Amanda Marcotte on the Jada outrage.
Man, does this demonstrate what a double-edged sword social media can be when it comes to issues of assault and bullying. On one hand, social media can be used to pile on someone who is already the victim of abuse. The Houston Press reports that after Jada gave her interview to KHOU, another round of ugliness started when idiots started tweeting pictures of themselves splayed out on the ground, mimicking the pose Jada was in when someone snapped the photo of her passed out.
I’ve seen some more on that hashtag. Callous, brutal – simply horrible.
It’s a shame that anyone would feel like they might as well come forward because they have lost so much control of their own situation. But, by putting her face out there, Jada is taking some power back. It’s much harder to marginalize or even demonize an alleged sexual assault victim who makes you acknowledge her humanity. As Emily Bazelon argued in defense of Daisy Coleman, another alleged rape victim who bravely showed her face on TV, while it is a “huge personal risk,” it “can only help erase the stigma of being sexually assaulted.”
As Emily noted about Coleman and another young woman who was speaking out at the time, Jada is also “teaching a lesson in resilience” by “being clear eyed about what they say happened” but “not letting it own them.” She is refusing to be reduced to a few blurred-out photos. She is looking directly at the camera, and that’s the pose I’ll remember.
High school boys? Don’t be evil.
Instances like this make me glad that I decided to pass on the whole ‘high school’ thing after a year or two.
Eventually, we will just have to start seeing sex and sexuality as natural human activities which everyone should engage in healthily (keeping in mind that some people’s definition of ‘healthy’ is complete abstinence, in the case of asexual people, for example); people need to realise that sexual assault is assault, and its victims are not to blame simply for existing.
Things like this is why I decided not to breed. It was the only non-violent but positive step I could take to help eradicate humanity.
Instances like this make me glad that I decided to pass on the whole twitter thing, permanently, after never having used it in the first place.
1,2,3, Q.F.T.
On the positive side, stupid callous assholes are outing themselves. I can only look at it in this positive manner because so many call them and their co-assholists on it. I don’t even know how to begin to express my admiration and appreciation towards the women (it’s almost always women) who bravely expose themselves to this vile backlash in an attempt to change things.
I can only work and hope for the day when these people are too embarrassed to express their inhumanity. Or when they become a little self-reflective and change. Or when culture doesn’t help to infect people with this hate and bigotry in the first place.