The C is for Crank
Reporting While Female
Even given the boys' club, get-out-of-our-clubhouse attitude that pervades so much of the Internet, it's still hard to believe that this exists: An anonymous web poll (in which more than 10,000 have participated so far) titled "Is Lara Logan to Blame for Her Sexual Assault?"
Apparently, for some, the natural response to the news that a reporter has been brutally raped and beaten is to ask the Internet whether she deserved it.
(Lara Logan, for those who haven't been following the story, is the CBS reporter who was brutally beaten and sexually assaulted by a large group of men in Tahrir Square in Egypt last week. Almost immediately, apologists began looking for ways to blame Logan for her own assault: She's too pretty; she should have known better than to put herself in harm's way; female journalists shouldn't go to places where they might get attacked; she should have done more to protect herself; she should have known that all Muslim men want to rape pretty blond American women).
The current results of the poll are disturbing (but, sadly, not surprising): 53 percent believe Logan was responsible for her assault, and 47 percent believe she was not. The comments, needless to say, beggar description.
This is why we need to keep talking about the rape culture, why we have to stand up and point out the obvious---that only men can prevent rape, by not raping---every time the victim-blaming starts. It may seem obvious that a male journalist kidnapped by terrorists isn't responsible for his kidnapping, but there remain people out there, in America---many, many people, to judge from the comments on every unmoderated blog post about Lara Logan's assault---who can't apply the same logic to victims of sexual assault.
Apparently, for some, the natural response to the news that a reporter has been brutally raped and beaten is to ask the Internet whether she deserved it.
(Lara Logan, for those who haven't been following the story, is the CBS reporter who was brutally beaten and sexually assaulted by a large group of men in Tahrir Square in Egypt last week. Almost immediately, apologists began looking for ways to blame Logan for her own assault: She's too pretty; she should have known better than to put herself in harm's way; female journalists shouldn't go to places where they might get attacked; she should have done more to protect herself; she should have known that all Muslim men want to rape pretty blond American women).
The current results of the poll are disturbing (but, sadly, not surprising): 53 percent believe Logan was responsible for her assault, and 47 percent believe she was not. The comments, needless to say, beggar description.
This is why we need to keep talking about the rape culture, why we have to stand up and point out the obvious---that only men can prevent rape, by not raping---every time the victim-blaming starts. It may seem obvious that a male journalist kidnapped by terrorists isn't responsible for his kidnapping, but there remain people out there, in America---many, many people, to judge from the comments on every unmoderated blog post about Lara Logan's assault---who can't apply the same logic to victims of sexual assault.
