TRIGGER WARNINGS
The ABC has a similar story, headlined “Sailors accused of public sex act: inquiry”.
First of all, let’s get something clear: I have no problem with kink. I also have no problem with public sex, providing it’s done in a place where all who might come across it are (1) warned and (2) have a chance to refuse to consent to watching / hearing / otherwise perceiving / observing the public sex.
I do, however, have a problem with rape.
I have a problem with a “predatory culture” with “drinking games and female officers being got drunk so they would be compliant”.
Where there is allegedly something called “The Ledger”, which allegedly “involved sailors plotting to have sex with as many female crew mates as possible.” With, allegedly, “dollar values being placed on each woman’s head, with larger amounts offered if the sailors could sleep with a female officer or a lesbian.” The article refers to the people allegedly involved in “The Ledger” as “sailors”. I assume they mean “male sailors” since, you know, male = default human, as we know (that’s sarcasm), and also because a higher value on a lesbian only makes sense if sleeping with her is more of a challenge – which only applies if you’re someone who, by definition, a lesbian wouldn’t sleep with by choice – ie a man.
Where “junior female sailors had been bullied or harrassed [sic] into having sex with their senior male colleagues” – or even where this is only rumoured (as is reported in the linked article). Where there has to be a standing order not to engage in “unwelcome sexual behaviour”. Colleagues not engaging in “unwelcome sexual behaviour” is something I always thought should come standard.
By the way, ABC and the SMH: being “bullied or harassed into having sex” is RAPE, and “unwelcome sexual behaviour” is anything from indecent assault to rape or sexual assault, potentially aggravated (especially if there are other people around). You know, serious illegal acts.
And ABC, where you have a list of things which are alleged to have occurred, shouldn’t your headline reflect the most serious of those things? Tell me, which is more serious: rape (sorry, “unwelcome sexual behaviour”) or public sex acts?
And SMH, a place where these things happen on a regular basis, as part of the culture is NOT FUCKING KINKY. It is a place with a rape culture.
And I have a problem with that.
I saw those headlines and the reports too, Jo. I suppose they may be constrained by the law in terms of what they can call it, but that word “kinky” is just plain wrong, no matter what.
See, I have a problem with the existence of that argument that “they can’t use the word rape because it might be defamatory/prejudicial/etc” (I know you’re not actually making the argument, just noting that it exists).
Compare it to murder. If they were talking about murder, they would talk about an “alleged killing” or an “alleged murder” or maybe an “alleged stabbing”. They wouldn’t talk about an “unwelcome fatal knife strike” (for example). Calling an alleged rape/sexual assault (depending on the jurisdiction) “unwelcome sex” is like calling an alleged murder an “unwelcome fatal knife strike”. In the same way that an “unwelcome fatal knife strike” is pretty much murder by definition (most of the time), “unwelcome sex” is rape/sexual assault by definition (all of the time). So using the words “alleged unwelcome sex”, they are making exactly the same allegation as if they used the words “alleged rape” or “alleged sexual assault” – and actually doing so more precisely, perhaps, than if the words “alleged murder” were used in relation to, say, a stabbing (which might be manslaughter, for example).
No, once you have the words “alleged unwelcome sex”, you’re making it clear you don’t want to spell out what, precisely, “unwelcome sex” is. They don’t want to use the nasty word. They don’t want to acknowledge that rape/sexual assault exists. That it happens between adults who know each other – colleagues who are supposed to be able to trust each other (and don’t forget: we’re always being told each other that it is more important in the armed forces than anywhere else to be able to trust your colleagues) – rather than being perpetrated by a stranger who jumped out of the bushes.
That refusal to acknowledge that “unwelcome sex” is rape is part of the rape culture – just as much as some of the other shit that’s alleged to have happened on the HMAS Success.
Errrrrrr – reading crap like this makes me glad I dropped out of journalism, but pissed off I didn’t stay and change things from the inside.
Oh berryblade, changing it from the inside is so very damn hard. I’ve been trying, and not really getting anywhere. Except that I’m the office spoilsport for saying things like ‘when we run this story about the topless photos of this underage Disney star, all we’re doing is telling people what to Google to see illegal photos’. The response is always ‘she’s a celebrity, she’s fair game’. And I think ‘sex attack’ (which you often see in headlines) is just awful. It reminds me of that St Pauls Facebook group saying ‘it’s not rape, it’s surprise sex’.
:( that sucks to hear. I’ll just have to write some scathing thesis for my womyn’s studies :P
I hate the term “fair game” – womyn aren’t fucking commodities. Gaaaah. What is wrong with the world.