009-06-17T17:18:59.809-04:00Is Rape Serious?An op-ed from the NYT By Nicholas D. Kristof on a the process of reporting rape and an investigation into what happens afterwards.<br /><br />_________<br /><br />When a woman reports a rape, her body is a crime scene. She is typically asked to undress over a large sheet of white paper to collect hairs or fibers, and then her body is examined with an ultraviolet light, photographed and thoroughly swabbed for the rapist’s DNA.<br /><br /><p>It’s a grueling and invasive process that can last four to six hours and produces a “rape kit” — which, it turns out, often sits around for months or years, unopened and untested.</p><p>Stunningly often, the rape kit isn’t tested at all because it’s not deemed a priority. If it is tested, this happens at such a lackadaisical pace that it may be a year or more before there are results (if expedited, results are technically possible in a week).</p><p>So while we have breakthrough DNA technologies to find culprits and exculpate innocent suspects, we aren’t using them properly — and those who work in this field believe the reason is an underlying doubt about the seriousness of some rape cases. In short, this isn’t justice; it’s indifference.</p><p>Solomon Moore, a colleague of mine at The Times, <a title="Times article on DNA in criminal cases" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/25/us/25dna.html">last year wrote about</a> a 43-year-old legal secretary who was raped repeatedly in her home in Los Angeles as her son slept in another room. The attacker forced the woman to clean herself in an attempt to destroy the evidence.</p><p>Tim Marcia, the detective on the case, thought this meant that the perpetrator was a habitual offender who would strike again. Mr. Marcia rushed the rape kit to the crime lab but was told to expect a delay of more than one year.</p><p>So Mr. Marcia personally drove the kit 350 miles to deliver it to the state lab in Sacramento. Even there, the backlog resulted in a four-month delay — but then it produced a “cold hit,” a match in a database of the DNA of previous offenders. </p><p>Yet in the months while the rape kit sat on a shelf, the suspect had allegedly struck twice more. Police said he broke into the homes of a pregnant woman and a 17-year-old girl, sexually assaulting each of them. </p><p>“The criminal justice system is still ill equipped to deal with rape and not that good at moving rape cases forward,” notes Sarah Tofte, who just wrote <a title="The full report" href="http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2009/03/31/testing-justice-0">a devastating report</a> for Human Rights Watch about the rape-kit backlog. The report found that in Los Angeles County, there were at last count 12,669 rape kits sitting in police storage facilities. More than 450 of these kits had sat around for more than 10 years, and in many cases, the statute of limitations had expired. </p><p>There are no good national figures, and one measure of the indifference is that no one even bothers to count the number of rape kits sitting around untested. </p><p>Why don’t police departments treat rape kits with urgency? One reason is probably expense — each kit can cost up to $1,500 to test — but there also seems to be a broad distaste for rape cases as murky, ambiguous and difficult to prosecute, particularly when they involve (as they often do) alcohol or acquaintance rape.</p><p>“They talk about the victims’ credibility in a way that they don’t talk about the credibility of victims of other crimes,” Ms. Tofte said.</p><p>Charlie Beck, a deputy police chief of Los Angeles, said that there was no excuse for the failure to test rape kits, but he noted that integrating a new technology into police work is complex and involves a learning curve. Since Human Rights Watch began its investigation, he said, the department had resolved to test rape kits routinely — and as a result, cold hits have doubled.</p><p>While the backlog and desultory handling of rape kits are nationwide problems, there is one shining exception: New York City has made a concerted effort over the last decade to test every kit that comes in. The result has been at least 2,000 cold hits in rape cases, and the arrest rate for reported cases of rape in New York City rose from 40 percent to 70 percent, according to Human Rights Watch. </p><p>Some Americans used to argue that it was impossible to rape an unwilling woman. Few people say that today, or say publicly that a woman “asked for it” if she wore a short skirt. But the refusal to test rape kits seems a throwback to the same antediluvian skepticism about rape as a traumatic crime. </p><p>“If you’ve got stacks of physical evidence of a crime, and you’re not doing everything you can with the evidence, then you must be making a decision that this isn’t a very serious crime,” notes Polly Poskin, executive director of <a title="The group’s home page" href="http://www.icasa.org/home.aspx?PageID=500">the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault</a>.