Here are some really obvious truths:
1. Making a decision to charge someone for a crime can be politically motivated. Do governments ever fucking take rape seriously enough, unless they are alleged to have been committed by a man governments the world over hate for exposing their lies and secrets? No.
2. Is rape a REALLY TERRIBLE CRIME THAT SHOULD BE TAKEN VERY SERIOUSLY and Julian Assange should be charged and tried and then if found guilty punished to the fullest extent of the law? Yes.
3. Is it possible for Julian Assange to have done both a very good thing with Wikileaks and a very terrible thing because he has raped some women? Yes.
Why are these so hard to reconcile? Look, they can all exist at the same time! There they are! Right there! And the universe has not come to an end. LOOKIT THAT.
Seriously? I LOVE WIKILEAKS. I do! A lot. I think it is a necessary and important check right now on corrupt governments, and I am especially including my own here, since the media has fallen down on the job. I think whistleblowing and secret-revealing are required when those in power try to keep the people they ostensibly serve in the dark.
And here's the thing: in my job, in my life, if I want to go after corporations or their CEOs for gross human rights abuses, the way things are going, I won't be able to do this without whistleblowers, leaks, something to nail these fucking companies to the wall. I am going to have to depend on those people with a conscious and access from the inside to help bring justice. So, yes, I am very invested in Wikileaks, in the idea of it, the need for it, the fact that maybe I can get my hands on some documents, enough to get reparations for the people who have been killed, tortured, maimed, and yes raped, all to turn a corporate profit.
But those people who are going around calling the rape charges hooey, or smearing the women who have filed charges, are making things worse. You're making it worse for me, who was raped, and for all the women who have been raped, and all the women who will be raped. You're reminding all of us how we should never file charges, that the law is not for us to defend ourselves or to grant us any kind of justice, that we are expendable in this progressive movement. Lots of other people have been writing far better things than I have on this, but you know what this reminds me of? An article from make/shift called, "Why Misogynists Make Great Informants: How Gender Violence on the Left Enables State Violence in Radical Movements." I really, really recommend a read. Because: if Julian Assange is a rapist, then he can't be a progressive. He can't be in my movement. Because, I mean, OBVIOUSLY, but also: he is no good at questioning authority if he uses his male privilege and hurts women. He not only is not on my side, he's NOT EVEN ON THE SIDE OF THE POWERLESS. He is way too invested in the hierarchies of power, the very hierarchies of power he supposedly wants to bring down. He's unable to do what he claims he wants to do, because he's using that very senseless, violent power against others.
Audre Lord said, "The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house." And if I am working to dismantle the house, Julian Assange, if he is found guilty and has committed the crimes of which he is accused, is not going to be able to help do that; because he finds shelter in that house, too.
I don't really care about people helping Assange post bail. This is how the system works, and I also think he has every right to challenge the extradition - this is how the law works. And I don't want MY country to be able to make backroom deals with other countries to illegally extradite someone they don't like or has become inconvenient. I don't trust my country to not be shady. And seeing as I don't want the American government to be able to lawlessly have someone extradited back here, I don't want to see anyone else lawlessly extradited anywhere. I want everyone to follow the rule of law, the end. And challenging extradition and posting bail are all part of that.
My problem is with the people who have been sliming, shaming, and calling Assange's accusers liars, the people who are saying to never believe rape victims, the people who are using this as an excuse to belittle women, rape, and consent. That is inexcusable. That is unacceptable. And I want those people to shut the hell up.
Because that speaking-truth-to-power thing they're supposedly defending? They've already failed.
Thank you for posting coherently many of the things I've been spluttering about inside my skull. I admit to being somewhat torn on the whole Wikileaks thing, though as a librarian, I tend to come down on the side of preservation of and access to information, and as a human being, I'd like to think we could find better ways to interact with each other than the sorts of awful things governments sometimes do. So, anyway, yeah. That.
ReplyDeleteFUCKING SERIOUSLY.
ReplyDeleteI guess that this debacle has been useful in that it has revealed hidden misogyny in people I otherwise admired and respected. But hearing rape apologist tropes busted out by self-styled Defenders Of Freedom is NOT FUCKING HELPFUL. Especially when OTHERWISE I WOULD HAVE AGREED WITH THEIR POINT. FOR FUCK'S SAKE.
This is an excellent post because you've really put a finger on what's so wrong with "progressives" standing up for this shit. I hadn't read that make/shift article, and it's also excellent.
I, uh, made a bingo card on the weekend when every op-ed and facebook comment was a wretched mess. For some reason it was easier to skim over terrible stuff if it was also a game. A gross sad game that made me cry a lot. BUT STILL.
Agreed. Been seeing way too much apologia on the net and IRL, it's pretty bad. It's a great excuse for people who think these things about victims under normal circumstances, to have a shield of perceived virtue to hide behind when carrying out their shaming.
ReplyDeleteI think it's point 1 that's getting people most confused. It's extremely convenient timing, but that's no justification for dismissing rape charges without a trial.
The unthinking defenders remind me somewhat of the person who let out doves at the end of the michael jackson trial...something not quite right about that. Just because you like someone's work doesn't mean they can't be a shite!
B., your bingo card, IT IS THE BEST.
ReplyDeleteAnd cheezopath, I actually also think people struggle with the Good Man/Bad Man thing. Like, only Bad Men rape. Julian Assange is a Good Man, Like Us, On Our Side. Thus, he cannot have raped.
This all keeps women in progressive movements very alienated and silent, lest they hurt the "cause." And it keeps men from acknowledging their power and privilege and being truly progressive.
Ugh, yeah. I used to be on the board of a (tiny, low-stakes, social justice-y) "progressive" org that felt a lot like that. Many straight white dudes and queer crippled me. OF COURSE all input was welcome and OF COURSE nobody would ever say anything to silence or minimize any contribution, but, you know, just don't say anything against our mandates or procedures because that would interfere with all the Important Work being done around here. Board meetings were basically like watching someone else's circle jerk and trying to figure out what was wrong with me that made it feel like such a hostile environment.
ReplyDeleteProgressives: sometimes shockingly oppressive!
Oh, yes, THIS! I have been arguing on Twitter with people that should know better that one can support WikiLeaks and groups like it/whistle blowers, and still think Assange should face his accusers at a fair trial.
ReplyDeleteI am currently very disappointed by some of my friends that pretend to be liberal and/or progressive.
If Assange is innocent, or even taken in by some "plot" I will feel no shame over taking the fair treatment for everyone involved stance.