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“A dream you dream alone is only a dream; a dream you dream together is reality.” — Yoko Ono
Nov
24
U.S. Sailor Acquitted of Rape, Despite Admission of Physical Force
Filed Under Australia, International, courts, misogyny, patriarchy, rape and sexual assault, sex work, violence against women and girls | 21 Comments
Trigger Warning for rape apologism and graphic descriptions of sexual violence
In Sydney, a U.S. sailor has been acquitted on charges of raping a sex worker who told him to stop — even though he admitted, in court, to using a “lock down maneuver” to pin her to the bed.
A New South Wales District Court jury cleared Petty Officer Timothy Davis, 25, of a charge of sexual intercourse without consent, with the aggravating factor of causing the woman actual bodily harm. The charge carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
Davis was one of 3,000 Marines and Navy personnel on shore leave in Sydney after the amphibious assault ship USS Peleliu and guided missile destroyer USS Halsey arrived in the port in October, 2008.
The woman told the court she had protected, consensual sex with Davis at the brothel where she worked, but said he became aggressive when she told him his time was up and forced her to have unprotected sex. The jury was shown police photographs of scratches on the woman.
Davis denied forcing the woman to have sex, but admitted in court that he used a “lock down maneuver” to pin her to the bed when she said she wanted to stop. He told the court he backed off when she kicked him, though he said he muffled her mouth with his hand when she began to scream after he demanded his money back.
Could we possibly be reading this correctly? Let’s try another source:
She said he “ripped” off his condom, telling her he had paid for sex and he was going to finish it off “like a real man”.
The slight woman said he pushed her head into the pillow, started suffocating her, and had unprotected sex for 30 seconds.
The jury was shown police photos depicting scratches on the woman, who described Petty Officer Davis as an “animal” during an angry outburst at the trial.
In his evidence, the sailor – who agreed his weight was more than double the woman’s – admitted using a “lock down manoeuvre” to pin her down to the bed when she said she wanted to stop.
He said he told her he was going to “finish”, but when she kicked him away, he backed off with his hands in the air.
So, she told him to stop. And even only as far as he admits, instead of stopping as he was told, he pinned her to the bed and told her he was going to continue anyway. I repeat: against her wishes. After she told him to stop.
Which means that as far as any reasonable definition goes — hell, even working off an antiquated and misogynistic definition of rape that requires physical violence to be present — he confessed to raping her.
Aug
27
Defense Attorney Calls Rape Victims “Whores,” and Worse
Filed Under assholes, bigotry, courts, discrimination, misogyny, patriarchy, rape and sexual assault, sex work, slut-shaming, violence against women and girls | 13 Comments
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 now-convicted serial rapist who specifically targeted prostitutes by repeatedly proclaiming the victims “whores,” and explicitly stating that their bodies and rights did not have the same value as those of non-sex working women:
Ed ReBrook, Gravely’s defense attorney, called no witnesses. But he summed up his case in a dramatic closing argument to jurors during which he called the victims “tramps” and “whores.”
“You cannot rape the willing,” ReBrook said. “They got in those automobiles with the intention of having sex for money.
“I would be horrified if any of the women in my life were raped, but I’m talking about decent, honorable women,” ReBrook said, and then dramatically raised his voice. “Not whores who have sex with many, many men for money.”
Assistant Prosecutor Fred Giggenbach immediately asked Kanawha Circuit Judge Tod Kaufman to stop ReBrook, but he did not.
“They are whores,” ReBrook persisted. “That is a perfectly usable word in the English language.
“Finding this man guilty of rape lessens the dignity of every other woman,” ReBrook said. “What they have done is turn sex into something disgusting.
“They are not like your wife, your girlfriend or your daughter,” he said. “They are street tramps. And what happened to them was, at least in part, their fault.
“If stupidity was a crime, my client would be a three-time loser,” ReBrook told the jury. “He may be guilty of assault, but he is not guilty of sexual assault.”
I had to read all of this over several times, feeling more and more nauseated upon each read, just to verify that yes, this article is recent, and no, it is not written on some kind of horrifically unfunny “spoof” site.
The idea that a woman who has sex for money is physically and emotionally incapable of being raped is absolutely nothing new. It has been around since the dawn of rape itself. The idea that a woman’s inherent human worth is tied to her sexual purity, and that any woman who has sex willingly — hell, who has sex willingly or not — has therefore given up her human right to say “no” in the future, is a basic staple of misogyny. It is used against all women, each and every one of us. But it is quite logically used most harshly, regularly, and despicably against sex workers — some of the very most despised women in a world that determines a woman’s value based on what she does or doesn’t do with her genitals.
