Carolina Public Press

Carolina Public Press has been working for the past four and a half years on various aspects of rape and sexual assault in North Carolina. Their seminal work can be accessed at Seeking Conviction: Justice Elusive for NC Sexual assault survivors. It’s an excellent read.

Kate Martin, Lead Investigative Reporter, Carolina Public Press

In a recent article, Kate Martin writes that the North Carolina legislature has been unable to change two egregious laws that work to protect the rapist. The first one concerns withdrawal of sexual consent, a crime currently in every state in the United States except for North Carolina thanks to a judge’s ruling 40 years ago. It’s time for North Carolina to join the 21st century and pass a law to this effect. The article goes on to state:

“A different legal precedent from 11 years ago means that having sexual relations with people who are  incapacitated through their own drinking or drug use is also not currently a crime in North Carolina.”

This means that a woman must prove in a court of law not only that she was raped but that something was put in her drink. If she becomes drunk on her own steam then she “wanted to be raped.” This is a rapist protection law. If a boy gets drunk, is he asking to be butt-f___ed?

Breaking News: NC Sexual Assault Reforms Pass Unanimously

The loopholes in the law that have existed for decades are officially gone. The NC legislature has passed SB 199 today. I thank Carolina Press for their excellent reporting in Seeking Conviction, a group of studies and articles that was 4 1/2 years in the making. It is now up to Governor Cooper to see that the bill is made into law. YAY!!!!!!

Samantha Smithstein’s job

Samantha Smithstein’s job is an unusual one. She evaluates violent sexual offenders in California prisons for possible release and in this article shares some of her successes and some of her failures.

I know some men who were once sex offenders and from my personal perspective they seem to be just as troubled about the incident as I am. Empathy is an odd human characteristic. It’s construct is that we are capable of sharing the feelings of people we judge as like us. I like men. I’m made that way. If they are sad, I feel sorry for them.

But let’s be careful. I don’t want to be a sucker. Been there: done that.

This article shows that not all sex offenders are hopeless. Some learn and feel real sorrow for their victims. Sex offenders can broaden their horizons and leave their insular and unsophisticated beliefs behind. And if they do, they may learn that women are as human as men are; these rehabilitated men can become valuable members of society. They can become good fathers, husbands and lovers. There is hope for change. I don’t think I could go on if I didn’t believe this.

England – Assault Complaints Up; Convictions Down

It seems the more formalized the institution, the more difficult it is for it, the institution, to recognize the need for change. England is our mother country and, as a good mother should, she taught us our manners. We in the United States have taken that cultural base and changed it into a more free-wheeling one, one more suited to the wide open spaces we inhabit. Maybe that’s why England seems to be behind us in accepting the ugly reality of rape and sexual assault. This article is a case in point.

The article’s writer, Owen Bowcott, acknowledges the presence of an uptick in complaints following the

Rapper Jonny Fox

#MeToo movement. He quotes Kate Ellis, solicitor for the Center for Women’s Justice, as an expert on this issue but then notes that Britain’s libel laws are harsher than in the US and says that women run the risk of being sued for accusations. As an example he points to Jonny Fox, a rap singer, who is suing five women who accused him of sexual assault with libel claims in excess of 60,000 British pounds.

Additionally, Bowcott alleges that male recruiters of UK companies have commented to him that they are not recruiting attractive women any more because of the #MeToo movement. If Bowcott and those male recruiters had more experience in the field of rape and sexual assault, they would know that women of all sorts are assaulted, not just the pretty ones. I found this comment more than a little off the charts.

Finally Bowcott reports that in a survey almost 7,000 UK lawyers reported that bullying and sexual harassment were rife in the profession.  What is that supposed to mean? That it is the norm. I already know that – but – but – we’ll change that.  Count on it.

An essay from Lit Hub by Lacy Johnson: Men in Power and the Lies They Tell

Great essay on redefining the malleable “truth” of men like Brett Kavanaugh and Donald Trump. I find it difficult to characterize but it is an excellent article. Truth is steadfast not malleable. Truth is dependable in nature.

“The word “truth” comes to us from an ancient Indo-European root word that means to be firm, solid, and steadfast—like wood, like a tree. From that ancient word, deru, we have carved dozens of words to describe the durability of things—words like truce, trust, obdurate, and endure. This meaning, though, is so different from the word’s current usage. “Truth” has come to mean something malleable and convenient—not like wood but like water. It fills whatever container you put it in.”

 

Women Twice as Likely to Suffer PTSD

According to Department of Veterans Affairs National Center for PTSD, military women, a classification comprising both enlisted and civilians who work for the military, are more than twice as likely to suffer PTSD as their male counterparts. To restate it more exactly, PTSD affects 4 in 100 military men but affects 10 in 100 military women. Now that they have the data, they will look to why this is true.

Women in the military are vulnerable to twofold trauma, combat and sexual assault. 

