Sexual Assault

Dismantling vs. Transforming a Rape Culture

Published on by Lisa

This FLY post and this analytic post got me thinking about my own experience working in sexual assault. So, in theme withthese great womyn, here are my own thoughts about the assertion that “empowering women’s sexuality is the key to dismantling rape culture.”

Dismantling vs. Transforming Rape Culture

It’s been about seven years that I have been working with womyn and focusing on sexual assault in some way in my life. I’ve counseled, run groups, worked with dropouts, grandmothers, lesbians, wives, the mentally ill, the mentally well, the sick, the physically challenged, the young, the real young, and my friends.

Sexual assault – rape – has been in my life for years and I cannot fathom writing a piece of work that would be included in an anthology that uses the assertion that “women’s sexual pleasure is central to dismantling rape culture.”

Sexual empowerment, the deep monumental oceanic power in each of us, is a vast and complex force. Womyn’s sexual enjoyment and pleasure is a critical facet, but I shrink into a horror corner when I read that womyn’s sexual agency is the key to dismantling rape culture.

It ain’t that simple.

When, I scream, WHEN will we as a movement come to the realization that rape – yes – something to do with consent and pleasure, but it cannot, will not – and I refuse it to be – simplified to centering womyn’s agency and ability to experience sexual pleasure.

Transforming a Rape Culture came out back in ’93 or so and it still rocks my world, hard. Editors Emilie Buchwald, Pamela Fletcher, and Martha Roth offered the world 37 essays about education, transformation, poetry, speeches, and methodologies to transform a rape culture. Immediately, I embraced that word – transform.

Transformation, as opposed to dismantling, offered me a vision and responsibility to end and rebuild the culture of rape. Tranforming a Rape Culture brought attention to the g’dam u-g-l-y truth that rape is brought forth from messed up ideals from our own society. WE did this. It’s not just men, it’s all of us with out stinking hands and poor excuses. It’s in everything we touch and ignore. It’s saturated in our lashes, in every damn blink of our eyes and we don’t even realize it anymore. This reaches beyond the complexity of sex, enthusiastic consent, and womyn’s pleasure; so much so that I feel like shaking this computer as I write.

How in the HELL would I tell the womyn who have been raped in my life that the answers lie in reframing/centering their sexual pleasure and empowerment? They WERE womyn who flew high above the clouds, soaring, reveling, rejoicing in their sexuality and they were raped. They were raped. These womyn, with their centering, jaw-dropping, sharp tongues and gorgeous minds and fearless eyes were raped. And it had nothing to do with their personal sexual empowerment.

How in the HELL would I tell my daughter that being an advocate and transformer of rape culture is about her pleasure? How in the HELL would I educate my son about rape, power, consent, and choice? It’s more than just dismantling. It’s about rebuilding. Dismantling the wrongs is the first and easiest step; it’s the transformation and healing of this culture that impedes our movement. Sexual pleasure is powerful, but it’s not everything.

I want to talk to REAL womyn. I want to talk to womyn who understand that empowerment does not sit on the same shelf as pleasure. I want to hear from womyn who know that empowerment is about taking down our facades and allowing the vulnerabilities to seep out onto the page, who can tell me if and how they finally made love after their assault. I want to hear from PEOPLE who knew how to hold their lovers accountable when the next morning was silent. Who can speak to rape except those who truly know the face of it?

Not one inch of my feminist blood believes that every womyn screaming an orgasmic YES would eradicate rape. Womyn’s voice is not the answer, not for this issue. It’s the world’s silence that prevents any true progression and anti-rape work must be held to an incredible high standard of inclusion. Am I reading this wrong? I just don’t see this call taking the megaphone to womyn raped in secret harvest fields or in the military; grandmothers gang raped in their own homes; womyn and men raped by religious clergy; womyn who are targeted because they are mentally ill; or the mother-daughter prostitutes trying to make enough money to get by.

But we’re not talking about them, I guess.

This issue – rape – is where men are most needed. I don’t want just their voices – I want their entire souls. I want them to put their skin, breathe, and fingerprints all over this issue. In nearly every case of rape I have ever worked on, 99% of them are acts of males preying on and assaulting womyn. Men can’t be “brought back into the conversation,” they need to be centralized WITH US. Womyn are centralized in the prevention. Survivors are centralized in post trauma. The men are in the middle, genuinely confused, wanting to help, but COMPLETELY clueless as to how. And here come the feminists saying, “Dismantle this! Empower us and our sexual pleasure!” Where does sexual empowerment fit in the pre, post, or anything?

Here are two quotes from teen boys, taken from Transforming a Rape Culture:

“The best thing about being a man is that I can do what I want, be as rude and
disgusting as I want, and no one says anything.” – 11th Grade
Male

“…No matter how you slice it, men are in control in today’s
society just as they have been ever since man and woman existed. That’s
where I like to be.” -10th Grade Male

Mhm. Let’s see what needs to get transformed here.
Guess again. It’s not womyn’s sexual pleasure.

