"MRA" organization tries to co-opt white ribbon campaign

White Ribbon is a worldwide campaign that engages men and boys to "end violence against women and girls, promote gender equity, healthy relationships and a new vision of masculinity." They were a partner in the Canadian "Draw The Line" campaign against sexual violence and predates the #heforshe campaign in making women's concerns a "men's issue."

This mandate has apparently upset another group of men. A Voice For Men, a group that claims to advocate for men in a "gynocentric" society, publishes articles with titles like "Domestic violence and rape are not gendered issues" and "Ten reasons false rape accusations are common." They basically try to negate all feminist claims of misogyny in culture by saying "but it happens to men, too!" and completely ignoring the lopsided statistics. 

Generally ignored as a fringe movement, AVFM has come up with a new way to get attention. They have created a "copycat" White Ribbons site, hoping to cause online confusion and get their message in front of people searching for the other campaign:

The founder at AVFM writes:

A simple Google search will return many, many references to that campaign and to websites that have been set up to further its message. That message, of course, is that men can stop domestic violence, that they bear the weight of all evil on their backs, and that they need to create a safe world for women, blah, blah, blah.

Obviously, the people getting the job done on behalf of WRC really outdid themselves on planning and marketing. 

Well, there was one goof. They neglected to pick up the obvious choices for domains for their program, especially given they are aiming for growth.

He suggests that AVFM members work together to boost the copycat site's SEO to the point at which they become "the most highly recognized and iconic voice in the worldwide White Ribbon Campaign."

Todd Minerson, Executive Director of White Ribbon Canada, responded:

Today, White Ribbon (www.whiteribbon.ca ) became aware that a “so-called” men’s rights group has launched a copycat campaign articulating their archaic views and denials about the realities of gender-based violence. 

Their vile sentiments – which include disparaging comments about women’s shelters and victim blaming survivors of rape – are completely incongruent with our values at White Ribbon. 

Their misguided attempts to discredit others only make clear the extent to which they see the success of our equality-driven, evidence-based, ally-focussed work on gender justice as a real threat to their ill-informed, isolated views on this issue. This latest example is clear evidence of their insincerity and lack of commitment to developing compassionate solutions for the issues they claim to care about. It also showcases their real focus: attacking, harassing and directing anger towards others. 

White Ribbon will continue to stand beside the thousands of women’s organizations around the world who see feminism as an all-encompassing effort to realize equality.
We will continue to support the efforts of men and boys in over 70 countries around the world who wear the White Ribbon as a pledge to never commit, condone, or remain silent about violence against women and girls. 

We will remain committed to the advancement of gender equality, and the dismantling of patriarchy, which is the real cause of so much pain for women and men around the world. 

Allies and supporters: do not to be fooled by this copycat campaign. We are exploring all of our options, but we will not be engaging with this group in a public screaming match. They can remain a shrill minority. We will continue to engage with the vast majority of men who believe in gender justice, and want to be part of the solution. And we will do it with the same determination, conviction and passion we have shown for the past 20 years. We appreciate all the support and kind words we have heard from women and men across the globe. Please know that goes a long way, and that we will carry on with our effort to make the world a better, safer, more equitable place for all women and girls, men and boys. 

Until the violence stops,

Todd Minerson

It will be interesting to see if the organization launches a trademark case against AVFM. But for the moment, the real White Ribbon campaign still comes out on top:

8-year-old NHS PSA causes fresh outrage over victim blaming

Via Daily Mail

Patrick, a reader, made me aware of the latest example of an anti-binge-drinking ad that ends up promoting the culture of blaming victims of rape.

In this case, it's the UK government's National Health Service that is causing outrage.

The Drum reports that the poster actually dates back to 2006,  part of the "Know Your Limits" campaign, but it is still available as part of an online toolkit and posted in some health facilities.

A Change.org petition, launched recently, states:

Two honourable intentions -- to stop people drinking, and to stop rape happening - are being completely deformed. Of course we don't want people to drink so much they make themselves ill, but threatening them with rape by implication is not the way to do it. Of course we don't want anyone to endure sexual assault and rape, but making them feel like it's their fault if they do, is so far out of order. 

It is not consistent with the NHS' own guidelines on 'Help after rape and sexual assault' in which they say 'If you have been sexually assaulted, remember that it wasn’t your fault. It doesn’t matter what you were wearing, where you were or whether you had been drinking. A sexual assault is always the fault of the perpetrator.' This is a much more helpful approach, and we ask the NHS and the Home Office to destroy this poster in all formats. 

