Thursday 26 June 2008

Guest Post: "Hijinks"?!

We're pleased as punch to be bringing you a guest post from Anna (another Anna!).

You could be forgiven for feeling a whiff of nostalgia when seeing the newspaper headlines. Variations on the theme of “Inside the England players' Hilton hijinks” conjured up memories of childish pranks in the Just William or Jennings series, or a myriad of Enid Blyton books.*

So what exactly had the England Rugby Team been up to one night in a hotel? Had someone spiked the homemade lemonade with salt and curry powder? Perhaps someone had tied the shoelaces of another player together causing him to fall onto a cleaning trolley which in turn whizzed along the corridor and catapulted him into a lift. Or had someone left a bucket of green slime on top of a door, lying in wait for an unsuspecting player? All of which would be perfectly appropriate newspaper headlines in a world without violence or poverty, and where said rugby players were not earning an order of magnitude more than schoolteachers.

Unfortunately it doesn’t look like we’re anywhere close to that kind of world. Reading between the lines it was entirely evident that something much less innocent had occurred; some kind of sexual assault, and it was later confirmed that a woman had said she had been raped by players.

And yet the most appropriate word the media could find to describe this was ‘hijinks’. A word the dictionary defines as meaning: “playful, often noisy and rowdy activity, usually involving mischievous pranks” or “boisterous celebration or merrymaking; unrestrained fun”.

Oh, but the reporting gets worse. In this article, an unnamed England rugby official “says a rape allegation against four players was "designed to destabilise" the tour - and suggests Kiwis' bitterness at their early exit from the Rugby World Cup might also be a relevant factor.”

WOT?

I know rugby is very important to a lot of people. And that’s okay. But ultimately it’s a game. And rape is not**. And linking the two in this way is absolutely sick. One, it is saying that the woman who was raped is making it up; which is not just thoroughly insulting, and almost certainly adding to her trauma, but offensive and discouraging to all women who have been raped. But more than that the reporting of rape is made out to be a game, something you would do to get support on your side, to tarnish another, or for simple revenge.

And then there’s the fact they’re referred to as “young lads” and “boys”; once again we have the whole infantilising of men, implying that they are really the victims and can’t be held responsible for their own actions. And it’s feminist who are accused of being anti-men…

Much has been made of the fact that the woman in question has not made a formal complaint (and therefore the police can’t do anything about it – which is interesting, as whilst I’d hate to see prosecutions go ahead against the wishes of the victim, I don’t see many murder cases ignored on the grounds that the victim hasn’t made a formal complaint). And this is not because it didn’t happen. I cannot speak for her, but I am as close to certain as I can be that one or more of the following reasons are behind the fact she has not done so:


  • she does not think she will be believed
  • she is aware of the terrible way the police treat rape victims
  • she is aware of the terrible way the ‘justice’ system treats rape victims
  • she knows that if there is a prosecution the media will dig up every last piece of her past and use it against her
Oh, on that last one. Well that already started several days ago. The focus of this articlein the herald is not on the perpetrators but on:
The women at the centre of a sex scandal involving four English rugby players have been described by witnesses as "sports groupies" who were cavorting and lap-dancing with the men on the night one claimed she was raped.
Cavorting and lap-dancing eh? Well then they clearly deserved it.

But wait, there’s more!
One witness said the girls in question were well-known "sports groupies" and last weekend had been fawning all over the four English players.

"They were climbing all over them with their boobs hanging out. It was shameless behaviour," a witness said.

"I was down there and was gobsmacked to see what was going on, all these drunken girls throwing themselves about. They had no standards or self-respect."
Even worse; they did not adhere to what the unnamed witness considered appropriate standards of dress.

And then there’s the self respect thing. It comes up a lot; women getting drunk, women getting pregnant “too” young and so on. It’s odd this; in a world which continually disrespects women, they are still expected to respect themselves. And that self respect seems to consist entirely of not behaving in the sexualised manner that so many men expect. Riiiiiight.

Why is it so hard for the media to take rape seriously (hint: referring to it as ‘hijinks’ is not taking it seriously), to treat the women who have been raped with respect and not imply that they deserved it? It shouldn’t be so difficult.



* All of which of course have problems of their own, but I don’t have time to discuss that here
** I was at a talk by Louise Nicholas at which one woman very kindly decided to reassure her that what she had been though was even worse than the All Blacks being knocked out of the world cup.

11 comments:

Anna said...