</p>It’s what we might expect in Afghanistan, not in the United States.Mediawatchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02824200222407891613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1198269128386629398.post-77244049379418042252009-04-16T20:01:00.004-04:002009-04-16T20:05:27.493-04:00Afghan women pelted with stones during rape law protest<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAEPVuhZ1yW7flUJB_Q2LKoisJms6al8JsnevDiybtcTBU2PUqlIggzBs33xZ6hZdpyxDDgEKh12zKBthyphenhyphenRacKPSfFSq-nlzF46WdjGVRrbVZEtIHdUkSwKiZJCo4WSx1FW-KZ8iwoOj0/s1600-h/afghan-shiite-cp-w6563300.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAEPVuhZ1yW7flUJB_Q2LKoisJms6al8JsnevDiybtcTBU2PUqlIggzBs33xZ6hZdpyxDDgEKh12zKBthyphenhyphenRacKPSfFSq-nlzF46WdjGVRrbVZEtIHdUkSwKiZJCo4WSx1FW-KZ8iwoOj0/s400/afghan-shiite-cp-w6563300.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5325444005847845282" border="0" /></a><br /><p>Afghan women protesting against a new law that severely undermines women's rights were pelted with stones in the country's capital Wednesday, say reports.</p> <p>About 300 mostly young women gathered in Kabul to show their opposition to a recently passed law that forbids women from refusing to have sex with their husbands and requires them to get a male relative's permission to leave the house.</p> <p>The demonstration, organized by women's rights activists in the country, occurred in front of a Shia mosque recently built by a cleric who helped craft the law. Critics of the law say it effectively legalizes rape within marriage and is a return to Taliban-style rule.</p> <p>About 1,000 people opposed to the protest surrounded the women and threw gravel and small stones as police struggled to hold them back. The group of counter-protesters included both men and women.</p><p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhopK-ewWHzFvK1RiKvIdkLhfeGhqJRx4Muhyphenhyphenow1Me6VA9JBBdnS0TU7whxXbxliRFGQvGTKK3AUkysS95qP82OIDjSpiRePBFuTJ7yoStZSzpxGFGQGFFXbjAheVRjfE_2y0b_E31WioI/s1600-h/afghan-police-cp-6563327.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 252px; height: 217px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhopK-ewWHzFvK1RiKvIdkLhfeGhqJRx4Muhyphenhyphenow1Me6VA9JBBdnS0TU7whxXbxliRFGQvGTKK3AUkysS95qP82OIDjSpiRePBFuTJ7yoStZSzpxGFGQGFFXbjAheVRjfE_2y0b_E31WioI/s320/afghan-police-cp-6563327.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5325444180262071922" border="0" /></a></p><p>Some shouted "Death to the slaves of the Christians."</p> <p>"You are a dog. You are not a Shia woman," one man shouted to a young woman in a headscarf holding aloft a banner that said, "We don't want Taliban law."</p> <p>There were no reports of injuries.</p> <p>Sima Ghani, a women's rights activist, said everyone at the protest is united against the law.</p> <p>"No matter what religion we belong to, what sect we follow, we all stand against this law and want a reform of the law," she said.</p> <p>Jeremy Starkey, a reporter with The Independent newspaper who was at the demonstration, said he saw men pelt the women with stones.</p> <p>"I saw the men surging forward on a number of occasions," he said.</p> <p style="font-weight: bold;">"Female afghan police officers joined hands to form a human chain around the women to try to protect them."</p> <p>The law, which applies only to the minority Shia community, received widespread international condemnation.</p> <p>The government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said the law will be reviewed and won't be implemented in its current form.</p> <p>Canada's foreign affairs minister, Lawrence Cannon, said earlier this month Afghan officials had assured him they would delete "contentious clauses" from the legislation.</p> <p>The Afghan constitution guarantees equal rights for women, but also allows the Shia to have separate family law based on religious tradition.