Aug
17
Anti-Sex Worker Bigotry Makes Its Way Into Rape Trial
Filed Under assholes, bigotry, courts, discrimination, misogyny, patriarchy, rape and sexual assault, sex work, slut-shaming, violence against women and girls | 7 Comments
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. The only reason, in fact, that an alleged victim’s sexual history would be “useful” to the defense in a rape trial is the hope that a jury’s prejudices about a woman’s previous sexual history will cause them to declare her unrapeable.
And so, exceptions to rape shield laws are very rarely made. And you can bet than when an exception is made, it’s very regularly for a bigoted reason. Suddenly, an alleged victim’s sexual history is deemed relevant after all, because this victim is black, a gay man, a drug addict, a transgender person, a person with a disability, an immigrant, etc. … (and/) or a sex worker. The last one is what a defense team in Philadelphia is counting on in their plea for a court to ignore the rape shield law.
Jun
24
Strip Club Hires Kidnapped and Assaulted 14-Year-Old Girl, Then Sues Her
Filed Under courts, misogyny, patriarchy, rape and sexual assault, sex work, sexual exploitation and harassment, violence against women and girls | 10 Comments
This story comes straight out of the WTF files. A 14-year-old girl was allegedly kidnapped, sexually assaulted numerous times, and forced to perform at a strip club. Everyone involved agrees that the girl, who again is 14, did indeed perform there. There is absolutely no debate about that particular aspect at all, in fact. And yet, somehow the strip club is now suing the 14-year-old and her parents.
A strip club in Texas that hired a 14-year-old as an exotic dancer says it was swindled and is suing the seventh-grader and her parents.
The girl allegedly exposed her breasts while working at Cheetah Club in Corpus Christi, a violation of state law. Alan Yaffe, the club’s attorney, said the club didn’t know the girl was a minor and disputed the alleged sequence of events that led the teenager to work there in the first place.
“She came (into the club) with 6-inch stiletto heels and a miniskirt and looked just like a model from a Miss America’s contest,” Yaffe said.
Authorities say Leslie Campbell, 48, kidnapped the girl in San Antonio in March, took her to Corpus Christi and sexually assaulted her over the course of a week. He then allegedly gave her a false identification and forced her to strip at the club.
Yaffe called the story bogus, and the club is suing Campbell, the girl and her parents for unspecified damage in a lawsuit filed last week. It also wants a judge to declare that the club didn’t intend to hire a minor.
“There was no real kidnapping,” Yaffe told the San Antonio Express-News. “We’re the victims here, sir. My clients are the victims.”
The club and their lawyers, of course, are claiming that the girl looked “very mature” and so the club couldn’t possibly have known. Even state officials are refuting that claim by stating that the girl clearly looks to be her actual age. This, of course, is very likely true.
What seems to be missing though is the fact that even if she looked 25, it’s still the club’s responsibility to ensure that they do not have minors working in their clubs. When did “she looked older” become an excuse? (And when did “look at what she was wearing!” become the same as “she looked older”? Nice attempt at slut-shaming, though.) It’s not an excuse. Just like “I thought that we were following the fire safety code” and “it seemed like we paid our taxes” aren’t excuses either. Except, you know, this version involves an exploited child.
And then there are those exceedingly relevant charges of kidnapping, assault and forced work at the club. What’s most interesting of all is that Leslie Campbell, the man alleged to have kidnapped and assaulted the girl and forced her to work at the club, is also being sued. It would seem that if the club actually did have the grounds to sue anyone (and I don’t think they do — again, they’re the ones who illegally “hired” the girl), he would be the correct person. And yet, they also deny the sequence of events that led to the girl being hired by the club!
So, really, Cheetah Club, what is it? Did the girl seek “employment” at your establishment of her own free will, thus making her subject to your lawsuit, or did Campbell actually force her to work there, thus making him the one to blame? You can’t have it both ways.
Unless, of course, you think that a kidnapped, assaulted and essentially enslaved girl is actually to blame for her the crimes committed against her. Which is precisely what this whole thing reeked of from the very start.
Jun
13
Police Arrest Rape Traffickers, Then Book Trafficked Women on Drug Charges
Filed Under assholes, bigotry, misogyny, patriarchy, rape and sexual assault, sex work, violence against women and girls | 9 Comments
A reader sent me this disgusting little story about a father and son who were running some sort of rape trade business together. The two men were roping women into working for them by saying they’d be providing massages, and then held the women captive so that they could sell the right to rape them — not “have sex with,” people, since we’re talking about women who had no choice in the matter — to other men. The two men were holding three different women captive; when they attempted to do the same to a fourth woman, she managed to call the police.
