Thursday, December 09, 2010

A Note on Feminism

Because of this whole Assange sex crime circus and the alleged feminist conspiracy taking place against him, or rather Wikileaks (which is not synonymous with Assange and important to keep in mind), it seems that there are several misconceptions about feminism. Feminists all over the place are being painted out to belong to a certain club that by proxy have taken a position against Assange and have accused him of committing the sex crimes that he is accused for. It is essential to separate between accusing Assange and simply pointing out that serious accusations should be taken seriously, which is what feminists have been doing. There is a lot of confusion over rape laws, consent and such things, and I have myself been guilty of assuming certain things about rape and the legislation surrounding it. What is important to note is that there is no such thing as "Sex by Surprise", it is an inappropriate euphemism that seems to have been (mis)communicated to Assange's attorney.

The entire circus upsets me, because it seems that feminists everywhere are getting the blame for Assange being accused of these crimes. It is as if people think our alleged man-hating, left-wing agenda is the perfect weapon for bringing down this popular man. It is also funny how this is alleged to have been in co operation with CIA as a joint international feminist/CIA/US-and-its-supporting-regimes crack down on Wikileaks, as Joan Smith at the Independent points out. Feminism usually is not associated with neo-imperialism, neo-liberalism or any such thing apart from being its opponent. That feminism and these ideologies now would co operate to bring down Wikileaks is quite far-fetched to say the least. That is not saying that one feminist could not have CIA ties, but it is probably not due to her feminist views that she would, then, co operate with CIA.

I expect a huge backlash against rape survivors, feminists and also women all over the world when this case is over. The statistics speak against Assange being sentenced to anything - Sweden has appallingly low conviction rates for sex crimes. I fear that once this is over those of us who spoke up against trivialising sex crime charges and smear campaigns are going to get this thrown in our faces in some sort of "I told you that a lot of women falsely accuses men for rape, just for revenge of some sorts." I also fear that this will lead to rape myths being reinforced in society and that it will belittle people taking women or men accusing someone of a sex crime. This is a plea not to let this happen. Any case should be considered in court on its own merits, and that is where the final verdict should come from.

Self-identifying as a feminist does not rob me, nor anyone else, of the capability to rational thought, nor does it make us by default 'radical' or 'militant.' Feminism is a broad approach that includes people from all over the political spectrum, although perhaps over-represented by people with certain political leanings. Point being, we are all individuals whose view-points and arguments deserve to be considered with the same respect and regard as anyone else's.

What we do have in common is an advocacy for women's rights. This does not, by proxy, make us man-haters or in any sense make us think that men's rights in the area where they are discriminated are just as important. Neither does it make us think that there should not be people advocating these rights as well. In fact, some feminists do, and some chose to focus solely on women's questions, some include sexualities, some have other issues they also advocate. It is a broad concept, and generalisations about what all feminists think about an issue based on one, or two, or some self-identifying feminists will often be wrong.

See this as a plea not to trivialise sex crime accusations both in this particular case with Assange, but also after this case is over. And please, do not drag an entire theory into this smear campaign, because that is simply not justified.


22 comments:

  1. Linnea

    in many of the discussions below, you brush aside any arguments against the actions of the swedish prosecution by saying: that is up to the courts to decide, they have evidence and if they arrested him, they must have evidence.

    are you therfore suggesting, that actions of swedish prosecutors are somehow beyond criticism? why is it not ok, to look at the available information and come to the conclusion, that the actions of the prosecutors were wrong?

    thats the point of any discussion on the internet. i guess you critize mr. bushes decision to invade iraq. even though he might have had information that you and i dont have. so wheres the difference?

    and the public info is, that these women voluntarily had sex with assange, that no force was used, that after the alleged rape took place hey were friendly with him, that they bragged about their relationship and that after they ey went to police and accused him.

    why is it wrong to critize the decision of swedish prosecutor to charge and arrest a man under these circumstances?found aout, that he was also sleeping with other women, th

    ReplyDelete
  2. Linnea

    in many of the discussions below, you brush aside any arguments against the actions of the swedish prosecution by saying: that is up to the courts to decide, they have evidence and if they arrested him, they must have evidence.