It currently has over 62,000 signatures.

There have been a number of prominent anti-alcohol campaigns in recent years that have hit these same triggers, including PSAs by MADD, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, CabWise and West Mercia Police.

The fact that the NHS campaign is an older one shows how far we've come in understanding the cultural issues around rape in just a few years, but it is also a reminder to keep your PSA libraries up-to-date.

Comedy Central is really into animals, objects, raping people

What?

WHAT?!?

WTF?!?!?

Apparently, anal rape is funny "in the right place."

This campaign is by Grey, Argentina, and features on Ads Of The World.

Apparently, fat people are also funny:

Or maybe it's rape again. I have no idea.

Edmonton radio station asks if rape victims "share any blame"

Wait, what? 630 CHED is an Edmonton talk radio station. Today's online poll asks, "It's very controversial but do you think victims of sexual assaults share any blame for what happens?"

Here are the results, as of 1:00 EDT:

I don't know what's worse, the fact that they asked this loaded question or that a third of their respondents want to blame women for being raped.

The station's previous polls run from the trivial ("Will you be celebrating world dog day?")  to impossibly oversimplified takes on big issues ("How would you resolve the problem in Syria?"). However, I failed to see anything else to suggest that victims of violent crime are partially responsible for being attacked.

Here are some suggestions for upcoming polls:

"Do the victims of a home invasion share any of the blame for living in a nice house?" 

"Does the mugging victim share some of the blame for talking on an iPhone in public?" 

"Did the victim of bullying bring it on himself by not fitting in?" 

"Should that fatal hit-and-run victim known better than to walk on the sidewalk after last call?"

Thanks to @TrinaMLee (via @LadySnarksalot) for the "twip":

.@630CHED Rape was an issue long before nightclubs, back alleys and miniskirts existed. Nobody ever deserves it. Your poll is disgusting.
— Trina M. Lee (@TrinaMLee) April 10, 2014

What ISN'T wrong with this violence against women awareness campaign?

Via Ads of The World

This is a real shame, in every sense of the word. I quite liked last year's "You Are Not a Sketch" campaign for this client, Star Models of Brazil, by an agency called Revolution.

But this one? Not. At. All.

Via Ads of The World

Let's ignore the fact that it wasn't translated well into English. (Interestingly, the same campaign on Coloribus gives a different version: "It was the cleavage" and "It was the behaviour") I can't seem to find any Portuguese versions, which leads me to suspect that the agency, Revolution Brasil, created them specifically for international Web sharing.

But these are only shareworthy for how misguided they are. The assumption, that the woman in the middle of each ad is the type of person the viewer would assume was "asking for" sexual violence, and the two on the sides are not, is trying to push a point that no victim is to blame. But in doing so, it uncovers the agency team's prejudice against certain women and in doing so simply reinforces the idea that religious people, mothers, and soldiers are "better" than women who dress "slutty" or dare to have tattoos and pink hair. (WTF is that anyway? An indication that she's rebellious?)

This is not the way to address serious problems, which are commonly known in the present dialogue as "slut shaming" and "victim blaming".  You may be sick of those words, but they represent concepts that clearly are not getting through to everyone. Especially in the ad industry.

Are rape jokes funnier when they're about men in prison?

Via Ads of The World

No. They are not.

Can this 1974 "Raped by Mick Jagger" ad be real?

It has to be a hoax. I truly hope so, anyway.

I just saw this posted in the Facebook group "1960's and 1970's Advertisements". From there I tracked it back to a post from last June in Anorak. The oldest post I found was on Flickr from 2008.

Does anyone have provenance on this? Claimed to be from a 1974 "rock magazine," it parodies a long-running campaign for Maidenform begun by the William Weintrob Advertising Agency in New York:

Via Blogspot

So, if you combine 1970s political incorrectness, the bad-boy image of the rock press, a cheap shot at consumerism, and a wink at the contemporary rumours about a Bowie-Jagger affair, would you end up with such an ad?

If you have any information about this, please comment below.

2013: The Year of The Bystander

Via North Dakota Council on Abused Women's Services

We're hearing the term more and more, and especially in context of rape and sexual harassment.

Via Osocio

"Bystander" is the target audience for an increasing number of social marketing campaigns that attempt to change people's sense of responsibility for friends, neighbours, and even strangers.