Tracey Shors, a Rutgers University professor, put it succinctly. “Rape is the most likely trauma to induce PTSD. The closer you are physically to trauma, the more likely it will cause PTSD symptoms — and you can’t get any closer than rape.”

This article also mentions that rape induced PTSD leads to physiological changes which make the affected women more susceptible to a broad array of physical diseases in addition to depression, anxiety and mental health issues.

Women go bravely into the military, some fully cognizant of the dangers and some innocent of foreknowledge. This leads to an ugly rhetorical question. Should getting raped be a punishment for women wanting to serve their country side by side with the men?

The Rich And Powerful

Harvey Weinstein

How delightful! Comedian Kelly Bachman calls out Harvey Weinstein. Thanks Kelly.

There’s more about Harvey under books. See Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow

Matt Lauer

Fallout from Ronan Farrow’s book, Catch and Kill, hit Matt Lauer right between the eyes. Brooke Nevils who worked with him on different projects had a consensual affair with him until he went farther than she wanted him to go. In one article Lauer refers to North Carolina’s law that doesn’t permit a woman to withdraw consent once sex has begun. It’s kind of a issue where Farrow’s expertise at teasing details from his interviewees has finally annoyed Matt Lauer and he has decided to go to bat against both Nevil and Farrow.

Columnist Monica Hesse writes some boring but familiar phrases often heard from men. 

Jean-luc Brunel and Jeffrey Epstein

A 26-year-old Canadian model has alleged that Jeffrey Epstein’s buddy and co-owner of Karin Model Agency, Jean-Luc Brunel, raped her in 1987 after putting a knock-out drug in her drink. She was aware she had been raped but didn’t go to the police. She was afraid because she didn’t speak French well and didn’t think the police would believe her. Thirty-two years later she may finally get revenge.

The where-abouts of Jean-Luc Brunel are currently unknown.

New Books

Free Cyntoia: My Search for Redemption in the American Prison System by Cyntoia Brown-Long

Cyntoia’s mom drank while she was pregnant and then used crack while she was a baby. As a result Cyntoia grew up in “the system” until at age 16 she met Garion McGlothen (aka Kut Throat) who became her pimp. He kept her compliant by teaching her that she was born to be a slut and a whore and that the best thing for her was to learn to be good at it. It was on the job for Kut Throat’s cocaine money that she met and killed a john (Johnny Allen) at the tender age of 16,  shooting him in the back of his head. Cyntoia went to jail for 51 years, a lifetime. So what happened? Why is she out now at age 31? How did she attract the attention of people like Rihanna, Kim Kardashian, T.I., Snoop Dog, and Lebron James?  How did she write a book that was published by Simon & Schuster?

I think it’s because she learned words. She learned to express what had happened to her and to put a name to it. Not a name the pimps and johns gave her but a vocabulary that helped her understand herself and then how to express herself to the rest of the world.

Cyntoia learned that there can be no such thing as a 16-year-old prostitute. Instead she learned she was a victim of her pimp, that he trafficked her for cocaine, that he groomed her for the job while profiting from her work. What happened was Cyntoia went back to school while she was in prison, ultimately earning a degree from Lipscomb University with a 4.0 average. Hats off, Cyntoia! Well done!

Ronan Farrow on investigating Harvey Weinstein: ‘When family issues are thrown at me, it’s a dirty movie’

Farrow’s new book, Catch and Kill, is different from the other book on Weinstein. After all, Farrow’s sister, Dylan,  accused his father, Woody Allen of molesting her when she was a child. Ronan admits to a feeling familiar to most (and I mean most) supporting friends and family who eventually lament, When will this be over? Can we stop talking about this now? I can and will answer that question. No, we cannot stop and the reason we cannot stop is that the victims and survivors can’t just stop. Once it happens it is difficult to get over and hovers like the ghost of Christmas’ past in our consciousness.

Ronan, by virtue of his own family’s experience is seen by interviewees as pre-sensitized to their issues. He is not seen as taking secret salacious pleasure from it either. He is the perfect interviewer for women who have been assaulted and abused.

And, in my opinion, he writes well. Harvey Weinstein had over 80 victims. There will likely be lots more books to come.

Trump the Predator

A new book entitled All the President’s Women: Donald Trump and the Making of a Predator by Barry Levine and Monique El-Faizy examines the question of our collective responsibility. By ignoring Trump’s peccadillos, do we become complicit? By looking the other way do we legitimise them and allow them to proliferate. The book records a total of 67 accusations of inappropriate behavior and 26 acts of unwanted sexual contact. Gee, that’s a lot.

The Problem With Everything: My Journey Through The New Culture by Meghan Daum, Gallery Books, will come out this year.

Ms Daum worries the razor’s edge working women have tottered as they attempted to extract possible favor from a powerful man without giving away the ultimate prize. Sometimes it’s an ugly business being a woman.