Show and Tell
I confess that my reaction to E. Jean Carroll’s story of being raped by Donald Trump (although she prefers to call it a fight) was more of a slow burn than an immediate rage. But during the past week I’ve been watching and listening to interviews of Carroll and watching her process the rape as she talks about it in the open, something she hasn’t done in 25 years. Although she was interviewed by several good interviewers, two stand out — in both she was with old friends — and I want to share them: first, an interview with Megan Twohey of the New York Times in a podcast that also included the two friends Carroll told of the rape at the time,
www.nytimes.com/…
. . . and then with Chris Matthews, with whom she used to work, on MSNBC.
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And although the story is gaining momentum, here is Samantha Bee commenting on the shameful (lack of) news coverage.
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And finally, as women, we know that sometimes we have to make the hard choices:
Sexual Violence
On June 25, Darrell Rea, age 64, was sentenced to 10 years in prison, the maximum sentence for his 1977 murder of Lorri Mesedahl. The Atlantic has a chilling story of the circuitous way this case was solved through DNA testing done after a series of rapes committed by Rea over more than 30 years. This story details the rapes reported by women, including Rea’s stepdaughters. Police had investigated him over the years for various crimes including rape, assault, and murder, but nothing ever stuck, and he continued at large to harm more women. Once DNA testing became available, old evidence was gone over, and he was tied to several rapes — only the statute of limitations had run out. But a DNA check tied him to the cold case murder of Mesedahl, and there is no statute of limitations for murder. So this predator will now probably serve 5 years, once time served and possible time off for good behavior are taken off his sentence. Read the whole article, but in the meantime, here’s a bit to think about:
Minnesota long ago extended the three-year prosecution window that applied to the kind of attacks survived by Hunter and Briggs to nine years, and it eliminated the ticking clock on any sexual assault involving DNA evidence. But in the past two legislative sessions, state lawmakers have rejected proposals—including one from now-US Rep. Ilhan Omar, a former state legislator—to completely abolish the statute of limitations on sexual assault cases. At a hearing for one of the measures in May, state Sen. Ron Latz argued that such a change would set a “dangerous precedent” of pursuing cases that could “destroy the life of the accused,” according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
“The way the system currently works, “the only person we’re protecting is Darrell Rea,” Sergeant Karakostas tells me. Hunter, Stevens, and Briggs all said they wished the law treated rape the same as murder.
According to a UN report published this week, nearly one out of five women between 15 and 49 experienced some form of domestic violence over the past year. The UN urges legal protections that too often don’t extend into the home.
"The shocking pervasiveness of intimate partner violence means that statistically, home is one of the most dangerous places to be for a woman."
In 2017, nearly 60% of female victims of intentional homicide were killed by a family member, a rate of 137 women killed each day, the report said. ...
From Iraq to Malaysia, women are ramping up pressure to abolish marry-your-rapist laws after Tunisia, Jordan and Lebanon scrapped similar articles in 2017.
And if you aren’t already angry enough about the treatment of children and families at our border, the New York Times reports that thousands of immigrant children have reported sexual abuse of some sort while in detention. While this has been going on for years before Trump took office, the family separation policy dramatically increased the number of reports.
Women and Work
I include the presidential debate here — after all, wasn’t this a group job interview?
So, it’s not surprising that debate results were seen differently by men and women.
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I don’t usually enjoy debates because they are disjointed and we don’t see the candidates actually discuss issues among themselves. But that wasn’t true in these sometimes raucus debates, where a number of the candidates got to discuss important issues, and sometimes addressed each other, most notably when Kamala Harris demanded to speak on race “as the only black person on the stage.” Here is an interesting analysis of how the women and men behaved differently and how the women on the second night had learned from the first night. I want the t-shirt — “Interrupt Like a Girl!”
And here’s a summary from the New Rules Summit. One section begins:
Are You Good Enough?
The gender gap starts at childhood, when girls are taught to be likable, perfect and pleasing, while boys are encouraged to be strong, confident and brave. What are the psychological barriers this messaging creates, and how can women overcome them and realize their full potential?
What the Fuck?
A pregnant woman starts a fight with another woman. The other woman shoots her in the belly, and she suffers a miscarriage. So what happens? The prosecutors decide to charge her with manslaughter for provoking the fight and causing her miscarriage, while the woman who shot her has no charges brought by the grand jury. I have to admit, this one gave me whiplash. Even for Alabama.
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As always, thanks to the WoW crew for their contributions to this diary. This week, special thanks to mettle fatigue and elenacarlena.