    are you therfore suggesting, that actions of swedish prosecutors are somehow beyond criticism? why is it not ok, to look at the available information and come to the conclusion, that the actions of the prosecutors were wrong?

    thats the point of any discussion on the internet. i guess you critize mr. bushes decision to invade iraq. even though he might have had information that you and i dont have. so wheres the difference?

    and the public info is, that these women voluntarily had sex with assange, that no force was used, that after the alleged rape took place hey were friendly with him, that they bragged about their relationship and that after they found out, that he was also sleeping with other women, they went to police and accused him.

    why is it wrong to critize the decision of swedish prosecutor to charge and arrest a man under these circumstances?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you for your comment!

    No, I am not at all saying that actions of Swedish prosecutors cannot be criticised. It is fully possible that this is a case of very weak accusations and that this particular prosecutor seized the opportunity to deal with a high-profile case in order to further her wishes on a change of legislation.

    The only problem with the available information seems to be that we don't have it all, and therefore it is very hard to make judgements about it. Media are reporting things from all over the place, I mean, an Australian news paper reported that it was illegal to have consensual sex without a condom in Sweden. Come on, how would we procreate? Whispers are feeding rumours are feeding conspiracy theories. What seems to me to be such a shame is that these serious accusations are being trivialised because people believe that Wikileaks can't do something wrong and therefore the person Julian Assange cannot either. It upsets me that feminism is being pointed out as being part of this great conspiracy of the 'feminist Swedish state' trying to bring Wikileaks down (even though it is not Wikileaks who is being accused here) and that feminists from all over the place trying to point out why there is a problem with trivialising rape and feeding into rape myths are seen as automatic anti-Assange/Wikileaks people who are then automatically a part of this conspiracy.

    All I'm saying is that public info is not always correct, and that is the one thing Wikileaks has shown us. Therefore we should be careful in what we say and how we say it, especially if it feeds into rape myths, which seems, unfortunately, to be the case. If there could be a discussion about the accusations without the whole "but she said this afterwards, and she tweeted that, and she wore a pink shirt and lingered afterwards so obviously she can't have been sexually assaulted," then I would be fine with it. A discussion without these assumptions is not taking place.

    The Swedish prosecutor, seems to me, not to have been criticised on legal grounds (more than that people think Swedish sex crime legislation is ridiculous), but on a personal ground. She is a feminist, she is for stricter legislation on sex crimes, so therefore she must be wrong. Also, it is not mainly the prosecutor who is being criticised here, it is the women. And once again, it is their behaviour and personalities which are brought into question, and that is completely irrelevant. Anyone can be sexually assaulted.

    ReplyDelete
  4. That there is imperfect information - granted. But then we are not a court, we are just discussing. based on the information that is available.

    and please: of course you can be a rape-victim, even though you are a feminist, even though you wore a pink sweater etc. nobody suggests otherwise.

    but w/o proof, circumstances matter. if he had stalked her, if after the incident she had looked distressed, if he had a history of violent behaviour, if he had written an article about how to rape a woman without getting caught...none of that would ensure that rape had occured, but it would make it look more probable. unfortunately, the opposite is the case.

    no person should be arrested just because of an unproven accusation. for no other crime would a person be arrested on such light, or non existing, evidence. (if i today go to the police and tell them, that you have stolen 1 mio from me, do you think police would arrest you? they would laugh and send me home, if i dont have any supporting evidence and rightfully so!)then why was he arrested? here it becomes political: there seem to be two theories:

    1. a us-cia conspiracy

    2. a bias by swedish prosecutors towards woman, which is based on feminism (i.e. an accusation by a woman is always true and men are all born-rapers anyway)

    i tend to believe in the second theory. it fits better to the personality and history of the prosecutor (from what i have read in the newspapers)

    ReplyDelete
  5. one more comment: what i reall dont understan is the following: the "victims" said that no violence or coercion was used (at least at the beginning) and still the prosecution was talking about rape? hows that possible (here it seems people are starting to questions swedens laws...)

    and now the main alegations seems to be that he had sex while she was sleeping. i mean im a grown up man, and i have seen some things in the bedroom. but how absurd is this? wouldnt she wake up at some moment and wouldnt she then either say stop or go along with it?

