It’s not fun being the person to call out American politicians and the judicial system for their perpetuation of female oppression. But we live in a country where rape culture, female sexualization and misogynistic comments are common among our leaders and enforcers.
It’s necessary for us to look at the bigger problem at hand, and it is our responsibility to do so. But don’t take my word for it — read some highlights from the last few weeks:
1. Georgia appeals court judge Christopher McFadden overturned a rapist’s conviction, saying the accuser didn’t act like a victim.
The young woman, whose identity is being protected because she has Down syndrome, was allegedly raped three times in her mother’s home in October 2010. The judge’s explanation for repeal was that the female did not tell anyone the following day, saying she had multiple opportunities to do so.
Sexual assault against individuals with intellectual disabilities is rampant in this country. To claim any individual, much less one with a disability, should behave a certain way after an attack is barbaric. These crimes are heinous and cause mental, emotional and physical harm. The response to trauma is different for every person.
It was my understanding that in a sexual assault case, we aren’t trying to determine if the victim acted like a victim, but if the rapist acted like a rapist.
2. The highest court in Massachusetts ruled that secretly taking photos under a public transportation passenger’s clothing — also known as upskirting — is legal.
Michael Robertson was arrested in 2010 and accused of using his cell phone to get photos and video recordings from beneath the skirts and dresses of female passengers on public transportation. It took two separate complaints from women who were harassed by Robertson before police looked into it.
Now a court has ruled that because the photos Robertson captured did not include nudity or partial nudity, Robertson did not commit a crime.
In America, we have crimes and we have rights. To say Robertson did not commit a crime when he stuck his phone underneath the skirt of unsuspecting passengers and took photos of areas of their bodies that they did not willingly show is to say he had every right to do so.
3. The Girl Scouts of America shed light on why America is severely lacking in female leadership and were struck down by misogynists who claim banning a word is fascist.
When the #BanBossy movement went viral, there were many big name celebrities endorsing it. And there were many small-minded men opposing it.
Let’s be real, here: we can’t ban a word. If we could, I would have been ruthlessly fighting to ban “jorts” and “jeggings.” This campaign never wanted to censor Merriam-Webster, it’s simply raising awareness to how our language affects ambitious boys and girls differently and how we’re all responsible for the lack of gender equality in our nation’s leadership.
We respond positively to a young boy who shows signs of leadership, but we discourage those signs in a young girl. A female CEO would be called a bitch long before her male counterpart would, and we’d all rather her answer our phone calls and make coffee runs.
Of course, we wouldn’t admit this outright, and after last week, it’s apparent that we wouldn’t stand to hear any arguments against our verbal harassment of strong women. Those women are fascists, after all.
These are just three headlines from March that have discouraged me and many other women. We boast about being a land of opportunity and justice, but we won’t convict sexual harassment and we silence the women who could be making things better for women.
Headlines like these can come from Louisiana just as easily as Georgia or Massachusetts. It’s up to us to think critically about these national headlines before they become common occurrences in our own state.
This isn’t the land of the free and the home of the brave. It’s the land of the freedom for rapists and the home of those brave enough to stick a camera phone where it doesn’t belong.