</p> <cite class="source"><em></em></cite>Mediawatchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02824200222407891613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1198269128386629398.post-30210488994382516272009-04-14T02:11:00.003-04:002009-04-14T02:17:41.632-04:00Palin Nominates Spousal Rape Defender for Attorney General<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><strong><span style="font-size:11;"><span style="font-weight: normal;font-size:100%;" ><br />By Max Blumenthal</span></span></strong></span> <p>While priming her political machine for a likely 2012 presidential primary run, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has fomented a scandal that threatens to further erode her reputation in the Last Frontier. In March, Palin nominated Wayne Anthony Ross for attorney general. Ross, a colorful far-right lawyer and longtime Palin ally who sports his initials, W.A.R., on his Hummer’s vanity plates, was once considered a shoo-in for confirmation. However, his nomination was thrown into grave peril when his opponents presented evidence that he called homosexuals “degenerates,” leveled invective against an African-American student offended by a statue of a Klansman, vowed to undermine the sovereignty of Native American tribes, and allegedly defended men who rape their wives. According to two sources close to the confirmation hearings, Palin may ask Ross to withdraw before his appointment comes to a vote.</p><br /><p>Palin’s hopes for a swift confirmation process were dashed April 10 when Leah Burton, a veteran lobbyist on children’s issues and domestic violence, submitted a <a href="http://community.adn.com/node/140395" target="_blank">letter</a> to the Alaska State Judiciary Committee claiming that Ross publicly defended spousal rape. According to Burton, who detailed the allegations for me, Ross allegedly declared during a speech before a 1991 gathering of the “father’s rights” group Dads Against Discrimination, “If a guy can’t rape his wife, who’s he gonna rape?” (In a subsequent letter, Ross denied the remark and claimed, “I don’t talk like that!”)</p> <p>Burton said Ross’s statement was consistent with his overarching attitude toward women’s issues. She claimed that he once said during a debate on the Equal Rights Amendment, “If a woman would keep her mouth shut, there wouldn’t be an issue with domestic violence.” Burton also maintained she has been in touch with “a number” of domestic-violence victims who witnessed Ross make “horrible” statements, but are too intimidated to speak out. “Alaska is a very small state and it’s terrifying for these victims to come forward because they’re afraid of retribution,” Burton told me.<span style="display: block;" id="formatbar_Buttons"><span class="on" style="display: block;" id="formatbar_CreateLink" title="Link" onmouseover="ButtonHoverOn(this);" onmouseout="ButtonHoverOff(this);" onmouseup="" onmousedown="CheckFormatting(event);FormatbarButton('richeditorframe', this, 8);ButtonMouseDown(this);"><img src="http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif" alt="Link" class="gl_link" border="0" /></span></span></p><a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-04-13/palins-new-disaster/">Read more.</a>Mediawatchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02824200222407891613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1198269128386629398.post-77496216954758729772009-04-13T10:07:00.003-04:002009-04-13T10:14:52.384-04:00Karzai Vows to Review Family LawBy Carlotta Gall and Sangar Rahimi<br /><br />KABUL, AFGHANISTAN - President Hamid Karzai ordered a review on Saturday of a new law that has been criticized internationally for introducing Taliban-era restrictions on women and sanctioning marital rape.<br /><p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUnuvVmjHvUWrmxVYdbDf0YJwd6nfp4QxFRyfwYhceRH_dArbCZP39tnjY5TcdvzggRozpvN37u5t40PTHR1Zy2CqBzFj-xVqBWLf61hwrPisqO7joBF1jjTIteg474gGU9vm1DLY-qpo/s1600-h/05afghan_190.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 190px; height: 251px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUnuvVmjHvUWrmxVYdbDf0YJwd6nfp4QxFRyfwYhceRH_dArbCZP39tnjY5TcdvzggRozpvN37u5t40PTHR1Zy2CqBzFj-xVqBWLf61hwrPisqO7joBF1jjTIteg474gGU9vm1DLY-qpo/s400/05afghan_190.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5324179076115701714" border="0" /></a>The president defended the law, which concerns family law for the Shiite minority, and said Western news media reports were misinformed. Nevertheless, he said his justice minister would review it and make amendments if the law was found to contravene the Constitution and the freedoms that it guarantees. </p><p>“The Western media have either mistranslated or taken incorrect information and then published it,” Mr. Karzai said at a news briefing in the presidential palace on Saturday. “If there is anything in contradiction with our Constitution or Shariah, or freedoms granted by the Constitution, we will take action in close consultation with the clerics of the country.” </p><p>If changes are needed, he said, the bill would be sent back to Parliament.