Letters to the Editor
-
"Let's hope few of them are 'I told you women should never report rape.'"
My first thought was that this is a weak strawman. But then I thought that maybe some loathsome people have responded to the Duke case by asserting that "women should never report rape." Did people actually suggest that? Or was my first thought correct?
-
I don't think your worry should be over "I told you so"
I think your concern should be directed toward Broadsheet and feminist bloggers and feminism in general.
The events at Duke didn't occur to the men and the women.
There were also the actions of the Faculty of 88, the dipshit rants and raves of Amanda Marcotte's bigoted sexist hate speech.
Instead of worrying about "I Told You So", why don't you do some real journalism and discuss how modern feminism got so far on the wrong side of the facts and the American principle of "innocent until proven guilty?"
Does Broadsheet supported bigotry and sexism in pursuit of feminism? Does feminism support bigotry and sexism in pursuit of its goals?
Isn't that the concern you should have? Isn't that what you should be reporting on?
-
Plenty of Blame to Go Around
This whole case, very upsetting. By all accounts, Durham County DA Mike Nifong should probably be disbarred. He definitely deserves a big, heaping portion of the blame for this whole mess.
The woman who made the allegations told conflicting stories but (as yet, I believe) has not been charged with hindering prosecution, lying, etc. Regardless, there's some blame for her.
The Duke athletes, even though not guilty of rape, are no altar boys. Between them, there was a history of arrests for drunken and disruptive behavior, emailed racial slurs after the alleged event, and also just regularly hiring strippers for college events. There's some more blame. That being said, these boys deserved some stern talking-tos and possibly some campus-related suspensions, not the media circus that tarnished their futures.
Which leads me to the last group of people to blame--all of us. So many of us rushed to judgment, unaware of the facts, our passions inflamed by issues of race, class and power. I know I thought, "damn those privileged, white athletes." I'm not proud of it. We should all try to be more level-headed in the future.
I just hope this doesn't too badly damage the efforts of legitimate rape victims trying to seek justice.
Mea culpa.
-
An opportunity to look within and grow
"But then I thought that maybe some loathsome people have responded to the Duke case by asserting that "women should never report rape." Did people actually suggest that? Or was my first thought correct?"
Seems like a weak straw-man to me.
I think it would be good idea if many of us would pause and reflect about what this whole Duke flap means in the big picture...
There are, it seems, many well-intentioned feminists out there who will swallow literally ANY story which involves female victimization.
When one is convinced that women are under siege from all directions, it tends to create a skewed view which singles-out and obsesses on atrocities until all else is overshadowed. This results in the apparent religious belief among feminists in the guilt of any man accused of a sex crime, regardless of circumstances, simply because a woman said so.
In fact, the word "gullible" comes to mind.
As a result, we are treated to the rather embarrassing spectacle of guilt being proclaimed by prominent feminists all over the place despite what any pesky mountain of facts happen to say. In my opinion, this suggests that many feminists are shamefully more concerned with scoring points against the patriarchy than actually caring about real victims.
I should say that this entire experience has been very instructive and eye-opening for me, and I hope that feminists will take this opportunity to look within and grow rather than worry if someone will sneer "I told you so".
-
The issue is: why does feminism care so little about false allegations?
I often hear feminists say that the issue of false allegations affect very few people. Yes, they care, but they care more about all of the unreported acts of rape and domestic violence.
Yes, they care, but "their studies" show it is less than 2%.
There are many studies and lots of anecdotal information from prosecutors that show the rate is anywhere from 8% to 40%.
There are now some very prominent cases of false allegations.
What will it take for feminists to take this injustice seriously? In what sense is having your reputation, career, and life ruined from a malicious false allegation, or being thrown in jail, not WORSE than rape?
If feminists care only for more reported rapes, and do not care for keeping the rate of false allegations down, what will inevitably, mathematically, happen as more rapes are reported?
As you make it "safer" for women to report rape, and encourage women to report rape, you will also be making it safer for women to maliciously make false reports, and you will encourage that activity.
That's not misogyny, that's a simple acknowledgment of what happens when measuring any phenomena. It's a simple understanding of the meaning of "false negative" and "false positive."
An unreported actual rape is a false negative. A false allegation is a false positive. As you try to drive false negatives to zero, if you don't work to drive false positives to zero, false positives will rise.
The innocent men you are throwing in jail are fathers, sons, brothers, uncles -- American citizens.
How come feminists don't believe that it is better that 100 guilty people go free than to convict one innocent person?
How can feminism, a search and struggle to eliminate injustice, actively encourage and deny the existence of this horrible injustice.
It's pretty disgusting that your first response is concern for "I told you so."
-
"I told you women should never report rape..."
"when they're making it all up."
I though some of your quote got lost...
-
The opinion which matters most.
What does Don Imus have to say about this?
-
Methinks...
Mr. ガガ ガガ ガガ has an axe to grind, and from all appearances he would be grinding said axe no matter what happened, ever, to anyone. I'm just guessing here, but I think the poor fellow suffers from Male Victim Psychosis. An unfortunate affliction, apparently uncurable.
-
Mizbinkley,
you are delusional. There is absolutely NO blame or responsibility that can be leveled against the Duke lacrosse athletes. They did nothing wrong. The hooker, who happens to be a drug addict, an alcoholic, a single mother with no fewer than 2 different fathers, who had no less than 3 different men's semen on her person and underwear (none of whom, ironic as it may seem to you, was ANY of the athletes), who proffered several different lies about what supposedly happened including that she was anally penetrated and they didn't wear condoms, that has had a history of contact with the law (including pandering/pimping, drug possession, auto theft, attempted murder of a peace officer, etc.), etc. I could go on but Mr. Nifong KNEW she was lying and knew there was no evidence. The University threw them under the bus and then backpedaled when they saw how it looked and the potential liability. The University told them to give up their Constitution rights to search and seizure. This does harm to people who make legitimate claims of rape. She needs to be charged with perjury and filing a false police report. Oh, on another note, the athletes DIDN'T yell or state racial epithets to the 2 hookers, ever. Please note they wanted different women to begin with TO DANCE. They didn't say they wanted black strippers. They only wanted strippers, not hookers. Get over it. Get your facts straight. Wake up. Quit being so foolish and myopic. I hope this hooker, the County and the University are sued.