A plea for tolerance?

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

Not sure quite what to call this - it's a comment I made on an earlier thread, where it was pretty deeply buried. I'm posting it as a separate comment because it's something I feel pretty strongly about.

Yes, I know - this is a sporking community. We are making fun of the Harry Potter books, and, at times, some of us can get quite irate in our discussions. But - please, please, can we refrain from getting irate towards J.K. Rowling?

Here's what I mean: I'm really not comfortable discussing the character of an actual human being just because I find her books frustrating. I'm a bit of a structuralist. The author is dead once a book has been published, and that cuts two ways. The author is no more privileged in his/her interpretation than any other reader, because the work belongs to the readers now. And there are limits to what we can extrapolate about an author's belief, personality, etc, based on the work s/he has written.

As angry as I get at the awful, mixed messages in these books, I think we must never forget that a real, vulnerable human being wrote them. It isn't right or fair to trash her while trashing the books. (Though I like to think we're not trashing them, but subjecting them to rigorous criticism!) And I'm really not comfortable with speculating about her family life and personality based on the words she's written. Though I do believe all real art is "true" in a deep sense, and reveals the heart of its creator, I still think the art has, and must have, its own validity. You see what I mean?

I hope to be a published author one day. Though I neither want nor expect Rowling's level of fame, I wouldn't like it if anyone psycho-analyzed me on the basis of my stories. I don't think any of us would - and many of us do some type of creative work. Would we like to be called "stupid cows" because a reader found our work stupid? The person is not the work.

So I think it's fine to discuss the image of God in Rowling's stories. I think it's fine to question the heavy use of Christian symbolism given the non-Christian content of the stories. Heck, I've done this myself, repeatedly! It's fine to discuss the mixed messages about race, bullying, authority figures, and so much more. But I'd rather not discuss the psychology and personal life of the woman who wrote the stories. J.K. Rowling is a woman trying to write, and raise a family, and live, in this real world. We shouldn't forget that, no matter how angry her books make us.

Comments

[annoni-no.livejournal.com]

Cont'd

*An 11-year-old girl in a small Texas town was gang-raped by at least 17 and possibly as many as 28 men. They threatened to beat or even kill her if she did not comply. There is video evidence of the assault that, as usual, went viral.

In light of these facts, The New York Times felt it appropriate to write that one of the large, unanswered questions raised by this crime was, “how could their young men have been drawn into such an act?”

As if an 11-year-old child was capable of mind-control. As if these men and boys have no responsibility for controlling their own actions.

Residents, when asked about the case, felt the most pertinent details to note were that 1) the girl wore makeup, 2) she dressed 'like a twenty-year-old,' and 3) she had hung out with teenage boys at the playground.

Of all the people interviewed for these articles, only one, was noted to have stated unequivocally that the perpetrators of this crime were the ones who needed to pay.

After the video came to light and arrests started being made, the girl's family started receiving threatening calls. Child Protective Services took the girl into protective custody to prevent retribution.
The New York Times: Vicious Assault Shakes Texas Town

The Houston Chronicle: Cleveland residents still reeling after gang rape of girl, 11


*Amanda Todd was 12 when she was exploring online via webcam with some friends and a predator manipulated her into exposing her breasts for him. A year later he contacted her again and ordered her to perform for him or he'd send the picture he'd taken of her breasts to everyone she knew. She didn't, and he did. The school turned on her, calling her a slut and whore. She fell into extreme anxiety and depression, started cutting herself and doing drugs and alcohol to cope. She had to change schools to get away from the harassment. Her predator found her again, and the contact information of her new classmates. This time he set up a face book page with her breasts as the profile picture. Again, the school turned on her, again calling her a slut and a whore.

Then things got worse. An old male friend contacted her during her renewed isolation and led her on. Convinced her that he liked her, wanted to be with instead of his present girlfriend, and convinced her to sleep with him. When the girlfriend found out, he stood by and did nothing while she beat in full view of her new school and a posse and students from her old one. All of the students did, except those calling for the beating to take place. That night she tried to kill herself by drinking bleach. She was saved, but a new level of abuse was added once people found out. They started sending pictures of bleach bottles and telling her to kill herself properly next time, even after she had transferred schools yet again.

Amanda Todd killed herself one month after posting this video. Even after her death the attacks didn't stop. Her tormentors posted pictures of her breasts to her memorial page on Facebook and more pictures of bleach bottles with the caption “It's to die for.”

Herald Sun: Online bully victim Amanda Todd still tormented in death

Her story in her own words

http: (slash) (slash) www (dot) youtube (dot) com (slash) watch?v=vOHXGNx-E7E


*Rehtaeh Parsons was 15 when she went with a friend to another's house. There, she was gang raped by 4 boys. One of those boys took a picture of her assault and spread it around the school. As in the case of Amanda Todd, the school turned on her, calling her a slut and whore. Even after she changed schools, she continued to be harassed. Complete strangers would text her asking her to have sex with them. Others would contact just to just tell her what a slut she was. After 17 months of this abuse, she also committed suicide at age 17.

National Post: ‘The justice system failed her’: Nova Scotia teenager commits suicide after being raped, bullied: mother

The Chronicle Herald: Who failed Rehtaeh Parsons?

[annoni-no.livejournal.com]

An observation on language: when someone is in the public eye and can be identified, they'll point to specific excuses as to why this woman or that deserved whatever misery happened to her, but this is just political correctness. Everyone can see that the excuses change every time – from dancing to makeup to going to the wrong party – while the true sin, that a female dared to have her sexuality exposed in the wrong way, is constant.

However, take a group of people given complete anonymity – or tweens and teens who wouldn't know “tact” if it hit them over the head - and they don't sugar-coat that fact. They don't dance around with euphemisms or circumlocutions or tossing out excuses for why this woman had it coming where others theoretically wouldn't (even though in reality they always, always do somehow). The truth is that in our culture a slut is a slut is a slut and she has to be punished for it and there are more than enough people in our society who are champing at the bit to put such creatures back in their place with all the zealotry of True Believers.