</p><p>Human rights officials have criticized the law, in particular for the restrictions it places on when a woman can leave her house, and for stating the circumstances in which she has to have sex with her husband. </p><p>A Shiite woman would be allowed to leave home only “for a legitimate purpose,” which the law does not define. The law also says, “Unless the wife is ill, the wife is bound to give a positive response to the sexual desires of her husband.” Critics have said that provision legalizes marital rape.</p><p>The law also outlines rules on divorce, child custody and marriage, all in ways that discriminate against women, said Soraya Sobhrang, commissioner for women’s rights at the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission.</p><p>While the law applies only to Shiites, who represent approximately 10 percent of the population, its passage could influence a proposed family law for the Sunni majority and a draft law on violence against women, Ms. Sobhrang said. “This opens the way for more discrimination,” she said. </p><p>Mr. Karzai signed the law last week after a vote in Parliament last month, Ms. Sobhrang said, adding that she had seen a copy of the law with his signature. </p><p>However, the presidential spokesman, Homayun Hamidzada, would not confirm that the president had signed the law and said only that the he was still reviewing it. </p><p>Mr. Karzai’s decision to review the law came after a storm of criticism in recent days. Canada called in the Afghan ambassador for an explanation, and NATO's secretary general questioned why the alliance was sending men and women to fight in Afghanistan when discrimination against women was condoned by law. </p><p>Asked about the law at a news conference in Strasbourg, France, on Saturday, President Obama<span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span><a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/o/barack_obama/index.html?inline=nyt-per" title="More articles about Barack Obama."></a> called it “abhorrent.”</p><p>“We think that it is very important for us to be sensitive to local culture,” he said, “but we also think that there are certain basic principles that all nations should uphold, and respect for women and respect for their freedom and integrity is an important principle.”</p><p>Also on Saturday, Italy’s defense minister said Italy was considering a temporary withdrawal of the women serving in its force in Afghanistan to protest the law, Reuters reported.</p><p>The United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, said the law represented a “huge step in the wrong direction.” </p><p> “For a new law in 2009 to target women in this way is extraordinary, reprehensible and reminiscent of the decrees made by the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in the 1990s,” Ms. Pillay said in a statement posted on her agency’s Web site. “This is another clear indication that the human rights situation in Afghanistan is getting worse, not better.”</p><p>In addition to the clauses on when women may leave the home and must submit to their husbands, Ms. Pillay said she was concerned about a section that forbids women from working or receiving education without their husband‘s permission.</p><p>Ms. Sobhrang, who has been working on the issue for the last two years, said women’s groups and the human rights commissions had worked with Parliament to introduce amendments but then the law was suddenly pushed through with only three amendments. The bill as originally drawn up by Shiite clerics barred a woman from leaving the house without her husband’s permission, she said. The parliamentary judicial commission amended that provision to say that a woman could leave the house “for a legitimate purpose.” </p><p>Mr. Karzai cited that provision in a news conference on Saturday, pointing out that the final version of the law did not ban a woman from leaving her house. But Ms. Sobhrang said even as amended the law contravened the Constitution, which recognizes equal rights for men and women. The term “for a legitimate purpose” was open to interpretation, she added. </p><p>She said Mr. Karzai had supported women’s rights in the past but seemed to have given that up in recent