thecurvature:

Trigger Warning on posts and links for very explicit descriptions of gang rape against an intoxicated person, severe victim-blaming and rape apologism, and ableism.

Four years ago, a 17-year-old girl was allegedly gang raped at an alcohol fueled party by 9 young men, almost all De Anza College baseball players. The girl was found by three female soccer team players, who are said to have forced their way into the room to break up the ongoing assault, finding the victim semi-conscious and covered in vomit while men performed various sexual acts on her.  The victim went to police; the three women were all very clear in their statements about how the encounter was not and could not have been consensual. A huge media frenzy ensued. And then, no charges were ever filed against the accused players.

Back in spring 2007, very soon after I first began blogging, the De Anza rape case was one of the very first instance of sexual violence I ever wrote about, so long ago that it was before I had come to terms with the fact that I was a rape survivor myself. For that reason among many others, it is a case that I have written about very extensively and that has always remained very strongly with me. Almost four years later, the case is still not over, justice has not been done, and the victim is still actively seeking accountability for what was done to her that night.

Three years after the DA decided to not pursue the case for “insufficient evidence” — despite the three witnesses to the rape never having been sought for grand jury testimony, and despite much forensic evidence never being tested — the victim has taken her case to civil court in a final attempt at legal recognition of the crimes against her.

This post is largely just a round-up of all the shit that’s been going on in this case since it first began a couple weeks back. It’s kind of hodgepodge, I must confess. And the nature of the information itself is horrible. Please take the trigger warning seriously.

Follow-up to this blog post: [Trigger warning for mention of rape] Tell the New York Times to Apologize for Blaming a Child for Her Gang Rape (petition)

The NYTimes blog has attempted an “apology” for its coverage of the gang-rape story in Texas. The original story was littered with victim-blaming and sympathy for the perpetrators. Here is a link to the petition for an apology on change.org.

The story quickly climbed The Times’s “most emailed” list but not just because of the sensational facts of the crime involved. “Vicious Assault Shakes Texas Town,” published on Tuesday, reported the gang rape by 18 boys and men of an 11-year-old girl in the East Texas town of Cleveland.

The viral distribution of the story was, at least in part, because of the intense outrage it inspired among readers who thought the piece pilloried the victim.

My assessment is that the outrage is understandable. The story dealt with a hideous crime but addressed concerns about the ruined lives of the perpetrators without acknowledging the obvious: concern for the victim.

While the story appeared to focus on the community’s reaction to the crime, it was not enough to simply report that the community is principally concerned about the boys and men involved – as this story seems to do. If indeed that is the only sentiment to be found in this community – and I find that very hard to believe – it becomes important to report on that as well by seeking out voices of professional authorities or dissenting community members who will at least address, and not ignore, the plight of the young girl involved.

From Shelby Knox of change.org:

Brisbane’s blog post is not an apology, nor does it go far enough in explaining that “balance” does not mean giving equal weight and space to the concerns of the child rape victim and those of her alleged rapists. In addition, as the blog post only appeared online, we have yet to see whether a condemnation of the coverage will also appear in his regular Sunday column (or anywhere) in the paper. But as the public editor of the New York Times holds a respected place in the journalism community, his words sent a message to reporters at publications across the country that victim-blaming is never appropriate.

I completely agree that this “apology” is unacceptable. To claim that the piece ‘lacked balance’ is patronising and minimising. Instead of focusing on a this lack of balance, the blog piece would have been better served to be as outraged as 1000s of readers at the amount of victim-blaming which went on in the original piece. The victim-blaming was discussed but only in a tokenistic and defensive ‘we didn’t mean it like that, honest’ way. Is the next piece going to tell us that we’re all too sensitive and that we should just lighten up? Quite possibly.

It is immensely important that the NYTimes apologies for this article. In the few short paragraphs of the piece, the paper sympathised with the numerous perpetrators of this horrific gang-rape (“they will have to live with this for the rest of their lives”) and firmly placed the blame for the rapes in the 11-year-old victim (“she wore make-up and dressed as if she was older”). Please sign this petition.

On March 8th the New York Times published a story by James C. McKinley Jr. titled “Vicious Assault Shakes Texas Town.” The assault it described was, indeed, heinous: an 11-year-old was gang raped in an abandoned trailer house by as many as 18 men, with suspects ranging in age from middle school students to a 27-year-old. The attack came to light because several of the suspects took cell phone video of the assault.

Also appalling was the way in which New York Times reporter James C. McKinley reported the victim blaming sentiments of members of the Texas community in which the rape occurred as truth. McKinley insinuated the young woman had it coming, writing, “They said she dressed older than her age, wearing makeup and fashions more appropriate to a woman in her 20s. She would hang out with teenage boys at a playground, some said.”

Mr. McKinley also gave ink to community members who are more concerned about the impact raping a child will have on the suspects than being raped will have on the young victim. Mr. McKinley quoted Sheila Harrison as saying, ““These boys have to live with this the rest of their lives.”

1 in 4 American women will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime. A culture that blames victims for being raped - for what they were wearing, where they were, and who they were with - rather than blaming the rapist is a culture that tacitly condones rape. A society that is more concerned with how being held accountable for rape will impact the perpetrator than for the well being of the victim is a society that doesn’t take rape seriously.

The New York Times contributed to this dangerous culture by publishing this article by Mr. McKinley without asking him to edit out his and community members’ editorial victim blaming.

Tell the New York Times to issue a published apology for their coverage of this incident and publish an editorial from a victim’s rights expert on how victim blaming in the media contributes to the prevalance of sexual assault. No one ever deserves to be raped and no victim should ever be told it was their fault. New York Times, we expect better. We demand better.