Brad Shipton's parole hearing is happening at the moment. Louise Nicholas, Donna Johnson and another woman that had been raped by Brad Shipton asked to be heard by the parole board. The parole board refused to let them speak.
These women weren't allowed to tell their stories. They weren't allowed to stand up and say "Brad Shipton raped me. Not a day goes by where I don't think about it. He could leave what he did behind, until I was just a number in his notebook, but it will never leave me." Maybe they would have said something very different, but they didn't get a chance. Their experiences weren't considered relevant by the parole board.
The woman Brad Shipton was convicted of raping was able to give evidence at the parole board, but she hasn't been given copies of what the court said about her experience.
I may be deeply confused about whether or not Brad Shipton should get parole. But the casual way women's lives are being thrown about by the system, demonstrates that there is no fundamental conflict between feminism which honours the experience of women who have been abused, and feminism which wants to tear the prison down. Our justice system treats women who have been abused, and their stories, as peripheral to the actions that are taken about that abuse.
For writing about what a response that centred on those who had been hurt, rather than on the Brad Shipton's of this world, I recommend this article.
2 comments:
This is just awful. I find this kind of denial of women's voices so frustrating. Particularly given Shipton still maintains his innocence in regard to the rape he was convicted of. He seems to need some real confronting about his denial and complacency.
I feel really conflicted about justice system related issues too. I'm pretty liberal in most areas of life (as most feminists are, I think), and tend to look to the way societal factors contribute to crime. Yet, I also feel a lot of sympathy for those who look at Shipton et al and want to lock him up and throw away the key. I think that impulse comes in large part from the marginalisation and silencing of women who have been sexually assaulted and abused - it seems like a vast and frustrating problem for which no one ever really takes responsibility, and on which progress is painfully slow.
There are fantastic feminist critiques of the court system and its inability to deal adequately with crimes against women (including innocent until guilty, which means that a rape case is premised on the assumption that the complainant is lying), and yet the innocent until guilty assumption is also about protecting people from discrimination of the basis of class and race (not that it does a very good job, at times). And these things are important to women too.
I haven't got my head around this one yet! What a ramble!
And re your comment about Shipton's denial, Julie, the thing that scares me is my suspicion that Shipton and cohorts' actually seem to have an understanding of consent which is deeply misogynist, and includes the consent of a woman too scared to say no. That to me is very, very disturbing.
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