Feminists Turn on Fellow Progressives over Assange Rape Charges
December 22, 2010
by The New Agenda
|The New Agenda joins Women’s Media Center, Women, Action & the Media, and feminist bloggers in speaking out against progressives’ attacks against the women who were allegedly raped by Julian Assange.
The full article below, as reported by Caroline May, can be found at The Daily Caller.
A rift has emerged on the activist left, as some feminists turn on fellow progressives over the rape allegations against WikiLeaks director Julian Assange.
Feminist groups say that in rallying to Assange’s cause, many progressives have dismissed the accusations against him as a possibly CIA-inspired plot, thereby diminishing the seriousness of the allegations and discouraging future victims from stepping forward.
Yana Walton of the Women’s Media Center told The Daily Caller that progressive activists such as Michael Moore and Keith Olbermann, in their treatment and coverage of the charges against Assange, have made light of rape allegations and put blame on the alleged victims.
“When sexual violence and rape is such a huge part of women’s lives internationally I don’t think it is ever helpful to legitimize it. Rape is rape is rape is rape, and should be prosecuted as such,” Walton said.
It is not, however, just the left that has caused harm to women with the coverage of this case, Walton says. According to Walton, it is anti-female to care about rape only when there are other factors at play — in this case, the leakage of highly sensitive documents.
“Rape should be taken seriously regardless of the situation. And to sort of pick and chose when you deploy gender and care for women and sexual violence against women is doing just as much of a disservice to women,” Walton said.
The frustration on the part of feminists has permeated the blogosphere. After Michael Moore (who helped post bail for Assange) appeared on Keith Olbermann on December 14 to make light of the charges, Sady Doyle, founder of the the feminist website Tiger Beatdown, started a mass twitter campaign against Olbermann and Moore.
In a blog post at Salon.com, Doyle explained her anger:
“I was frustrated with the way the Julian Assange rape case had been treated by fellow left-wing media figures, including Keith Olbermann, but especially Michael Moore, who minimized the accusations while pledging bail money to Assange.”
The campaign was effective enough to get Olbermann to step back from his Twitter account through the weekend.
While feminists are practically united in their anger over the manner in which the left has maligned Assange’s victims and minimized the allegations, one prominent feminist has taken a different tack: feminist icon Naomi Wolf. In a debate with Jaclyn Friedman of Women, Action & the Media on Democracy Now! Wolf defended Assange as a victim of political persecution.
“If you are going to take the issue of rape seriously,” Wolf said, “the person who is engaging in what he thinks is consensual sex has to be told, ‘I don’t want this’ and again and again and again these women did not say, ‘this is not consensual.’ Assange was shocked when these were brought up as complaints because he had no idea that this was not a consensual situation.”
Friedman took issue with Wolf’s characterization, saying that rape in all instances needed to be taken seriously.
“Rape is a very serious crime and it is also one of the most under reported crimes across the globe and one of the reasons is every time the issue comes up in the media people come out of the woodwork to blame the victims and minimize the crimes. Unfortunately when we see somebody who is a progressive hero like Assange is, those critics, those people who are doing that minimization and that victim blaming often come from the left as well as the right,” Friedman said, noting that Assange’s alleged victims have received death threats and gone into hiding.
Amy Siskind, president and co-founder of The New Agenda, echoed Friedman. Siskind told TheDC that the way the left is treating the Assange case will act to perpetuate a culture of victim blame in society and the media.
“I have been shocked and disgusted by the reaction of some people on the left to these rape allegations. Throughout the media there has been an inability to separate out what happened with these rape allegations from the WikiLeaks and it seems as if these women are meant to be roadkill so that the people on the left who view what Assange did as heroic can celebrate him. And they really are two separate things,” she said.
According to Siskind and others, Wolf and those in her corner have been completely out of line in minimizing the charges against Assange.
“[Wolf] trivialized these women and rape generally and if you look online and at the blogosphere, she certainly stands alone,” Siskind said. “If this is what it is to be a Progressive, that we sublimate women and rape so that we can celebrate whatever [Michael Moore] is celebrating with freedom of speech. And I think women on the Progressive side need to reexamine how they are being treated.”
Thank you!! Thank you! Thank you!!! Yes, Mary Jane, there is a voice out there that is not afraid to speak out to end the sexism that is found throughout the political spectrum!!!
Too bad, though, “we” had to resort to using the term “fellow” progressives in the title … just can’t get away from the sexism! But excellent substantive article! Maybe there is real hope for the world, yet!
Eliminating sexism is the Reason for the Season!!!
Well, it is daring of you all to speak up and I hope it helps with the obvious misogyny on the left. The pigs pretty much ran wild during the 2008 election season. But you need to remember that the anti woman antics of Liberal/Progressive men have been politely ignored for generations. The progressive left is in need of a deep cleansing and it will be ages before the unindoctrinated will ever be able to see Progressives as pro woman.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C.....k_incident
“Assange was shocked when these were brought up as complaints because he had no idea that this was not a consensual situation.”
As if plenty of rapists differ from this attitude. “Hey, if she didn’t want to get her head put through the drywall, why did she come up to my apartment?” Pfagh. Wolf’s an idiot.
Yes Naomi is a complete twit whos found her purpose in life which is enabling progressive men. I am sure they pat her little head frequently in appreciation.
Perhaps, karma will visit Naomi and some man will do to her what Assange has done to these 2 women. Maybe then, she’ll wake up and realize that enabling rape apoligists and rapists does not a feminist make!
Women like Naomi are the reason men don’t take us seriously.
Assange looks elven.
I’m surprised and thrilled at progressive feminists’ nearly unified response to Assange and his liberal dood defenders.
http://www.patriotresource.com.....aldir.html
Yes Naomi is a complete twit whos found her purpose in life which is enabling progressive men. I am sure they pat her little head frequently in appreciation.
The media’s tendency to blame the victim and minimize rape allegations when it benefits their underlying political agenda is indeed troubling. I see it as a symptom of a larger problem, though, which is that these tendencies are still ingrained in much of our culture. One can find these wayward attitudes in everything from law enforcement to various elements of pop culture. Even in the criminal justice system, how often is a jury unable to separate the crime from their perception of the defendant, the alleged victim, or both?
Thank you to the women’s organizations that have shed light on the hypocrisy of the media’s reaction in this situation, as well as that of certain progressives. We need to minimize the daunting obstacles faced by rape victims, not flippantly reinforce them. The politics before principle shtick is getting tiresome and is frankly, unacceptable.
Leave your Response Want an avatar? Get a gravatar!
Community Room
February 22, 2012 at 11:22 am
February 17, 2012 at 2:39 pm
February 6, 2012 at 4:25 pm
January 30, 2012 at 2:36 pm
January 26, 2012 at 4:38 pm
January 23, 2012 at 1:04 pm
January 15, 2012 at 11:37 am
January 9, 2012 at 6:36 pm
BUILD your NETWORK
Our Network of College Women
Protecting our Teenage Girls
We’re in the Media »
Click to see our latest stories in the media
More Stories »Recent Comments
The Latest from our Blog
Archives
Pioneer Mentors
Blogroll
Find us Online
Subscribe Entries (RSS) | Comments (RSS)
The New Agenda is a 501(c)(4) organization dedicated to improving the lives of women and girls by bringing about systemic change in the media, at the workplace, at school and at home. More...