Butterfly Cauldron

On the heels of the last lovely piece, what did I find in my newspaper this morning? This lovely story about an attempted rape victim being terrorized by the men accused of the crime!

The men discovered the victim of the attempted rape and a witness to the incident were living in the Millerville area in Baton Rouge and went to their home at 3:45 a.m. Saturday, an affidavit says.

With the help of three unidentified men, Ristick and Mitchell kicked down the door of the house, the affidavit says.

Ristick, holding a black handgun, grabbed the woman who witnessed the rape attempt, threw her to the ground and threatened to kill her unless the charges were dropped, the affidavit says.

He then hit the woman on the head with the gun, the affidavit says.

Mitchell chased the victim of the attempted rape into the living room and held a gun to her head as he threatened to kill her and her family if she did not drop the charges against Ristick, an affidavit says.

Mitchell then pushed the woman’s head to the floor and fired the handgun into the wall, the affidavit says.

Mitchell, Ristick and the three other men then left the house, an affidavit says.

Both men have been charged with aggravated burglary, simple criminal damage to property, aggravated assault with a firearm and illegal use of a weapon. One man was also charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm. Bond is set at $500k.

So....anyone think that they're not guily of the attempted rape? Anyone?

Labels: assault, crime, Louisiana, outrage, police, rape, sick bastard, stupid people

This is so horrible and offensive, I don't have words to describe it. So, I'm just going to cut-and-paste the whole horrible thing. Note: this appeared in an indie paper geared toward college students. It's not affiliated with LSU, but it's freely distributed around town and is heavy on LSU-coverage. Given the rates of rape on college campuses, this is beyond appalling.

Ex-boyfriend teaches woman why it's important to lock doors

A man, who legally cannot be named, currently awaits trial after he entered the home of his ex-girlfriend and raped her with one of her own sex toys.

The assailant entered the woman's home and bound her hands and feet. He then raped her with a "large" sex toy and allegedly poured beer on the victim. After the attack, the assailant then untied the woman and brought her to her place of work.

The assailant has pleaded not guilty to all charges and insists that he committed the offense in order to scare his ex-girlfriend into locking her doors at night.

Yes. That's right. Look at that headline. Look at the lovely detail about the size of the instrument. Look at his rationalization. Which is re-enforced by the fucking headline. And this woman is a quite possible a resident of Baton Rouge, who lives near or even attends LSU. And even if she's not, maybe she's out eating one day (like I was) and sees The Tiger Weekly laying around. And you know, she thinks "Ah, something to read!" And then she reads this. Seriously? I mean, seriously????

Happily, the editors provided us with an email address to give them feedback. How thoughtful! Feel free to comment. E-mail the author at Jenna@tigerweekly.com

Labels: assault, crime, Louisiana, outrage, police, rape, sick bastard, stupid country, stupid people, stupid state

This story just makes me want to vomit. Seriously.

Short version: Man is accused of drugging and raping several men, all but one of whom is in the military. He gets caught and the defense? All those victims are claiming rape because they're gay and don't want to be kicked out of the military, but the sex was consensual.

The ways in which this skeeves me out are nearly endless. Let's see, there's the whole undercurrent of 'well, if they're gay, they can't really be raped because hey, they like the sodomy'. Oh, it's not spelled out explicitly, but you can tell it's there. There's one victim who admits to having willingly had sex with him before, so hey! If you say yes once, that means you can't say no ever again, right?

And, I'm sorry, but does anyone really believe that all these men -- ALL of them -- would rather let the world believe they were raped, because that's easier than being kicked out of the military? OK, I grant you that being outed in our particular military is not of the good. And at least one of the victims is a married man. (Who says he is straight and well, why would I not believe him?) So, in our culture of Macho Military Men, do you really think men who have not been raped would be willing to declare that they have, just to stay in the closet?

Because, frankly, since a whole hell of a lot of people think that men cannot be raped, then the mere reporting of a rape by a man is enough to get him labeled gay by a whole lot of people. So it's a no win situation. If you're a victim, you cannot report your attack without a good chance that you're not going to be believed and that you're going to be labeled gay. And if a straight man cannot be raped, then gods know a gay man cannot be raped. (Bullshit, of course, but a disturbingly common belief.)