I've been working on bystander-focussed campaigns for years, on topics such as elder abuse,  drunk driving and rider harassment on public transit. But I think this year is going to be all about what bystanders can do to stop sexual assault.

It shouldn't be any surprise. In several recent (and very disturbing) high-profile sexual abuse cases, bystanders acceptance and participation made otherwise ordinary people complicit in horrible crimes.

In Steubenville, Ohio, a young woman was sexually abused by members of a celebrated local high school football team. Classmates documented, shared, and joked about the incident. They even threatened the victim for daring to seek justice.

In Coal Harbour, Nova Scotia, another young woman was photographed having public sex while too drunk to consent (otherwise known as rape). The picture and the story were spread around the small town, and she was targeted on social media. Rehtaeh Parsons killed herself.

In Port Coquitlam, B.C., yet another young woman moved to a new school to try to escape the infamy of a topless picture she had shared with a stranger when she was in Grade 7. Schoolmates harassed her constantly about that, her depression, and a failed suicide attempt. After making a video cry for help that went viral, Amanda Todd also killed herself.

In Pitt Meadows, B.C., a young woman was gang-raped in the middle of a rave. Partygoers not only failed to intervene, they took photos and videos with their smartphones to share online.

Heard enough? One more.

In Saratoga, California, a young woman passed out at a party. She woke up to find she had been raped by up to three classmates, who had bragged of their assault by writing on her body with a Sharpie and taking and sharing pictures of the rape. Audrie Pott killed herself.

There are more. What they have in common is that these are not the actions of some individual predator acting in secret. They are a product of a culture in which rape is acceptable, under certain circumstances, and one person's humiliation is everyone else's entertainment.

It occurs to me that what's missing is empathy. Bystander empathy. But how do we increase that?

There is a role for social marketing here. And it's not just telling people not to "cyberbully" peers at risk. Instead, the greater social network needs to be connected more meaningfully to the lives and feelings of others. While the Internet is really great at turning people into harassers and trolls, it can also broaden their circle of empathy if they let it.

Via Osocio

A good example of this is the Draw The Line campaign, which I recently profiled on Osocio. It treats rape culture as a spectrum, starting with the apathetic acceptance of "distant" cases of assault and sexism in the media, and working closer to the audience's innermost circle:

The message is simple: It is all part of the same problem, and you are responsible for stopping it.

This year, will you be a bystander who makes a difference? Or will you be an accomplice?

You can start by evaluating your online behaviour.

Author Geoff Livingston, in his marketing blog, puts it like this:

So what can bystanders do? Well, they have several different options to choose from: 

1. Observe but refrain from getting involved
2. Publicly support the attacker
3. Privately support the attacker
4. Publicly support the target or victim
5. Privately support the target or victim
6. Become participants that attempt to deescalate the situation 

The vast majority of bystanders decide not to participate, and the reasons for doing so can range from feeling they don’t care enough about the problem to speak up, thinking their individual voice won’t steer the situation in a different direction, or wanting to avoid the risk of becoming a target themselves if they lend their support to either side. 

Bystanders who decide to publicly support one side or the other carry the risk, as noted, that they’ll become possible targets of furious opponents. However, by taking a stand they also have the opportunity to publicly speak out against unfair or untruthful statements and behavior. The challenge is to do so in a fact-based, rational and persuasive way, without getting sucked into the blind emotional intensity frequently seen in online exchanges and without taking cheap shots at the other side or trying to incite others into an online frenzy.

Be nice out there.

Advertising rape culture in anti-rape campaigns

Victim-blaming. It's ugly, it's hurtful, and it's doing nothing to stop people from raping other people.

In the aftermath of the Steubenville rape trial, in which two teenage men were convicted of raping and humiliating an unconscious teenage woman, it's time we had another look at what these supposedly-helpful ads are saying. 

Using some of the post-verdict, victim-blaming Tweets compiled on Sociological Images, I've twinned the infamous ads with their real-life counterpart messages.

The ad above is from the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board. I wrote about it on Osocio, and it was all over the mainstream media. The ad was pulled from the campaign.

This one is from West Mercia police. When called on it by British feminists, they refused to apologize.

This one isn't even about drinking. It's a "safe taxi" campaign by Transport for London, and note that it has the Mayor and the police endorsing it.

To quote You Are Doing it Wrong: 

Christ. Did anyone pause for even a milli-second, and think, ‘Gee, maybe it’s NOT such a good idea to equate not booking a taxi with certain rape?’. Or did the advertising agency just convince Cabwise that it would provoke attention, and controversy?

