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“A dream you dream alone is only a dream; a dream you dream together is reality.” — Yoko Ono
Jun
6
Biggest Trigger Warning Ever
Filed Under rape and sexual assault, violence against women and girls | Posted by Cara |
I’m at a loss for words. A fucking loss.
[I don't even know how I feel about the article; I can't shake the sense that there's a torture porn quality to it.]
I don’t believe in the death penalty. There are occasional moments, and this is one of them, when I start to wish that I did.
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“Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less.” — Susan B. Anthony
I agree with you about the article =/ There was just no need to go into that kind of graphic detail. I wonder how the woman feels about having her ordeal on display for the whole world to read in that way?
Exactly. They could have easily explained the crimes, listed some of them and gotten across the point about how horrific it was (actually, the title alone did that for me) without the “first he did this. then she cried. then he did this. so she screamed bloody murder.” I can see how that level of detail would be necessary in a courtroom, both because a jury needs to hear about what happened, and because graphic detail seems to never hurt in procuring a conviction. For a newspaper article, though? To repeat all of that? I just happened to stumble upon other articles on this case after putting up this post. They didn’t look anything like this. It’s a sad, sad day when I read a NY Post article and think “wow, that was so much more responsible than the NY Times version.”
Something weird just happened. When I first read your post, I clicked on the link and got the text of the article; but when I click on it now (literally a minute and a half later), I get an NYT message saying that I need to be a member to read it.
Which makes me wonder of they got complaints enough to restrict it.
From my first look, I see what you mean about torture porn; I can’t recall ever seeing an article detail a rape so minutely. At least one optomistic part of me does wonder if it might have been an attempt to make male readers find it as horrific as they should (seeing as so many don’t) rather than pure sensationalism, but most of me isn’t that optimistic.
I tried re-reading it to solidy my opinion, which is why I noticed the change. Also to make sure I was reading correcly when I saw that one of the defense’s strategies is to claim misidentification (!?).
Nick, I thought that the Times only put things behind the member wall when they were a few days old. But I’m permanently signed in, so I don’t even notice anymore. I recommend it, actually. It’s free and it prevents a lot of hassle.
I didn’t get the “Members Only” message. Maybe it’s random.
Completely horrifying, though. I’m at a loss for words that are extreme enough to describe that.
And the writing style… uh, yeah. Definitely made me even more uneasy. It’s not the detail of the crimes I found so problematic, it’s the weird description — like it’s fiction or something when it’s not.
And, of course, the woman’s ordeal is first described passively, without being attributed to a perpetrator until later in the article.
That made me sick to my stomach. And he never should have been free to do this – how many attempted murders and murders does one need to commit to never see the light of day again?
I am also not a death penalty proponent…but I agree, this case could sway that…
I’m against the death penalty because I believe that all human life has value. In cases like this, I wonder if the guy is human at all.
You know…I cannot get behind how the death penalty is applied in this country, and so I cannot endorse it, but I am not against it in principle. Human society can only function by contract. You can be a specimen of homo sapiens sapiens, but there’s a bar to entry into the welcoming arms of humanity. The human family. You do THIS? You no longer qualify. You are a jumped up ape who is clearly rabid and must be put down before he causes one more ounce of pain to any living thing.
I’m not going to argue with people about their views on the death penalty, and that kind of debate can, for the most part, freely occur. But can we please not use words like “ape”? I’m going to give the benefit of the doubt and assume, since it’s not mentioned in the NYT article, that you weren’t aware that the man on trial is black. Which doesn’t restrict us from talking about the heinousness of the crime or the kind of horribly shitty excuse for a human being that you’d have to be to commit it, but it absolutely does rule out monkey-referencing language.
Cara, no, I had no idea about his race.
ugh. not just the level of detail and choosing to use it in narrative (rather than brief description), but the fact that they just end the story with her running out into the hallway.
so the torture merits detail, but how she got herself to help doesn’t? who heard her, what they did?
it’s kind of telling. imo.
i don’t understand what makes society like to see this stuff. it’s the same as the lifetime movie genre. all these awful things you hope never happen to anyone you know, self included. and it’s not schadenfreude because most people identify with the victim and feel awful for her (usually her). i don’t know what it is, beyond that. maybe it’s some sick comfort to people to know that these kinds of things happen. maybe they get something out of the anger at the perpetrator. (especially — sorry — the men who buy into the whole macho protector role)
dunno. it disturbed me too.
I really did not feel that the level of description used in the article was necessary. Dealing with this horrible experience is going to be difficult enough for her without each and every second of it becoming public knowledge. With the way rape victims are treated this is going to make her recovery that much more difficult, while turning him into some sort of sick cult hero for people that get off on torturing women. I wonder if they author of this report realized what he/she ( cannot remember gender of author) did when they wrote this. How many sick individuals will read the description of this attack, get excited and form even more demented ideas about how to harm women?
my mind says he should get LWP
He’ll probably get shanked at the first opportunity – no loss to the human race though
Last year when this story first broke, I recall reading a similar level of detail in other news articles. This NYT piece seems to be in keeping with how this horror is being covered. I guess we should be grateful that some fine journalist hasn’t yet released her name, or some other easily identifiable detail of her life.
Human society can only function by contract. You can be a specimen of homo sapiens sapiens, but there’s a bar to entry into the welcoming arms of humanity. The human family. You do THIS? You no longer qualify. You are a jumped up ape who is clearly rabid and must be put down before he causes one more ounce of pain to any living thing.
And this is how genocide happens. Human beings are animals capable of horrible, horrible things. Do not fall into the trap of trying to separate yourself from that. Know that it is possible and that is why we must stand guard.
This man is a horrible person who did a horrible thing and he must be held accountable for that. But he is still a human being. If he were not, we would not be correct in punishing him.
[...] previously criticized the incredibly graphic coverage of this case, I won’t repeat it. Let it suffice to say that [...]