Discussion List for campus-based and allied personnel working to end gender-based violence on campus.

["Juliette Grimmett" <>]

Hello all -

This is such a horrific story of survivor blaming, racism, and hate.  I hope 
you will take a minute to read the short article and consider ways to speak 
out - whether it is to bring attention by posting to facebook or twitter, or 
to consider not supporting the news stations who broadcast these stories, or 
to talk about it with your friends/family, or even write to Debbie Schlussel 
in response, please do something.

There are many articles on this and I chose to post this one, but any google 
search will bring you many more.

http://mediamatters.org/blog/201102160010 ;

Logan's Sexual Assault Brings Wave Of Blaming The Victim And Other Ugliness

February 16, 2011 11:17 am ET by Julie Millican

During a news brief on this morning's Fox & Friends, Gretchen Carlson 
reported that CBS correspondent Lara Logan had been "beaten and sexually 
assaulted by a mob of men while covering the political uprising in Egypt." 
While Carlson reported the story as nothing but factual, during her report, 
the onscreen text read, "Journalist Assaulted in Egypt? Report: Protesters 
Attacked CBS' Lara Logan." 

Is Fox really questioning the validity of the story? If not, why the question 
mark?

Fox isn't alone in having a completely inappropriate response to Logan's 
tragic assault. Others have seized on the story to attack Logan, suggesting 
that the reason this happened was because she was a pretty woman reporting in 
the middle of a war zone. As Salon's Mary Elizabeth Williams observed:

In a stunningly offensive blog post titled "Lara Logan, CBS Reporter and 
Warzone 'It Girl,' Raped Repeatedly Amid Egypt Celebration" for LA Weekly, 
writer Simone Wilson managed to mention Logan's "shocking good looks and 
ballsy knack for pushing her way to the heart of the action" before getting 
to the assault itself. She then went on to imagine how it happened: "In a 
rush of frenzied excitement, some Egyptian protestors apparently consummated 
their newfound independence by sexually assaulting the blonde reporter." 
Well, sure, what other motive for an assault could there be, given that Logan 
is, in Wilson's words, a "gutsy stunner" with "Hollywood good looks"? And how 
else do Egyptians celebrate anyway but with a gang assault?  It's not like 
she deserved it, but well, she is hot, right?

    [...]

Wilson wasn't the only person out there to be wildly tone-deaf in response, 
either. When the news broke, Nir Rosen, a fellow at the New York University 
Center for Law and Security, promptly whined to Twitter, "It's always wrong, 
that's obvious, but I'm rolling my eyes at all the attention she'll get," 
adding, "She's so bad that I ran out of sympathy for her." He soon 
backpedaled, deleting several of his most offensive posts and tweeting, "I 
apologize and take it back. joking with friends got out of line when i didnt 
[sic] want to back down. forgot twitter is not exactly private." Apparently 
he still hasn't remembered that sexual assault isn't great joking around 
material.

Rosen since resigned his post at NYU.

But he's not alone. 

Other conservative commentators have seized on the story as an excuse to 
perpetuate their racism. As Williams pointed out, right-wing blogger Debbie 
Schlussel responded to the incident by claiming Logan was to blame because 
"she should have known what Islam is all about":

And the ever-heinous Debbie Schlussel was quick to jump on her regular line 
of racism, noting how the assault happened in a "country of savages," because 
that never ever happens anywhere else, and it's never committed by 
light-skinned people! She then twisted the knife by going after Logan 
herself, saying, "So sad, too bad, Lara. No one told her to go there. She 
knew the risks. And she should have known what Islam is all about. Now she 
knows... How fitting that Lara Logan was 'liberated' by Muslims in Liberation 
Square while she was gushing over the other part of the 'liberation.'" Debbie 
Schlussel, what's it like to be so liberated from the burden of having either 
a mind or a soul?

In addition, notorious Islamophobe Pam Geller seems to be taking issue with 
CBS not reporting on the religious affiliation of the assailants. She also 
doesn't think that women really could have had much to do with rescuing Logan 
from her assailants. From her February 15 post (emphasis in the original):

Freedom-yearning young Egyptian role models? Not so much.

CBS chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan was covering the jubilation in 
Tahrir Square for a "60 Minutes" story when she and her team and their 
security were surrounded by a dangerous element amidst the celebration. It 
was a mob of more than 200 people whipped into frenzy.

CBS reportage on this is ... interesting. Logan was brutally raped for a 
sustained period of time. I find their mealy-mouthed reportingappalling. 
Imagine if this were ..... Israel. Or a tea party.

She was saved by "a group of women and an estimated 20 Egyptian soldiers." 
Color me skeptical, but methinks it was more soldiers than women.

These people ought to be ashamed of themselves. A woman was brutally 
assaulted in one of the most horrifyingly imaginable ways, and they are using 
it to blame the victim or to further their own racism. The fact remains that 
in no way is Logan responsible for what happened to her, and it is beyond 
disgusting to suggest otherwise. Moreover, the religion of her assailants is 
completely irrelevant. Would Geller or Schlussel argue that we shouldn't be 
surprised when a woman gets gang raped by Christian males because they're 
Christian? Of course not.

This crime was committed by a group of savages who should be brought to 
justice for what they did. And we should be keeping Logan in our thoughts and 
prayers. Nothing else should matter.



Juliette Grimmett
Assistant Director, NC State University Women's Center
Interpersonal Violence Services
3120 Talley Student Center
Raleigh, NC 27695
o: 919-515-2012
f: 919-515-1066
 
Are you a student who needs support for yourself or a loved one regarding 
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