So. You've been raped. That's traumatic enough, but then you know you cannot report it because no one will believe you. Futhermore, the act of reporting it could very well endanger your job. So what are you supposed to do? Are there even support services for male victims of rape? Are they welcomed in female dominant support groups?

I'll admit it, when someone tells me they've been raped, I believe them. I have no reason not to believe them. Nor do I feel the need to make them prove it to me. Because I cannot conceive of a person who would claim to be that brutalized when they haven't been. Yeah, yeah. Sure. I'm sure some people do. But most people? No. So when someone, male or female, tells me they've been raped, I believe them. Period. And when someone tells me they were drugged, like the victims in this case, I believe them even more. Anyone who resorts to drugging people to get laid is just sick. Sick and a criminal, who deserves to be locked up for a long, long, long time.

Labels: outrage, rape

I have family in law enforcement and, generally, I have no problem with cops. However, in this case? Huge. Fucking. Problem.

Short version: A woman is raped and reports it to the police. While taking her statement, they do a routine background check on her and find out there's a warrant for her arrest. For a juvenile matter that's over four years old. What to do, what to do? Why, arrest the rape victim, of course! Book her, toss her in jail and -- wait, it gets better -- deny her emergency contraception. Despite the fact that she's got a valid 'script for it. Why? Because it's against your religious beliefs. And, she's in jail, where else is she going to get the damned thing filled?

Other people have tackled this already. See here,here and here.

I don't know what to say about this, except this is yet another reason I'm pro-choice. It's not about abortion. It's about being regarded as a living, breathing, worthy human being. It's about not being punished for having a vagina. It's about getting the medical treatment you need in the time you need it. It's about basic goddamn human dignity. How hard a concept is that to grasp?

How many times can one woman be victimized? I pray her familly gets her into counseling immediately. What these people did. . .it seems unimaginable to me. A victim of a violent crime comes in and you throw her in jail? (One of the many links about this I read today said the warrant was issued because she owed like $4500 in restitution for a juvenile offense. Which may have been a fucking clerical error. So, think about this, this woman's dignity and humanity was worth $4500 to these people. Fuck that.) Then, after you've got her in jail, you refuse to let her take medication she needs because your god doesn't like it?

Well, you know what? That god is an abusive bastard and utterly unworthy of worship or even fucking acknowledgement. It's followers are self-righteous pricks who deserve to understand, one day, all of the pain they've caused others.

Labels: abortion, fundies, outrage, Plan B, rape

Browsing around during some down time at work, I stumbled over this story about a serial rapist -- who is attacking only men.

Now, I mean no disrespect to any man whose been raped. I'm not one of these people who deny that men can be raped. Of course they can be. And they experience the same levels of pain and shame that any rape victim feels and should be afforded the same sympathy and help. So, please, don't take anything I'm about to say as an suggestion that male rape victims don't deserve to be recognized or don't exist.

But...how many times has this shit happened to women and it never made the news? Certainly never seen a serial rapists who was attacking only women as the top headline on MSNBC before. Hell, when I was in the newspaper business, we had a serial rapist attacking women in our town and the police didn't even tell us about it until he was on victim number five! (To the paper's credit, once our police reporter noticed a pattern and pinned the cops down on what was going on, we did run a huge story on page one.)

Have we become so numb to violence against women that we simply assume there are serial rapists out there at all times? Have we just resigned ourselves to the fact that hey, shit happens if you're a woman?

Some of the quotes in this report are interesting to me. Like:

Levin and other experts say male-on-male rape sometimes stems from sexual encounters gone bad.

So, we're admitting that, between men, date rape happens. You know, two guys get together and one wants it and the other doesn't or maybe one is cool with the blow job, but draws the line at penetration, but the other doesn't agree and so...we have rape. Odd, isn't it, how when that happens to a woman it's all 'well, she should have known better than to go to his hotel room/taken off her top/gone down on him if she didn't want to have sex'.

he U.S. Justice Department says one in 33 men in the United States has been a victim of a rape or attempted rape, compared with one in six women. Experts say men are far less likely to report a rape to authorities, because they fear being perceived as weak or see the attack as an assault on their masculinity.

