Sarah Palin's Mental Health and Domestic Violence Controversy

I take pride in admitting that I am a complete political junkie, constantly reviewing news about the upcoming Presidential election. Last month, while procrastinating on homework, I came across an article on Facebook that caught my eye: “Sarah Palin’s delusional blame game: Obama isn’t responsible for her son’s domestic violence charge.”  While I had heard about Track Palin’s arrest over allegedly assaulting his girlfriend, I had yet to learn about his mother’s controversial comments on the issue.

During a pro-Trump rally in Tusla, Oklahoma, Palin pulled a “Thanks Obama” stunt when she implied that the President’s lack of care for veterans indirectly led to her son’s violent behavior towards his girlfriend. When I first read this SALON article, I was slightly disgusted and curious as to what the former governor had said exactly— so I pulled up a clipof her speech and heard the following:

“So when my own son [a combat vet having served in a Stryker brigade] is going through what he goes through coming back, I can certainly relate with other families who kind of feel these ramifications of PTSD…it is now or never for the sake of America’s finest that we’ll have that commander in chief who will respect them and honor them.”

I was surprised that Sarah Palin, one of the few prominent female politicians we’ve had in U.S. history, would try shift the blame of her son’s domestic violence onto Obama’s policy decisions. While I completely understand that such a domestic violence scandal can undermine the popularity of Palin’s future political endeavors, trivializing a controversial issue makes it all the more worse.

So let’s break it down. What is wrong with the way that Palin framed her son’s domestic violence ordeal?

1.)  As discussed in class, using Track’s ailments from his battlefield experience as an excuse for his behavior frames the alleged perpetrator as a “victim.” It’s like saying, “Oh you punched your girlfriend in the face? Oh it’s okay— as a Veteran, you were not taken care of properly after combat so your actions are completely justifiable.” The absurdity of this statement speaks for itself.

2.)  While I completely agree that PTSD and other mental illnesses affecting veterans needs to be dealt with, I do not find any plausible reason to solely blame Obama for the imperfect care of veterans. As stated in the SALON article, “Obama’s 2016 budget includes $4 million for Veterans Mental Health First Aid.”

3.)  Palin focuses on her son’s fragile position as a war veteran but does not mention the alleged victim’s wellbeing… at all. She could have easily transformed this situation into a motivational message directed towards helping victims of domestic violence.

It is completely possible that perpetrators of domestic violence and sexual assault have mental health issues. However, it is important that the American power elite— the politicians, CEOs, and other influential figures— do not conflate domestic violence as a consequence of the “mentally ill.” Applying Benedict’s “The Assailant Is Perverted or Crazy” rape myth to this situation of domestic violence, we see how Palin’s attribution of blame to PTSD can make it seem that domestic violence is only committed by those with “mental disabilities” rather than relatives, neighbors, and best friends.

This brings me to a topic I am left to ponder: What role does “mental illness” play in domestic violence cases? How do we discuss cases that involve, say former veterans, without trivializing the overall issue of domestic violence?

A Bill for Sexual Assault Survivors

Today, Senate Democrats proposed a bill that would extend more rights to survivors of sexual assault. The Sexual Assault Survivors' Rights Act would guarantee a number of things:

It requires steps to ensure that people who have been sexually assaulted have access to a trained sexual assault counselor and comprehensive information about victims’ legal options. For individuals who submit to a rape kit, the bill would give them the right to know the location of the evidence, whether the kit has been tested, and the test results.

The bill guarantees these rights whether or not the person reports the crime to law enforcement or agrees to press charges. It also creates a task force to examine how well the changes are implemented, to include representatives from diverse communities and advocacy backgrounds.

The bill was inspired by 24 year old Amanda Nguyen, a State Department employee who was raped two years ago in Massachusetts. The statute of limitations in the state is 15 years, but she learned through a pamphlet that the state could destroy her rape kit within 6 months unless she filed an extension request. Nguyen described a confusing a stressful process in trying to figure out how to even do that: who to contact, how to file, and having to do it every six months. "The system essentially makes me live my life by date of rape,” Nguyen said.

Nguyen became an activist after researching different states' laws regarding sexual assault and the victims' legal process and formed the volunteer group Rise in order to get attention and sponsorship for the bill.

