Bad Ideas

How our newscasters talk about rape (CNN)

How Not to Respond to Todd Akin’s ‘Legitimate Rape’ Comment

Abortion has come back to the forefront of the political race after Missouri Congressman Todd Akin, who is currently running for a Senate seat, made a very stupid remark about women not getting pregnant in cases of “legitimate rape.”

The damage is done: Republicans are treating Akin like a leper; he’s been asked not to attend the RNC and to drop out of the race by no less than Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, and it’s doubtful his campaign will ever recover from this gaffe.

And while it’s good that Todd Akin’s comments have gotten people talking about an issue that has been mainly pushed aside this election, some of the outraged responses to the Congressman’s statement are in (almost) as poor taste as the original remark. Here’s how we shouldn’t be talking about the issue of “legitimate rape.” Read More

movies

Bale and Ni Ni.

From The Withered Tree, Flowers of War Bloom

In the dark history of human atrocity, one savage, inhuman chapter that is always missing from the textbooks in courses about the Pacific conflict in World War II is the Rape of Nanking. Except for the occasional documentary, this harrowing event has gone largely unexplored by filmmakers, yet it surges with historic value and the elements of heartbreaking drama. Ask history majors about what the Japanese did to freedom-loving civilians to alter the world and all they know is Pearl Harbor, Bataan and the Death March. Now the great Chinese director Zhang Yimou has made a valiant and compassionate effort to enlighten the ignorant. The Flowers of War is his best film since Raise the Red Lantern. It is emotionally shattering. Read More

Occupy Wall Street

Tent city

Occupy Wall Street Kitchen Worker Allegedly Raped, Molested Girls In Tents

Even with the best intentions, any community is bound to have some trouble. And though oftentimes that trouble for those cohabiting on Occupy Wall Street seems to becoming from outside forces — the police, the banks, the mayor — occasionally it comes from within.

Tonye Iketubosin
, 26 years old and from Crown Heights, has been linked to at least two incidents of sexual assault in the recently sprung-up tent city in Zuccotti Park…one case of which involves a minor. Read More

Occupy Wall Street

A woman, Occupying Wall Street

Objecting or Objectified? At Occupy Wall Street Women Get Attention, But Not Always for Their Message

Ugh, women. Can’t they go five minutes without ruining a rally against corporate greed with their claims of inter-protest misogyny, objectification, and rape?

When filmmaker Steven Greenstreet created his Tumblr Hot Chicks of Occupy Wall Street in mid-October, he was attempting to show “the sexy side of protesting.” Unsurprisingly, his site was only up for a day before feminist blogs tore into the “creepy voyeur” for what they perceived as a sexist objectification of women – many of whom were photographed apparently without their knowledge or consent. Read More

Crimes and Misdemeanors

Heidi Jones faked rape story for attention.

Forecast For Meteorologist Heidi Jones Lying About Sexual Assault: Not So Good

Back in November, New York’s local WABC-TV weatherwoman Heidi Jones told police that she had been attacked and almost raped by a Hispanic man in Central Park, who then later followed her home and tried to assault her again outside her apartment. The event had taken place in September, Jones claimed, but she had waited to tell the police until the man had shown up again at her building to harass her. Read More