Living while female is the worst crime of all

[redqueen]

This article is one reaction to the violent rape and murder of Anene Booysen in South Africa. Reeva Steenkamp was murdered the next day.

The reaction here to the gang rape in Steubenville has all but disappeared from the news, although there was a rally there earlier this month.

Across India, there are mass demonstrations and the public seems much more motivated to change, after the rape and murder of Jyoti Singh Pandey in December. However, the government recently decided that it should not criminalize marital rape.



Rise up. Rise up. Raise your voices. Take no shit. What you allow is what will continue.

...

The violent rape and murder of a young woman has united the entire country. The particular brutality and barbarity of the crime has made it an easy touchstone for our anger and our judgement. We are quite easily fooled into believing that if we can banish the horror and violence to the train stations, taxi ranks, shebeens and tik houses, that if we can build enough prisons and start to kill hundreds, and then thousands, of men that this will magically fix our society.

...

Violence does not end with rape, assault and battery, a punch or even a slap. The words used to degrade and dehumanise are violence. Threats and coercion are often violence. Not acknowledging the rights of another person, ignoring their opinions, attaching no importance to their wishes and desires, these are all violence.

...

Quick fixes are so tempting when the problem is big and the process of self-reflection is painful, but there is no other way. If we want to stop violence against women then we must create a society that values women, not one that makes it harder to rape women.

Anyway, politicians will not cure rape. Finger pointing will not cure rape. Handing out Real Men badges will not cure rape. Not committing the very worst abuses of power does not make me a real man. Real men take responsibility for their actions. Real men take ownership of their anger and their pain. Real men don’t confuse power with strength.

...

http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2013-02-13-living-while-female-is-the-worst-crime-of-all/

[In_The_Wind]

1. rape. is. unacceptable. in. any. form.

[redqueen]

2. That's how it should be. In the context of society and law, we aren't there yet.

Not by a long shot.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/shrt-article-1.1262564

[In_The_Wind]

3. stop the presses. hold the phone. clearly the school should be held accountable.

Where were the adults responsible for safeguarding these children?
Are they being charged as well . . . . along with the school?

Handout
This police memo shows that the school administration no longer wanted to pursue criminal charges in the case.
“The school administration request (sic) no further police action and will handle additional behavioral and social issues with traning (sic) and additional counseling,” reads the case report by Detective Beth McKenzie, which the mother’s attorney, Madeline Lee Bryer, provided to The News.

“I’m very upset about that,” said the mother, her voice shaking as she struggled to hold back tears. “The school . . . acted as if nothing happened.”

Police didn’t tell the mother the case had been closed until September, said Bryer. They filed a lawsuit against the school in Manhattan Supreme Court Jan. 10.


Nassau County Police Department spokeswoman Jean DeLuca told The News detectives decided to drop their investigation after determining “it was more of a consensual situation with their mental capabilities.”

[Sekhmets Daughter]

4. Know what makes this truly gruesome?

The freakin' teacher was in the classroom.

[In_The_Wind]

5. Oh My God!!! NO!

[Sekhmets Daughter]

6. Yes...

Un.freaking.believable, but true.

[In_The_Wind]

7. I need to step away for one minute. This is too much.

I feel like driving to Long Island to protest. omg.

[Sekhmets Daughter]

8. Sorry. :-(

[redqueen]

10. Yes, the school should be held accountable.

And I agree with you that the teachers, who were in the room, should be charged as well.

We'll see what happens with the lawsuit. The gang rape in Steubenville only resulted in charges against two young men, and has almost entirely disappeared from the news, and those rapes were captured on film... so I really don't hold out much hope.

[In_The_Wind]

11. IMO: those teachers ~ should never teach again. ever. anywhere.

They are guilty of failure to protect the innocent children under their supervision.

Hope . . . and continuing support of the victim is all we have.

[ismnotwasm]

9. Here is another one from a male South African perspective

The F-word: If only men could start loving women

The man who about two decades ago thought nothing of using the harshest words possible to describe an innocent toddler for the unforgivable offence of being born without a penis, was now brimming with pride because his daughter had completed a degree and was now a useful member of society.

The conversation with my friend has haunted me since.

If my friend could not see human dignity in his own flesh and blood, how could he be expected to see it in other girls and women?

What would the point be of telling this man that “real men don’t rape” when he will not see the irony of saying he’ll kill anyone who hurts his daughter but still regrets that she is a girl?

Having never forced himself on a woman, he might even sign up for the “real man” campaign.

My friend embodies the complex levels of misogyny in South Africa.

Too many men hate women for no other reason than that they are women.

In case you are wondering, yes he is still my friend.

I am not proud of him, but he is my friend.

Rape and femicide, and sometimes both, are simply the end of the line of a psyche that sees a woman as a thing to relieve sexual frustration, a deficient boy or even a curse.

http://www.citypress.co.za/columnists/the-f-word-if-only-men-could-start-loving-women/

[redqueen]

13. Another one here

http://www.timeslive.co.za/opinion/columnists/2013/02/18/calling-all-men-we-have-a-serious-problem

[CrispyQ]

12. This:

Quick fixes are so tempting when the problem is big and the process of self-reflection is painful, but there is no other way. If we want to stop violence against women then we must create a society that values women, not one that makes it harder to rape women.

Putting up adequate lighting in the Western Cape might be very effective in curbing violent rape by strangers but it does nothing to dismantle the structures that reward sexual prowess in men and punish it in women, that view women as worth less than men, that punish the victim, that normalise and discount women’s pain.