...WTF.

[fisme_nasu]

Originally posted by lavenderfrost at ...WTF.

Well, there goes my good mood for the day.

NYTimes, the bastion of quality reporting, reported on the gang-rape of an 11 year-old girl in Texas  that's led to charges against 18 high-school boys so far - all well and good so far, right?  Shit like this NEEDS publicity to raise awareness. 

Only problem is, they repeated - without refutation or critical commentary - the claims that the girl brought the rape on herself because of the way she was dressed.

Choice Quotes (No cut b/c everyone needs to see this - DEAL.):

“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.”  As opposed to the victim, who's gonna bounce back lickety-fucking-split, right?

Residents in the neighborhood where the abandoned trailer stands — known as the Quarters — said the victim had been visiting various friends there for months. 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.  TOTALLY BEGGING FOR IT.

THIS IS RAPE CULTURE, PEOPLE.

Now, what's being said and done in this community is bad enough, but the NY Times should be fucking ashamed of themselves right now.

( Here's how to contact NYT: )

Comments

[turnofftherain.livejournal.com]

Choice Quotes (No cut b/c everyone needs to see this - DEAL.):

Including survivors who get triggered by shit like this and who have already heard this shit directed at them personally, amirite?

[fisme-nasu.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I just hit the link and let it go without editing it. I wouldn't ever put things that way. Especially since I'm a survivor, too.

[fisme-nasu.livejournal.com]

I just put it under a cut.

[turnofftherain.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I wasn't really griping at you, personally, but it didn't make sense for me to go to the source and gripe there, because she's not on my f-list.

But I am pretty cranky with the OP, because god damn it, if you're going to be an ally to survivors, you need to actually have some empathy for us and spare a thought for our comfort. Even if you're calling out rape culture. ESPECIALLY if you're calling out rape culture.

[fisme-nasu.livejournal.com]

I think that it's important to make people who are rape apologists and those who lean in that direction really see how awful their opinion on rape is and sometimes that takes blasting it in their faces. But I agree, the survivors are ostensibly who you're doing it for, therefore you need to have some compassion.

[tooimpurenangel.livejournal.com]

Holy fuck, I feel like vomiting.

[fisme-nasu.livejournal.com]

I've been crying about it since I read it first on CNN.

[swankivy.livejournal.com]

DISGUSTING OH MY GOD. I am horrified.

[lilrongal.livejournal.com]

I'd be interested to know the race of the girl. If she is a minority, then the reactions of the community wouldn't surprise me one bit, as disgusting as they are.