I couldn't agree more Anna - this whole incident is simply sickening. The insinuation is that rape is something that simply happens when high-spirited blokes drink alcohol and see boobs - no one's really to blame, and women should learn to grin and bear it. I think the woman at the centre of these 'hijinks' will need extraordinary courage to continue. I just want to cry for her, particularly when I see anonymous losers sinking the boot in by criticising her behaviour. Your post script about Louise Nicholas/the Rugby World Cup took my breath away, and not in a good way.

Anonymous said...

I'm going to resist attempting to re-emphasize my point about the misogyny of rugby culture, although the point about it infantilising men is a good one - although to be fair many men don't need a game of rugby or indeed any external encouragement to act in an infantile way.

You raise an interesting point about what the police should do when a rape victim declines to make a complaint. Obviously to prosecute without her request would be to disempower her and make the crime not about her and her suffering and instead about 'the law' which is really just making the violation worse. I think the correct action for the police to take, when a rape victim does not wish to prosecute, is to ask "why not?" and do something about it. Unfortunately the male-dominated culture of the police force means that they insist on looking at rape as a legal issue rather than a gender one, and as such they will not take any action that isn't designed to end in a prosecution. Very sad.

Anonymous said...

The obstacles and pressures against this woman to make a complaint are huge - no wonder she hasn't. The "hijinks" language sickens me. I was talking to someone yesterday who pointed out about her boyfreind calling the police and commented that "she probably made the rape up so her boyfriend wasn't angry at her being out with the rugby players" I was livid! Of course it is probably indicative of many people's attitudes

Julie said...

Thanks so much for contributing this Anna, I hope you are ok with the title I gave it (if not please let me know and I am happy to change it, although I might not have time to do so until tomorrow).

When One News referred to this as a "sex romp" I just about lost it. I have been trying to think of a similar phrase that could be used to belittle other crimes eg murder, other forms of assault, burglary, but for the life of me I can't come up with anything and the simple truth occured to me - the reason I can't think of anything is because the language just does not exist in regard to anything but rape.

Anonymous said...

|| It's odd this; in a world which continually disrespects women, they are still expected to respect themselves.

A good point.

Yes, we have a responsibility to keep ourselves safe and the whole Hilton hotel situation sounded pretty unsafe to me. If either of the two women involved were my daughters, I'd be sitting down to have a chat with them. It's also very indicative of Kiwis - drinking and sex, drinking and rape.

But just because someone gets into an unsafe situation, does not make them responsible for somone else's rotten behaviour.

It's disgusting to see how this has been treated in the media. I work in the industry and the kind of talk going on in the newsroom about this event is sickening.

Anonymous said...

The Hand Mirror is proving to be a bastion of sanity with regard to this rape investigation. The media coverage is infuriating and even those nearest and dearest to me seems disinclined to take it seriously, assuming that the woman consented but felt retrospective guilt.

I've noticed that a lot of comments go along the line of 'everyone knows rugby players are rough thugs so what kind of women voluntarily hangs out with them'. As if the judgements we make on a person's beliefs and values should have any bearing on whether a crime was committed against them. My response has usually been to make clear that even as committed feminist I too would not make a formal complaint of rape to the police in this cultural climate unless I was locked in my own home, had not a drop of alcohol in the house, didn't know the offender, did not in any way make it easier for the offender to get in the house when the crime occurred etc etc.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I couldn't even finish the article where the Englanders said that.

Next we'll be referring to drunken brawls as "a bunch of lads having a friendly competition". =/

I also find it highly disturbing that people would think that women would bother with a false rape allegation against people of such high profile knowing just how rape-apologist our media and society in general is.

Anonymous said...

I totally agree with what Ms P said, both paras.

I commented on an English 'hijinks' article, which now sits amongst comments from kiwi males apologising for how our women treated the team.

If I wasn't reading some of this stuff, I wouldn't believe that folk could be so judgemental, unempathetic and glib.

Anonymous said...

Julie - the title is absolutely fine, thanks for letting me post here.

Anonymous said...

#13baby - I think you're right there. The police (or anyone) shouldn't be looking at offering a choice between pressing charges and being treated like shit, or not pressing charges and being treated like shit. Even more than asking her why she doesn't want to make a complaint, I think they should be asking her (and anyone who has been raped) what they want to be the end result. It might not always be possible or appropriate to assist in achieving that, but I think if people actually stopped to ask that question rather than only think inside the narrow system we have, they'd be surprised at what they found. For some women it would be that the rapist is imprisoned, but for others it would be to have their experience taken notice of and validated, or to have some kind of explanation as to why it happened.

annaloren said...

julie ~ wonderful post. i want to fucking scream every time i see this issue described as a "sex scandal" in the media. THIS IS NOT A GODDAMN SEX SCANDAL. SEX =/= RAPE.