Which brings us to my longtime prohibition-era nemesis, MADD:

MADD - Unbuttoned from Esparza Advertising on Vimeo.

Interestingly, when the message is being preached to men, the danger isn't being raped but rather having unwanted sex with somebody unattractive:

It's really bad, folks. People actually think that the only thing standing between a woman and her rape is how she controls herself. She must at all times be sober, fully covered, aloof and safely cloistered away from "bad people". Failure to observe any of these rules makes her responsible for anything violent that happens to her, because men — especially drunk men — have no control and will automatically seek to sexually violate her.

There is hope, however:

Sexual Assault Voices Edmonton, via Osocio.

Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland, via Osocio

Via Men Can Stop Rape

Teach your children well. 

Consent activists hijack the Victoria's Secret brand

Jezebel reports that a promotional e-mail is circulating, claiming that a new Victoria's Secret line "promotes consent to fight rape in new panties."

"Victoria's Secret is using its nationally-recognized image to lead the country in the next sexual revolution: CONSENT. PINK loves CONSENT is a new line of styles that reminds customers and their sexual partners to practice consent. You can join the "CONSENT REVOLUTION" at pinklovesconsent.com."

The campaign web site  even has a Victoria's Secret copyright claim.

But once you get into it, it's obvious that the whole thing is a critique of Victoria's Secret:

Limited Brands, which owns VS, has denied any involvement. (They're probably contacting their lawyers.)

It's a sendup on Pink Nation, complete with branding.

The group behind the hoax provide links to their campaign Facebook Page and Twitter, on which they are running a consumer lobbying campaign aimed at Victoria's Secret. (They also have non-VS-branded Pinterest and Instagram presence for their "consent panties".

Who is behind this? Feminist duo FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture have claimed credit.

Yesterday, young facebook users hi-jacked the social media outlets of Victoria’s Secret to promote something very different from panties and push-up bras. Within ten hours, over 50,000 people visited PinkLovesConsent.com, where they saw Victoria’s Secret’s image “promoting consent to fight rape.” 

The satirical website was launched at noon on Monday, December 3. According to the site, “PINK loves CONSENT is our newest collection of flirty, sexy and powerful statements that remind people to practice CONSENT. CONSENT is a verbal agreement about how and when people are comfortable having sex.” 

Through Victoria’s Secret’s social media, the concept of consent was cropping up in some unexpected places. The Victoria’s Secret facebook pages were flooded with “I heart consent” posts, excited campus reps were retweeting pinklovesconsent.com, and the “pink hearts” at pinknation.com were declaring their love for “open sex talk.” One employee tweeted, “I am so happy to currently have a job for a company that stands for something so beautiful!! @LoveConsent #victoriassecret #loveconsent”  Highschool students were tweeting “I’m loving the new @LoveConsent! Victoria’s secret goes feminist!” At the outset, 100 young facebook users were in one the prank. It just went viral from there.  

Here is what they hope to achieve:

Will Victoria’s Secret take a nod from the customer fan mail and change their styles? Fighting rape would be a major shift for the brand. Though they are a woman-focused company, VS has never taken a stand on any women’s issue. In fact, their current designs seem to lean more toward rape culture than consent. Their PINK brand, marketed at high school and college-aged women, sports thongs with the slogan “SURE THING” printed right over the crotch. Young women across the country are wearing underwear with “SURE THING” literally printed over their vaginas. We can think of one circumstance where a vagina is treated like a “SURE THING”: rape. 

So if Victoria’s Secret clearly would NEVER promote consent why use their brand for a consent campaign? The organizers say, “We could write a pamphlet about consent.  In fact, we have written and distributed pamphlets about consent.  But how many people are reading pamphlets about sexual practices and how many people are reading facebook post about Victoria’s Secret? Consent needs to become a mainstream idea. Condoms became a mainstream idea in response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Just like pausing to put on a condom prevents the spread of STDs, pausing to check in with you partner prevents unwanted sexual experiences. 

Social media is becoming a tool for social change. We have seen the role of social media in revolution in the Arab Spring, but change Victoria’s Secret? “Probably not,” says the organizers.  “We’re not about taking Victoria’s Secret down.  We are about changing the conversation. The sexiness that is being sold to women by Victoria’s Secret is not actually about sex. It is not how to have sex, relationships or orgasms. It in an IMAGE of what it is to be sexy. So while we are sold cleavage, white teeth, clear skin and perfect hair no one is asking us how our bodies feel and what we desire. Victoria’s Secret owns the image of female sexuality, instead of women owning their own sexuality.” 