Okay, I'll be the first to admit I didn't know that the number was 1 in 33. That's awful. Of course, 1 in 6 is terrifying. And maybe the difference in those numbers has something to do with men who have been raped fearing that it makes them seem weak. Because it makes them seem like women, whom society has relegated to the class of victim. Which is something that, frankly, a lot of female rape victims suffer with. Being attacked makes them weak. Why didn't they fight back harder? Why weren't they strong enough to resist? Why didn't they have a knife hidden by the bed for just such an occassion? Why weren't they possessed of superstrength that enabled them to fling their attacker out the window? As far as an assault on their masculinity? Again, being raped makes them like women, who are not men, ergo not masculine. And what will other men think, if they know they allowed themselves to be assault? What kind of man submits to that? (Which, btw, is bullshit. If someone's got a gun to your head, you do what you have to to survive. Period. There's nothing weak about that. If someone is physically stronger than you and forces themself on you, that doesn't make you weak. That makes them an asshole and a criminal. Period.)

And this quote? Bullshit.

No one has been seriously hurt.

Really? Because what, rape doesn't have lifelong consequences? Right.

I'm annoyed that this story made the national news only because it involves men as victims. Granted, the national news can't do stories on every local serial rapist out there, but come on -- you don't see roundup stories about national sex abuse trends on the top very often either.

Rape victims, male or female, are relegated to the wayside in our society. Too weak or too dumb or too 'deserving' for our concern -- with no regard to the longterm consequences of ignoring a huge segment of our population. 1 in 33 or 1 in 6. Look at those numbers and think about the people you know. Chances are very good that at least one of the women you know has been raped and frankly, not so small a chance that one of the men you know has been too. With those kind of odds, can we really afford to ignore this problem?

Labels: outrage, rape

I don't, of course, believe that. But that seems to be the line of reasoning from this guy here:

EASTON, Pennsylvania (AP) -- A man who pleaded guilty to molesting two girls told a judge he did it because of his wife's excessive bingo playing.

"My wife was never home," Floyd Kinney Jr. said during his plea hearing Friday.

Kinney's explanation did not sit well with Northampton County Judge F.P. Kimberly McFadden,

"Some people, when their wives are not home, decide to do other things, like clean their living rooms," McFadden said. "Your behavior is beyond the pale."

Kinney, 49, said his wife would sometimes argue with him over money and that he was angry she was spending too much on bingo.

"She would be going to bingo three, four times a week. I told her to stop going to bingo, and she said, 'If they had bingo every day, I'd go every day,"' he said.

Records say Kinney molested one of the girls, now 26, from 1992-97. He sexually assaulted the second girl, now 17, for a year beginning in January 2005, records show.

Kinney pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated indecent assault. The felony charges carry a combined maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $50,000 fine.

Defense attorney Richard Yetter said his client was not articulate and may not have been doing a good job of conveying his rationale to the judge.

But McFadden said she found Kinney capable of explaining himself. "I think he is telling me exactly what was going on," the judge said. "His wife was not home so he was going to perpetrate on someone and he picked these two children."

Follow the logic -- my wife, she didn't do what I wanted her to do! And and and, she's my wife! I own her, don't I? But but...she wouldn't do what I wanted and so I was home all alone and needed the pussy and I couldn't get it from my wife because she was off playing bingo -- and that's gambling! The Bible says so! -- so I had to get it somewhere and those girls were there and they tempted me with their wanton girlishness and I couldn't help myself. I didn't want to molest them, but my wife made me do it.

Ahem. Fucker.

Labels: abuse, children, outrage, rape

I'm growing more and more annoyed with my adored Veronica Mars. The show is pushing this whole 'fake rape reporting' storyline and it's making me want to just skip the show entirely. And can we please stop putting V into situations where she's either raped, beaten, stalked or otherwise abused? I realize women in this world are in danger of all of those things, but to have it happen over and over again? It's too much.

The revelation in last night's episode that the rapes around which this season's mystery has revolved have, in fact, all been staged by a group of women pissed off by what a group of frat boys did to a friend of theirs a few years ago -- in order to get all frats kicked off campus -- make me want to throw things at the television. No. No. No. Just...no.

