IMPACT Boston blog

Fall River Woman Defends Herself Against Abduction

This news story about a 66-year-old Fall River woman protecting herself from an attempted abduction reminds us of the power we have when we take action and protect ourselves!

International Women's Day: A Call to Action

by Alia Torran-Burrell, IMPACT Blogger

March 8th marked International Women's Day, a time for people throughout the world to celebrate "the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future." According to the United Nations, ""It is a time to reflect on progress made, to call for change and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who have played an extraordinary role in the history of women's rights." 

As we were celebrating the achievements and strides of women, I couldn't help but be distracted by the  part about change, about recognizing and reminding ourselves that there's still a lot to work on.    Last week in New York City, a woman dismissed the advances of a man in a bar, which prompted him to brutally attack and rape her.  In Chicago, a teenager, attempting to run away from men who were harassing her, ran into the street and was hit by three cars and killed.  Sexism, the belief that one gender or sex is inferior to another, creates an environment in which gendered harassment and violence is prevalent, and in some cases, accepted. 

Take this story recently out of a Los Angeles TV station, entitled "Scooping: Sexual Assault or Schoolboy Prank?" As Ms. Blog Articulates:

"Sexual assault is never just a prank, and by suggestively framing the issue like this the media becomes part of the problem. We need to call out sexualized groping for what it is, and not hide behind coy language or veiled references about a hand-plant to the breast. And the media should be highlighting the politics of power instead of titillating viewers by focusing on girls’ bodies in sexualized ways...Such everyday assaults teach girls to internalize fear and shame about their bodies, and threaten to inhibit girls’ free movement through the world. “Scooping” tells boys that they can have sexual access to girls’ bodies at will. Girls become women, but the issues of shame and fear, freedom and safety, don’t disappear."

We find messages like this everywhere, which deny survivor (and, more specifically in this case, women's) agency and power, and place blame on the wrong people.  International Women's Day brings highlighted awareness to problems which happen EVERY day.  This is not meant to discourage us, or bring fear into our lives; ratherto encourage everyone--not just women--to create, sustain, and support movements which work to end the systemic denial of women's rights and safety. 

 

Rape on College Campuses -- The Washington Post & The Center for Public Integrity

by Meg Stone, IMPACT Director

Yes Means Yes editor and Women Action and the Media Director Jaclyn Friedman's recent Washington Post article discusses the leniency most college disciplinary boards give to students who are found to have perpetrated rape against other students. She writes in response to a report by the Center for Public Integrity that shows that students found responsible for rape by campus judicial processes rarely face consequences.

Those who perpetrate rape and other forms of abuse against familiar people can often mask the seriousness of their violence because of circumstances that make the crime harder to document-- by alleging that sex was consensual, by using the fact of someone's use of drugs or alcohol to undermine her credibility. Some comments on the Post's site in response to Friedman's article amaze me in their defensiveness. It's easy to criticize Friedman (and by extension every other woman who is sexually assaulted when she's been drinking). Blaming her and other survivors keeps us from asking harder and more useful questions: Why are our social networks still not effective at making pro-active consent the expectation? Why do our schools and communities fail to understand the lasting trauma sexual violence causes or how institutions can contribute to that trauma by failing to at the very least remove the perpetrator from campus while the survivor finishes her education?  

I hope the Center for Public Integrity report continues to get attention and that the public understanding of the injustice of campus rape and the importance of institutional responses stays in the public awareness.

...writing with IMPACT Benefit performance March 23rd

a benefit reading sponsored by Queer Soup Theater

 

 

Join writers Meg Stone and Andra Hibbert in a benefit reading for IMPACT self-defense programs for LGBT communities

 

Meg Stone is the Director of IMPACT and will be reading from her recently completed memoir, Another Chance at Home. Another Chance at Home is Meg’s story of more than fifteen years spent accompanying women to family court to get orders of protection, working the night shift in a battered women’s shelter, and facing the legacy of abuse in own family. It is also a reflection on the challenges of working for long-term change in the midst of crises and finding ways to do abuse work that are proactive and sustainable.

