Today in Cis Privilege: America’s Campus Rape Policy: Boys Will Be Boys

Beyond the act of physical and sexual violence, post traumatic rape syndrome, as well as the refusal of many rape victims to report when they have been assaulted can be attributed to a prevailing rape culture on America’s college campuses. Rape culture is a term used to describe the way rape, sexual violence, and sexual abuse are linked to the culture of society. Essentially sexual violence and speech against women is normalized and excused in media and pop culture. Thus, male sexual aggression is in a number of ways encouraged and supported in society. Here, violence and sexuality are interchangeable. Violence is seen as sexy, and sexuality is seen as violent. Music fills the airwaves telling women that “I know you want it” and “I’ll BEAT the pussy up” and if you are familiar with soca music from the Caribbean, you may have heard the song “Kick In She Back Door”, which is literally about breaking into a woman’s home (and her body) through anal penetration if she refuses a man’s sexual advances.

This rape culture simply takes its cue from or is steeped in patriarchy; which is the general structure of privilege in society, where heterosexual men have more power and influence over other members of society.

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/24787-boys-will-be-boys-americas-campus-rape-policy

Today in Cis Privilege: Chinese Men Buying Brides From Vietnam Is Getting Out Of Control

When Kiab turned 16, her brother promised to take her to a party in a tourist town in northern Vietnam. Instead, he sold her to a Chinese family as a bride.

The ethnic Hmong teenager spent nearly a month in China until she was able to escape her new husband, seek help from local police and return to Vietnam.

“My brother is no longer a human being in my eyes — he sold his own sister to China,” Kiab, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, told AFP at a shelter for trafficking victims in the Vietnamese border town Lao Cai.

Vulnerable women in countries close to China — not only Vietnam but also North Korea, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar — are being forced into marriages in the land of the one-child policy, experts say.

China suffers from one of the worst gender imbalances in the world as families prefer male children.

As a result millions of men now cannot find Chinese brides — a key driver of trafficking, according to rights groups.

http://www.businessinsider.com/chinese-men-buying-brides-from-vietnam-is-getting-out-of-control-2014-6?utm_content=buffer94237&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Today in Cis Privilege: Systematic undercounting of sexual assaults in the US disguises a hidden rape crisis

Earlier this month, a 911 dispatcher in Ohio was recorded telling a 20-year-old woman who had just been raped to “quit crying.” After she provided a description of her assailant, the caller went on to say, “They’re not going to be able to find him with the information that you’ve given.” This incident had its viral moment, sparking outrage at the dispatcher’s lack of empathy. But it also speaks to the larger issue of how we are counting rapes in the United States. Sixty-nine percent of police departments surveyed in 2012 said that dispatchers like this one, often with little training, are authorized to do the initial coding of sexual assault crimes.

That’s important, because miscoding of such crimes is masking the high incidence of rape in the United States. We don’t have an overestimation of rape; we have a gross underestimation. A thorough analysis of federal data published earlier this year by Corey Rayburn Yung, associate professor at the University of Kansas School of Law, concludes that between 1995 and 2012, police departments across the country systematically undercounted and underreported sexual assaults.

Yung used murder rates—the statistic with the most reliable measure of accuracy and one that is historically highly correlated with the incidence of rape—as a baseline for his analysis. After nearly two years of work, he estimates conservatively that between 796,213 and 1,145,309 sexual assault cases never made it into national FBI counts during the studied period.

http://www.thenation.com/article/180441/how-did-fbi-miss-over-1-million-rapes

Today in Cis Privilege: Nigeria Officially Ended Its Kidnapping Investigation, More Than 200 Girls Are Still Missing

Nigeria wrapped up its inquiry into the abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls by militants on Friday with little progress to show, reporting almost none had been freed after the initial kidnapping some girls escaped from.

Submitting the final report, Brigadier General Ibrahim Sabo said 219 girls remained at large, a total virtually unchanged since Boko Haram militants stormed their secondary school in northeast Borno state on April 14 to kidnap them.

A total of 57 girls, almost all of whom escaped shortly after the abduction, have been reunited with their families, he added. The kidnapping of the teenage girls taking exams in Chibok village sparked global outrage for its sheer barbarity.

http://www.businessinsider.com/nigeria-ends-boko-haram-investigation-2014-6

Today in Cis Privilege: More than 60 women & girls abducted in Nigeria by Boko Haram militants

Suspected Boko Haram militants have abducted more than 60 women and young girls in restive northeast Nigeria, a local official and a vigilante leader said on Tuesday.