I thought this article was interesting because at the beginning of the semester, we had talked about how thousands of rape kits are backlogged throughout the country, but I had no idea that they could just be destroyed without the victim's knowledge. What's encouraging, though, is that the article is about the bill and Nguyen's role as an activist who happens to be a victim of sexual assault. It mentions that she's a member of the State Department aspiring to be an astronaut, but those details aren't used in a Virgin frame to make anyone pity her for being a victim. Yes, the article uses the astronaut angle for some cheap clever lines, but she maintains her agency. She's framed as an empowered individual, and the article provides no details about her assault at all because that's not the focus of the story.

Kesha accuses Dr. Luke of rape

 

In 2008, pop artist Ke$ha cut ties with her New York-based management company DAS Communications, breaking her contract. The company then claimed that her producer Dr. Luke, real name, Luke Gottwald, “induced, intimidated, and convinced” her to do so. In a 2011 testimony connected to this case, Kesha denied that Dr. Luke never roofied her or coerced her into sex. However, on October 14^th of this year, Kesha filed a lawsuit against Dr. Luke saying that he date raped her. Apparently, Kesha went to rehab and therapy after the 2011 testimony, when she was not strong enough to come to terms with what had happened to her, and now she finally is ready to come out with the story. Kesha claims that Dr. Luke forced her to snort an illicit drug and forced himself on her during a cross-country flight, when he then threatened her, saying that he would shut down her career if she ever spoke of the rape to anyone.

The issue now, is that regardless or not of whether Kesha’s claims are true, Gottwald’s defense attorneys have very strong defenses following past, highly publicized false rape claims in the media. Dr. Luke’s lawyers stated, “This kind of cynical grandstanding in which false claims of abuse are used as a negotiating tactic insults real victims.” Kesha’s attournies, on the other hand, are taking a strong stance on victim blaming, stating, “He threatened her and she equivocated because she was under threat. This is a desperate attempt on their part to blame the victim.” The problem here, is that this case is becoming a never-ending circle of he said, she said, and not even focusing on the facts or evidence, but rather, at attacking the other side and sticking to rape myths as a strong enough testimony. Using the rape myth “she’s lying” or the rape myth, “she wasn’t strong enough then, but she is now,” is just not substantial enough in today’s rape culture to convince a judge one way or another. It is very disappointing that due to suggested false rape claims over the past years (UVA, Duke), a claim of rape is no longer strong enough to be believable. 

Gottwald finally spoke out in a series of tweets, claiming that he never raped Kesha. The judge did not rule in Kesha's favor last Friday. Gottwald expressed his compassion for those who believe Kesha, but stated, "lives can get ruined when there's a rush to judgment before all the facts come out. Look what happened at UVA, Duke, etc."He further goes on to say, "It's sad that she would turn a contract negotiation into something so horrendous and untrue. But I feel confident when this is over the lies will be exposed and the truth will prevail." Unfortunately, again, this outcome leaves me confused and with many questions. I want to believe Kesha, as I always want to believe the victim, but when information like this comes out and when is seems so plausible that the victim could be lying, it leaves readers and onlookers questioning the reality of the situation. Especially, because this case is among hollywood celebrities, it makes it so much easier to say that they were doing this for fame, publicity, or money. 

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/kesha-denied-date-rape-dr-luke-back-2011-article-1.1982546
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/dr-luke-breaks-silence-i-didnt-rape-kesha-20160222

IU Sexual Assault Case

I recently came across an interesting article  about two high-ranking members of Indiana University’s Association for Student Conduct Administration (ASCA), which deals specifically with sexual assault cases. The current President of ASCA, John Casares, was accused of sexually assaulting another board member, Jill Creighton, who has recently been voted ASCA’s next president. The two were at a bar having drinks at a work convention in Texas and Creighton claims that when the two went back to a hotel room together, Casares took advantage of her in her drunken state, and says that she did not consent to sexual contact. Casares continues to deny the claims of sexual misconduct, even after Creighton filed a police report, released a statement about the issue, and actually confronted Casares via text message about the incident. A report of ASCA’s write-up of the incident  “blames me for being in the same hotel room, blames me for not crying out for help in the moment, blames me for not taking physical pictures [of my injuries]…and blames me for confronting him,” according to Creighton.

This is a really interesting and actually ironic case to come across because in this situation both parties are very knowledgeable about sexual assault and the processes involved with dealing with it. The two people involved in the case are actually arguably the most knowledgeable because they are both either past or future presidents of the University’s sexual assault organization. For this reason, it was really interesting to see that when faced with this story, their own organization did not follow typical protocol to resolve the situation, and Creighton feels that she was treated very unfairly in the process, citing rape myths such as victim blaming in the official report of the incident.

