This is the video I referred to in my last post. A lot of posts on Twitter are making note of the problematic solution Naomi Wolf is presenting here, but completely ignoring the way Louise Bagshawe avoids Wolf’s overall point and fails to take into consideration the larger implications of this case. What’s her answer to the structural problem that’s keeping conviction rates so low?
I’ve been following the #MooreandMe campaign on Twitter and reading all of the angry posts its followers have been making about Naomi Wolf, and I’m kind of shocked at the level of insanity coming from both sides. Yes, Naomi Wolf can say some pretty ridiculous things — including the idea that naming rape victims in the media will somehow “help” them — but her overall idea is that structural change is necessary in order to help victims at large. She’s also absolutely right in terms of how messed up the politics of the Julian Assange case are, and she’s absolutely right about this case being unfairly blown out of proportion because of Assange’s high profile, Michael Moore’s investment in it, etc.
I understand the opposition to exposing rape victims in the media — what’s happened to these two women perfectly illustrates why that is a horrendous idea — but people laughing at her for calling for structural change? For actually taking into consideration the context of this case? She’s right. Getting lost in the details of one individual case doesn’t really help solve the larger problem. Yelling at Michael Moore on Twitter for basically recognizing this case as a political witch-hunt does nothing to change the way with rape cases are carried out in general. That’s why you don’t see a Twitter campaign calling for more large-scale reform, and that’s why you don’t see people calling for an alleged rapist’s exile/death/etc. when it comes to most other cases — because when the media has no such investment in a rape case, it gets swept under the rug. That’s why Naomi Wolf is right when she calls this attention a slap in the face for most victims: the ones who haven’t been discouraged from reporting their rapes are instead demonized for doing so, and after victims have been put on trial and expected to defend themselves for having been attacked, rarely is a conviction even made. So where’s the Twitter campaign for those victims?