    ReplyDelete
  6. ah and bye the way...actually you mentioned another very likely reason for the actions of the prosecutor. maybe she is simple an ambitous person, trying to boost her career with a high profile case. now that really would have nothing to do with feminism, just human nature (which applies to men and women it seems)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Actually, I disagree with you. The way that media and internet discussions make it out to be is that it is highly unlikely these women were based, and it is always involving their personalities and behaviour. I suppose we have just read the media differently. I don't think you are suggesting it, but certain media are definitely implying it - they're using that information as a way of showing that they aren't reliable or that the sex was definitely consensual all the way through. They might not be reliable, and the sex might have been consensual all the way through, but no actions and no behaviour will show either way.

    See, this is what I mean with feeding into rape myths. There is no particular way that all sexual assault survivors behave during and after being subjected to the assault. Everyone being sexually assaulted are individuals, and can therefore not be expected to react/behave in a certain way. See this bit here, it has a lot of facts on rape which can be applied to certain other sex crimes as well, and it reveals its sources too, so if you want to have a closer look, that is possible.

    Actually, the Swedish judicial system has an appallingly low conviction rate for sexual crimes, and you would think that if the courts had a female bias, the statistics would look different. Also, if you would have looked at the discussion going on in Sweden at the moment it is unfortunately not more considering than the one going on in the rest of the world. There is still a lot of victim-blaming and criticism against the prosecutor. I'm not entirely clear on what you meant, though. Did you mean that in general Swedish prosecutors are biased towards women, or did you mean that this particular one is biased towards women?
    Because the first one I'd disagree with, the second I'd probably agree with you on. I don't know too much about this particular prosecutor apart from that she wants a tighter sex crime legislation, which I would think would make her more eager to prosecute to begin with. I'm not so sure that she would prosecute on no grounds at all though, because in that case it would be hard for her to keep her job. Also, the level of the future charges is not the weakest one, it's the medium one, indicating that she believes it possible that she will win the case, because she has evidence.

    In either case I stand by my view that serious accusations should be respected. One can choose not to believe they are true, but one should still not feed into rape myths and victim-blaming. (Not saying you are, but there is a lot of that going on around.)

    ReplyDelete
  8. About the sleep sex. That he 'entered' her in the first place while she was unconscious is enough for rape. There was no consent. But, I was also told by someone with legal knowledge that the level of consent matters, and this has to be determined. So I suppose that is what will be determined in court.

    ReplyDelete
  9. "Actually, the Swedish judicial system has an appallingly low conviction rate for sexual crimes, and you would think that if the courts had a female bias, the statistics would look different."

    So what are you implying ? That the courts are unbiased or biased against women ? Has there been a comparison between conviction rates of female rape and male rape(I know the vast majority of rape victims are women) ? Or are you saying that a) they almost never find the guy or b) most rapes are underreported (whch a lot of them are) ?

    Off on another matter, I guess as a social scientist it would be interesting to see differences between cultures; the link you provided is from the USA, so would the facts be relevant in Sweden ? Also, it would be interesting to study incidence of rape and how it correlates with social inequality (e.g. simialr to Richard Layard's and Kate Picket's "The Spirit Level" looking at health inequalities).

    Just some late night musings....

    ReplyDelete
  10. KJ,

    I'm not making any judgement whatsoever here, I am simply pointing out that it is unlikely the courts are biased against females when the conviction rates are really low. I believe it is a bit more complex than preferring males/females and I don't think the courts as a group has a bias; individuals, perhaps, we are all subjects to human flaws. Most rapes are underreported, but a lot are also dismissed because of lack of evidence or because the survivor chooses to drop the charges. There are a lot of factors playing in to this, and the conclusions (Google BRÅ and you can sort through them) are that it is not necessarily because a sexual crime hasn't been committed. It is often due to social pressures, because the majority of victims of sexual assault are targeted by acquaintances. With 'lack of evidence' it is often because rape is extremely hard to prove rather than the crime never taking place.