When detectives arrived at the motel, Charles, Timothy Lee and the three other women were not there. They later came to pick up the 20-year-old woman and were arrested by detectives, according to the statement. After the arrest, one of the women told police that she had been with Charles and Timothy Lee for the past few years and had not been allowed to leave.
Detectives said they believed Charles, Timothy and the three women had been in the Nashville area for the past few weeks.
In addition to the sex trafficking charges, Charles Lee was booked on charges of tampering with evidence, for purposely breaking a cellphone that was believed to be used in the business.
Horrible story, and probably an extreme example of how misogynistic attitudes are passed down from generation to generation. That said, I didn’t really have a whole lot to add by the way of analysis. Until I came across this little tidbit at the end of the article:
Charles, Timothy Lee and the three women were all booked for misdemeanor marijuana possession, the statement said. Both the men are being held on bail.
Seriously? These women have been held against their will for years and raped by god only knows how many men, and quite likely abused in other ways as well. Finally, it looks as though the worst part of their nightmare just might be coming to an end, when police decide to add insult to injury with a criminal charge on their record.
First of all, it seems to me exceedingly unlikely that when you’re being held captive so that men can buy the right to rape you, you have a choice in the matter of whether or not illegal substances are in your possession. And it strikes me as incredibly bizarre and offensive that anyone would see it otherwise.
Secondly, I ultimately don’t really care whether or not the women were in possession of marijuana by their own choice. Because even if somehow they were, this would still be wildly unacceptable. These women were victims of a severe crime. To use the investigation of said crime as an excuse to charge the victims with a crime, one that does no harm to anyone, is absolutely ludicrous. And it’s yet another example of police managing to take a situation that you’d think couldn’t get any more awful, and just making it that little bit worse.
It’s also not a one-off occurrence, either. Women who have been trafficked are in fact routinely booked on prostitution charges themselves. Sex workers who report a robbery, rape or other assault are also often booked on prostitution charges — being one of many reasons why most of these women don’t report. And if police can’t get them on the prostitution charges, they’ll often go for a different ridiculous charge such as this one. Just because they can. Just because they’re looking for an excuse to harm these women and their futures further. Because they don’t see these women as human and worthy of their protection.
No, there’s actually nothing about this that is unusual. But acting as though it’s therefore not worth speaking up about is part of what allows it to continue.
Thanks to Kymberly for the link.
Mar
10
Rape Culture and Its Incredible Prevalence: A Strangely Optimistic Analysis
Filed Under Europe, International, feminism, misogyny, patriarchy, rape and sexual assault, sex work, slut-shaming, violence against women and girls | 16 Comments
When I first read the news at Feministe that a full one-quarter of people surveyed in England and Wales said that a woman is fully or partly to blame for a rape if she wore sexy clothing, my first response was, as it should have been, complete and total dismay. It wasn’t surprise — no, I got over that a long time ago — but still, sadness, and the feeling that also always shows up, which says that maybe we really never will overcome this kind of victim-blaming.
But then I saw the actual chart, reproduced below, which shows the responses for each individual scenario given, and I changed my mind. I suddenly got optimistic.
(click image to enlarge)Now, I need to be entirely clear that I’m not optimistic because I think this is good news. It’s not. It’s horrible news, and we should be furious about it. I want you to get angry, and get angry right now, if you somehow aren’t already. In fact, if you somehow end this post not pissed off at the findings, I’ve done something terribly wrong. That so many people still blame rape victims for the behavior of their rapists is utterly appalling, unforgivable, and needs to be changed immediately.
But the reason I’m optimistic is because looking at that chart, I believe that those minds can indeed be changed.
Mar
3
Because What’s the Point of a Woman You Can’t Fuck?
Filed Under misogyny, objectification, sex and sexuality, sex work, sexism | 10 Comments
From contributing editor Mark Binelli’s otherwise decent Rolling Stone article Motor City Breakdown, about the dying automobile industry in Detroit:
At the show, the traditional rituals are still taking place. If you’ve never been to an auto show, the main ritual involves adults climbing in and out of vehicles they will not be allowed to drive, which always seems deeply unsatisfying. (For related reasons, I’ve never liked strip clubs.)
Well then.
What is with those women being so rude and short-sighted as to not allow Mark Binelli to fuck them? I mean, they’re on display — like cars, so . . .