A letter that Casares posted to her Twitter account offered a her take on how this situation should have been handled, but was not:

“This is not something the Association can afford to be ambivalent about. We cannot claim national leadership in addressing sexual misconduct, only to fail miserably in our first test within our own Association…I don't want to hurt the Association by speaking out, I want to strengthen it, cause us introspection that this can happen even within our own profession, and challenge us to walk our talk not just on our campuses, but in all phases of our professional engagement.”

The article itself seems very favorable to the victim, though it does on several occasions refer to her as the “accuser,” which frames her in a problematic light. Other than that, however, the article is very informative and perhaps even a little biased against the perpetrator because it only includes quotes from the victim and definitely frames the perpetrator in a guilty light.

Sweden's Fritzl by Sarah Scott

Earlier this year, in Sweden, a man drugged a woman and locked her in a sound-proof bunker. I initially heard about this case after having a conversation with a coworker about things that I had been learning through this class. It was so absurd to me that I decided I wanted to research it more. The case turned out to be very real and extremely disturbing.

It involves a 38 year-old man who initially went on a date with a young woman. He went to meet her for a second date and brought her chocolate-covered strawberries laced with Rohypnol. Once she was unconscious he proceeded to abduct her and take her to a cell at his home which was sound-proofed. When transporting her he used masks for both of them to conceal their identities and avoid any trouble. He is believed to have raped her repeatedly over the course of six days with the intent to continue. Police later discovered documents that expressed that the man was planning to hold her captive for 10-years and that as the years went by he was planning on offering her rewards in exchange for more sexual acts.

One thing that struck me as I was reading was the presence of some rape myths that we have discussed in our class. The article made it pretty clear that this case was terrible however they did make sure to constantly refer to him by his occupation, a doctor. The article even included a quote by his lawyer calling him a “a lonely and depressed man” who had been searching for companionship, which I found to be problematic and reaffirming the rape myth of “he’s not the type to do that”.

Overall, I was pretty disgusted by the case and it has made me hyper-aware. As we’ve discussed in class, rape does not always happen with strangers. The survivor was planning on going on a second date with someone who seemed like a nice, normal guy and her life was forever changed.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35399854

This article follows the stories of captured refugee women in Nigeria, Africa. The western region of Africa has been plagued by the militant group Boko Haram for the past seven years. Boko Haram has control of several Northeastern states and has declared its allegiance to the islamic extremist group ISIS and is the self-proclaimed ISIS province in West Africa. According to this article Boko Haram and ISIS accounted for more than half of all deaths related to terror incidents in 2014. Yohana, the protagonist of the article, shared her story as a captive of Boko Haram with Buzzfeed. According to Yohana, the use of female suicide bombers has spiked in recent years. The local Boko Haram leaders attempt to build the trust of their captives by promising to bring them anything they ask for.

According to Yohana there is discontent within the Boko Haram ranks because of a disorganized sense of ideology and a lack of resources. The lack of resources also results in random acts of violence on the neighborhoods that surround the encampment. The following quotation from the article demonstrates the horrifying circumstances that many women living in the vicinity of the Boko Haram encampments experience, "Some 50-odd remaining women and children were then banished to live in a single, stifling room. They were given Qur'ans and buckets--then left alone for hour on end. Many were frequently dragged outside to be raped, later returning to lie dead-eyed on the few dirty mattresses". Yohana is an anomaly in that she was eventually able to escape her captors many more women and men suffer through a fate that is unimaginable to us. 

Link to Article

The Case of Beckett Brennan: Another Case of Sexual Assault in Sports

I found an article describing a 60 Minutes feature of Brennan's case of rape by three men from her school's basketball team in May 2011. It went unreported at first, like 95% of sexual assault cases on college campuses, the article reports. This article is headlined as "Brennan's case", but its byline focuses on the Obama administration's attention to dealing with sexual assault on college campuses, and stepping up about doing something about it. The article says "guidelines to help colleges deal with it" are being implemented, "But it won't be easy. Adjudicating a case of sexual assault on a college campus can be difficult for both the victim and the school, which we found out in the case of Beckett Brennan, who was a student at the University of the Pacific when she reported that she had been raped." The article reports on Brennan's case in detail and depicts her testimony in court against the three basketball players. She describes the trial as problematic because of its focus on "tons of questions about how much I was drinking, a focus on flirting" which detracted from the assailants and put blame on the victim. I found parts of the article problematic, such as the use of "alleged" to describe the assault, and  quotes from the victim talking about how she "kind of" felt like a part of something with the basketball team where she actually got to play her first year and "kind of made a difference, you know." These quotes paint her as ditsy and not confident because of the excessive use of the phrase "kind of" and saying things like "you know", which shape opinion about the victim. Fortunately, no phrases or keywords are used to describe the victim's attractiveness and how that could have played into the assault. The article does not mention any specifics of Obama's legislation regarding college sexual assault, but is reported on here. 

