Thursday, April 26, 2007

the 'R' word - noticeably absent

Man Sentenced To 25 Years After Impregnating 9-Year-Old Girl - Charlotte News Story - WSOC Charlotte

i believe the word that's really appropriate here is RAPE.

but check this out:
"The judge gave him five years less than the maximum because he admitted to the crime and apologized to the girl's family."

what crime? he apologized for raping a 9 year old? or impregnating her? cuz, you know. that makes it better.

he RAPED a 9 yr. old girl repeatedly for 2 years.
why can't we call it what it is?
why are we so unwilling to see rape as the violent assault that it is?

it's not 'having sex with.'
it's not 'impregnating'.
it's rape.

there's a chicago campaign, sponsored by the Chicago Foundation for Women, that asks what it will take to stop violence against women and girls. it'll take men like this not raping 9 year old girls.

it's the last week of Sexual Assault Awareness Month and what a completely appropriate article to end the month with.

[h/t feministing]

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

arggggggggg

Atalanta said...

Ditto that, justme - unbelievable.

Delia Christina said...

and last week, our IL general assembly narrowly defeated a bill that would have allowed girls like this to have access to abortion services without having to tell just their parent or guardian - they could notify another family member, a teacher, a minister, or even a counselor.

in this kind of situation, where the sexual contact is clearly coercive and/or unwanted, and the role of the family guardian is clearly already compromised, the need to correct this situation IMHO trumps any 'need to know.'

(if you read other articles about this story, the grandmother/mother was a victim of rape, there are other female family members who were also assaulted regularly and the rapist also assaulted other girls he'd been in contact with.

where in the world was this girl supposed to go??)

Wasp Jerky said...

Sort of reminds me of David in the Old Testament. He sleeps with Bathsheba and has her husband killed. But he was also the king, so I'm thinking she wasn't exactly able to tell him no. Christians have no problem calling David an adulterer and a murderer. But you don't hear him called a rapist very often.

Delia Christina said...

and let's not forget david's son who rapes his own sister. was that called rape? i can't recall.

but you bring up an interesting thing: i remember in all my sunday school lessons that when we got to this part it was always subtly implied that since bathsheba was bathing so that the king could see her, then it was like a seduction.

messed up, dude.