I don't know much if anything about the Jian Gomeshi case, and I'm fortunate that I've never been the victim of a violent crime, but I found this to be an amazingly well-written piece on the complicated psychology of trauma and how people don't understand how and why victims process things the way they do in the aftermath of their attacks. Jackie Fuchs, aka Jackie Fox of the 1970's girl band The Runaways (who went public last year with her story of being raped by the band's manager) discusses What the Jian Gomeshi acquittal can teach us about victim blaming.
Like I said, I'm not knowledgable about this case so I can't say whether or not the acquittal was warranted, or if a serial rapist just got away with his crimes. But the idea of having been raped, then having to sit in a courtroom with your attacker just a few feet away and be ripped to shreds in front of everyone by a lawyer whose job isn't to defend the innocent, but to keep their client out of jail - guilty or not - must be beyond agonizing. Not to mention adding horrifying insult to an already decimating injury. And then to have to sit there and see them set free...I can't imagine what that must do to a person, both emotionally and psychologically. It's just beyond words. And that's on top of the trauma of the attack itself. No wonder victims are reluctant to come forward, or wait years to do so. Who wants to set themselves up to be victimized again?
Definitely take the time to read Jackie's post. It makes so many astute observations that I can't even begin to list them all here without just copying and pasting the whole thing. Really amazing stuff.
No comments:
Post a Comment