months. Some Western officials have speculated that he signed the law to win the support of conservative Shiite clerics in coming presidential elections. </p><p>Yet the leading cleric behind the Family Law, Sheik Muhammad Asif Mohseni, complained last week that he was dissatisfied with the amendments that Parliament had made to his original draft. Speaking on his own television channel, Tamadun Television, he objected to the introduction of a legal age for marriage, “16 for women and 18 for men,” saying that people should be able to decide for themselves. </p><p>Human rights officials consider raising the marriage age a critical step toward ending the common practice of forced marriages and the marriage of young girls. </p><p>Another amendment gave women longer custody of young children in the case of divorce. In the original draft, women could have custody of a son until he was 2 years old, and a daughter until she was 7. The amended version raises the ages to 7 for boys and 9 for girls. </p><p>Ms. Sobhrang criticized both versions for not taking into account the interests and desires of the children. </p><nyt_update_bottom> </nyt_update_bottom>Mediawatchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02824200222407891613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1198269128386629398.post-20897639126514612032009-04-13T09:56:00.003-04:002009-04-13T10:04:15.205-04:00Ontario man found guilty in HIV murder trialThis is an extremely controversial case and may set a precedent in future murder cases of this kind. MediaWatch posted <a href="http://sacomss-mediawatch.blogspot.com/2009/01/1-year-sentence-for-hiv-positive-woman.html">a story</a> several months ago on an HIV+ woman in Quebec charged with sexual assault for hiding her status from her partner. For a little background reading, see <a href="http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/520777">this story</a> from 2008.<br />________________<br /><p>An HIV-positive Ontario man has been found guilty of first-degree murder in the deaths of two of his sex partners in what was considered a precedent-setting trial in Canada.</p> <p>The jury also convicted Johnson Aziga, 52, on 10 counts of aggravated sexual assault and one count of attempted aggravated sexual assault.</p> <p>Aziga, of Hamilton, had been accused of endangering the lives of 11 women by recklessly exposing them to the virus that causes AIDS.</p> <p>Seven women became infected with HIV, two have since died of AIDS-related cancer, and four tested negative.</p> <p>The first-degree murder charges made this case the first of its kind in Canada.</p> <p>In his instruction to jurors, Justice Thomas Lofchik said they need not find that Aziga planned and deliberately killed the two Toronto women for him to be found guilty of first-degree murder.</p> <p>The deaths of S.B., 51, and H.C., 49, would automatically be first-degree murders if the jury found they were committed as the result of an aggravated sexual assault, Lofchik said.</p> <p>During the six-month trial, the Crown described Aziga, a former employee of the Ministry of the Attorney General, as a callous and arrogant person who lied about his HIV status.</p> <p>Prosecutors alleged that Aziga failed to tell his partners of his HIV-positive status, even though he had been aware of it since 1996 and was under public-health orders to do so.</p> <p>The defence argued Aziga was depressed and ill and did not have the state of mind to deliberately endanger the lives of his sexual partners.</p>Mediawatchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02824200222407891613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1198269128386629398.post-30148544157633294642009-04-01T01:59:00.005-04:002009-04-01T02:05:29.691-04:00Afghanistan: President Karzai "Legalizes" Rape<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsp1KOVeCg6u6AFE-XZwNtKKTTD4tBjxsVWur5tt4UuFuzM9Sr9eyw3Y0uQ0GmgQ_n-YEyhyUCrPmOHA3i0b3u9Q7dxrfa210oQqZMtrIqMxpwOY9EvB_x8FoD9STUwJKnq3VOkCAgFlw/s1600-h/IN8778281Burqa-clad_157587t.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 220px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsp1KOVeCg6u6AFE-XZwNtKKTTD4tBjxsVWur5tt4UuFuzM9Sr9eyw3Y0uQ0GmgQ_n-YEyhyUCrPmOHA3i0b3u9Q7dxrfa210oQqZMtrIqMxpwOY9EvB_x8FoD9STUwJKnq3VOkCAgFlw/s400/IN8778281Burqa-clad_157587t.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5319599786743803330" border="0" /></a>By Jerome Starkey<p>Afghanistan's President, Hamid Karzai, has signed a law which "legalises" rape, women's groups and the United Nations warn. Critics claim the president helped rush the bill through parliament in a bid to appease Islamic fundamentalists ahead of elections in August.