11/17

Today we did TED talks to present our papers.
Jamie went first and talked about her book, Telling which focused a lot more on her life after rape, consent laws were a big issue as they were seen as more of a joke. Her author didn't have much patience so she tried a bunch of different ways to get over it. She had a lot of fact dumps that were actually wrong facts, skewing facts to make it sound like the United States is worse off than it is. Her publication was very biased and made the story out to be biased.

Lateah went next and had Surviving the Silence, which included 8 stories by women of color about rape. A lot of the stories were these women retelling everything that happened to them and then the author would respond to these women. The book was written in a way that was written almost fictional style, but does a good job to add emotion to the story. The rape took place in 1983 and her case happened less than a year later. Two men broke into her home who were looking for money, they harassed the husband and son, made them go upstairs. Told her to take her clothes off, both men raped her and told her to be quiet because "she wouldn't want her husband to hear her and find out what she was doing". Only one man was sentenced (30-60 years in prison for multiple accounts of rape and assault), they couldn't find the other man. She did get to testify against the one man in court which helped the healing process. She talks about how women of color are one of the most underreported groups for rape. They feel like they are "race traitors" and putting black men behind bars for raping them. "It is like they have to put their racial identity above their identity as a woman, they are being forced to chose".

Jackson went next and had One Hour In Paris written by a philosophy professor, happened in 1990 when she was traveling through Europe with family and friends. Went to Paris to spend time with her on/off boyfriend, his mentor and the mentor's lover Robert. Boyfriend and mentor went to dinner, Karen and Robert were left alone, Robert had too much wine and tried to seduce her and she said no, he ended up raping her at knifepoint twice. He tried to kidnap her and walked her out of the building, let go of her a little bit at front door of building and she escaped, people in building helped her, he ran. Cops were extremely useful went looking for him, evidence, getting her statements and believing her, arrested mentor and boyfriend for questioning. She left France but had to go back for hearing trial and sentencing trial, he got six years in jail, she went back home to Canada. Said she wouldn't let her define her; however, it made her very paranoid in relationships, she had PTSD and panic attacks because of all of this and she didn't realize it until she shared her story with her then boyfriend. Talked a lot about therapy was good for her and that she thinks many people should go through it if they need it. Happened from a stranger, involved alcohol, and she was a woman so it was an "acceptable" case, said it was a problem of patriarchy. She told him no, she wasn't drinking, he did this because he thought he had an authority over her body. Societal problem not individual problem.

Next was me!

Next was David, Michael, and John on Perfectly Broken. Amber tells her brother the story about the rape that happened to her by a stranger, who asked her for directions, kidnapped her, forced her to take her clothes off, and raped her. She gets out of the car, runs to a house to get help, the mom in the house calls the police to help her. She uses a lot of God references, and eventually goes to Spain. Her healing process is the main focus of the book and Spain is where this really happened. She stopped fearing men and began to see them as attractive again. Trial happens, he was accused of rape and sentenced to prison. She ends up getting married and having a baby ten years later. Book was heavily focused on what happens afterwards. Transition from victim to survivor, her writing was her method of recovery, supposed to motivate readers that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Heavily religious.

Next was Anna, her book, Denial was about a woman who was raped the same night as her sister, when she was 15 and sister was 14, in 1973. The two girls were doing homework and a man came in and raped them, to protect her sister she told him to take her and he ended up raping both of them. He took emotion from her which allowed her to not be afraid of interviewing terrorists which she later writes books about. When she was questioned by the police she had no emotion in telling it. She starts investigating her own rape case, the rapist was never caught, they weren't believed because "things like that didn't happen here". She denies that her rape happened, she forgets everything, even the statements she made as a kid. She denied it for over twenty years.

Next was Haley and Shalynn, they read Lucky a story about Alice who was 18 when she was raped. She was walking home from a friend's house going through a park, her rapist jumped out of the bushes, grabbed her, threatened her with a knife, she battled with him for 15 minutes, he dragged her to a tunnel and raped her violently. She was a virgin at the time and he shoves his fist in her, forces her to give him a blow job, urinates on her. He was a younger black man, he would have remorse "i'm sorry, you're a good girl" hugs her goodbye but then takes her money. Her RA asked if she was okay, her roommate was passed out so she couldn't get in, tells RA to call police. Everyone in dorm watches her get strapped into ambulance and taken, police tell everyone "get out of the way, she just been raped". Talks about how she was the oddball of the family and she didn't get much love from her parents. Her strength was noted multiple times. She was in denial, tried to kill herself, didn't succeed, was told she was lucky. She goes through her trial which goes good. After the conviction, she falls into the role of "survivors guilt", she felt like she needed to be stronger and didn't wanna deal with it for the next 10 years. Does heroine and drugs, writes for NY Times so successful, but her life was a mess. Ends up moving to Cali and gets clean, talks about how "hell and hope" exist in the same plane and she finally chooses to be lucky. Important to her to use the word "rape" not "what happened to me" or "it happened", use the word.

Jace had a story about a student being groomed and raped by her teacher for many years. She had an abusive relationship with her father. She didn't have many friends so she latched on to Mr. Baker and he would ignore her as a part of the grooming but eventually gave her an A on exam and she got his attention. He would groom her and then he would drive her home and giving her gifts, they had a "relationship" that went on until she was in college. The mom went to the school and told her to stay away from her daughter. When she was a junior in high school he stopped giving her gifts and being nice, he would question her and rape her, he had her brainwashed. In her masters program she formed a group of friends and they had her cut off the relationship with Mr. Baker, she knew she had a gut feeling that is was wrong. Multiple other girls came out and pressed charges against Mr. Baker, and it had happened to late after her case for her to testify. He only got 23 months in prison but had to register as a level 3 sex offender and can never teach again.