Shooting the Messenger ....

[mijopo.livejournal.com]

There's a terribly depressing story in a recent NYT about the gang rape of an 11 year old girl in the small town of Cleveland. Some a-holes in the town made comments that seemed to attribute at least some of the responsibility for the rape to the girl insofar as they observed "They said she dressed older than her age, wearing makeup and fashions more appropriate to a woman in her 20s. She would hang out with teenage boys at a playground, some said."  or "Where was her mother? What was her mother thinking?” said Ms. Harrison, one of a handful of neighbors who would speak on the record. “How can you have an 11-year-old child missing down in the Quarters?”

These observations and objections hardly seems salient to the fact that she was gang-raped so I'm not sure why some people in the town would bring it up when being interviewed about the story, many people see this as blaming the victim.  

But what I found remarkable and what I'd like to discuss is the fact that some are now upset with the New York Times for even publishing these quotes. There's a petition going around "demanding better" of the NYT!  I don't understand this, at all.  We're expecting newspapers to refrain from even reporting this sort of thing? What's the reasoning here? Is is that if nobody knows about the problem, it will go away on its own? Or do they think that victim blaming in one circumstance will lead to it in other situations? If so, is this a good reason for the New York Times to stop publishing any information about crimes or socially repugnant attitudes?

Comments

[speciesofspaces.livejournal.com]

A big problem to my eyes with the NYT story is the lack of balance. It practically opens with the quote 'These boys have to live with this for the rest of their lives.' Boo fucking hoo. What about the little girl who has to live with the consequences of having been GANG RAPED for the rest of HER life?

This has been out for quite a while, but anyone who thinks the NYT article is appropriate might want to review some rape prevention tips for men:
http://www.amptoons.com/blog/2009/09/15/sexual-assault-prevention-tips-guaranteed-to-work/

[moonchylde.livejournal.com]

Seconded; since they couldn't speak to the victim looks like they are defaulting to the assailants' side of it. Not intentionally but they SHOULD know better.

[mijopo.livejournal.com]

Well, the petition isn't complaining about lack of balance, it's complaining about publishing those quotes at all. But I'm not quite sure what the obligation on the reporter is in such a situation, is s/he supposed to go around town until s/he find someone who's not a complete asshole? Why? Insofar as these quotes reflect the numbskulls associated with the story, how are these disgusting quotes a fault of the NYT? If this gives a true reflection of the kinds of reactions people in Cleveland, TX have, this is what I'd like to read.

[speciesofspaces.livejournal.com]

Presenting more than one side to a story is a hallmark of good journalism. This falls far short. The quotes about what she was wearing should not have been published IMO. That is victim blaming and the victim is a CHILD. She is ELEVEN YEARS OLD. The assailants are pedophile rapists. She could be parading down the street naked in high heels with a boa and it doesn't matter. There is no excuse for what they did to her, and this article implies otherwise. Unconscionable.

[kawaiimamimi.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I totally signed that petition.

They choose to focus more on the effect that this crime would have on the boys who did it, as opposed to the victim.

This quote came directly from the article:

“It’s just destroyed our community,” said Sheila Harrison, 48, a hospital worker who says she knows several of the defendants. “These boys have to live with this the rest of their lives.”

I'm sorry, but what the fuck? What the ever loving flying fuck does this quote belong in article about an eleven year old girl being gang raped? The boys should have to live with this for the rest of their life and who gives a god damn that this is "destroying their community"?

Of the three quotes given my townspeople in this article, all of them focused on the damage this would to do to the community, how it was the mother's fault about what happened, and how sad this would be for the accused. These people seem to care more about the rapists and their town than this poor little girl.

The way this article is written perpetuates the disgusting victim blaming when it comes to rape that permeates our society.

If we are to assume the statements about her dress and manner are correct -- Is there something horrifically wrong with our culture when eleven year olds are dressing like twenty year olds? Yes. Is it an indication of something wrong with the mixed messages our society sends about sexuality when a prepubescent girls feel like they need to sexualize themselves? Yes. Is it an indication that something is wrong in the family when a mother allows a child to dress in an oversexualized way and to keep company with men who are much older than her? Maybe.

Does that mean that an eleven year old girl brought a gang rape on herself? Hell. Fucking. No.

Does that mean that she are responsible for the inability of these men to control themselves? Hell. Fucking. No.

Not to mention, this quote is just as gross. They said she dressed older than her age, wearing makeup and fashions more appropriate to a woman in her 20s. Well, whoop dee fuckin' do. Does this mean that women in their twenties deserve to be gang raped? That any woman who dresses provocatively deserves to get gang raped?

This entire article is a mess and so full of victim blaming I can't even.

[mijopo.livejournal.com]

Yes, but you understand that there's all the world of difference between reporting X and believing/embracing/perpetuating X, right?

[speciesofspaces.livejournal.com]

I submit that a community that thinks these things OUGHT to be destroyed.

[torpidai.livejournal.com]

If no-one knows, it didn't happen right?

