Tonight is the night for quoting Kayloulee

[highlyeccentric]

I wish to share with you the fabulous rantings of my Tawdry Other Woman. Tonight, she combined justified righteous indignation with entertaining phrasing.

KAYLOULEE: Look at this! The headline says Cabbie Guilty of Rape. The first sentence goes An 18-year-old woman who was raped by a taxi driver on her way home after a night out with friends was a virgin who had recently moved to Sydney. I DON'T CARE. IT DOESN'T MATTER IF SHE WAS A VIRGIN. It doesn't matter if she hadn't ever had any sex at all, or if she was a prostitute. YOU DON'T RAPE PEOPLE.

HIGHLY: Why is it important that she was having a night out with friends, either?

KAYLOULEE: I DON'T CARE IF SHE HAS FRIENDS! I don't care if she never goes out! I don't care if she's a recluse who spends all her time at home on Livejournal! You don't rape people!

~

And now, I notice that the second sentence of the article is At the time of the attack, "Jay" (not her real name), believed she was gay. What's that supposed to mean? She changed her mind after being RAPED?

Comments

[iremos.livejournal.com]

Your anger makes me happy.

[goblinpaladin.livejournal.com]

RAPING PEOPLE: IT'S NOT HARD. I've been able to do it for twenty-four years.

Be warned from my mistake, though: people do seem to find that a tricksome concept to comprehend.

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

You do mean that you've been NOT RAPING PEOPLE for 24 years, surely?

[goblinpaladin.livejournal.com]

...yes.

My face, it burns.

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

I mean, I suppose you're technically ABLE to do so, which is what you just announced, but I doubt you've had that ability for twenty four whole years, unless you were a very scary toddler.

[goblinpaladin.livejournal.com]

I was a pretty scary toddler.

[kayloulee.livejournal.com]

Definitely not that scary.

[goblinpaladin.livejournal.com]

that should read NOT RAPING PEOPLE obviously

[phrasemuffin.livejournal.com]

That would make far more sense, given your stance on the matter. (I was going to question your wording just as the good Highly did, but my wordings seemed far too un-serious, given the matter at hand.)

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

I think it means "She really wasn't asking for it, unlike all those HETEROSEXUAL and NON-VIRGIN women who secretly wanted to be raped."

GAH.

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

ah, of COURSE.

[daiskmeliadorn.livejournal.com]

I also don't think this makes it okay:

Jay has given the Herald permission to refer to her by a pseudonym and to detail her sexuality, which was not part of the court case but which would be presented in a victim impact statement to Judge Berman

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

I'm even MORE concerned about that, really. I assume a victim impact statement is something given to the judge to determine the length of sentence? So someone who rapes a woman deserves less punishment if the woman is mentally tough enough to go on with her life? So you have to talk up the 'impact' in order to see the offender punished properly? And why are her virginity and orientation the important things for the public to know about the impact? GRRR.

[daiskmeliadorn.livejournal.com]

does sound dodgy, doesn't it.

also, the online version of the article described her as 'gay' but in the print version it said 'lesbian'. weird. i guess some subeditor changed it or something, but i wonder why...

[ahsavka.livejournal.com]

I agree that it sounds a little dodgy, but I think in this case it's highlighting that the victim would not, even in an ideal situation, have sex with a man. She was raped, but on top of the rape she was sexually forced to do things she found repulsive.

I'm not sure that sits right with me, having written it. I'm not sure a rape can be worse than another rape. Consensual sex is so unlike rape that maybe it doesn't matter whether what's done to you is far outside what you'd normally experience. I am not well educated enough to say.

[areyoustrange.livejournal.com]

I love you guys.

[phrasemuffin.livejournal.com]

Does the final sentence seem oddly solemn to you? Jay had moved to Sydney from the Southern Highlands last year. Directly after the details of the incident, this odd little qualifier on earlier facts seems most inappropriate. I mean, I can understand the mentioning of her virginity and sexuality as making, in the eyes of the author and the readers he/she imagines, the incident seem even worse - not only was her first sexual experience rape, possibly scarring future reltionships for a long time to come, but she was raped by a member of the gender she sexually rejects (for want of better word), and by mentioning that she identified as gay before may, in the author's mind, draw attention to her identity after in that before she believed, but now she knows for certain. HOWEVER mentioning the Souther Highlands seem most incongruous - does that somehow further magnify the horrors of the incident? Is it supposed to present the conservative nature of that part of the world in which she was raised? Does rape not happen in the Souther Highlands? OR are rape cases far more frequent there, and the statement is saying that she should be used to this sort of thing by now? GAH!

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

no, it's because newspaper reports are in order of importance- the last detail is always the irrelevant one. Which is why they seem so jerky and badly written in online form: because you're not scanning the page for the pithy bits.

[sjazzmreow.livejournal.com]

EXACTLY. In four words she's summed up all anyone should ever need to know about rape.

What's that supposed to mean? She changed her mind after being RAPED?
Well, let's not forget the findings of such great observers of behaviour as Anne "I friend of mine became a flaming, limpwristed, queer because he was raped with a tent peg" McCaffrey. It obviously makes sound biological sense, don'tcha know.