blogger profile

Sara Conrad

Editor, skirt! Jacksonville

I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. I love thinking and talking about feminism and writing for skirt!. I went to the University of Iowa and I'll put up a good fight about spelling. ...

READ MORE

celeb support over victims?

Okay, I know I am one to totally stand up for Britney Spears, but, unlike R Kelly, she’s more prone to hurting herself rather than others, which renders her both the afflicting and the afflicted. So I feel supporting her as I would any victim is justified.

But it totally ticks me off when people stand up for R Kelly or support him because even though he raped a young girl, they like his music. Or, worse, they value him simply because he’s famous. Or even worse, they blame the 13 year old girl he raped. That’s such crap. I love music, but is R Kelly’s music more valuable to society than the safety of girls? Hell no. Should a young girl be held responsible for ruining his career when he was the one who raped her? No. He should hold his own self responsible. Unfortunately, it’s the young girl’s life that will be vulnerable from now on because some of society is not on her side--they’d rather see R Kelly get out without a scratch to his reputation or career.

This reminds me of an incident that happened between a star college basketball player and a college student.  A certain Pierre Pierce at the University of Iowa (allegedly) raped a woman, covered her mouth so her screams couldn’t be heard, but was overheard by a witness sharing the room that night. Since this was college, and rarely is anyone held accountable by “real world” law, Pierce was not put in prison for rape. He was suspended for the season.

Student body reaction? Many of the sports fans (and most vocally the male basketball fans) were angry that Pierce was even benched. Why should the basketball team have to suffer because of what some girl says he did to her? The women’s groups on campus were also pissed--that he was only benched, and that some people were blaming the victim. He was actually arrested two years later for breaking into a woman’s house (his girlfriend’s, actually) kidnapping her, and stealing some of her electrical appliances. I guess theft and kidnap has heavier consequences than rape. Scary.

When will victims be supported? When will rape actually be prevented by education to both sexes and not just made into prevention tips for women--as if we alone could prevent it?

More opinions on the Pierre Pierce case:

http://weblog.ceicher.com/archives/2005/02/rapist_pierre_pierce_gets_the.html

http://cs.gazetteonline.com/blogs/the_hlog/archive/2008/02/29/2743.aspx

http://www.uiowa.edu/~fyi/issues/issues2002_v40/03072003/respect.html