The “shame” of rape

Fri, 09 Aug 2002 19:34:00 +0000

When 7-year-old Erica Pratt was abducted on July 22 and tied up in a basement by her kidnapper, she chewed through the duct tape that covered her mouth, freed her hands and feet, and broke through a door to escape. Electrified by the young girl's feat, the media celebrated Pratt with a prolonged blitz of coverage. She smiled luminously for cameras as awed police officers praised her bravery. Her photo graced the front pages of newspapers across the nation, and she was named Time magazine's "Person of the Week."

When Tamara Brooks and Jacqueline Marris were abducted at gunpoint nine days later from a remote teenage trysting spot in Lancaster, Calif., they devised a plan to break free by stabbing their abductor in the neck. When one girl had the chance to escape, she didn't take it for fear that the other girl -- whom she hadn't met before that night -- would be killed if she abandoned her. These were brave and loyal girls -- heroines who endured mind-numbing terror before police found them and killed their captor, who authorities believe was preparing to murder them and dump their bodies.

But Brooks and Marris were not honored by Time magazine or identified as heroes in other media outlets. Why not? What made their story so different?

You pussy!

Wed, 28 Feb 2001 20:31:00 +0000

"What a pussy!" shouted my friend Joe. He was complaining to me about a business partner who backed out of a deal at the last minute. Joe wanted sympathy, but I was snagged on the word "pussy."

The night before Joe's outburst, I'd been channel surfing and caught Barbara Walters interviewing Jane Fonda about her performance in Eve Ensler's wildly successful play, "The Vagina Monologues."

"You can't talk about vaginas," Fonda said to Walters, "and not talk about this remarkable ability they have to give birth. It's awesome. If penises could do what vaginas could do, they'd be on postage stamps. I mean, vaginas are absolutely extraordinary."

Listening to Fonda, I thought, "We have come a long way, baby." Just a few years ago, producers forbade actress Cybill Shepherd to utter the V-word on her own TV show. It was, they said, obscene.

I noted the further progress of female genitalia in mainstream media when I spotted fresh-faced actress Claire Danes sporting a "V-Day" T-shirt on the cover of March's issue of Marie Claire, in which women like Brooke Shields, Marisa Tomei and Calista Flockhart were asked, among other things: If your vagina could talk, what would it say, and if it could wear clothes, what would it wear?

Salon.com > Margot Magowan

The “shame” of rape

You pussy!