You know what? This “Wikileaks founder arrested for rape” shit has me pissed the fuck off.
Wanna know why?
Because we live in a world where rape is not taken seriously by any justice system in any country I can think of. When the fucking New York Times dismisses suggestions that the aggressive pursuit of these charges against Assange is connected with Wikileaks by saying there is “no public evidence” of this fact, I just want to hand them the long list of cases in just the last two years of famous men being either acquitted of rape charges in which there is more than enough evidence for conviction or not even seeing the inside of a fucking courtroom despite mountains of evidence against them. That’s your fucking public evidence. The simple fact that NO JUSTICE SYSTEM I KNOW OF GIVES TWO SHITS ABOUT PROSECUTING RAPE CASES.
This is not to say that he is innocent or that these accusations are baseless. Frankly, find me one famous man that hasn’t done something that can be classified as some type of sexual assault and I’ll find you a rich white American hetero cis-dude that got where he is through proper use of his bootstraps. Lets just say, we are talking extremely rare cases here, since men in US and other “Western” cultures (indicating them only because they are the cultures I live with and I don’t feel qualified to pass judgment on any others) are taught that their sexuality is supposed to be predatory. I totally believe that he is capable of doing what he is accused of.
HOWEVER. This does not change the fact that the only reason I can see any court in the US or in Europe going after him is because they can’t shut him up any other way. They aren’t aggressively going after him because they care about rape victims and survivors. They are going after him because they have no other legal means of shutting him up. Its a fucking insult to every single rape survivor that has been told by police that they are a liar, or was forced to recant when their rapist was a person of some social import, or was facing being questioned in court on the witness stand by their fucking rapist, or committed suicide because of the way their peers treated them for reporting their rapes.
This is a fucking insult to every rape survivor out there that knows, deep in hir gut, that zie can never expect justice. Because no one cares about what happened to hir until it is politically expedient to care.
This is a fucking insult because instead of being valued as human beings, survivors are just used again by the state to help cover their own asses.
GOD I fucking hate the world right now.
ETA: If you are here to argue with me about rape statistics and claim that women "constantly" lie about rape, either back it up or get deleted. No, citing the Duke rape case doesn't count. If I can disprove your comment with a cursory glance at actual crime stats, from an actual law enforcement group, then expect your comment to go bye-bye. Because I do have a life that doesn't include catering to your ignorant bullshit.
You're right.
ReplyDeleteThe whole thing stinks and for precisely the reasons you state.
Linked here from Shakesville.
ReplyDeleteThis is one of the best write-ups that I've read about this fuckery. Thank you.
What's even more insulting, in my opinion, are the women who falsely call rape. They are as much to blame as the judicial systems are. How can law enforcement take any woman seriously when an alarmingly large percentage of the reported cases are mean-spirited women trying to get back at men who've jilted them or women who've gotten with someone they realize they shouldn't have and instead of facing up to the fact that they made a mistake, call rape on the guy?
ReplyDeleteFrom what (little) I understand of the Wikileaks situation, that first scenario sounds much more likely than rape.
@Lyny-wolf
ReplyDeleteFor one you just admitted you don't even know that much about the situation (out of the little there already is to know) so how are you making a judgment call? Have you even bothered to read anything before you decided to just chime in with your ~opinion~?
Speaking of judgment calls, who the hell are you to judge when a rape is "false" or not anyway? That is hardly the reason rapes aren't taken seriously. More like victim-blaming and misogyny which is what you fucking sound like about now.
@lyny-wolf
ReplyDeleteI am going to give you the benefit of the doubt here and assume that you are engaging in good faith. That said, "calling rape" in any situation involving charges is actually exceedingly rare. The FBI's own stats of false rape charges were less than 10% of all charges filed.
There is no evidence to back up the myth you are referencing. If it were true, wouldn't jails be overflowing with men that had been put there by false rape accusations? or at least wouldn't there be tons and tons of rape trials? or at least tons and tons of investigations? Except none of these things exist. The sad fact of the matter is that we live in a world where reported rapes are rarely properly investigated (look up "LA county rape evidence backlog" for more info on one particular part of the US,) and even when they are, only 10-20% of those cases ever go to trial, and less than half of those end in a conviction.
Sorry, sweetie, but you believe a lie. Hopefully you haven't hurt anyone you care about by espousing it.