Victim Blaming in NYTimes

By Daniella Galaviz

In a New York Times article, entitled “Vicious Assaults Shakes Texas Town” by James C. McKinley, McKinley goes as far as blaming an 11 year old girl for a sexual attack made against her.  The article begins by speaking about the boys future “the boys have to live with this the rest of their lives” but what about the victim? Five of the suspects were in high school, one was a 21 year old son of a school board member, a few have criminal records that range from selling drugs to robbery, and in one case, manslaughter. The ages range from middle schoolers to a 27- year old.  These “boys” knew what they were doing. This11 year old girl, however, is not old enough to consent.

Victim blaming is holding the victim of a crime or any type of abusive maltreatment to be responsible for the transgressions committed against them. In this case an 11 year old girl was brutally assaulted. The assault took place after a 19 year old man invited the victim to ride around in his car, he took her to a house where another man, 19, lived.  There the girl was disrobed and sexuality assaulted by several boys in the bedroom and bathroom. When a relative of one of the suspects arrived, the group fled and went to an abandoned mobile home, where the assault continued. There the assault was recording and later shown to other students (McKinley, 2011).

McKinley goes on to state that the 11 year old girl had been seen wearing provocative clothes, and make-up, not suited for her age but rather for a woman in her 20s. Even though this child, might wear provocative clothes it does not mean that others have the right to sexually assault them. The word provocative is defined as “Serving or tending to provoke, excite, or stimulate” according to Merriam-Webster. This young girl didn't intentionally or willingly try to “provoke” or “excite” these men. No women who has been sexually assaulted tries to provoke their attackers into committing such a crime.

In the article, “Did the New York Times Blame the 11 Year Old Victim of a Texas Gang Rape?” by Andrea Grimes, Grimes mentions how irrelevant stating that an 11 year old wearing make-up was. Grimes states that McKinley, a graduate of Cornell University, should have known better than to print this information in a national news article. By printing how some people perceived an 11-year-old child to dress in a sultry, sexy way doesn’t give readers information they need – which is the fact that this is a horrible thing that happened in our society. Writing about how people in the community thought about the boys' welfare rather than the girl's perpetuates rape culture not only within the small community itself in Texas, but all over the nation. It gives those who want one an excuse to dismiss the behavior of 18 men who have been suspected of gang-raping an 11-year-old girl.

When a woman, in this case a child, is raped or sexually molested society always questions the victim rather than facing the actual culprit and investigating why they did it or how they could have committed such a crime. Society instead blames the victim with common ideas like “if she hadn't been wearing clothes like that..” or “she was asking for it” or “she shouldn't have been walking around that late.” It is sickening that society even questions what a woman must have done to provoke sexual assault. Instead of blaming the victim, society should look at the real problem, the perpetrator.

Now, to be fair, the NYTimes publication did come out and tried to re-examine the article, breaking it down into sections and pinpointing certain pieces that proved that the original author didn't mean to victim blame. However, they still use the same type of language as in the first article, "These elements, creating an impression of concern for the perpetrators and an impression of a provocative victim, led many readers to interpret the subtext of the story to be: she had it coming." Now, they did try to explain themselves and said that they were simply giving an insight into the community that was questioning the lack of supervision that left this young child at risk. This still puts blame on the victim's family when there should be investigation into the perpetrators family, the way they were raised, and how they lured such a young girl into this situation. 

The article continues, trying to clean up it's language and tone, "Philip Corbett, standards editor for The Times, told me earlier today that the story focused on the reaction of community residents and that there was no intent to blame the victim. He added, “I do think in retrospect we could have done more to provide more context to make that clear.”" This is something that the NYTimes and our patriarchal society needs to work on in general. I think they were woken up to this incident and rightfully so. 

Rape Culture in Our Day to Day Lives

by Taure Shimp

Acts of violence against women and rape are not isolated events—they take place in the context of a larger cultural system (known as rape culture) that normalizes the mistreatment of women in insidious ways. Wikipedia sums up the concept of rape culture by saying, “Within [rape culture], acts of sexism are commonly employed to validate and rationalize normative misogynistic practices; for instance, sexist jokes may be told to foster disrespect for women and an accompanying disregard for their well-being, which ultimately make their rape and abuse seem ‘acceptable.’ Examples of behaviors that typify rape culture include victim blaming and sexual objectification. In this way, sexualized violence towards women is regarded as a continuum in a society that regards women's bodies as sexually available by default.” This is profoundly problematic for obvious reasons.

One of the ways rape culture manifests itself is in “rape schedules,” which scores of women live by. Many of us find ourselves scheduling our lives around the threat of rape: a woman studying in the university library will feel pressure to leave before dark so that she can walk somewhat confidently to her car, the bus, or her bike. Joe Sharkey wrote a piece for the New York Times wherein business consultant Carol Margolis observed that for travelling business women, a fear of harassment “restricts some women on the road from leaving their hotels and really enjoying their travels in their off time.” Our lives are limited by the inability to move confidently through the world at all times of day.