 

Andra Hibbert is a queer writer pursuing an MFA in fiction writing at UMass-Boston. She grew up in northern Vermont and attended Williams College. Before focusing on understanding people (mainly herself) through telling stories, she worked with demographic data in academia. She currently edits the literary journals Concrete and Breakwater Review. She will be reading from new unpublished stories that explore family, love, and sexuality in a magical American landscape.

 

 

 

Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts
527 Tremont Street, Boston's South End

Tuesday March 23^rd, 7:00 pm

 

Call 781-321-3900 for more information

 

Suggested Donation: $5-25

all are welcome regardless of ability to pay

 

 

for more information about Queer Soup Theater’s current production We All Will Be Received, visit www.queersouptheater.org

Choking Exception?

by Alia Toran-Burrell, IMPACT Blogger

"Choking is often more dangerous than punching, shoving and other kinds of abuse. If an attacker applies 11 pounds of pressure for just 10 seconds, the victim can be rendered unconscious. With greater pressure, death can occur within minutes. And even after the attacker lets up, a victim can collapse and die hours or even days later because of underlying damage to the neck, or to the brain due to lack of oxygen. Ten percent of violent deaths in the United States are strangulations."   NYTIMES, March 3, 2010

Recent news has focused heavily on the scandal involving New York Governor David Patterson and his attempts to quiet a domstic violence case against his aide David Johnson.  But in a new op-ed piece in the NYTIMES, contributors highlight a different, yet equally alarming factor in the case--that because Mr. Johnson had choked the woman, he was neither arrested, nor charged with assault. 

In New York State, assault charges can only be brought if there is physical evidence.  Since, choking often leaves no visible marks, perpetrators are charged with a mere violation, similar to disorderly conduct.   But, says the authors, "cutting off someone’s air supply is an agonizing, terrifying and life-threatening form of abuse" and studies show that 43% of women who are killed by intimate partners have experienced choking at least once before their deaths.

New York's flippancy in their definition of assault highlights a serious problem in law enforcement in general.  Only about half of states in the country have laws that specifically address choking, a serious crime that is often more dangerous than other forms of abuse. At IMPACT, we know how dangerous choking can be--in our Basics class, which teaches students to resist threats, intimidation and violence, students learn that choking is one of the highest levels of threat. But, they also learn self-defense moves to resist choking attacks, and come away knowing that there IS something they can do to protect themselves from an incredibly scary situation.

NPR Story: Colleges Fail to Expel Rapists

by Alia L. Toran-Burrell, IMPACT Blogger

For the past week, NPR News has aired a four part investigation into the failure of colleges and the US Department of Education to effectively address rape cases.  "Campus Rape Victims: a Struggle for Justice" (link to story-- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124001493) takes an in depth look at the ways in which colleges have failed both to protect women from sexual assault, and to hold their perpetrators accountable.  According to their report, one out of five women in college will be sexually assaulted--but very few of their perpetrators are ever suspended or expelled by the schools, even when they are found guilty by school judicial boards.

By not holding perpetrators accountable, college justice systems send numerous harmful messages.  Rape is a serious crime--no one has the right to do anything to your body without your consent, no matter the circumstances.  But allowing perpetrators to remain in school, or, as NPR states, to get off with a slap on the wrist, supports a culture in which rape and sexual assault are condoned and accepted.  A system which claims to protect is actually doing the opposite.  

It also supports a culture in which survivors are devalued and silenced, and where fear is palpable. Many of these survivors eventually drop out of school, not wanting to face their perpetrators on campus or in classes.  At IMPACT, we think that everyone deserves to feel safe. Colleges, like other social arenas, have a responsibility to create and foster an environment where everyone, including survivors of sexual assault, are supported, validated, and respected.

Click here for a post on the Feministing blog for ways you can take action.