The group was kidnapped in the last week during a Boko Haram attack on Kummabza village in the Damboa district of Borno state, which left at least 30 dead, according to residents who escaped the violence.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/06/24/more-than-60-women-and-girls-abducted-in-nigeria-by-boko-haram-militants/

Today in Cis Privilege: Tufts University Kicked Out Student After She Was Raped

Wagatwe Wanjuki was sexually assaulted by another student while attending Tufts University. But instead of punishing her attacker, the school asked her to leave.

Wanjuki first came forward about her assault in 2009. In 2008, she says, she was repeatedly assaulted by a fellow student she was in a relationship with. When she tried to report him to the administration, Tufts responded by telling her that their legal counsel said they didn’t have to take action.

http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/06/campus_rape_tufts_university_kicked_out_student_after_assault.html

Today in Cis Privilege: Male claims that female rape victims have privilege, keeps his powerful job

Washington Post syndicated columnist George Will is standing by his recent article on sexual assault that sparked considerable backlash and led at least one prominent newspaper to drop his byline.

In an interview with C-SPAN that will air in full sometime in July, Will said he wouldn’t take back a word of his controversial column, and dismissed his critics as overreacting. “Today, for some reason, indignation is the default position of certain people,” Will said. “I think it has something to do with the internet.”

Will takes issue with the Obama Administration’s recent report on the scope of the campus rape crisis, which cites data from the Department of Justice to conclude that one in five college women are the victim of sexual assault. He claims that statistic is much too high and doesn’t line up with the other data about sexual assault reports.

Over the past week, experts who research violence against women have pointed out the flaws with Will’s interpretation of the data, which relies on a dubious analysis from the American Enterprise Institute — a right-wing group that has a long history of downplaying campus sexual assaults. Nonetheless, Will is defending his column as an important tool to educate people about the real data at the heart of the issue.

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/06/21/3451623/george-will-defends-column/

Today in Cis Privilege: Male who sexually assaulted & murdered teen lesbians was free for two years

Strickland is accused of sexually assaulting and shooting 19-year old Mollie Olgin and 18-year old Kristene Chapa in a public park June 23, 2012.

Nineteen-year-old Mollie Judith Olgin was found dead on the scene and 18-year-old Mary Christine Chapa was rushed to the hospital.

The two young women had been in a relationship for five months.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/06/21/u-s-marshals-arrest-suspect-in-2012-shooting-death-of-texas-teen-lesbian-couple/

Today in Cis Privilege: Three Suspects Arrested For Pimping And Trafficking 16-Year-Old Girl

Three Cotati residents were arrested Thursday on suspicion of pimping a 16-year-old girl in California, Arizona and Oregon over the past three months.

The investigation began on June 11 when the girl and her mother informed police about the alleged human trafficking, Cotati Police Chief Michael Parish said.

The girl said the suspects kept the money from the human trafficking and that she had sex multiple times with one of the suspects, 38-year-old Abdelaziz Jamal Thomas, Parish said.

http://news.kron4.com/news/three-suspects-arrested-for-pimping-and-trafficking-16-year-old-girl/

Today in Cis Privilege: Iranian child bride faces execution for killing the man she was forced to marry

Razieh Ebrahimi was forced to marry at the age of 14, became a mother at 15, and killed her husband at 17. Now at 21, she is on Iran’s death row.

Ebrahimi, who shot dead her hubsand while he was sleeping, faces imminent execution, despite international laws prohibiting execution for crimes committed by juveniles.

Human Rights Watch, has urged Iran’s judiciary to halt the execution. Earlier this week, Ebrahimi’s lawyer also asked judges to consider a retrial, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported.

“I married our neighbour’s son when I was only 14 because my dad insisted,” Ebrahimi was quoted as telling officials working on her case, according to Mehr. “My dad insisted I should marry him because he was educated and was working as a teacher. I was 15 when I gave birth to my child.” Her child is believed to be now six years old.

“I didn’t know who I am or what is life all about,” she said soon after being arrested. “My husband mistreated me. He used any excuse to insult me, even attacking me physically.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/06/19/iranian-child-bride-faces-execution-for-killing-the-man-she-was-forced-to-marry/