My Role/Reboot piece this week revisits an old and troubling question: Why Some Activist Groups Tolerate Rapists .
Excerpt:
Obviously, sexual abuse is not just a phenomenon found on the left. It’s rampant in conservative churches, as we well know. But most secular progressives aren’t terribly surprised when organizations dedicated to upholding traditional sexist values condone or cover up the worst of sexist behavior. As a person of faith of course, I am appalled when religious texts I regard as sacred are distorted and deliberately misinterpreted to excuse or enable rape. And as a liberal, I am equally infuriated when women in supposedly progressive organizations are told that a climate of sexual harassment and abuse must be endured for the sake of some “greater good.”
Particularly among radicals, there remains an ugly tendency to see feminism as being a bourgeois white woman’s phenomenon. The insistence that women’s liberation is anti-revolutionary, or insignificant, or just so much liberal navel-gazing, allows rape culture to thrive in far too many radical political and ethnic organizations. And brave young women like Dinah get raped and tossed aside.
It is true that in 2012, women’s issues seem to have moved to the forefront of the national dialogue. At its convention in Charlotte, the Democratic Party did an excellent job of centering the fight for reproductive justice and equal pay. At the same time, even on the left, the relentless pressure to de-prioritize sexual liberation in favor of some other ideal remains. While feminism is not the only cause worth fighting for, the feminist principles of women’s equality, autonomy, and body integrity must be incorporated into every political and social movement.
Dinah’s experience sadly isn’t unique. I’ve been fortunate to be involved with a number of socially progressive events and have not had this happen (as far as I know, which as a male is an important point), but have spoken with too many female colleagues where it did.
I don’t understand the perspective of a man who is willing to lay down in front of tractors, be arrested, stay up all night developing proposals/letters, march for hours or days at a time for a cause they passionately believe in, yet cannot manage to stop themselves from causing specific, individual harm to another person. One who shares their views & passion, no less.
AND on top of that to expect to be protected by the group they have caused damage within.
It’s also discouraging to hear of the women (and men) who support this practice indirectly by not speaking out or encouraging the survivor to report.
I wonder if it’s related to how families, supposedly cohesive, contain older members that molest or abuse younger ones, while their spouses and other adults stand there like a bump on a log even when they know it’s going on.
It’s enough to make a hyena heave.
Thank you and everyone else who speaks out, from a survivor.