Duly Noted: Thursday, August 26, 2010

I really like to keep it nice and light--especially when writing the daily Duly Noted.

But this called for a spotlight and a heartfelt exploration of a serious issue. 

150 women were raped in the Congo a few weeks ago.

I had been passing over this link in my friend's status update for days until, sitting in the airport, I had nothing else to do, so I figured I'd read some mindless dribble.  That is, afterall, what most people use their statuses (statii?) for. 

I was in for an intensely rude awakening when I read the above words.  Once I gathered myself and commenced to reading, a few things occurred to me:

1. The words that directly precede the headline are "at least."  Let that sink in for a second.  At least.  A simple phrase used often, yes.  But rarely does it come before "150 Women Raped in Weekend."  Meaning that 150 could  be on the low end.  There are no words...
2. This article can be found on the NYT "Africa" page.  Now, I can't get mad at them--I wasn't tapped in enough to not find this information out without the proverbial social network stroll--I'm just as much to blame in the "Americans don't prioritize foreign affairs enough" argument as the editors.  But at the same time, networks and papers cover Ballon Boy phenoms on the daily.  American news or not, maybe we should have a little perspective.
3. Speaking of perspective, atrocities like this should challenge ours:
1. How do we view and value "other" people?  Do we value women enough to care about this?  Do we think highly enough of the "third world" (their words, not mine) to do more than say "well, rape happens in corrupt, unstable nations."  
2. How to we prioritize worthy news?  Are we forcing media outlets to focus more on issues that matter? (see #2 above)

The last perspective was the most relevant to me: how to we view rape?  Let's strip away the location of this crime; let's forget the color of the assailants and the victims, and the lack of "development" present in this corner of the world.  

This way, we can comprehend the absolute degredating force of sexual violence.  

See, I'm troubled to think that we could become so desensitized to tragedies like these.  Sure--atrocities of this scope and magnitude can only be seen as vile, disgusting, terribly tragic.

But why don't we feel the same when we see this:

And why do we shake our asses so hard when we hear this:









All you have to do is "Say Ahh" a lot, so that you get wasted enough to "blame it on the alcohol"--which, in most parts of the U.S. and other parts of the world, helps make a substantial case for date rape.


So, let's get this straight--you can pay some money to get me drunk (with only the finest of liquors, of course), so that you can get my inhibitions niiiiiice and low.  Then, all I have to do is "blame it on the alcohol" when you get me to engage in acts that I would not have done with you had I been of sound mind?  Sounds like rape to me.


Yeah.  I said it.  Sounds like RAPE to me.


And where does it end?  Should we blame it on the short skirt?  Or maybe on the previous sexual assault that made her "fast" in the first place?


Or maybe, maybe we just blame it on regional instability and ethnic conflict in the corrupt third world.




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