1. In today’s Kansas City Star there is a story about Tory Bowen, now 21, who was roofied and raped as a college student in Nebraska. At the trial, the judge forbade her to use the terms “rape” or “sexual assault.” She also could not use the terms “victim” or “assailant.” Bowen said it best when she told the reporter,
“It shouldn’t be up to a judge to tell me whether or not I was raped,” Bowen said. “I should be able to tell the jury in my own words what happened to me.”
She is suing the judge for taking away her first amendment rights, and even though a federal appeals court dismissed the case, she plans to take it to the Supreme Court. A popular feminist Web site, Jezebel.com, brought up a great point: “If the argument is about defendant’s rights, why is language only carefully guarded in sexual assault trials? Why wouldn’t judges be making similar arguments in trials about regular old assault? Shouldn’t they be forcing those victims to say, “When my face had a non-consensual interaction with the defendant’s fist,” rather than use the word “punched”?”
Check out the entire article at http://www.kansascity.com/105/story/654147.html and let me know what you think about it in the comments!
2. Big props to Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachussets who declared domestic violence a public health emergency, citing a “tripling of domestic violence homicides in the past two years.” Domestic violence is all too often an issue that goes unnoticed by upper-level elected officials and he should be commended for doing something about it…or at least bringing it to the attention of the public.