</p> <p>In a massive blow for women's rights, the new Shia Family Law negates the need for sexual consent between married couples, tacitly approves child marriage and restricts a woman's right to leave the home, according to UN papers seen by The Independent.</p><p>"It is one of the worst bills passed by the parliament this century," fumed Shinkai Karokhail, a woman MP who campaigned against the legislation. "It is totally against women's rights. This law makes women more vulnerable."</p><br /><p>The law regulates personal matters like marriage, divorce, inheritance and sexual relations among Afghanistan's minority Shia community. "It's about votes," Ms Karokhail added. "Karzai is in a hurry to appease the Shia because the elections are on the way."</p><p>The provisions are reminiscent of the hardline Taliban regime, which banned women from leaving their homes without a male relative. But in a sign of Afghanistan's faltering steps towards gender equality, politicians who opposed it have been threatened.</p><p>"There are moderate views among the Shia, but unfortunately our MPs, the people who draft the laws, rely on extremists," Ms Karokhail said.</p><p>The bill lay dormant for more than a year, but in February it was rushed through parliament as President Karzai sought allies in a constitutional row over the upcoming election. Senator Humeira Namati claimed it wasn't even read out in the Upper House, let alone debated, before it was passed to the Supreme Court. "They accused me of being an unbeliever," she said.</p><p>Details of the law emerged after Mr Karzai was endorsed by Afghanistan's Supreme Court to stay in power until elections scheduled in August. Some MPs claimed President Karzai was under pressure from Iran, which maintains a close relationship with Afghanistan's Shias. The most controversial parts of the law deal explicitly with sexual relations. Article 132 requires women to obey their husband's sexual demands and stipulates that a man can expect to have sex with his wife at least "once every four nights" when travelling, unless they are ill. The law also gives men preferential inheritance rights, easier access to divorce, and priority in court.</p><p>A report by the United Nations Development Fund for Women, Unifem, warned: "Article 132 legalises the rape of a wife by her husband".</p><p>Most of Afghanistan's Shias are ethnic Hazaras, descended from Genghis Khan's Mongol army which swept through the entire region around 700 years ago. They are Afghanistan's third largest ethnic group, and potential kingmakers, because their leaders will likely back a mainstream candidate.</p><p>Even the law's sponsors admit Mr Karzai rushed it through to win their votes. Ustad Mohammad Akbari, a prominent Shia political leader, said: "It's electioneering. Most of the Hazara people are unhappy with Mr Karzai."</p><p>A British Embassy spokesman said diplomats had raised concerns "at a senior level".</p>Mediawatchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02824200222407891613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1198269128386629398.post-37694919261349138522009-03-28T18:59:00.006-04:002009-03-28T19:12:37.384-04:00Woah.<span style="font-size:100%;"><a href="http://jezebel.com/5185533/finding-her-rapist-on-facebook-one-woman-ponders-demanding-an-apology?skyline=true&s=x"></a><br /></span><span><span style="font-size:100%;">A woman wrote into a column in Salon magazine a couple days ago asking for advice on whether to confront the person who raped her on Facebook who appeared under the "People You May Know" section.<br /><br /></span></span><span style="font-size:100%;">From Salon:</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> <a href="http://www.salon.com/mwt/col/tenn/2009/03/26/rapist_on_facebook/index.html?source=rss&aim=/mwt/col/tenn">"My date rapist is on Facebook as a 'person I might know'"</a><br /><br />From Jezebel: <a href="http://jezebel.com/5185533/finding-her-rapist-on-facebook-one-woman-ponders-demanding-an-apology?skyline=true&s=x">"Finding her rapist on Facebook, one woman ponders demanding an apology"</a></span>Mediawatchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02824200222407891613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1198269128386629398.post-63675095810202027652009-03-28T01:54:00.004-04:002009-03-28T01:59:12.590-04:00Amid Abuse, Brazil’s Abortion Debate FlaresBy Alexei Barrioneuvo<br /><br />Read <a href="http://sacomss-mediawatch.blogspot.com/2009/03/rape-row-sparks-excommunications.html">this</a> for background.