We must must MUST get passed this whole game of labeling what needs to be in the center when it comes to confronting our rape culture/world because what works for some isn’t going to work for all, so let’s not pretend that one book is for everyone. It’s not, so just at least SAY it’s not for everyone. (Oh, but that might affect the sales, right?)

When you centralize one component, say, women’s sexual pleasure, inevitably other experiences and elements are pushed to the side and that’s how you get trapped into marginalizing, dividing, and *poof* there goes the “intersectionality.” (That buzz word, by the way, is WAYYYYY over/mis/used and I will give a $1000 to anyone that can show me a blog that explores it well.)

The dynamic and multi-veined power within sexual assault is so pervasive that I cannot conceive or embrace the concept that womyn’s pleasure is central to an issue of such devastation, significance, and depth.

Honestly, embarrassment and frustration arise in my cheeks as I read this newest attempt to bring the movement together. Have we not yet learned – for both sexual assault AND feminism – what needs utter, total, and complete transformation is power, not pleasure?

Asian Women Targeted in Sexual Assault Attacks

Published on by Lisa

h/t to AAM

In Seattle, four womyn have come forward saying they have been sexually assaulted and the assaults have occurred in a bus stop. As the police describe the attacker as growing more and more bold – he first began touching woman and is now grabbing them and forcing them to the ground – they are cautioning women in certain areas who use the bus to be extra weary. All of the survivors are Asian American womyn.

My beef, once again, with sexual assault is that law enforcement and media always end with a Be Careful Ladies! message. What if these womyn – Asian or not – do not have the luxury of options or trying to be more careful than they already are? Or maybe this is an assault on the rights of womyn – Asian or not – to use public transportation without fear of being raped or her body being violated? How about, instead, the message be

WE WILL NOT TOLERATE THIS FORM OF RACE BASED VIOLENCE

How about we write, “We will not silence or persuade women into altering their lives out of fear of a sexual predator,” instead of spreading cautionary tales and hoping more womyn come forward?

We will not be silent. We will not be afraid.

What Makes a Hate Crime?

Published on by Lisa

From Democracy Now

This is a portion of a transcript from Megan Williams and what she described as her experience when she was kidnapped, raped, and tortured for a week. Now, this is what I want to know: what constitutes a hate crime? A hate crime must be a “conspiracy against constitutional rights.” What part of being gang raped; forced to eat human, rat, and dog feces; enduring unfathomable emotional and physical violence and torture while being called racial slurs by 6 individuals does not qualify as a conspiracy against Megan’s constitutional rights?

I’ve got to be going crazy.

Or maybe I’m that naive.

Or maybe this world is just becoming a place I don’t want to recognize as home anymore.


MEGAN WILLIAMS: They were torturing me. They all passed a knife around that was — and stabbing me. I was trying to get away as they were stabbing me, and they were holding me down and stuff. And they smothered me with a bag. That morning, I had a bag wrapped around my neck and everything. They choked me. They made me eat dog poop, rat poop and human. They made me drink their urine. And each time, they braided some switches together, and they were beating me across the back. They tore my clothes off me and everything.


These are the words of a womyn who I believe.

The Rape of Latinas in the US Military

Published on by Lisa

Days and months that mark sexual assault awareness come and go through the calendar year. While I pay tribute and advocate for these special periods that heighten consciousness, it’s also too easy to let the everyday go by and forget that everyday, every minute, in every community in this world womyn are being raped, sodomized, and tortured.

Survival does not always follow rape. Neither does healing. Destructive silence, failing justice systems, invasive medical attention, and disbelief must first be dealt. And then, under the right circumstances and fortune, does support, resources, and healing begin.

These stories give testament to the violence that we know occurs but rarely hear about. It’s like that very dark closet in our homes that we know is there, existing in a corner that we rarely have to turn. We refuse to talk about it: rape in our military. Power has always been at the crux of sexual violence, and where does the imbalance of power and superiority exist more than in our armed forces?

It’s not just in the nations we invade where womyn are raped and tortured, but also the womyn within our own military whose stories reflect the same truth: womyn are raped and then silenced when they try to speak out. When people talk about feminism, they first don’t think of war as a feminist or “womyn’s issue.” Why not? At first, it appears the humanitarian and international rights groups have the tags on this. However, I question, what issue does not belong to womyn? What area of social injustice does not first affect and violate womyn of color in any community in this world? How does war not imprison, starve, and mutilate the lives of womyn in a militarized nation?

When I say end this war, I’m not just talking about bringing the troops home. I’m talking about saving the lives of the undocumented violence against womyn of color for which signs and peace rallies will not acknowledge.

Via aztlan

The Rape of Latinas in the US Military

*Thanks to an anonymous commenter who put forward the authentic origin of the links and I have since decided to remove the links to some of the photos.

Judge drops rape charges in gang rape

Published on by Lisa

This was forwarded to me and I just laid my head in my arms for awhile to revel in my disbelief and heartbreak.

