Creators sometimes justify graphic, troubling scenes with the claim that we need to see to ‘understand.’ Well, do we?
Do we really need to see graphic violence to ‘understand’?
Tag: rape
You are not responsible for the deeds of your rapist if you don’t report
People who don’t report are often pressured on the grounds that they’re responsible for protecting others. That’s incorrect, and damaging.
On Brock Turner’s defenders and secrecy
Brock Turner’s defenders were shocked and surprised when their supportive testimony went public. They shouldn’t have been.
Just believe rape victims. Period.
Professionally, I live in a world where reporting on any crime has to be hedged with weasel words and ambiguities in order to avoid the risk of libel — unless someone has been convicted in a court of law, I cannot technically that person a rapist, an arsonist, a thief, a murderer. Instead, we’re required […]
Where is incest in conversations about rape?
Rape is coming out of the shadows to occupy more and more public discussion, changing the way we think about and conceptualise sexual assault. The fight to destigmatise rape and refocus the problem on the people who commit it, rather than victims, is important, as is the opening up of some discussions that have historically […]
Sexual harassment and the graduate student
The last few years have marked a critical discussion about sexual assault on college campuses, which is a huge problem in the United States. Campus rape has emerged as a significant problem in no small part because of the way it’s handled by colleges and universities, which seem to prefer to cover it up rather […]
Disability and rape on the hospital ward
Content note: This piece discusses rape and sexual assault in medical contexts, though not in graphic detail. Reading statistics on rape and disability is sometimes akin to being plunged into a pit of fire for me. The statistics are so grim, even in their poorly collected and maintained state, as to boggle the mind. Broadly […]
Why people don’t report: Testimony
There’s a strong cultural pressure surrounding rape victims/survivors and reporting: You’re a bad person if you don’t report, if the rapist does it again it’s your fault, why wouldn’t you want the rapist to be punished, you need to talk about it to work through it, &c. This pressure doesn’t consider the needs of the […]
Utilizing unexpected tools to combat farmworker rape
If you haven’t seen Frontline’s Rape in the Fields, I highly recommend it — the documentary is a detailed and unforgiving look at labour abuses across the US. As the title implies, the primary subject is sexual assault of farmworkers, specifically women, and it does contain some graphic and disturbing content including discussions of rape and […]
How About We Try Just Listening to Trauma Victims?
Last year was a terrible time for rape victims. Multiple high-profile cases of rape and sexual assault hit the news, including some that involved decades of assaults that had gone largely ignored, and those involving beloved public figures that no one wanted to hold accountable for their actions. ‘Not the man I know‘ is a […]