<br /><p>SÃO PAULO, Brazil <span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span>— The waiting room at Pérola Byington Hospital resembles a small day care center many days. Young girls play on the cold tile floors or rock hyperactively in plastic chairs, while their mothers stare pensively at the red digital readout on a wall, signaling their place in line.</p> <p>But this is a women’s health clinic specializing in treating victims of sexual violence. Of the 15 such cases the hospital averages each day, nearly half involve children under 12.</p><p>While much of Brazil has been riled by the case of a 9-year-old girl who aborted twins this month after claiming her stepfather raped her, her ordeal was an all too familiar one at the clinic. </p><p>The girl’s story of rape and pregnancy at such a young age seemingly caught the nation off guard, reviving a tense debate over reproductive rights in a country with more Catholics than any other. But doctors, clinic workers and other experts say her case is symptomatic of a widespread problem of sexual abuse of under-age girls — one that has long been neglected and may be getting worse.</p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/28/world/americas/28brazil.html?_r=1&hp">Read more.</a><br /><a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/alexei_barrionuevo/index.html?inline=nyt-per" title="More Articles by Alexei Barrionuevo"></a>Mediawatchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02824200222407891613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1198269128386629398.post-76524147091012594732009-03-18T23:19:00.001-04:002009-03-19T10:16:36.367-04:00U.S. military rape reports rise, prosecution still low<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">By Anne Gearan, AP<b><br /></b></span><br />WASHINGTON - More people came forward to report sexual assaults in the U.S. military last year but a significant percentage wouldn't give details needed for an investigation. <p>The Pentagon said it received 2,923 reports of sexual assault across the military in the 12 months ending Sept. 30 2008. That's about a nine-per-cent increase over the totals reported the year before but only a fraction of the crimes presumably being committed. </p> <p> Among the cases reported, only a small number went to military courts, officials acknowledged. </p> <p>The Pentagon office that collects the data estimates only 10 to 20 per cent of sexual assaults among members of the active duty military are reported - a figure similar to estimates of reported cases in the civilian sphere. </p> <p>The military statistics, required by Congress, cover rape and other assaults across the approximately 1.4 million people in uniform. </p> <p>Kaye Whitley, director of the Pentagon's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office, said most victims are women, most cases involve young people and alcohol is often involved. </p> <p>The yearly increase in reports is more likely due to larger numbers of victims being willing to come forward, than to an overall increase in sexual violence, Whitley said. </p> <p> That increase includes a jump in cases from combat zones in Iraq and Afghanistan, to 165 from 131 the year before. </p> <p>Congresswoman Jane Harman, a congressional critic of the military's handling of sexual violence, said the statistics show the problem is still rampant. </p> <p> "While the report shows modest improvement, we're far from Mission Accomplished," the California Democrat said in a statement. </p> <p><span style="font-weight: bold;"> "Military women are more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire in Iraq."</span> </p> <p>The latest figures include 2,280 cases in which a victim provided full accounts and physical evidence when possible and 643 in which a victim sought care or made a report but refused to provide all the information necessary to pursue an investigation. </p> <p>The Defence Department allows those limited reports on the theory it encourages victims to at least seek care when they might otherwise keep silent. </p> <p> Prosecution is slow and large numbers of cases are thrown out or dropped. </p> <p>The most recent figures, which include cases left open from previous years, show only 317 cases were referred for courts martial, or military trials. Another 247 were referred for non-judicial punishment. </p>Mediawatchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02824200222407891613noreply@blogger.com0