MODS: Reproduced in entirety with permission of authorhttp://www.atlargely.com/atlargely/2011/02/rape-the-everlasting-gobstopper.htmlFebruary 16, 2011
Rape, the everlasting gobstopper
As we have all heard by now, CBS journalist Lara Logan was beaten and sexually assaulted in Cairo last week. Not much has been revealed by CBS over the particulars and with good reason. Most outlets have respected CBS' stance on this, but not The New York Post, which instead ran an inflammatory article based on a single anonymous source in which the following allegation is made:
"A network source told The Post that her attackers were screaming, "Jew! Jew!" during the assault. And the day before, Logan had told Esquire.com that Egyptian soldiers hassling her and her crew had accused them of "being Israeli spies." Logan is not Jewish."
Not surprisingly, this account of events has quickly been picked up by the Muslim hating far-right as a talking point to justify more wars against more nations and to justify more violence against more people.
All of this goes too far. All of this is parasitic and ugly - yet more rape of a rape victim. Sadly, all of this is typical too in a society where everything that can be used and re-used for the political is and as such, is divorced from any sense of real-life meaning and consequences. Bloggers sitting at their desks in the US have no concept of reality in Cairo, nor do they much care. New York Post shills might have some concept of what is going on in Egypt, but they are entirely irresponsible as journalists in favor of selling an agenda.
There is a very real tragedy here and it is a very simple narrative: Rape is rape. It does not matter who the victim is. It does not matter who the perpetrator is. It does not matter in what country the rape took place. Rape is a horrific crime suffered by women (and men) the world-over. That is the lesson, although apparently one lost on far too many grown-ups in the United States who are too busy waging a domestic war of ideologies to notice that they have lost their humanity entirely.
The reactions to the attack have also resulted in the usual counter response opinions, blog posts, and so forth. Welcome to our national embarrassment: the everlasting apology for a comment that everyone knows was meant and will continue to be meant, long after the apology is made.
Journalist Nir Rosen used the opportunity to express his bad-taste by opining via a series of Tweets that:
“Lara Logan had to outdo Anderson. Where was her buddy McCrystal.” ...
"Yes yes its wrong what happened to her. Of course. I don’t support that. But, it would have been funny if it happened to Anderson too.” ...
“Jesus Christ, at a moment when she is going to become a martyr and glorified we should at least remember her role as a major war monger.”
Perhaps not the most sensitive of men, Rosen should have been bitch-slapped by every female member of his family. Instead, Rosen has since apologized and resigned from his fellowship with NYU (after some aggressive pressure from the blogosphere). Were his comments in bad-taste? Yes. Were his comments offensive? To some. Was he lecturing at an NYU classroom when he made these tasteless jokes? No. Was his resignation necessary? No. He has now been obliterated from the planet of course, likely to never be heard from again. But since he cried uncle, that means that politically someone has a scalp. Mind you that his scalp was called for by people on the far right who have consistently defended torture.
Political correctness is all-the-rage and from both the right and the left. It does not matter so much that this woman was raped. All that matters is that one group has a new political cudgel they can use against the other side.
Case in point, the apology being demanded by Media Matters of right-wing blogger Jim Hoft who had this to say about the attack on Logan:
Lara Logan is lucky she’s alive.
Her liberal belief system almost got her killed on Friday. This talented reporter will never be the same.
Why did this attractive blonde female reporter wander into Tahrir Square last Friday? Why would she think this was a good idea? Did she not see the violence in the square the last three weeks? Did she not see the rock throwing? Did she miss the camels? Did her colleagues tell her about the Western journalists who were viciously assaulted on the Square? Did she forget about the taunts from the Egyptian thugs the day before? What was she thinking? Was it her political correctness that about got her killed? Did she think things would be different for her?
Who is Hoft supposed to apologize to and for what? Is he supposed to apologize for being an irrelevant right-wing idiot to Media Matters? He would hardly apologize for that. In asking for his apology, is Media Matters not making him more important than he is? And if he does apologize, will he suddenly change his worldview? No. he would not. What is the point really?
In the real world, all of this means very little.
A woman was sexually assaulted by a group of men. What the rest of the world sees is not a nation standing behind the victim, but countless groups and their politics fighting over the leftovers of a brutal attack in hopes of scoring some irrelevant domestic political points.
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