[rasilio.livejournal.com]

I think you have it all wrong.

I've read several versions of this story and the very definite feel I get from it is not that the people in this town are "blaming the victim" but rather that they do not see anything wrong with what happened to her, which is a whole other level of problem.

Remember, before you can blame the victim you have to actually recognize that she was a victim.

[kawaiimamimi.livejournal.com]

Them not recognizing that she is a victim... doesn't mean she's not a victim. This is still victim blaming.

[mijopo.livejournal.com]

Fuck, you may be right, that's even more depressing.

[speciesofspaces.livejournal.com]

Being rather familiar with the area, I would agree with your take-away on this.

[teleens-journal.livejournal.com]

Remember, before you can blame the victim you have to actually recognize that she was a victim.

Um, no.

I believe you've gotten hung up on terminology. Victim blaming in our culture actually begins with the essential premise that the victim in question isn't actually a victim.

"She couldn't really be a victim because of how she was dressed."

"She said yes and changed her mind when it was 'too late for the guy to stop'."

"She was wearing makeup and ruined these boys' lives."

The whole idea behind victim blaming is NOT recognizing that someone is a victim, because no person of good conscience would actually blame a REAL victim. They wouldn't. So they find rationalizations to make it so that it's somehow the victim's fault that they were raped.

It's the same mentality that says that no one can rape a prostitute, because they put themselves in a position where sex was a commodity in the first place.

Victim blaming is entirely about NOT recognizing that there was a victim, i.e., blaming the person who was assaulted for what happened to them. There can't be a crime without a victim, can there? This is about allowing rape to happen and sweeping it under the rug when it does.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

I do not think that it is either wise or smart to ignore reporting on crime and socially repellent views. I do, however, think that just as they have a right to say it, so do people have a right to protest against how it is said. Free speech in that sense cuts both ways.

[mijopo.livejournal.com]

yes, people can protest whatever they want, but I'm just saying that I don't think the NYT failed to meet its obligations.

[dreadfulpenny81.livejournal.com]

The reporter obviously could have asked more people in town for their opinion. The editor could have pointed out how damaging the article was to the victim and how it made excuses for the assailants. I know our country exists on "innocent until proven guilty" but there's videos and photos of these monsters doing God knows what to a poor child. Can't get more guilty than that.
My heart goes out to the girl. I heard about the story on CNN yesterday and just sobbed. I couldn't possibly imagine what that girl went through, and I was only a little bit younger than her when I was abused. They're in Texas - too bad they don't fry you in the chair for stuff like this.

[brockulfsen.livejournal.com]

Balanced is a peculiar concept.

It often gets in the way of truth. If you have to go to the local asylum to get a contrary opinion to publish to give the impression of being balanced, that distorts the truth.

The town in question sounds like a suburb of hell, and the article in question seems to present that accurately.

At 11 she could not *legally* consent, so it was rape. That she allegedly made bad choices is why we don't let 11 year olds consent.

Any community where you can find people willing to go on the record with opinions like that has serious problems.

[my-wits-end.livejournal.com]

I don't think they should have edited those comments out. I do want to know about the attitudes, however abhorrent I might find them. But I also think that, with the way in which the information is presented, the NYT article implicitly endorses those victim-blaming attitudes. It might be subtle, but it does. Completely objective reporting is a fantasy.

[headhouse.livejournal.com]

I don't see why people are mad at the NYT for reporting accurate quotes. Anger, or at least disapproval, should be directed at pretty much everyone in the story; the parents, the boys, the neighborhood / community, and in general any aspects of culture that don't see this as wrong.

But the NYT? Whoever put that petition together has issues.

[onefatmusicnerd.livejournal.com]

Yes

[teleens-journal.livejournal.com]

I read the article and signed the petition. It's not a question of controlling the press. It's a question of showing the pain of the victim, rather than the pain of the RAPISTS and the community, not to mention asking where the girl's mother was, :(.

This story doesn't seem to hold anyone but the victim and her mother accountable for what happened and instead seems to be focusing on how its tearing the town apart.

Not cool, NYT, not cool.

[paedraggaidin.livejournal.com]

Ugh. This is just disgusting all around. I'm not going to say that the NYT should be made to do anything, but I've rarely seen worse reporting. This is also why I can't stand most small towns, at least those I've spent some time in. When horrible things like this happen, they start circling the wagons in disbelief that one of their pure, wholesome neighbors could do anything bad.

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

the fact that some are now upset with the New York Times for even publishing these quotes. There's a petition going around "demanding better" of the NYT!

The petition doesn't look to me like it's about the mere publishing of the quotes, but about the article as a whole.

[meus-ovatio.livejournal.com]

I generally agree. People are angry about something and they can reach out and touch the NYT. They can't exactly take it out on the perps. So they use the next-closest thing involved to express their feelings. That's what the media is for, mostly. Giving people a target.

[jlc20thmaine.livejournal.com]

For years the NYT has been going downhill fast. This is just more proof of how much speed it has picked up.