Silence is Violence
Feb. 7th, 2010 12:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eumeliaCurrently, circulating the Israeli (and Hebrew speaking, obviously) Left leaning blogosphere a story of rape is being told.
The woman in question, who bravely wrote her story, in her full name, regarding the crime against her body.
The author, Eshkar Eldan Cohen, published her story on the social commentary website and magazine "Ha'Oketz" (העוקץ - The Sting) that focuses on the intersection of non-Ashkenazi Jewish ethnicities (Mizrahi, Sephardi, Ethiopian), the occupation and class disparity.
The perpetrator is a known personality in the Left milieu.
He committed this rape twenty years ago.
He is a known harasser. From the descriptions, I feel that I know of him, but that's not what I want to talk about.
The article by Cohen has over thirty comments (not a lot, but quite a few for a site of that nature and an article of this kind) and one of the recurring themes in many of the comments were:
"Why didn't you go to the police" and "Why don't you tell us his name"
Those two things are what I want to talk about.
The very question (and it's variations) "Why didn't you go to the police/press charges/tell someone/etc." is victim blaming.
Yeah really, it is.
By saying that she should have said something places all the responsibility on her, especially when the incident, as most of them are, are without violence that leaves bruises. Force doesn't have to entail physical restraint and doesn't have to leave marks upon the body.
This guy was a personality back then, as such, he was probably held in high regard, spoken about as a "good guy", creative, "nice", wouldn't hurt anyone.
The social imperative that we're taught about remaining silent when it comes to rape and sexual assault is far more powerful than the abstract notion of justice.
The shame of losing bodily integrity, of knowing that the history of who came before the rapist is somehow relevant (it isn't) and the knowledge that because rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment are a spectrum of what is considered a woman's worth in society.
Which is not much.
When you request the identity of the perpetrator, when the person who was victimised refrained from giving it in the first place you're being obtuse at best and completely disrespectful of someone's right to privacy at worst.
She didn't give the name for a reason.
The main reason is that it would be libel.
Because other than her story (and a few other people, maybe), there is no proof that he actually did it.
There are far more rape victims than there are rapists, because rapists are repeat offenders and they rely on the silence and social shame that comes with the crime.
Usually, they're quite convinced they didn't rape anyone. They were doing what comes naturally.
Taking what is their due.
This is what a rape culture looks like.
This story is circulating in Hebrew, as mentioned, but as an Israeli blogger who writes primarily in English I decided I had to write about it. This is happening now and should be known, all the time.
Because silence is violence. Speak up. Shame is one of the most destructive emotions in existence and it should be eradicated where we are able to do so.
The woman in question, who bravely wrote her story, in her full name, regarding the crime against her body.
The author, Eshkar Eldan Cohen, published her story on the social commentary website and magazine "Ha'Oketz" (העוקץ - The Sting) that focuses on the intersection of non-Ashkenazi Jewish ethnicities (Mizrahi, Sephardi, Ethiopian), the occupation and class disparity.
The perpetrator is a known personality in the Left milieu.
He committed this rape twenty years ago.
He is a known harasser. From the descriptions, I feel that I know of him, but that's not what I want to talk about.
The article by Cohen has over thirty comments (not a lot, but quite a few for a site of that nature and an article of this kind) and one of the recurring themes in many of the comments were:
"Why didn't you go to the police" and "Why don't you tell us his name"
Those two things are what I want to talk about.
The very question (and it's variations) "Why didn't you go to the police/press charges/tell someone/etc." is victim blaming.
Yeah really, it is.
By saying that she should have said something places all the responsibility on her, especially when the incident, as most of them are, are without violence that leaves bruises. Force doesn't have to entail physical restraint and doesn't have to leave marks upon the body.
This guy was a personality back then, as such, he was probably held in high regard, spoken about as a "good guy", creative, "nice", wouldn't hurt anyone.
The social imperative that we're taught about remaining silent when it comes to rape and sexual assault is far more powerful than the abstract notion of justice.
The shame of losing bodily integrity, of knowing that the history of who came before the rapist is somehow relevant (it isn't) and the knowledge that because rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment are a spectrum of what is considered a woman's worth in society.
Which is not much.
When you request the identity of the perpetrator, when the person who was victimised refrained from giving it in the first place you're being obtuse at best and completely disrespectful of someone's right to privacy at worst.
She didn't give the name for a reason.
The main reason is that it would be libel.
Because other than her story (and a few other people, maybe), there is no proof that he actually did it.
There are far more rape victims than there are rapists, because rapists are repeat offenders and they rely on the silence and social shame that comes with the crime.
Usually, they're quite convinced they didn't rape anyone. They were doing what comes naturally.
Taking what is their due.
This is what a rape culture looks like.
This story is circulating in Hebrew, as mentioned, but as an Israeli blogger who writes primarily in English I decided I had to write about it. This is happening now and should be known, all the time.
Because silence is violence. Speak up. Shame is one of the most destructive emotions in existence and it should be eradicated where we are able to do so.
no subject
Date: 2010-02-07 03:31 am (UTC)The main reason is that it would be libel.
That is a very good reason, especially when if it did go to court it would be construed as a matter of consent with no evidence other than her word against his.
There has been a similar situation in Australia with a indigenous leader accused of rape. He was eventually charged, but at the time a lot of the left were claiming that it was an attack on him for being a prominent activist and an excuse to dismantle ATSIC.
On a more personal level, two women I know were raped by a guy who had overlapping social circles with us. The first went to the police and was advised that there was not a strong enough case against him, just her word against his. The second was a teenager who had run away from home and was not keen to talk to the police. What some of us did was simply to point him out to women as someone who won't take no for an answer, and advise them not to get into situations where they were alone with him. Not quite as libelous as going to the press or putting up posters with his face on them, but hopefully it helped some people avoid risk.
no subject
Date: 2010-02-07 05:46 am (UTC)Indeed, the only thing you can do, barring the often ineffectual police report, is to let other people know that that person is bad news.