Just when I thought I couldn't love Patrick Stewart more.

[puella_nerdii]

warning: links and videos in this post might be triggering.

So between Amy Dickinson utterly failing to get why saying that a rape victim was the "victim of her own horrible judgment" is not only inappropriate but heinous and a thirteen-year-old girl committing suicide when the adults in her life subjected her to a campaign of shame because she

Comments

[angevin2]

...I want to give Patrick Stewart a big hug.

[puella_nerdii]

Yeah. You can just see how much this is affecting him and -- yeah. Hugs forever.

[puella_nerdii]

(I did, yeah. What a horrible human being -- the mother, obviously, not the poor girl. How can you do that to a thirteen-year-old? My god, that goes beyond pettiness and spite and into genuine evil. And the fact that they acquitted her, and that she has the nerve to ask for sympathy, is disgusting beyond belief.)

That's why people who say that victims of abuse can just leave make me so angry.
Oh god, I hate that rhetoric so much. There's this pervasive ideology in America, and in the West in general, of the individual with complete autonomy, entirely accountable for his or her own actions and choices, and I really fucking hate it because it neglects the very real and very complex social web we all have to navigate, one that provides us with both advantages and disadvantages because of the positions we're assumed to occupy. And really, the choices a victim makes do not change the reality that they were abused, and that is NOT okay under ANY circumstances. Patrick Stewart says it best, in the article he wrote for the Guardian: "The

[hakucho_cygnus]

*applauds Mr. Stewart*

I'm going to share this where I can. :)

[puella_nerdii]

Me too -- I've emailed it to my mother already, I think it's something she'd appreciate. There are some people out there who make me feel better about the world, and he's one of them.

[renquise]

Oh my god, that column by Amy Dickinson got me so angry when I ran across it, especially because of her utter lack of apology in her subsequent column. Really, I was at least expecting some acknowledgement of the unspoken assumptions about rape that she was perpetuating in her answer, given the amount of people that spoke out against it. Ugh. Way to fail not only at advice, but basic decency, Dear Amy.

Thank you so much for linking that video-that was deeply affecting.

[puella_nerdii]

Especially after so many insightful people pointed out just how she failed, too. Sigh. And we're giving this woman an advice column? I mean, I understand the complex social web in play around sexuality, but my god, it should NOT be that hard to follow the train of thought that sex you don't want = rape = NEVER OKAY and also not your fault.

And no problem, seriously -- it's a beautiful and powerful video, and it should be shared.

[evilsimon]

That column also makes me flail a lot in frustration because she's one of the regulars on Wait Wait..., which seemed to be populated by clever, decent human beings. I feel kind of like part of my childhood just died.

[renquise]

...Goodness, I think a little part of my NPR-loving heart just died a bit. DD:

[pellucere]

Patrick Stewart recently wrote a piece about his experiences, here. It and the speech are just -- heartbreaking. I find it hard to watch the video, and to read the news articles about Amy Dickinson and the poor 13-year-old kid, and all the other similar things going on right now.

[puella_nerdii]

Yeah, I read the article and started crying all over again; after all the horrible stuff in the news, it is such a relief to read something that GETS IT -- and it's heartbreaking that he had to go through what he did to understand this issue as deeply as he does.

The video's hard to watch. It looks like this is really hard for him to say, and I don't blame him in the least.