“Our mission for the Steubenville Project is to be a community garden that improves the neighborhood by bringing people together to grow and donate food, improve diet, educate and inspire, provide therapy, grow produce, and strive to better our community.”
Rehtaeh Parsons – her name is Heather spelled backwards, a name her mother thought was pretty – was 15 years old when she was raped by four teenagers. After a year-long investigation, police concluded that there were no grounds to charge the four boys.
[One of Rehtaeh’s attackers] “denied being a rapist even though the photo shows him smiling as he has sex with Rehtaeh, who was 15 at the time, whilst she drunkenly vomits out of window.”
Rehtaeh’s mother said that one of her daughter’s accused rapists took a photo of the alleged assault, circulating it among friends. Rehtaeh became the center of vicious, relentless bullying when the photo went viral.
[The bullying] “lasted a staggering 17 months even though she switched schools and moved house.”
Rehtaeh hanged herself in her family’s bathroom on Thursday, April 4, after months of torment. At 11:15 PM on the evening of Sunday, April 7, her parents took her off life support.
Her father, Glen Canning, gave this statement on his blog:
“My daughter was three years old when we went to watch Babe: Pig in the City. There’s a part in the movie when Babe knocks over a goldfish bowl and the fish falls onto the floor and starts flopping around. When this happened Rae suddenly stood up on her chair in the movie theatre and started screaming for someone to help the fish. She cried for it as I tried to reassure her Babe would help (thank God he did) and that the fish would be alright.
Occupy Steubenville 15 April, 2013
Peaceful rally in unified support of the Grand Jury to bring forth justice to any and all persons who were involved in the heinous acts committed against the unnamed teenage girl at the centre of the rape case.
Apr 15, 11:00AM
Jefferson County Courthouse 301 Market St, Steubenville, OH
Gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) is a naturally occurring substance found in nearly all animal tissue, in some fruits, and in wine. It was first synthesised in the 1920s, it and was used as a general anaesthetic in the 1960s and 1970s. More recently it has been used by bodybuilders in the hope that it would promote fat reduction and muscle development, until being banned for sale as a supplement in the United States by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1990.
More commonly, it is known as a central nervous system depressant and date rape drug.
It has no odor, tastes slightly salty, and is almost undetectable when mixed in a drink.
Voices of Rape: survivors speak
Men and women alike came together to speak at the Occupy Steubenville gatherings, held in support of the teenage girl at the centre of one of America’s most high-profile rape cases.
I created this video to bring some of their powerful words to a wider audience.
I hope it will be useful to educators, activists and anyone with an interest in creating a more empathetic, cohesive society.
Please share and distribute.
Thank you.
– Andrea Fallas, PhD
![Rape: crime and punishment.
An infographic from The Independent’s Data Blog
In addition:
Over 400,000 women are sexually assaulted each year
1 in 5 women (aged 16 - 59) has experienced some form of sexual violence since the age of 16.
[An Overview of Sexual Offending in England and Wales – full report from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), Office for National Statistics (ONS) and Home Office, UK]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/1ca9adb41965ee4778b48418e191ce31/tumblr_mkxryeMuLE1qedcrao1_500.jpg)
Rape: crime and punishment.
An infographic from The Independent’s Data Blog
In addition:
Over 400,000 women are sexually assaulted each year
1 in 5 women (aged 16 - 59) has experienced some form of sexual violence since the age of 16.
[An Overview of Sexual Offending in England and Wales – full report from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), Office for National Statistics (ONS) and Home Office, UK]
We have been getting some lovely feedback from our readers!
Thank you all for being mindfuller.
Love,
x.
“[TW: rape jokes] So here’s the real reason that rape jokes are troubled territory - Because rape victims say so. They get to say that. They get to feel that way. On this, they get to set the cultural rules. It’s not about right or wrong, or logic versus emotion, or arguments of over sensitivity or hypocrisy - you have the free speech to make whatever jokes you want or talk about rape in whatever way you feel is illuminating. But they get to be upset about it. And call you on it. And be hurt by it. But consider this: You get to not be a rape victim. They, however, are not afforded that luxury. Ever again.”— Chuck Wendi
It is true that rape jokes are hurtful and upsetting for rape victims.
However, there are reasons that people make them and why they find them funny.
By understanding these reasons we can better understand what is and isn’t appropriate to joke about.
Be mindfuller.
“In August of 2012 a group of unsupervised teenagers committed crimes that, taken at face value, some initially speculated amounted to little more than “boys being boys”, but upon closer inspection we see this case stinks of criminal callousness, corruption and carelessness for and that stench is upon all involved.
The first phase of the party took place at the home of a volunteer high school coach and included over 50 people, according to the New York Times. The amount of peer pressure Trent Mays wielded as the quarterback of the football team cannot be overstated. Though the entire affair is tragic on its own lurid merits, the blind allegiance displayed by Ma’lik Richmond, and the other teenage party-goers is all the more mind-numbing for some.
The “Steubenville rapists” started their sentences this week and we can all breathe a sigh of relief, right?
Wrong.
A small group of people with intimate knowledge of the events surrounding the rape believe that Trent Mays and Ma’lik Richmond were victims of a conspiracy, if you will, or a revenge plot gone wrong, if you won’t.
A particularly tragic example of revenge gone wrong hit the headlines across the UK this week, with Mick Philpott being found guilty of manslaughter. His crime? He and his wife Mairead hatched and carried out a plan to set fire to their own home in an attempt to frame Mick’s former lover, Lisa Willis, who had walked out with their four children three months earlier. The fire started hours before Philpott was due to face Willis in court for a custody hearing. In the months prior, Philpott had spread rumours that Willis wanted to firebomb the house. The plan was for Philpott to rescue his children and for Willis to be prosecuted for arson but the carefully crafted revenge plot went horribly wrong, resulting in the deaths of five of Philpott’s own children and Mairead’s son from a previous marriage. They were assisted by Philpott’s best friend, Paul Mosley, who joined the couple in a threesome on the family snooker table mere hours before the children died.
These three did not get away with murder.
But those who might ultimately be responsible for setting in motion the tragic events that unfolded that August night in Steubenville may well still get away with rape…
Not some grand sweeping task or overbearing rule… just this one thing that can apply to a lot of things?
Can you picture with me, a ginormous PAUSE button? I think we should envision it on your heart. (Bear with me…)
In the wake of Steubenville, I want to talk about shame because I have heard it mentioned many times but I have not yet seen anyone tackle the subject directly.
Shame can be many things: an affect (the experience of feeling an emotion), emotion (a “positive or negative experience that is associated with a particular pattern of physiological activity”), cognition (a faculty for the processing of information, applying knowledge, and changing preference), state, or condition (a permanent or temporary configuration).
The distinction between shame and the related concepts of guilt and embarrassment is not very clear…
In fact, one could argue that a single language is not even adequate to fully describe the range of human emotion, see also Śīla versus Nāmūs.
“When you hear or see a story about rape or read a statistic about sexual violence against women, multiply the number of people harmed. Be conservative, if you must. Assume that two other women loved or depended on each woman or girl who was violated.
So, for one rape, three are injured.
And one in three women are assaulted worldwide.
So, what’s that?
Three in three women are harmed.”
– Christa Parravani for the Washington Post
