Something got me thinking a few days ago and I was curious what you guys would think of it:

In my journalism class we were discussing ethics and how rape victim's names are never published because rape is such a violent, sensitive crime that usually the victim's don't want their names published.
What really got me was that the professor said that there is a stigma that can be related to the victim, like, well why was she out alone at night? was she drunk? was she dressing provocatively?
And to me, this doesn't make sense because, people can always read a story and misconstrue it in a certain way. The questions should obviously be a focus on WHY CANT we go out at night alone? etc... but since people do sometimes blame the victim in rape cases, does that mean that we have to hide it?
By not publishing these victims' identities, it's going to be harder for readers in the community to really understand the severity of the situation, because the identity of the victim is so vague.
Also, by keeping the rape victim's name confidential, because SHE might catch blame, doesn't that assume that the paper making that decision agrees that she is (at least partly) to blame? And if you're placing any potential blame on the victim, doesn't that take responsibility away from the perpetrator?
I said this in class and the professor seemed to agree, but then mentioned how ideally women might all band together and start identifying themselves, but that no one can tell that victim, "YOU are going to start this new progressive way of identifying yourself as a rape victim, so that others will in the future and the seriousness of rape will be better understood by our community."
So I kind of agree with that, too. I know that being in a position like that must make someone feel vulnerable and uncomfortable speaking about it, let alone to be published for all to see. I can't make up my mind what is really 'right' and 'wrong' in the situation.
I guess when it comes down to it, you can't force a person to expose themself like that if they don't want to.

What do you think?

yayyy.

I'm such a blogger nerd.
Anyway, last night's meeting:

I think it's great that we are able to re-format our structure for decision making, and I think it says a lot about our group simply that we can raise concerns about disagreements and handle them like big girls. I agree that "focusing on a focus" will be beneficial in staying true to our ultimate objective, and will help us with the 'spreading ourselves too thin' problem.

patty: Don't have sex and not be good at it.
courtney: Well, you gotta start somewhere...

i just wanted to see if this worked!!!

Cool, now all of us should be able to post to the blog! I wasn't thinking; I just had us all set to readers, not authors.

I felt that meeting was really effective at determining where we are and what we're trying to do. Thanks for being fabulous, ladies!

Brit

Seeing if this works...