(no subject)

[sechan19]

This has been bothering me all day long.

Circulating in my blogosphere today was the bombshell report that Governor Sarah Palin, while still mayor of Wasilla, may have supported a public policy that charged rape victims for the cost of rape-kit evaluations.

Here are the various links for those interested.
Knowles Signs Sexual Assault Bill (Frontiersman, May 2000)
Wasilla Police Billed Sexual Assault Victims for Their Own Rape Kits(Op-Edna)
While Mayor, McCain’s Choice Billed RAPE VICTIMS for cost of THEIR RAPE KITS (Jack & Jill Politics)
Under Palin's Leadership, Wasilla Charged Rape Victims for Collecting Evidence (Bitch PhD)
While Mayor, Sarah Palin Charged Rape Victims for their Own Justice (Feministing)

Naturally, there's any amount of speculation you can do about how deeply Governor Palin was involved in such a policy--which, from what I can tell, was carried out largely on the part of the police force. I'm not an expert on small town politics, and I'm frankly way too tired--after hours of reading, researching, and translation--to try grappling with that issue.

What has been sitting with me all day, however, is the very concept of charging for rape-kit administration, and the knowledge that a law had to be passed to stop the practice. To me, this reveals a deeper, more unsettling problem than the mere fact that Sarah Palin is a repugnant, faux-feminist who believes in all kinds of things I would cheerfully see stamped out of the annals of human history forever.

This reveals the sickening, yet ever-present, reality that in this country--and in many places around the world--rape is not viewed as a serious crime. Consider, for example, if we were to apply the same standards to other violent crime in this country. Imagine a policy in which the families of murder victims were billed for the cost of forensic investigation; imagine a system that forced men and women to choose between crushing debt and the discovery and successful prosecution of the person who stole the life of a loved one.

Now imagine the public response to such a policy. The cry of moral outrage would echo from the rafters, and yet...

And yet the same considerations are not afforded to the rape victim. And yet plenty of people seem to see nothing wrong with that. (We couldn't possibly burden the taxpayers with this!) And yet the real implications of this story will soon be lost in a mudslinging contest. In the desire to dredge up more filth with which to assail Sarah Palin, and the subsequent defense against said attacks, the horrifying truth of this case will fade away.

No one's going to talk about what this really says about us as a society. No one's going to point out that this shows, once again, the secondary class position of women in general and victimized women in particular. No one's going to mind if it happens again, or is happening again, somewhere else.

[sigh]

I think I'm going to be ill.

EDIT: Just to clarify, by "no one" I mean "no one in the mainstream news media" and, consequently, none of the idiots in this country who never get information from anywhere else but that corrupt outlet.

Comments

I've been waiting...

[ltsfe.livejournal.com]

For something about Palin to cross this blog...

Right on the money...as usual Ms. Teva...

[lillith-knox.livejournal.com]

Well, rape victims have been historically blamed by the government. Just as it's considered 'consent' if a woman is not wearing undergarments at the time of her assault, insisting that a rape victim is responsible for the cost of a rape kit just goes to show how very far we have to go to truly become equal in this society.

It's a damn shame.