This is why events like Take Back the Night are so important. Take Back the Night is an event consisting of workshops, speakers, and a silent march to raise awareness about violence and rape against women. Take Back the Night is, in many ways, a refusal to abide by the edicts of a rape schedule. CSU, Chico’s own Take Back the Night will be taking place on March 8, 2011. The event opens with two workshops beginning at 7:30; one is a women’s only survivor speak out where women can share their own experiences in a safe environment. The other is a workshop for both men and women. Keynote speaker Dr. Kate Transchel will address participants at 8:30 and the night culminates in a silent, candle-lit march beginning at 9:00 pm. Come be part of this empowering event!

For more information about Rape Culture (and the movements to change it), check out these links:

1.      Yes Means Yes
2.      Stop Street Harassment 
3.      Ihollaback.org 

Take Back the Night; Spring 2011

AS Women’s Center

BMU 002

Chico, CA 95928

TAKE BACK THE NIGHT

Raising Awareness about Sexual Assault and Violence against Women

CHICO, CA- 

Take Back the Night is an opportunity for students and community members to come together and recognize the ongoing issue of rape culture and violence

against women.

This is a night to acknowledge and empower survivors of sexual assault, a night to empower and educate friends, family and supporters, a night to reclaim our right to feel safe and secure after dusk. Join us to TAKE BACK THE NIGHT!

Monday, March 7th

10:00-2:00pm 

Free Speech Area, Informational Tabling

Tuesday, March 8th

10:00-2:00 pm

Free Speech Area, Informational Tabling

7:30 pm

BMU 210, Women Only Survivor Speak Out: A place for women to speak out about their experiences in a safe and supportive setting. Women are encouraged to share personal stories, or express their experiences through conversation, poems, journal entries, etc.

BMU 304, Gender Inclusive Workshop: An interactive workshop focused on combating rape culture in our community and society. The discussion will include ideas about how individuals can aid in eradicating the perpetuation of violence against women.

8:30 pm

Common Grounds, Keynote Address by Professor Kate Transchel, History Department

9:00 pm

Free Speech Area, Silent Candle-lit March: A silent march to raise awareness about sexual assault and violence against women.

                                                                                                                                For further information, contact:

                                                                                                Jillian Ruddell, Director of the AS Women’s Center

                                                                                                (P) 530-898-5724

                                                                                                Email:ASWOMENSCENTERSD@CSUCHICO.EDU

Women in the Military

by Hannah Clause

Women in the war zone has become a hot topic as the media discusses the recent sexual assault on news journalist Lara Logan, and as we see more women than ever before fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. I recently read two articles that have to do with women being at the front line of combat. The big question everyone seems to be concerned with is should they be there?

In Kim Barker’s article in the New York Times, “Why We Need Women in War Zones” she talks about how it is not uncommon for journalists to be assaulted while on the job. Since Lara Logan’s recent assault, the code of silence on sexual assault against female journalists has been broken. Barker argues that she and many fellow journalists would not report what had happened to them because they did not want to seem different or more vulnerable than their male colleagues. The reaction by some to the assault on Lara Logan was disturbing (read Nikki’s blog post about victim blaming). Barkers fear is not about getting attacked, but instead “that there will be suggestions that female correspondents should not be sent into dangerous situations”. The first reaction many people have is to put the responsibility onto the women doing their job when it should be on the perpetrators to not commit such heinous acts. Why are we punishing women for men’s actions? All journalists are taking a risk, but don’t punish women because of other people’s actions. Women in the war zone are critical, with out them the only opinion we would get was that of men, and in reality we need both. As Barker puts it, “Without female correspondents in war zones, the experience of women there may only be a rumor.”

If it is important to have women reporting from the war zone, than isn’t it important to have women fighting in them too? NPR is doing a week long series on what it means to be a woman in uniform today, covering the stories of five women in different stages of their military career. Currently the pentagon has a policy that prohibits women from being allocated to direct ground combat units. Contrary to this is that there are no clear “front lines” anymore, and women are indeed fighting in direct combat. Because of the policy in place women are able to get big promotion with out any combat experience, which only puts everyone at a disadvantage. Some of the issues arising on why we should not eliminate this policy are pregnancy, privacy, unit cohesion, and perhaps the trickiest is sexual harassment/assault.

Kayla Williams told her story of living with her all male unit on the side of a mountain in Iraq for six months. She reports that she had to keep a crisp line that the men could not cross, but kept a balance to let them know she was one of them. Williams believes that the policy in place now actually makes it harder for men and women to be in combat together, “I believe that the combat exclusion actually exacerbates gender tensions and problems within the military, because the fact that women can’t be in combat arm jobs allows us to be portray s less then fully soldiers.”

Like Williams said, by basing exclusion off of sex it only further ingrains the idea that women are less than men. If we don’t let women engage in war zone journalism, we are portraying the idea that they are somehow not as fit to do the job as a man. As a woman I am aware of the risks around me when I go out at night, does that mean I am not suppose to go out? It’s time to stop making decisions based off of the wrongful actions of men (or women). As an American citizen it doesn’t seem right to not let a woman fight, in direct combat, for her country because of her reproductive organs, or because of the crimes that might be committed against her. Like I said as women we are very aware of the risks that are out there. Women being in the front line of combat is a topic that will definitely be getting some attention in the upcoming months as the Military Leadership Diversity Commission plans to tell congress next month to eliminate the combat exclusion policy.