    Rape myths are prevalent in any country. You've read my blog post about the rhetoric around rape in South Africa feeding into rape myths. I have also looked through published Swedish theses on the matter, and they generally say really similar things.
    As for the statistics, I have looked through both US and Swedish sources and they are really similar. Sweden has a lower conviction rate because of the broader definition for sex crimes, but the rate of acquaintance rape (~75%), assumed false accusations (~2%), the estimated ratio of crimes committed vs. crimes reported (16% US/ 15% Sweden) etc. are about the same. Once again, I'm going to have to refer you to BRÅ, they have plenty of statistics on the matter, and quite a few summaries of it in English, but unfortunately no longer reports in full. I use the link to the US statistics because it's in English and easily accessible for everyone.

    Yes, rape and social inequality would indeed be interesting. I'm certain there's plenty of material on it. When I skimmed through rape myths I noticed that social class has no bearing on how likely it is one will buy into the myths. Generally what is said is that there is no such thing as a 'typical sex offender' other than that they have tendencies to express frustration and emotions through violence and aggression (not necessarily beating someone up, or anything concrete like that, though).

    ReplyDelete
  11. "That he 'entered' her in the first place while she was unconscious is enough for rape."

    No.
    Period. Full stop.
    *N*O*

    Got it now? Finally?

    This is sex without without consent and yes, it is a crime under Swedish Criminal Law (and a lot of other criminal codes abroad). It is not rape.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Apologies, Alexa. I must have misunderstood Konstantin's explanation. I thought it was rape if the level of unconsciousness was deemed high enough, which is what I tried to explain. Obviously I misunderstood. Thanks for clearing it up!

    ReplyDelete
  13. When I googled "BRA" all I got was women's underwear links and the "British Refrigerator Association".

    I tried googling statistics and found this site: http://www.prevailinc.com/media-center-statistics.php

    It says:

    "Stats from the National Institute of Justice and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveal that approximately 15% of women are raped at some point in their lives. Of these victims, approximately 85% do not report the crime to police."

    Interestingly, it also says:

    "The risk of rape is 4 times higher form women aged 16-24 than for any other age group"

    * though, it did not have a breakdown.

    The question arises why this age group is at the greatest risk ? Possibly because they are at their peak of their sexual attractiveness ?

    Though, I would like to get better statistics from a more reliable source, before formulating any theories.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Another one that didn't "stick"


    KJ has left a new comment on your post "A Note on Feminism":

    When I googled "BRA" all I got was women's underwear links and the "British Refrigerator Association".

    I tried googling statistics and found this site: http://www.prevailinc.com/media-center-statistics.php

    It says:

    "Stats from the National Institute of Justice and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveal that approximately 15% of women are raped at some point in their lives. Of these victims, approximately 85% do not report the crime to police."

    Interestingly, it also says:

    "The risk of rape is 4 times higher form women aged 16-24 than for any other age group"

    * though, it did not have a breakdown.

    The question arises why this age group is at the greatest risk ? Possibly because they are at their peak of their sexual attractiveness ?

    Though, I would like to get better statistics from a more reliable source, before formulating any theories.

    Reply

    Yes, googling BRA will probably take you to something completely different than BRÅ. Here's a link to BRÅ's official page on sex crimes and it has some links to publications, but there are plenty more out there, so I would recommend doing a page search for "sexualbrott."

    BRÅ has also come to the same conclusions; younger people are more likely to be raped. But interestingly they have also noted that courts tend to be harder and more likely to sentence perpetrators when there is an underaged/young person involved. The theory is that the view is that sex crimes targeted at young people need to be considered especially seriously because the targets are so young. I think this was in the 2008 report on sex crimes, which you can find through doing the page search. I'm not entirely sure, however, as I've viewed quite a lot of them. Anyhow, perhaps part of the reason why these people are over-represented in the statistics could be because their cases are less likely to be dismissed. I'm not saying it's the entire, or even a major reason, but it is an interesting thought to keep in mind.

