I never read the Rolling Stone article. I put it off, waiting until I was in the right mind set. By the time I was, Rolling Stone had issued a retraction.
As a frequent visitor to internet forums and reader of article comment sections, I knew what was coming. The I-told-you-so's and crying-wolf's. The blaming of women using rape as the go-to excuse.
Look, it does happen. [Duke Lacrosse, anyone?] But the instances are rare.
And don't get me wrong--Rolling Stone should have done their journalistic due diligence.
But honestly, I really don't blame them for not following up. Asking the wrong questions of the victim could seem like a challenge to their story. That the reporter was blaming her for the situation.
And I understand why UVA seemed like the perfect place to highlight, where a culture of rape would exist.
This is the same community where just in October, we uncovered the remains of Hannah Graham. That lost Alexis Murphy, a high-school senior, in 2013 and whose body has never been found. That has no idea what happened to trans teen Sage [Dashad] Smith in 2012. That lost Yeardley Love, a UVA volleyball player, in 2010 to an abusive relationship that ended in her death. That lost Morgan Harrington back in '09 when she was abducted, raped, and murdered.
This is the same community where I live.
I have run these streets, watching the shadows of every man that crosses my path, making sure he makes no sudden changes. I have driven these streets and dealt with the lack of free parking, because the idea of taking the bus sometimes is too risky. I have mentally prepared my actions, on what I would do if someone attacked me in the 90 seconds it takes to go to the dumpster and back to my apartment. It's odd--there are times here where I feel less safe than when I lived in Baton Rouge, and their murder stats are ...well...high is an understatement.
That's why I understand why Rolling Stone just went with it. Oh, Charlottesville? Lot of crazy shit happening to women there. This doesn't seem far-fetched at all.
What worries me the most is that the retraction is what people will focus on. That if it didn't happen as Jackie said, it doesn't happen at all. It does. And it doesn't just happen in big cities, a la L&O:SVU. It happens in small college towns, like Charlottesville.
The door to talking about campus culture about rape and assault was flung open by the article. Let's not close it. We can still talk, still get the ball rolling.
As a frequent visitor to internet forums and reader of article comment sections, I knew what was coming. The I-told-you-so's and crying-wolf's. The blaming of women using rape as the go-to excuse.
Look, it does happen. [Duke Lacrosse, anyone?] But the instances are rare.
And don't get me wrong--Rolling Stone should have done their journalistic due diligence.
But honestly, I really don't blame them for not following up. Asking the wrong questions of the victim could seem like a challenge to their story. That the reporter was blaming her for the situation.
And I understand why UVA seemed like the perfect place to highlight, where a culture of rape would exist.
This is the same community where just in October, we uncovered the remains of Hannah Graham. That lost Alexis Murphy, a high-school senior, in 2013 and whose body has never been found. That has no idea what happened to trans teen Sage [Dashad] Smith in 2012. That lost Yeardley Love, a UVA volleyball player, in 2010 to an abusive relationship that ended in her death. That lost Morgan Harrington back in '09 when she was abducted, raped, and murdered.
This is the same community where I live.
I have run these streets, watching the shadows of every man that crosses my path, making sure he makes no sudden changes. I have driven these streets and dealt with the lack of free parking, because the idea of taking the bus sometimes is too risky. I have mentally prepared my actions, on what I would do if someone attacked me in the 90 seconds it takes to go to the dumpster and back to my apartment. It's odd--there are times here where I feel less safe than when I lived in Baton Rouge, and their murder stats are ...well...high is an understatement.
That's why I understand why Rolling Stone just went with it. Oh, Charlottesville? Lot of crazy shit happening to women there. This doesn't seem far-fetched at all.
What worries me the most is that the retraction is what people will focus on. That if it didn't happen as Jackie said, it doesn't happen at all. It does. And it doesn't just happen in big cities, a la L&O:SVU. It happens in small college towns, like Charlottesville.
The door to talking about campus culture about rape and assault was flung open by the article. Let's not close it. We can still talk, still get the ball rolling.