Today Jian Ghomeshi dropped his bogus $55 million law suit against the CBC. Suit dropped with cost. Meaning that Ghomeshi has dropped the suit, and is now required to pay the CBC’s legal fees, totaling $18,000.
How fitting that this suit has been dropped on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.
Now to wait for Ghomeshi’s day in court, as at least 3 women have filed complaints with the police.
On Tuesday November 18th, the National Post published a story on their website about Andrew Bettencourt, an Ottawa man who abducted his 18-year-old ex-girlfriend at knife point, raped her twice, and was finally arrested 6 hours later. You can read the story here.
One of the things that jumped out at me about how the National Post decided to represent this story was that they do not, at any time, refer to her being sexually assaulted. Instead, they chose to report that the two “had sex”.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is what rape culture looks like. Last I checked, a person cannot give consent at knife-point. So then why is the National Post printing that the two “had sex”?
Shame on you, National Post.
Today I was reading an article posted on the CBC about a vulgar joke hurled at a Montreal reporter. Of course, the usual sorts of comments followed, like, “printing this only takes away from real victims”, “can’t you take a joke”, and “stop giving them attention, and they’ll go away”.
The fact that so many people seem to think that street harassment is just a joke, and that those subjected to it aren’t real victims outlines exactly how normalized this kind of behaviour is. As a culture, we feel as though we can derail and silence people, mostly women, who have been groped, or harassed in public spaces. I find it disturbing how many people are willing to wave off discussions of street harassment and assault in the same week that a young woman was sexually assaulted and left for dead in Winnipeg, and another woman was sexually assaulted a short time later.
Let me spell it out for you: street harassment isn’t flattering, It isn’t a joke, and it isn’t something we can ignore until it goes away. It’s a symptom of a much larger problem, and talking about it in our communities is just one of the steps we need to take in order to make those same communities safer for half the population. Street harassment is about power, entitlement, and dehumanization. If you don’t believe me, then let me ask you this: If street harassment is just about flattery, then why do those who engage in it become abusive when a victim tells them to stop? Why are victims followed, and stalked? If it’s just about complements, then why are the comments made sexually explicit?
If you can listen to the stories, and see the stats on street harassment, then how could you possibly say that there are no “real victims”? Our culture needs to collectively get our heads out of our asses.
SHES TOO LOUD 