These women have been drugging other women, shaving their heads and letting them believe they've been raped -- all in the name of sisterhood. Uh, hell no. (At least, I'm assuming all the victims were not in on it. There were a lot of them and at least one of them was well and truely tramatized when she woke up with her head shaved, believing she'd been the victim of rape.)

This is the face of feminism the producers/writers of the show want the world to see? WTF? Sure, it's 'balanced' by V being stunned when she fines out, telling the others how badly they're hurting 'the cause'. But so what? She's the heroine, she's supposed to do that. A small group of women terrorize an entire fucking campus and community, assaulting other women they just happen to not like that much -- because hey, these frat boys hurt a friend of ours a few years ago and she walked off a roof and ended up in a mental institution because they mocked her body and made her feel bad about herself. And yeah, that's a horrible thing to do, specially the way they did it. But you know what? You don't attack OTHER WOMEN in revenge. You go after the people who actually hurt her. You go after the fucking society that allows 'boys to be boys'. You make a lot of fucking noise and expose the bastards for who and what they are. You CHANGE the fucking system, but you don't become the monsters to do it. For fucks sake.

I know this is just a television show, but you know people believe what's on the teevee. Ooh, look! Feminism bad. Bad feminism, bad. No cookie.

Plus, the promos for next week show V being stalked, apparently smacked around (well, she's got a big gash on her head and she's bleeding, so something happens to her) and promise to kill off a character. Yeah, that's what I wanna see. My perky, powerful V reduced to a ball of 'oh please, don't hurt me'.

Grr. I'm annoyed. Very, very annoyed.

Labels: feminims, rape, television

A friend of mine got a big, unexpected, revelation from her mother a few days ago. Her mother, who is now in her early 60s, told her that, when she was a young woman, she had an abortion.

That, in itself, was shocking enough. This woman is very religious (fundy variety) and married to a man who is, shall we say, an abusive asshole. But the abortion was not the entirity of the secret. It turns out that her mother, before she married my friend's father, was involved with the asshole she is currently married to. (Her first husband died several years ago, and then she married the Asshole.) She was very young, hadn't been in any relationship before. One night, she got very drunk and the asshole raped her. She doesn't remember much of it, only that she woke up with a hangover and bleeding. She didn't leave him, although my friend and I don't really understand why. She stayed with him for several months, during which time she got pregnant twice. First, she had a miscarriage. The second time, she had an abortion. Which was illegal at the time.

So, the Asshole gives her money for the abortion (which she did not want, btw, but felt she had no choice. Since, did I forget to mention? He was married with a family.) and told her to tell the doctor who performed it that she had had sex with some guy in the military who was just passing through. Don't tell him it's mine, he said. And she didn't. So, this Asshole who raped her, got her pregnant, was cheating on his wife, coerced her into an abortion she didn't want in a time when it was illegal. And what happened? Well, she ended up with an infection, had to go into the hospital. She ended up with so much internal damage that, after she got married (not to the Asshole) she had repeated miscarriages and had to have a hysterectomy immediately after giving birth to my friend.

So, when her husband dies, she ends up going back to the Asshole. Neither of us could ever figure out why she put up with the shit he put her through. He is verbally abusive, emotionally abusive, every kind of abuse but physical. (Well, aside from that whole rape thing. Grr.) Also, now, he's got Alzheimers and is getting even MORE abusive. And she stays with him, taking care of him, almost like she's doing some sort of penance.

I was telling my friend that maybe, given her generation and how she didn't want to have the abortion to begin with, she went back to him and has stayed with him because she feels she deserves the way he treats her. To me, 60 isn't even close to old, but it is a huge generational difference. I cannot imagine staying with a man who did these things to me, but she's from the same generation as my Grandmother, who stayed with my grandfather for years while he was abusive and bastardy. (Fortunately, she kicked his ass out eventually.)

Knowing this about her, a lot of the things she does makes sense. She's always been clingy with my friend. Always, always very involved in her life, way more than any other mother I've known. She puts up with abuse that no one should...and it occurs to me that she's probably feeling guilty, probably punished, for the things that happened to her early in her life. That she was able to carry my friend to term is a miracle, given the sheer number of miscarriages she had before.