    Go nuts! It's an interesting reading. If you want to take a look at other countries as well, they probably have similar state organisations who deal with these kinds of statistics, and I'm sure they're quite easily accessible.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Alexa is wrong, you were right, to have sex with a sleeping person in Sweden is "våldtäkt", which translates to rape, see http://www.notisum.se/rnp/sls/lag/19620700.htm Chapter 6, article 1, paragraph 2

    ReplyDelete
  16. "What seems to me to be such a shame is that these serious accusations are being trivialised because people believe that Wikileaks can't do something wrong and therefore the person Julian Assange cannot either."

    Personally, after reading the comments on this case on a few websites, I don't think people are assuming that Julian Assange is a saint, and the vast majority are sympathetic to rape victims, and abhor rape. It is just that the information that is out there points to a confusing story with the accusers' (note I do not say victims) behavior being seen as highly suspicious (e.g. giving an interview to a tabloid, going to the police together, Assange's name being leaked when the story first broke in August, etc). And it does not help that the Swedish prosecutor and the women's famous lawyer seem totally unprepared for the kind of media speculation given the current dramatic times we live in currently. And have, in the process, shown themselves to be quite naive.

    Plus, let's face it, with politicians calling for Assange's blood, head and assassination, are you truly surprised that the conspiracy theories have gone on an overdrive? If Wikileaks had just spilled the beans on a non-superpower when these accusations came to the fore, there would not be this sort of hysteria.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Hmm, Ulf, it used to be chapter 6 section 3 sentence 2 (and there, not rape). Let me compare my version with yours. Your citation would indicate that a recent change in the law's systematics has augmented the _punishment_ for a sexual exploitation that was and is not rape ("Detsamma gäller den..." means application of analogous punishment, not altered an defition of the offence itself).
    Same as in English: "a thief who does [bla bla] shall be punished such _as a_ robber."

    ReplyDelete
  18. *Sigh* You are right; that re-positioning and augmentation of punishment was effected through Ändring 2005:90. Promulgated in March 2005, here:
    http://www.notisum.se/rnp/sls/sfs/20050090.pdf

    Thanks for tackling me! ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  19. Last stone to the mosaic: so, you may ask, how does the present version of the Criminal Code *call* or *denote* such an offence? No, _NOT_ as rape ("våldtäkt"), but as "otillbörligt utnyttja". Which is "improper or illicit exploitation (or, if you will, abuse - but that would be a pleonasm in English)".

    ReplyDelete
  20. Alexa, Ulf Erlingsson, thanks for clearing that up once and for all! It's quite easy to see how us non-legal people can become quite confused when people with legal training can too!

    Alexa, what offence are you talking about? Having sex with someone who is sleeping? That will be "otillbörigt utnyttja"? Or is it just otillbörligt utnyttja up to a certain degree of consciousness and then it becomes rape? Sorry, I just want this last piece of the puzzle cleared up so I don't end up giving out the wrong information again ;)

    Cherie,
    Yes, there certainly are people out there who sympathise with rape survivors, and, yes, I think the vast majority are, but the problem is that a lot of them don't seem to think that it can be sexual assault or anything wrong in it at all when there is no clear sign of violence or force and so they start regurgitating rape myths.

    There is a lot of information still wanting, and I think this is what makes people draw conclusions on the information available. Unfortunately most of these are rumours or media reports that are often just blatantly wrong (like the Australian news paper that claimed it was a crime in Sweden to have sex without condoms, or the "sex by surprise" rumour, which is still circulating).

    I'm not surprised there are conspiracy theories galore, but I do think that it is important to step back and not muddle this situation even more. The more people who make assumptions or try to look at tiny hints within rumours or what little facts there are, the crazier it's going to become and at the end of the day, it's not going to help Assange or the women accusing him of these crimes. All it's doing is just polarising people and dragging even more people in to it. It's sad.

    ReplyDelete
  21. About the issue of false polarisations... A. A. (the woman who had brought forth the first charges against Assange) has commented quite astutely in her own tweet:
    "CIA-agent, rabiat feminist/muslimälskare, kristen fundamentalist, flata & dödligt förälskad i en man, kan man ens vara allt det samtidigt?
    5:07 AM Dec 8th via web "

    ReplyDelete
  22. Alexa, yes, she makes a good point. It is all somewhat contradictory and ridiculous. Thanks for bringing it to our attention!

    ReplyDelete