How do feminist organizations respond to people who engage in extreme victim blaming and rape minamilizing? By honoring them at luncheons as key note speakers!
True story.
Exibit A: Bill O’Reilley's statement about a "bomed" and "moronic" (his words) 18 year old girl who was raped and murdered:
“Now Moore, Jennifer Moore, 18, on her way to college. She was 5-foot-2, 105 pounds, wearing a miniskirt and a halter top with a bare midriff. Now, again, there you go. So every predator in the world is gonna pick that up at two in the morning. She's walking by herself on the West Side Highway, and she gets picked up by a thug. All right. Now she's out of her mind, drunk.”
Read more here: http://mediamatters.org/items/200608040004
O'Reilley was then invited to speak at a March 19th luncheon for the It Happened To Alexa Foundation , whose mission is to “assist rape victims and their families by easing the financial burden they face while traveling to attend the criminal trial.”
Now, I am not one to put down organizations doing the very important work of assisting rape survivors, but I believe their choice of speakers is outregeous. Not only are they honoring someone who consistantly uses victim blaming tactics, but then a member of this organization admitted to benefiting from his controversial image in promoting their event, saying on a national violence prevention list serve that:
"Frankly - the controversy helped us sell even more tickets."
I believe that when we see wrong being done, especially from a feminist organization, we should speak up. Is we don't hold ourselves to a high standard in choosing those who speak for us, how can we hold others accountable?
You can contact the It Happened To Alexa Foundation here:
125 South First Street
Lewiston, New York 14092
Phone: (716) 754-9105; 877-77-ALEXA (25392)
Fax: (716) 754-4676
info@ithappenedtoalexa.org
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what an astonishing choice of a person to speak at a fundraiser (my mind boggles), but what is even more disturbing is the bullying and harassment of Terkel for using a quote of O"Reilly that shows a very problematic attitude towards women who have been victimized, raped, murdered.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/adele-stan/bill-oreillys-woman-probl_b_178447.html
Is "bomed" a word? What does it mean?
I think Billo meant "Bombed" as in "drunk".
And, from what I read in the New York media at the time, Moore probably was drunk at the time she was kidnapped, raped and murdered by a New Jersey pimp.
Moore had been invited to a club by a DJ she knew - she went to the club, but her car was illegally parked, so it got towed by the police.
When she went to the Police Impound Yard at Pier 36, they wouldn't give her the car, because she appeared to be intoxicated.
So, after a visit to the restroom, she took a walk along the West Side Highway - perhaps in hopes that the cool night air would clear the cobwebs enough to let the cops return her vehicle.
Unfortunately, that pimp was driving by with one of his sex workers - he stopped, kidnapped Moore, took her to his home in New Jersey where he raped and murdered her.
Yes, Moore was probably drunk when she took that last walk of her life.
But that doesn't matter!
The part of Manhattan where Moore was partying (Chelsea) is filled with clubs, that attract a young hard drinking crowd.
Lots of MEN get drunk in those clubs - and they aren't picked up by sociopaths, raped and murdered as Moore was.
Why can't young women have the same right as young men do to go out, get drunk and then take a walk by the Hudson River to "walk it off" , without fear of violation and brutal death?