Victim blaming and Islamophobia

[varioussorrows]

I expected you've heard the hideous news that Lara Logan of CBS News, above, was sexually assaulted in Cairo. And I expect you've heard that Nir Rosen, the left-leaning journalist who is like Logan a war correspondent, distastefully joked about it on Twitter. You're probably less likely to have heard about Debbie Schlussel's comments, more on which

Comments

[thebigdisaster]

I am utterly disgusted.

[maynardsong]

Under Rosen's AWFUL tweet, which he has fully acknowledged was awful, was a good point, that many of us in this very comm have raised and will raise - Dozens of other women were harassed and nobody will ever know their names. Credible accounts indicate that the assaults on women took place largely on the Friday of the victory celebration, when millions of non-demonstrators joined the party. Countless women (Egyptian and foreign, journalists and others) have reported being harassed and assaulted in Tahrir Square that Friday, mostly, it seems, by non-revolutionaries. (This harassment was a preexisting problem that Egyptian women have been increasingly complaining about.)

So why all the focus on Logan?

[maynardsong]

That said, WTF at the flat-out victim blaming and comments by others along the lines of "serves her right for going there"?

[lemonsherry]

really tho

[maynardsong]

Really tho what?

[floatingskyfish]

Holy shit. I can't think of anything more eloquent to say than that to sum up my view.

[ex_janey]

the reaction to her assault has been completely disgusting. way to go, humanity.

[ilurveyourmom]

I am beside myself with disgust at Schlussel's comments in particular, and many others besides. To this day I cannot comprehend how people actually say (and believe, omfg) these things.

One sad thing that this incident made me ponder was how it has many tropes from the "ideal" rape. (Not the best word, but...) What I mean is, it was a violent-stranger rape of a conventionally attractive USian woman, which is generally the one occurrence of rape that most can fathom. And yet they have still found ways to excuse and explain away this atrocity and fucking blame it on the victim. Gross.

(Also about your text itself, OP, could you indent or put quotation marks around the various quotes in the article? It's a little hard to read for me atm)

[seasontoseason]

good point about this being the "ideal" rape in some ways, and yet STILL people come out with the victim-blaming and excusing. This is so utterly rage-inducing. How can anyone not see how BLATANT a rape culture we seem to be nurturing in the US?