Even if you aren’t able to attend, please do spread the word and equally as importantly voice your opinion to Judge Teresa Carr Deni at the polls on Tuesday, November 6, 2007.
***************************************************************************­***************** PRESS CONFERENCE Thursday November 1, 2007 1pm Outside Municipal Court (Criminal Justice Center) 1301 Filbert St, Philadelphia
Monday October 29, 2007 To the Editor:
We were appalled to learn that on Oct 4 Municipal Judge Teresa Carr Deni dropped all rape and assault charges in the case of a woman gang-raped at gunpoint. Because the woman was working as a prostitute, Judge Deni decided that she could not have been raped and changed the charge to “theft of services.” Deni later said that this case “minimizes true rape cases and demeans women who are really raped.”
As groups organizing against rape and in support of victims, we could not disagree more. *All* women have the right to protection from violence. The idea that any woman is “asking for it” is a lie that we fought for decades to destroy. It is especially offensive to see it revived by a female judge, who reached her position as a result of the women’s movement and is now using her power to deny justice to the most vulnerable women.
Deni told Daily News columnist Jill Porter that the victim met another client before reporting the rape. We have learned that this is completely untrue; the transcript of the hearing proves it. For a judge to make a false (and self-serving) accusation against a victim in the press, in addition to her prejudiced and reckless contempt for women’s safety, confirms that she is unfit to serve. The outcry following Deni’s decision shows how out of step with public opinion she is and that most people believe that prostitute women deserve the same protection from violence that we all have a right to expect.
No woman is safe when prostitute women aren’t safe. Serial rapists and murderers often target prostitute women knowing that they are more likely to get away with it. Labeled criminals by the prostitution laws, women are less likely to report violence for fear of arrest themselves. When sex workers do report, the violence is often dismissed. Here, the same man and his friends gang-raped another woman four days later. Decisions like Deni’s are a green light for further attacks.
The victim in this case was a Black single mother with a young child. In Philadelphia, where one in four people lives in poverty and welfare has been almost completely dismantled, many women have been forced into prostitution to survive. This should not make them fair game for rapists.
We are glad that the District Attorney is pursuing the original rape charges. The public can make *our* voices heard in the November 6 election: vote “No” on the retention of Teresa Carr Deni as Judge of the Municipal Court of Philadelphia.
*Mary Kalyna* On behalf of Global Women’s Strike Philadelphia, PA
and Women Against Rape US PROStitutes Collective Black Women’s Rape Action Project (BWRAP) Legal Action for Women Every Mother is a Working Mother Network Wages Due Lesbians Payday Men’s Network
— STOP THE VIOLENCE WEAR RED ON OCTOBER 31, 2007 http://documentthesilence.wordpress.com/

International Day of Action: Comm Responses to Sexual Assault

Published on by Lisa

Via Firefly.

INTERNATIONAL DAY OF ACTION
For Community Responses to Sexual Assault

November 30th 2007

We are calling for people to organise in their own towns and cities to
take action on this day. This means whatever it means to you – maybe
organising in your school, occupying an office or a court or a police
station, holding a rally, making a publication, talking to people, or
anything you can think of.

The government has used sexual assault to justify the military invasion,
removal of land permits, and denial of Indigenous autonomy in the Northern
Territory. But this is not a way of dealing with sexual assault – fear,
intimidation, and military and police presence as a “solution” shows no
understanding of sexual assault or ways of dealing with it. The police
and military have been perpetrators of sexual assault in communities
around Australia, in Iraq, around the world.

The Northern Territory intervention is a racist intervention. It is
ridiculous that our white government thinks that Indigenous communities
are unable to respond to sexual assault themselves, with their own
processes and understandings, especially when we look at the way sexual
assault is dealt with across the rest of Australia, by relying on an
alienating, adversary and difficult to access legal system.

Almost no sexual assaults are reported to police, and most reported cases
result in no conviction. This is not because they are “false claims” but
because the legal system forces someone who has been assaulted to try to
“prove” their claim, doubting them, disbelieving, pressuring them to
relive their assault and undergo invasive medical examinations. Most
assault happens in private – it makes it the survivor’s word against the
perpetrator’s. The court system is designed so that survivors of sexual
assault are attacked and broken by defence lawyers who only want to win
their case. In the rare case that a perpetrator is convicted, prison does
nothing to confront and challenge the behaviour and underlying assumptions
and understandings that foster a culture of sexual assault.

We want a day of action calling for community – not military, not legal –
responses to sexual assault. Our government shows no interest in trying to
engage with the real issues of sexual assault and how to confront it, so
we need to do it ourselves. We are calling for support for survivors of
sexual assault, and a process of community response that prioritises their
needs and safety. We are calling for processes that try to change the
underlying myths and power dynamics that lead to assault, before it
happens. We want processes that deal with perpetrators in a way that
challenges their beliefs and behaviours, and gets them to take
responsibility for their actions and trying to change.

For more information, or to add your own:
communitiesresponsetosexualassault.wordpress.com

Email: ida_2007@graffiti.net