And the thing is, I know her story is not unique. I know that there are tens of thousands of women in this country with the same story. Forced or coerced into abortions they did not want, because of their partners or circumstance, in a time when it was illegal, so they fell prey to doctors who either didn't know what they were doing or just didn't care. They ended up dying or losing their fertility and for what? For some man who didn't even acknowledge any responsiblity?

How many women were raped like she was? And didn't even label it rape? How many women now, have a little too much to drink and end up raped and blame it on themselves? How many of them think they should have known better? Should haven't had that last glass of wine? Shouldn't have let him drive her home?

It just makes me so angry. I want to stand up and scream. And all those people who judge women who have abortions? This woman is a grandmother, an upstanding citizen, very religious, the last woman you'd ever expect to have had an abortion. This is the sort of woman you want to punish, who you want to criminalize and victimize. Look at her story. Tell me how evil she is, how bad she is, how much of a whore she is. And then come say it where I can reach you, I need to slap some sense into you.

So long as we have a society that devalues women, that works in such a way that a man can say to a women in desperate circumstances 'don't tell them it's mine' and she's the one who bears the emotional consequences for the rest of her life -- I swear, I'm about ready to boycott men all together.

Labels: abortion, abuse, rape

We interrupt our regularly scheduled deep thought and contemplation to bring you a reminder that People.Are.Shit.

First up, a little snippet about a girl, her crush and the 20 plus boys who wanted an oral gangbang:

MILWAUKEE (AP) — It began with a crush, police said, and turned into one of the most shocking crimes in Milwaukee’s long, violent summer: an 11-year-old girl was sexually assaulted by as many as 20 boys while a 16-year-old girl she was romantically interested in watched and coached her.
The 16-year-old and a 15-year-old boy have been charged in juvenile court in the alleged attack, which authorities said took place Monday in a house on the city’s north side. The teenage girl’s 40-year-old uncle might also be charged, authorities said.
. . .
The 11-year-old girl told police she was interested in the teenage girl, who looked and dressed like a boy, authorities said in court records. She and two friends went to the teen’s house, where the child performed oral sex on three teenage boys, the court records said.
The teenage girl’s 40-year-old uncle admitted he also had sex with the 11-year-old and told police that his niece was coaching the child, the records said.
The 11-year-old told police she then went to the basement, where there were about 15 males and “began to choose who she wanted to perform oral sex on,” the records said.
The teenage girl told police that the 11-year-old had told her she wanted to perform oral sex on the boys in the house, according to court records. The 16-year-old denied encouraging her.
The teenage girl and the 15-year-old boy were charged with being a party to sexual assault. Torbenson said he will probably seek to have them tried as adults.

Ok -- first idiot who makes some comment about what does she expect, being all lesbianish, is going to get their ass kicked. Second -- what the fuck? Seriously? I can almost, almost (in that what the fuck were they on? sorta way) understand the teenagers -- but a 40 year old??? Huh? The hell? And what sort of evil uses a person's crush to get them to 'perform' for the masses? Who does that to an 11 year old?? I have a cousin who is 11. Oh.My.God. I'd fucking kill anyone who did this to her.

But, lest you believe that this is an isolated case -- this molestation of children and destroying their innocence -- I present episode 2:

BASTROP, La. (AP) — A Morehouse Parish grand jury has returned indictments against a former Morehouse Parish jail trusty arrested on rape charges after it was learned his wife’s 11-year-old daughter was pregnant.
Rodney O. Morrison, 37, of Bastrop, was indicted Thursday on one count of aggravated rape and one count of oral sexual battery. He is scheduled for arraignment Sept. 26.
Morrison was arrested Aug. 14 after the victim’s mother contacted police. According to the arrest affidavit, Morrison admitted to having sex with the girl once, though she told police they had sex on numerous occasions since he married her mother in September 2005.
District Attorney Jerry Jones said he personally will prosecute the case. “There is no way in hell I’d let anyone else try this case,” Jones said.
Morrison was arrested in December 2005 after his probation was revoked for testing positive for cocaine and alcohol multiple times.
He was arrested in March 2003 for possession of cocaine and later placed on probation and assigned to the parish Drug Court. He became a trusty at the Morehouse Parish jail sometime after Feb. 21.
After Morrison’s arrest, Morehouse officials last week decided to end the jail’s trusty program.
Police Chief Alan Freeman told The News-Star last week that the investigation thus far indicates the child became pregnant before Morrison was jailed last December.
If convicted, aggravated rape carries a mandatory life sentence without possibility of probation, parole or suspension of sentence. Oral sexual battery carries up to 10 years in prison.