As the project went viral, some saw right through the shenanigans. Many who knew it was a prank openly wished that it was real.  After a first incredulous look and some detective work, Jezebel blogger Katie J.M. Baker said, “If only Victoria’s Secret focused on empowering women rather than objectifying them!” Bloggers wrote about how the Pink Loves Consent project makes women look powerful and strong. Jezebel users commented on the “fiercely real” body types represented on the site. “Too bad they don’t use some models like her for their regular advertising. The girl’s gorgeous and it’s awesome to see a different body style once in awhile.” A frustrated Facebook user commented, “Damn, I wish these were real. I just got paid.”   And a savvy Victoria’s Secret customer tweeted, “So I guess the #loveconsent campaign isn’t actually affiliated with Victoria’s Secret but they SHOULD BE I WOULD BUY SO MUCH UNDERWEAR.” 

Why do so many women love something they know is not real? FORCE made something that people want, but that a company like Victoria’s Secret can never give them. Imagine how different our lives would be if we put as much time and thought into sharing ideas like consent as we do into selling underwear. 

FORCE apparently used to sell their consent panties on Etsy, but the store is currently empty.

A very effective way to get attention, if you ask me. I hope the PR turns into an attitude adjustment about sex and consent, if only for a few of the people who were hoaxed.

Caffeinated Aspirin — for prison rape?

The assumption that, in prison, men force other men into sex is a common one. One person I know who has actually done (light) time told me that it's something nobody dares joke about behind bars. In the world of popular culture, however, it's one rape joke that seems to persist in "polite" circles.

It's subtly implied, in this ad from Brazil's Almap BBDO, part of a campaign for Cafiaspirina, Bayer's caffeinated headache pill marketed in Latin America. But even without the underlying violent implication the homophobia still makes my head hurt.

See the whole campaign at The Drum.

"Sleeping Beauty" art installation is kinda creepy

Design Taxi reports that right now (Aug 22 - Sept 9, 2012), Ukrainian women are lying in a museum, pretending to be asleep, waiting for a male vistor brave enough to "wake them" with a kiss and marry them.

What?

Ukrainian-Canadian artist Taras Polataiko, with support from the Art Foundation of Alberta and the University of Lethbridge, created the installation to examine “The tension of the performance" in the "seductiveness and fear of the ultimate moment.”

This is no kissing booth. Before puckering up, the men must sign a contract, promising to marry the woman if she opens her eyes during the kiss. The women have previously agreed to the marriage as well— unless the keep their eyes closed.

There are many things here to be disturbed about, including the nature of male-female relations in the Ukraine (including bride trafficking), but I guess that what "art" does.

What I find particularly unsettling is the fact that the "kiss" in Sleeping Beauty was a bowdlerization by Charles Perrault, whose version is the basis for modern fairy tales. The "kiss" was originally an act of rape.

Here's a synopsis of the original 1634 story, Sole, Luna, e Talia, by Giambattista Basile:

After the birth of a great lord's daughter, Talia, wise men and astrologers cast the child's horoscope and told the lord that Talia would be later endangered by a splinter of flax. To protect his daughter, the father commands that no flax would ever be brought into his house. 

Years later, Talia sees an old woman spinning flax on a spindle. She asks the woman if she can stretch the flax herself, but as soon as she begins to spin, a splinter of flax goes under her fingernail, and she drops to the ground, apparently dead. Unable to stand the thought of burying his child, the lord puts Talia in one of his country estates. 

Some time later, a king, hunting in nearby woods, follows his falcon into the house. He finds Talia, tries unsuccessfully to wake her up, then has sex with her while she is unconscious. Afterwards, he leaves the girl on the bed and returns to his own city. 

Still deep in sleep, she gives birth to twins (a boy and a girl). One day, the boy cannot find his mother's breast; and instead he begins to suck on Talia's finger and draws the flax splinter out. Talia awakens immediately. She names them "Sun" and "Moon" and lives with them in the house. 

The king returns and finds Talia is awake – and a mother of twins. However, he is already married. He calls out the names of Talia, Sun and Moon in his sleep, and his wife, the queen, hears him. She forces the king's secretary to tell her everything, and then, using a forged message, has Talia's children brought to court. She orders the cook to kill the children and serve them to the king. But the cook hides them, and cooks two lambs instead. The queen taunts the king while he eats. 

