Test Case: You're Not a Rape Victim Unless Police Say So. This is the story of the night Hannah was not officially raped.

Then, he called the Sexual Assault Unit, where he was patched into Spriggs. Minor told Spriggs he had a victim complaining of sexual assault and needed a rape kit authorized. Though D.C. police policy requires detectives to report to the scene to interview the victim in person, Spriggs decided to do this one by phone. Spriggs told Minor to put Hannah on the line. Spriggs, sitting in the SAU office, determined that Hannah hadn’t been the victim of a crime. “She told me that she was at a party. And she remembered kissing a guy,” Spriggs testified. “I repeated back to her what she said to me. And there was a pause,” he said. Back on the phone with Minor, “I said, this young lady, she’s not reporting anything, she’s not reporting a crime to me. I’m not bringing a sex kit up here.” Spriggs then testified as to why he didn’t press Hannah to explain why she needed a kit: “I’m not going to feed you any information to give you an opportunity to embellish you story,” Spriggs testified. “If you are reporting something to me, then you should be able to tell me what that is. And she did not report any crime to me.”

Nice authorities you have there. By this bastard's definition, people who are raped while they are unconscious are not raped at all! Because they should be able to tell in details what happened!

Via kutti, Only Congolese will initiate and bring change to D.R. Congo

Considering local challenges and harmful international interference in the Democratic Republic of Congo for the past 400 years, it takes the greatest courage to overcome fear of oppression and to act for change. The courage demonstrated by grassroots Congolese women to resist and overcome fear of their local and international oppressors is extraordinary in the history of Africa. At this moment, many Congolese women are rising and sacrificing themselves to rewrite history and to liberate themselves completely from the bondage of those who continue to oppress them, in order to give themselves and their children a chance of survival as well as a better future for new generations.

[...]Sexual violence is not cultural or traditional in the D.R. Congo but has been used as a tool of war, humiliation, destabilization and displacement of communities. Congolese women want the international community to know that that sexual violence will only end by the restoration of peace and the application of the rule of law in the DRC.

The international community, particularly the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, are invited to demonstrate a political will to end the conflict in the Great Lakes region of Africa. They are invited to demonstrate their commitment to peace by delegitimizing armed violence and ending the militarization and the support of oppressive regimes in the Great Lakes region of Africa.

Because shewhohashope talked. And she said everything that has been bothering about the latesr discussion about rape.

I know that you're all dying to hear my take on this, so here it is: I don't think the discussion is moving from the particular to the systematic aspects of rape. It specifically looks at the implications of rape culture on particular women rather than engaging meaningfully with the ways in which rape is used systematically as a tool of oppression.

[...]

It was a mistake to refer to rape in the Congo, and rape in the poorest parts of the rural south (I read this as 'Global South' initially, but she may mean the U.S. South?), next to 'a frat house party' with no further analysis at all. Right away there is a complete erasure of the wider context. You can talk about the patriarchy and it's effect on women, purporting to discuss the wider systematic aspects of of rape, rather than the particular and the personal. Then to go on to ignore how the patriarchy is used as a tool of colonialism and how the patriarchy is used as a tool of class conflict is (say it with me social science students) problematic.

[...]

Using the word 'civilisation' as though it were antithetical to rape is ridiculous. When rape culture is being discussed, rape is a product of civilisation itself, not an example of its disruption but a natural result of the principles it is built on. Rape is about power, and power struggles and domination are inherent to society building

The difficulty with words like 'civilisation' is that one can mean many things in choosing to use it, it could refer to culture in general - another term which seems to defy any simple definition - or it could refer solely to urbanised societies, typified by their dependence of agriculture. But - and this is the fraught part - people are unable to to prevent themselves from assigning morality to what should be simple, descriptive terms, and 'civilisation' carries a particularly difficult, politicised history.

MUST read.

allira_dream says:

Speak up. You don't know how much I want to erase these worlds before admitting out loud that I've been a victim of this, you couldn't possibly understand how much it hurts to remember all the times 'I should have known better'. I've had my 'friends' - both male and female - betraying my trust. I've been told that 'I shouldn't complain' and that 'these things happen'. I've been told that 'it's normal'. I've pretty much have been told that I've been wrong for feeling sick and guilty and angry that I've been abused because 'it's no big deal' and 'I shouldn't make people feel bad when we all had a good time'. Not only male friends, but my female 'friends' as well.

Y traducción al español del post de arriba. Gracias a jlarinda, que es muy amable.

Also,

This year's IBARW will take place between July 27 through August 2.

The completely optional theme is global. I'd particularly love entries on race and racism from a global perspective, on post-colonialism, on the aftereffects of imperialism, on grassroots movements coming out of the Global South, and etc.

Entries in non-English languages are especially appreciated!

IBARW = International Blog Against Racism Week.

My exam is tomorrow.