Who wants to stab this guy in the eyes? Anyone? Anyone? Yeah, me too. Pregnant at 11, by her fricking step-father? They won't ask for the death penalty, although they can in this state since the victim was under 12. I'm assuming she didn't have the baby, since it would have been born by now and well -- someone would have noticed that, I'm sure. Still, fuckers like this should be slowly boiled to death then eaten by a pack of rabid dogs. Fuckers.

Oh, but it's not just the young who suffer! No, it's not safe to be an old woman either!!

MONROE, La. (AP) — A convicted felon was arrested on charges he raped and robbed an 84-year-old woman at gunpoint inside her home here, police said.
Dallas Taylor, 30, of Monroe, was booked Thursday into Ouachita Correctional Center on charges of armed robbery, aggravated rape, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, authorities said. In 1993, Taylor was convicted of armed robbery.
Maj. Don Bartley said the suspect spoke with the woman — whose name was not released — early Thursday, asking if her husband was at home because he was to do some yard work at the house.
“He forced his way into the house and put a gun to her head,” Bartley said. “He took her to the back of the residence and did a sexual assault on her.”
Bartley said Taylor then took two rifles, jewelry, cash and other items from the home and left in a green truck.
When officers later spotted the vehicle, Taylor got out and ran, Bartley said. He was caught a short time later. The stolen items were found in the truck, Bartley said.
Aggravated rape on a person under the age of 13 and over the age of 65 is an offense punishable by death, Bartley said. Armed robbery can carry a sentence of up to 99 years in prison.

And people think I'm paranoid because I keep my doors locked all the time and won't let anyone use the phone or whatever if I don't know them. (Even though, even that's not safe.) You know what gets me? In Louisiana, if you're young or old and are raped, your assailant could go to jail for life or the death penalty. But if you're over 13, younger than 65? They get jail time. Maybe. You get more time in this state for armed robbery than rape. What sense does that make? Seriously? Someone steals my car and they could go to jail for 20 plus years, but if they rape me they'll get less than 10? What? Goddamn fuckers.

Clearly, I'm pissed off. I need a new job before this one kills me with rage.

Labels: children, crime, outrage, rape

I've been mulling this post for awhile. I hope it makes sense, but I'm not completely sure I've got it all sussed out just yet. Lately, one some of the Big Feminist Blogs, there's been discussion about abuse, rape, victims and how, if at all, the actions of victims affect Woman as a class.

First, I find it very hard to say to a victim that her actions, whatever they may be, are bad for Women. Mostly, people do whatever they can to survive. I'm lucky. I've never been a victim of rape or sexual abuse or domestic abuse. But, most of my female friends have. (Some of my male friends have too, but right now I'm going to focus on the women. Since we're the topic of conversation.) Of all my female friends, one -- ONE -- beside me has not been a victim of some form of abuse. And I'm not talking about having to hear inappropriate jokes, I mean abuse. Rape, child abuse, abusive boyfriends -- things that, by any definition, are real abuse. Of all my friends, two of us have managed to make it to 32 without having to deal with it personally. It's crazy that that can happen. What's crazier is that none of my friends would be included in the abuse/rape statistics compiled every year -- because none of them reported it.