Then the queen has Talia brought to court. She commands that a huge fire be lit in the courtyard, and that Talia be thrown into the flames. 

Talia asks to take off her fine garments first. The queen agrees. Talia undresses and utters screams of grief with each piece of clothing. The king hears Talia's screams. His wife tells him that Talia would be burned and that he had unknowingly eaten his own children. 

The king commands that his wife, his secretary, and the cook be thrown into the fire instead. The cook explains how he had saved Sun and Moon. The king and Talia marry; and the cook is rewarded with the title of royal chamberlain. 

The last line of the fairy tale – its moral – is as follows: "Lucky people, so 'tis said, He who has luck may go to bed, And bliss will rain upon his head."

The symbolic rape is still there, in this art installation, as far as I am concerned, with its dangerous game of sexual power struggle and marital stakes. But whether that potent message ends up enlightening people or taking them into the dark side is up for debate.

Bar ad promotes drunken date rape

Via larryvillechronicles (from 2010), this ad is based on the old joke that sweet alcoholic drinks are "liquid panty remover."

Hey, I used to use the term too, when I was younger. But as I aged, I realized that it replied something rather ominous.

From teenadvice.about.com:

Bottom line, if a girl is intoxicated she cannot consent to sex and you could be charged with rape. It does not matter whether you knew she was intoxicated, it doesn’t matter if you were intoxicated too, all that matters is that she was not in a state of mind to consent and therefore it is rape. If you get a girl drunk or high and then “get together” with her you have committed a sexual assault. Again, it doesn’t matter if you are drunk or high as well. Your diminished abilities do not negate your responsibilities. A good rule to follow; if you are under the influence do not have sex. 

Obviously, there are people who get drunk together and have happy consensual sex. Like, all the time. But the idea of getting a girl/woman drunk to lower her inhibitions, specifically to sexually coerce her?

Rape. "Legitimate" rape. Whatever Todd Akin says.

Male Assange supporter seeks female companion for protest

Looks totes legit, ladies! What could be more romantic than spending a night on the pavement with a man who shares your desire to protest those pesky sexual assault laws (or a conspiracy against Wikileaks — your pick).

Via Gawker

Sin tax on strip clubs to fund rape kits

Via Google Image Search

Here's one for you to think about: Houston's city council has passed a new tax on strip clubs within the city, adding a fee of $5 per patron to their cover charge.

The author of the ordinance, Councilwoman Ellen Cohen, put the motion forward as a way to subsidize the processing of the city's massive backlog of rape kits for sexual assault victims.

“We have to do something to help the 4,000-plus women, children and men who have been sexually assaulted,” said Councilwoman Cohen. “I think we’ve waited long enough.”

The victims certainly have waited too long for justice that has been delayed due to tight law enforcement budgets. But the tax also makes an official link between the above-ground sex industry and sexual assault, which is troubling for some (especially those who make money from it).

According to the Houston Chron:

A study Cohen relies upon to make the link states: “Are sexually-oriented-businesses, alcohol, and the victimization and perpetration of sexual violence against women connected? An exhaustive review of the literature says yes.” 

Several paragraphs later, though, the same study states: “However, no study has authoritatively linked alcohol, sexually-oriented-businesses, and the perpetration of sexual violence.”

Sin taxes are popular and profitable tools of social engineering when it comes to vices like cigarettes and alcohol. But whether you like them or not, do you think that consumers of legal sexual entertainment should be legally compelled to adjust their karma by paying to help sexual assault victims?


The Texas rape kit issue is a government funding issue. Last year, at the State level, Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, introduced a bill that would require a police department to submit a rape kit to a crime lab within at least 10 days, and complete the DNA analysis no later than 90 days after the sexual assault was reported. But it has since been stalled by police departments' inability and/or reluctance to do the inventories that would inform the legislators.

Councilman C.O. Bradford also called the nexus into question. He said that according to Houston Police Department, apartment complexes are the most common location for sexual assaults, and that sexually oriented businesses are 10th.

Still, said Bradford, a former police chief: “Victims have waited too long.”

Indeed they have. But is this what they were waiting for? Or did they want their government to pay to fix the problem?

Via Texas Tribune

Tip via Consumerist
Related: Houston Strip Club Accused Of Racism