Posts by Julie Fairey
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Further discussion of that Stuff link can be found here and here.
I'm kind of glad you mentioned Tea Ropati's case Sofie. I find it upsetting seeing him and his wife on the front of the women's mags proclaiming his innocence, it must be so so much worse for his victim. No wonder the woman in this case has made a conscious choice to not complain to the police, having seen what happened in the Ropati case, in the Mt Maunganui case (even though they were convicted), to Louise Nicholas, etc etc ad nauseum (and ad infinitum). I would hope I would have the strength to complain, if it were me, but I can understand why so many don't.
-
David, thanks so much for speaking last night, it was fantastic and we have had lots of positive feedback. Look forward to some of your ideas making it into your blog posts.
For those who couldn't make it we are hoping to get some video up on the Facebook page and probably The Standard in the next few days, but there may have been some issues with the sound (interference with the radio frequency of the mic Lyn tells me) so I can't make any promises.
Big ups to everyone who came along and made it a success, if you want to make sure you get advance warning of future events please join the Facebook group 'Drinking Liberally NZ' or email me.
-
So looking forward to hearing you tonight David, thanks for plugging it here and on Nat Rad.
I'm coming unaccompanied, if by unaccompanied you mean the Mr is staying home and caring for the bairn ;-)
Also there is some talk of trying to take some video, as Wellington did with Michael Cullen, so as long as the technical ducks are in a row you may be able to watch Judy!
-
Sofie, I'm sorry I was using "report" in two different senses in my last comment - in the last part I was referring to media reportage, not reporting to the police.
Most of my dealings with the cops have been in the context of civil disobedience of varying degrees (on my part). On the few occasions I have had the misfortune to be burgled/crashed into/had my garden set alight I've found the cops pretty good to deal with.
However the one time I was assaulted (by someone other than a police officer in the course of a protest) the police did not take it seriously at all, despite my half-a-law-degree talk, my insistence on being given a form to make a complaint to the PCA (as it was then), and the fact that one of the other people assaulted could not walk. They never laid charges against the group who assaulted us, and in fact served us with trespass notices instead. No matter how obnoxious we were being it didn't justify hurting someone (not me) so much that she had to get by on crutches for a week afterwards.
As for the bullshit rape allegations - perhaps if people knew their allegations were likely to be taken seriously they might be less likely to throw the rape word around when it wasn't warranted?
-
She said that Police themselves have said they think 60-80% of rape complaints are false, and if they're coming from that mindset then it's hard already for women to be taken seriously.
Urgh, that is the most depressing thing I've read in ages. And it's been a depressing week.
I'd also note that if it's hard for a woman who has been raped to be taken seriously, or to report to the police, it must be even harder for those men who are raped. We need to make it easier for anyone to report, imho.
As for false allegations being somehow deserving of more coverage because they are an exceptional event? Also depressing. And it gives the impression that true allegations are the exception, not the other way around. More reporting of true rape allegations would probably be bloody difficult to take for those who have been victims of sexual assault (particularly if the media focused on the prurient details, as has happened a few times recently). So what's the answer here? I don't know.
-
Oops, my bad Russell, thanks for the correction. For once it was relevant to be talking about someone's boobs! :-) Although as I'm currently breast-feeding your assertion that they looked sore did rather pique my interest...
Ok, I'm going to stop now.
-
I'm assuming there has been some moderation here, as I can't seem to find the original irrelevant comment about someone's breasts? Good job that moderator!
Thanks for the plug for Drinking Liberally Russell :-)
On the issue of the timing of the referendum Labour is on a hiding (boom boom) to nothing here. What annoys me is that people seem to have forgotten that National voted for the law change. Yet they will now be able to surf the wave of outrage against it? ARGH!
-
One of the things that bugs me about media reporting around rape is the much much higher reporting of false allegations, as opposed to coverage of genuine ones. I have absolutely no stats to support this, but I suspect that a very high percentage of false allegations get media coverage. And we know that a very low percentage of genuine complaints get coverage, and further that those genuine complaints significantly under represent the actual number of rapes and sexual assaults, as so few people (women and men) report the violation to the police.
I accept that there are probably a tiny, infinitesimal, number of women who do act in a trapperazi manner. But the way it is reported gives the impression that a large number of XXers are all trying to trap a man, All Black, English rugby player, whatever, with our sexual wiles. I humbly submit that the number of women who do this is significantly smaller than the number of men who rape. Yet the reportage suggests vice versa.
And I'd also point out that just because you might set out to get a shot of your boobs with a famous person, for a payout, does not mean you can't be raped.
To finish up with a bit of shameless blog-promotion, here are a couple of new posts on The Hand Mirror about this, which may or may not be of interest to readers:
And somehow I find myself defending rugby players by Anna McM
and
"Hijinks"?! a guest post by another Anna, specifically looking at the language used by the media. -
This is all so depressing, to be honest. I got so mad when One News referred to it as a "sex romp" last night. And I'm pretty sure I heard wrong, but there appeared to be an interview with someone from the English rugby team management on Nat Rad yesterday and he used the phrase (this is the bit I hope I misheard) "honey traps."
When someone is killed and the crime is reported there is no belittling language used. When someone is violently assaulted the same holds true, UNLESS it is rape. Why oh why is sexual assault reported so differently? (Only partly rhetorical). Perhaps if a news source is unsure what language to use they could use the actual language in the Crimes Act, ie "sexual violation", in the same way that they would for a non-sexual assault.
Darren Shand should be ashamed. Perhaps we need to get him and the ALAC advertising team, and all the journalists we can, into a room with Rape Crisis educators. Trapperazi warnings? How about telling international rugby players that we take rape seriously in this country, and that they are not above the law?
-
Wow, go away from the keys for a day and come back to this!
In short: What Lucy, Deborah, Anjum, Sue, Danielle, and a number of other people already said, about consent, about women, about men, about sex, about rape.
What concerns me most about this current situation is the media approach. As per usual they seem to be prepared to operate in an information vaccum, and infer pseudo-facts, rather than admit that there is a paucity of detail available yet, so let's just wait before we judge. Commenters who have more knowledge of the media than I might like to enlighten me - do journos get specific training about how to report rape allegations and the like? Is it organised by groups who would know eg Rape Prevention Education (Rape Crisis as it used to be known)? Is that training undermined by editorial oversight?
I really feel for the woman in the midst of this. Whatever is going on for her right now it must be absolutely horrific. It's worth reflecting that the usual estimate of false allegations for any crime, including rape, is about 5% of those reported (to the police, not the NotW). Media coverage of false allegations is of course much much higher.
And given the conflation of this woman's situation (can we please stop referring to her as a girl? 18 is a young woman in my book, she can vote, she can drive, she can drink, she can die for her country, etc etc) with Angel's, it seems impossible to imagine that even the strongest, most supported woman would pursue a complaint, even if it weren't against a group of demigods, oh I mean, rugby players.
Oh and Matt Stevens was also the second place getter for Celebrity X Factor in 2006. Don't ask me why I know that.