slut-shaming

Alleged Victim Slut-Shamed, Rape Case Thrown Out

by Cara January 15, 2010

A particular rape case has been making the rounds lately, for its especially ludicrous and misogynistic outcome. In short, a U.K. woman made allegations of a gang rape by five perpetrators. The case made it to court. And then, the judge ordered the jury to return a not guilty verdict when “evidence” was presented — [...]

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13-Year-Old Girl Commits Suicide After Classmates Spread Nude Photos

by Cara December 2, 2009

Trigger Warning for discussions of suicide, descriptions of non-consensual sexual conduct, victim-blaming and slut-shaming The Tampa Bay St. Petersburg Times has printed the truly gut-wrenching, tragic story of a 13-year-old girl named Hope Witsell, who committed suicide after a photograph of her breasts, which she sent to a boy’s cell phone, was forwarded all over [...]

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Crisis Pregnancy Centers Regularly Engage in Coercive Adoption Practices

by Cara August 31, 2009

Almost two years ago, I wrote about a distressing and eye-opening book called The Girls Who Went Away, which is about the women who surrendered their children for adoption under coercion in the years before legal abortion and when single or unwed parenting was ostracized. Most of the women who surrendered their children were threatened, [...]

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Defense Attorney Calls Rape Victims “Whores,” and Worse

by Cara August 27, 2009

Trigger Warning Every single time I argue that a rape apologist defense attorney has hit a new low, I speak too soon. This time, the evidence that there was still further to sink just came at a particularly rapid speed, and with a particularly hard impact. Outside Charleston, West Virginia, a defense attorney defended a [...]

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Defense Attorneys Want Victim to Act Out Alleged Rape in Court

by Cara August 24, 2009

I’ve written about more disgusting instances of defense attorneys pulling all kinds of bizarre, misogynistic and unethical stunts during rape trials than I could even begin to count, let alone want to. But just when I think it’d be close to impossible for an attorney to sink even lower, such an instance arrives in my [...]

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Anti-Sex Worker Bigotry Makes Its Way Into Rape Trial

by Cara August 17, 2009

Rape shield laws exist in the United States to prevent a defense attorney from questioning an alleged rape victim about her (or his) previous sexual history. And they exist for a damn good reason — because a sexual assault victim’s sexual history has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not she was actually raped. [...]

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University of the Pacific Says Date Rape is Not Rape

by Cara May 30, 2009

Last year, three male basketball players allegedly raped a woman (also a basketball player) at a party.  The assault took place on campus at the University of the Pacific, where seemingly the rapists and victim were all students.  Now, the woman has filed a lawsuit alleging that the school did not treat her case seriously; [...]

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On Gender and Sexual Insults

by Cara May 18, 2009

Yesterday, a piece by India Knight about the breakup of Katie Price and Peter Andre appeared in the Times Online (h/t Gauntlet).  It seems that these two are reality television stars in the UK.  I’ve never heard of them before in my life.  So let’s just get it out of the way that I have [...]

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Defense Attorney Argues That No Doesn’t Always Mean No

by Cara April 22, 2009

Via the Hand Mirror (h/t Lauredhel), I came across a story this morning about a line of questioning used by a New Zealand defense attorney in cross-examining a woman who alleged that a taxi driver attempted to rape her: After a long cross-examination, the taxi driver’s lawyer, Letizea Ord, put it to the complainant [that [...]

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British Prosecutors to Challenge Rape Myths in Court

by Cara April 21, 2009

I am seriously a month behind on this story out of Britain, but the news is interesting enough that I still think it’s worth our time to take a look at. It has apparently been made an official part of policy in rape cases for prosecutors to “robustly challenge” rape myths in court: Prosecutors have [...]

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