Just about every two issues, I find myself writing a letter, which always goes unpublished, castigating Rolling Stone for claiming to be so incredibly progressive while failing to reflect said values when it comes to many marginalized and oppressed groups. Usually these letters are about the magazine’s regular unabashed sexism — though I’ve also written in letters about Matt Taibbi’s favorite insult “cocksucker,” and most recently I wrote in with regards to the decision to use the slur “tranny” to refer to transgender Real World cast member Katelynn.
This time, I’m not even sure what to say. But considering the fact that in the same issue, the entirety of what they had to print on Chris Brown assaulting Rihanna was 200 words about how Brown can revive his career (seriously), it’s pretty damn much “fuck you guys, you can take that $11 40 year subscription I’ve been going off of forever and shove it up your asses, because I can surely find less insulting ways than this to read the latest tiny piece of Beatles-related news and see random photographs of Sir Paul.”
If you’ve got something better, send it to letters@rollingstone.com.
Feb
24
Hundreds of Adult Sex Workers Arrested in “Child Prostitution” Stings
Filed Under class and economics, misogyny, paternalism, patriarchy, rape and sexual assault, sex and sexuality, sex work, slut-shaming, violence against women and girls | 43 Comments
I love how this headline at CNN reads “Operation Frees Dozens of Child Prostitutes” rather than “Over 500 Prostitutes Arrested Under Guise of Saving Children.”
In the three-day operation, which began Thursday night, the FBI, along with local and state law enforcement agencies, took the 46 girls and one boy — all of them U.S. citizens ages 13 to 17 — into protective custody.
“Operation Cross Country II” involved efforts in 29 cities and resulted in the arrest of 73 pimps and 518 adult prostitutes, the FBI said.
Those arrested could face federal or state charges, depending on their alleged activities.
Nice, eh? I mean, yes, excellent — 47 children were rescued from a rape trade. Surely, that’s a good thing and worth the huge sums of money spent. But is it necessarily worth over 500 female adults being laden with these serious charges, and ultimately I’m sure being subjected to intense public humiliation, for doing nothing more than attempting to make the best living they know how?
And far more importantly and far less fraught than that question: why do we assume that in order to do one, we must do the other?
Feb
10
Updates on Burn Victim Roberta Busby
Filed Under action alert, misogyny, sex work, violence against women and girls | 2 Comments
In case anyone didn’t see this over at Feministe . . .
Just a few days ago, I put up a post about a woman who was doused with a flammable liquid outside of a strip club, her place of employment, and set on fire. There are two suspects in this horrific attack, named Nathaniel Petrillo and Rianne Theriault-Odom. In the comments here and elsewhere, there was a great out pouring of support for her.
The new details that have come in since then are few but significant. The woman’s name has been released as Roberta Busby. As of yesterday, she was reported to be in critical but stable condition. This is a relief and excellent news. Her attackers, however, still have not been found and arrested. You can view images of the suspects here. If you know anything, please immediately call the LAPD at 213-485-2531 (or 877-LAPD-24-7 for after-hours and weekend calls).
Perhaps most importantly of all, many of you have asked how you can help Roberta financially with her medical bills. I’ve yet to find anything on that specifically, but after some serious searching, I did find information on an account that has been set up for donations for her children. Remember that Roberta is obviously out of work at the moment, has likely lost her previous livelihood entirely, and that any financial contribution will be a huge help in reducing the overall financial burden she is facing.
According to local CBS affiliate KCAL 9, here is how you can send donations:
If you would like to help the children of dancer Roberta Busby, who was recently set on fire outside the club where she works, bring a check in to any Washington Mutual branch, made out to “Rodrigo Busby For The Benefit Of The Children Of Roberta Busby” or send a check to
3835 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd., #256
Westlake Village, CA 91362Please give if you can, and pass on the information about how to help regardless. If anyone happens to have any additional information, please let me know. And keep up those well-wishes, prayers or whatever it is you’re doing in the hopes that Roberta is going to pull through.
Nov
7
Spitzer Will Not Be Charged
Filed Under Democrats, assholes, misogyny, patriarchy, politics, sex and sexuality, sex work | 17 Comments
Former Governor Eliot Spitzer will not be charged in connection with his involvement as a customer with a prostitution ring. I’m shocked. Aren’t you shocked?
“After a thorough investigation, this office has uncovered no evidence of misuse of public or campaign funds,” U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia said in a statement.