My best friend was in a relationship with a man who physcially abused and raped her repeatedly over a period of months. She didn't tell anyone at first, not even me and she knew I'd be supportive and help her anyway I could. She didn't feel she could tell anyone. I'm not sure why, exactly, but she couldn't tell anyone. She's an intelligent woman. She's educated, she's got a decent job, she's assertive in pretty much any way -- but when she became a victim, she couldn't tell anyone. She finally got away from the Bastard, but it took her a little while. When I found out what he was doing, I wanted to shake her, tell her to call the cops and put the fucker in jail. But she wouldn't, she couldn't. And I had to accept that, like it or not, because my coming down on her, telling her she was acting dumbly, that she knew better than to accept that behavior, would only have made the situation worse. She did know, deep inside, that she didn't deserve that behavior. And yet, when she found it happening to her, she wasn't able to access that knowledge for months. But she did it, and moved on, when she was capable of it.

But it didn't end there, of course. She got away from the Bastard, but she still had to live with what he did to her. What he made her feel and what he made her think about herself. It led her to flit from relationship to relationship (although, I don't know if she thinks that's what was behind her behavior) often with men who were not good for her, that she didn't really like, but she felt like she needed to be in a relationship with someone. I worry about her, because she won't talk to her counselor about any of her Man Issues and I don't want her to suffer from this any longer than she has too. But I know I can't tell her how to react to this situation, because I've never been through it myself. I can only imagine how I'd feel if I had. I can't imagine how I'd react and I certainly wouldn't want to have to defend those actions to anyone else.

I have another friend who was molested as a child. She didn't tell anyone about it until she was nearly 30. She was molested by a family member when she was about 8. Never said a word to anyone, but she always had problems with relationships. She'd had maybe a dozen dates in her entire life, no real relationships, no boyfriends -- because she couldn't stand to have anyone touch her. It freaked her out, brought back memories. Her whole life, this thing haunts her. Was she wrong to react the way she did? Was she wrong not to tell anyone? Was she wrong to not be able to have an adult relationship? And should she have to defend her choices to anyone?

The problem I have with people who go on and on about hurting Women, is that they often forget that there are lower-case women of flesh-and-blood who are living through these horrors. Yes, feminists have a responsiblity to Women as a class, but they have an even larger responsibility to women as individuals. Even if we manage to overthrow the Patriarchy, we'll still be stuck with the individuals who made up the system before.

I like theory. I'm pretty good at it. I enjoy thinking (perhaps too much sometimes.) But any theory has to have a practical application. If fighting the patriarchy leaves women like my friends feeling that they have to defend the decisions they made in order to survive their abuse, we need to find a new game plan. What good is helping Women as a class when individual women are left bleeding on the sidelines?

Labels: abuse, feminism, rape

The pagans I know would cut this bastard's balls off. In no way is he representative of the faith. And I'd like to slap him around, because really, we just need more bad press down here in Jesusland.

A suburban Cleveland man accused of sexually assaulting nine disabled boys told a judge Wednesday that his apartment was a religious sanctuary where smoking marijuana and having sex with children are sacred rituals protected by civil rights laws.

This prick is claiming freedom of religion. That his gods told him to molest these boys. Funny, I don't recall getting that particular memo.

Distasio, a self-professed pagan friar, is representing himself on 74 charges. He said he's the leader of a church called Arcadian Fields Ministries, and that some of his congregants are among the victims in his case.

. . .

Distasio was arrested on charges he molested two disabled boys he was tutoring at his home. He's also accused of raping seven other autistic children at a Cleveland school for special-needs students, The Plain Dealer reported. All but one of the boys was under 13, which carries a mandatory life-in-prison sentence if he is convicted, the paper reported.

Police said they found journals at Distasio's apartment in which he described his illegal activities, along with child pornography and videotapes of him engaged in sex with boys, The Plain Dealer reported

"Not all pedophilia is bad, and sex [with boys] can be healthy," Distasio told the court.

According to the journals, two of Distasio's victims were so helpless they could never tell anyone what happened.

"The defendant describes acts in which he had autistic children and he did what I would call sadistic sexual acts with these children," said Mason.

Now, I'll be the first to agree we've got some prudish views on sex in this society. But you do not fuck disabled, autistic children. For gods sake! Sex with boys is not healthy. Not for the boys, not for those who cannot give willing, enthusiastic consent. Lock this son-of-a-bitch up and lose the key.

Full story can be found here.

Labels: children, crime, rape, religion, sick bastard