New HBO Movie: Confirmation

HBO is coming out with a new movie called "Confirmation," focusing on the Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas sexual harrassment case.
In 1991, University of Oklahoma law professor Anita Hill testified against Supreme Court nominee Judge Clarence Thomas, who was her former boss, on charges of sexual harrassment. She claimed Thomas had asked her out several times after she said no and consistently brought up conversations about sex and porn to her at work. For making these accusations, Hill was called things from "a little bit nutty and a little bit slutty," "a scorned woman," "delusional," to "revenge seeker." Thomas claimed she was telling lies and said, "This story was developed specifically to destroy me." He also claimed the whole case was a racism stunt to keep him out of being confirmed on the Supreme Court.

Other women came forward during the case also making claims against Thomas for sexual harrassment. Hill was extremely clear and confident in her statements against Thomas, describing how he had embarrassed and humiliated her as well as the effects it had on her career and health. Hill took a polygraph test which she passed, while Thomas refused to take the test. Her accusations brought to light sexual harrassment in the workplace and women's unequal representation in politics, because at that time 98% of the Senate was male and didn't take Hill's claims seriously. The Senate confirmed Thomas to the Supreme Court by a vote of 52-48. After Hill came forward, President George W. Bush dropped his opposition to the bill giving harrassment victims a right to seek federal damage awards and the law was passed in Congress.

The HBO movie premieres April 18th and stars Kerry Washington as Anita Hill. HBO is already receiving harsh citicisms claiming the movie has anti-Republican bias. Mark Paoletta, the former White House lawyer who worked with confirming Thomas to the Supreme Court, said the movie is timed to help presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and her "war on women" claims against the Republican party.

The movie is being released now due to Anita Hill's feelings that the new generation is still facing the same issues she faced. Hill says a generation of women are going to work and still experiencing this, not knowing about this case that happened. She says people now understand that sexual harassment is prohibited, but they don't know how we got there.



Here's the teaser trailer for HBO's "Confirmation":

Mitch Albom's Rape Opinion

            On a normal morning drive, I enjoy listening to the funny commentary of Mojo in the Morning. I didn’t think that a serious story of rape would ever make it on to the more comical radio show. However, this was just the case. I first heard of the story of Mitch Albom’s personal opinion on the settlement of Jameis Winston’s rape victim on my morning drive. After catching pieces of the story, I decided to investigate it further. I found an article on Fox 2 News, that not only told the original story, but also had an update.

http://www.fox2detroit.com/news/local-news/83867519-story#

            According to the story, Mitch Albom was casting his opinion on ESPN’s Sports Reporters, when the topic of Jameis Winston came up. The Jameis Winston rape case had concluded with his victim agreeing to take a $950,000 settlement. Mitch Albom spoke to this stating, “I'd feel a lot happier about this, if the woman took that money and gave it to charity and said, 'That's not what this was about.'  I am always suspect when people end up saying, 'Well, I'm going to take it'" (Fox 2 News). This comment caused tons of backlash on Albom, thinking that he was calling the victim a liar. People were very upset the Albom would even think to tell the victim what to do with her money. Albom replied to the backlash by trying to explain himself. His opinion had not been meant to belittle the victim, but to try to get to the point that this case should not be focused upon money, but that of the sexual assault that occurred. He had hoped that stating this would make people realize that if the money was not a part of the equation, the real tragedy of the sexual assault could be talked about more.

            In my opinion, when I saw the video of Mitch Albom’s original comment, I did not take it in a bad light. I understood that Albom’s comment didn’t want the focus of rape to be turned onto the focus of money. However, I know my opinion was not widely shared, but you can form your own, by watching the original video here.

            I think this story brings an interesting spin to our class discussion. We have talked about many topics regarding perpetrators and victims, but we haven’t really touched on the idea that a rape case can be settled through an amount of money. I understand the justice system wanting to give the victim something to try to make up for everything she has experienced, but I’m not sure money is always the right solution. There is truly no real justice for someone who has experienced rape, and the ways they try to find peace with what happened to them varies quite a bit. I think that until we can find a way to decrease the number of rape cases that happen, we should turn our attention to prevention, and not necessarily to how each victim chooses to settle and move on.