The attorney’s office also said it found no illicit activity related to Spitzer’s withdrawal of funds for, and his payments to, the Emperors Club VIP, which authorities have said was a prostitution ring.
“In light of the policy of the Department of Justice with respect to prostitution offenses and the longstanding practice of this office, as well as Mr. Spitzer’s acceptance of responsibility for his conduct, we have concluded that the public interest would not be further advanced by filing criminal charges in this matter,” Garcia said.
Right, because that’s how we often treat the women who work as prostitutes, isn’t it? They accept “responsibility” and law enforcement decides to just let it go, because how does it serve the public interest to prosecute women and humiliate them openly in a society that condemns their work, especially when they’re very often only doing the job because they’re desperate for money, or have even been forced or coerced?
Nov
5
The Good, The Bad, and The Downright Ugly
Filed Under 2008 election, Democrats, LGBTQ, Republicans, abortion, anti-choice extremism, assholes, bigotry, discrimination, homophobia, human rights, legislation, politics, race and racism, reproductive justice, sex work, women’s health | 23 Comments
The Good
President Obama. Of course.
The Democrats now have 56 seats in the Senate. Four seats are still undecided, according to CNN, but it looks like they’re all going to go Republican. Our best shot to pick up one last seat is Al Franken in Minnesota — who, with supposedly 100% of the vote counted, is less than 600 votes behind.
The Democrats now have 252 seats in the House, which is a 16 seat gain. Ten seats are still undecided.
Democrats have a majority in the NY State Senate for the first time since the New Deal. Wow. Do you mean that we might actually get some shit done?
Kay Hagan got Elizabeth Dole out of office. Gotta love that.
The South Dakota abortion ban, Measure 11, was decisively knocked down by a 10 point margin. A huge congrats to all of my friends at SD Healthy Families!
It looks like California has shot down Prop 4, the anti-abortion parental notification initiative, with 95% of the vote in and 52% voting No.
Michigan has voted to allow stem-cell research and possession of medical marijuana.
Anti-immigrant initiative Measure 58 was shot down in Oregon.
Oct
24
When Self Defense Doesn’t Count
Filed Under courts, misogyny, paternalism, patriarchy, rape and sexual assault, sex work, sexual exploitation and harassment, slut-shaming, violence against women and girls | 30 Comments
A 16-year-old girl has been sentenced to 2 to 2 1/2 years in a juvenile detention center for the manslaughter of a 49-year-old man. This sounds like nothing special until you start to look at the details:
Seated between her attorneys in juvenile court, the diminutive 16-year-old shook her head no Tuesday when asked if she had anything to say before being sentenced for her crime: manslaughter, for killing a 49-year-old man who’d hired her for sex.
The blonde teenager, her hair pulled into a tight ponytail, sat silently through the hourlong hearing, appearing distracted as she glanced around the courtroom. But her path to that point has been anything but quiet.
Tuesday’s proceeding in King County Juvenile Court culminated the girl’s lengthy trip through the legal system, a journey that spans at least three years and involved charges ranging from auto theft to assault to prostitution before prosecutors charged her in the death of Francisco “Noe” Pena last April. In what his ex-wife described as “just one mistake” in an otherwise good life, the recently divorced father of two picked the girl up at a supermarket in Burien and, after buying a bottle of vodka and Crown Royal, brought her back to his home for “a date.”
Though exactly what happened the evening of April 5 remains a mystery, court documents and the girl’s statements indicate that the two drank, then fought over whether she would be allowed to leave Pena’s house. He wouldn’t let her go until they’d had sex, the girl told police, so she stabbed him in the chest with a steak knife.
This story has not been widely reported, but every article I found describes the accusation against Pena as refusing to let the girl leave the house unless she had sex with him. But, you know, we have a phrase for that. Attempted rape. Since Pena’s accused actions involve keeping the girl prisoner in the house, that would also likely fall under the crime of kidnapping.
Of course, we don’t know for certain that Pena is guilty of kidnapping and attempted rape. What we do know is that he broke the law by supplying alcohol to a minor. If the 16-year-old girl was 15 in April when the incident occurred, hiring the girl for “sex” would also mean that he had intent to commit rape of a child in the third degree. If the girl was already 16 in April, his actions still fall under the intent to commit sexual misconduct with a minor in the second degree. Oh, and commercial sex abuse of a minor — a felony.
So let me be even more explicit: even if Pena is not guilty of kidnapping and attempting to rape her consistent with the definition of rape against an adult as opposed to a child, no one seems to deny that he had intent to sexually abuse her.
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“Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less.” — Susan B. Anthony
