Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: Rape and unreason, in reply to Dean Papa,
See what I mean? Putting words in the mouth of others. I am telling rape victims that they asked for it. Therefore I am an insensitive and horrible person, ipso facto everything I say is wrong and horrible.
Given the nature of the things being discussed here, actually, yes, you are being quite insensitive. Get over yourself.
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Hard News: Rape and unreason, in reply to Dean Papa,
It would take a miserable, chauvinistic misogynist bastard to dare suggest that rape victims had brought it on themselves.
Actually Dean, that’s exactly where we started: with the judge who sought to rationalise the decision of a jury that apparently accepted the victims’ account but refused to convict on the indecent assault charge – and put it down to the “foolishness” of the victims in walking in a certain place and (for god’s sake) being “dressed as they were”.
There is simply no other way to read this than that the victims contributed to their own assault.
FWIW, I walked through Albert Park last night. It’s a logical thoroughfare from Princes St, where there’s plenty of parking, down to Queen St. It’s not dark – it’s actually quite well lit. The idea that the two young tourists somehow should have known not to walk that way is ludicrous. Why can I walk that way and they couldn’t?
But that’s not the point. The point is that their decision to walk in a particular place and wear a particular thing thing is irrelevant. Neither of these things was an invitation of assault.
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Decades after, Madonna opens up on her rape as a young woman. It figures that she'd do this in a piece she wrote herself than in an interview.
Her full Harper's Bazaar piece is here.
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Hard News: Rape and unreason, in reply to Bob Dobelina,
Priestley offered “the foolishness of your two victims, venturing out alone at night in a park in a strange city, dressed as they were” as a potential basis for the acquittal.
No, you don’t get it, which is too bad for an old school journalist like you. Priestly J is sentencing after a verdict with which he disagreed. He’s trying to say the jury got it wrong.
Yes, I do realise that was the case. On the other hand, no one made him talk about the “foolishness” of the victims going out after dark dressed as they were. He came up with with that stuff all by himself and he really shouldn’t have.
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Hard News: Thursday Music: Doing the Business, in reply to Simon Sjorn,
Like the Marixst critique discussed previously here, this is a commentary from someone so caught up in her POV she doesn't get how goddamn imperialist it is. Yes, a kid in New Zealand is going to to see the Jay Z/Kanye album (which is the specific root of the lyrics) as distant and irrelevant to her life with her friends. Fucksake.
Also. Lorde met Kanye in London the other week. He shook her hand.
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Hard News: Rape and unreason, in reply to Danielle,
“But this is going to make us feel so persecuted!” vs “But we feel we are already BEING persecuted!” Understanding the latter perspective can really help with the former, though.
I very much agree. But I still think, having read it over yet again, that Dylan's substantive point wasn't that - it was about not normalizing rape (or in the case of It's Not OK, any violence) as male behaviour. That's why I'm banging on about reading each other positively.
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Hard News: Rape and unreason, in reply to Gee,
Yo Gee - thanks for your understanding. Rock on.
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Hard News: Rape and unreason, in reply to Gee,
You’re not listening to what we’re saying. The current victim-blaming way of ‘dealing’ with rape and sexual assault tells every woman/trans* person to consider any male a threat. Therefore if you don’t know a male very well, he could be a rapist. That’s not asking men to behave badly, but it sure as heck isn’t asking anyone to think about their actions and their words. Saying, hey, don’t rape, ask for consent, don’t let others talk about this/do this is not blaming all men, it’s asking everyone to take responsibility for themselves. Not such a tall order, is it.
I'm sorry if I've missed something, but this does not seem very different from Dylan's substantial and repeated contention about not normalizing rape as male behaviour.
Again, I must ask everyone to assume good faith and to read other people here in the best, and not the worst, light. We're maintaining a tricky balance in a very important discussion. Let's keep doing that.
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Arthur Ahbez last night -- and a background interview in which this blog gets a namecheck!
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Hard News: Rape and unreason, in reply to B Jones,
I read something in a different context yesterday (cancer prevention) which reminded me of this discussion – the just world fallacy. Good things don’t happen to good people, therefore if something bad happens to you, whether that’s cancer or assault, perhaps you did something wrong.
Oh, yes. The cancer one. A dear friend of mine got very, very tired of well-meaning people offering her advice on the apparent assumption that she got cancer because she wasn't thinking right or some fucking thing. Grrr.
