Public humiliation in the Facebook age
Last Fall, an emotionally-charged anonymous letter to the editor to the student newspaper at Lewis & Clark, The Pioneer Log, had several female students calling “rape.”
First of all, I don’t think newspapers should print anonymous letters to the editor. But, each to their own.
The female had initiated the sex after a long night of drinking in this case, but asked the guy to stop when he got too rough “and, at times, hindering [her] ability to breath.” She learned of other girls who also complained about the aggressive physical nature of the guy. She then wrote the letter, which she finished by calling the guy an “insolent son of a bitch.” The administration released a response in the fallout. The plot thickened when members from the Womyn’s Center chose to expose the accused via a Facebook group, “**** **** is a piece of shit rapist.” catchy. The group said the male student had made a habit of such behavior, but was deleted after complaints.
In the case of “Anonymous,” the young woman cited this as the principal reason for her relative silence. She wrote, “I think that we’d like to believe that we treat victims of sexual assault as though they are completely free of blame, but I am not confident that I can expose myself without being afraid of the excess anxiety it might cause me to experience on what is as much my campus as it is his.”
Lewis & Clark is a small private college, so I think there are a lot of popularity issues also involved, and it’s a lot harder to keep a secret in those places as big as small as many high schools. Anyway, I think the girls denied the guy due process, even if he had what was coming to him. There is a chance the kid just needs counseling on how to treat a lady and to stop getting piss drunk. (The girl wrote how she could leave only when he was in the bathroom calling dinosaurs). Sure, public humiliation is fun and all, but it doesn’t solve problems very well.
The moral of the story, don’t print anonymous letters to the editor.
