30/04/07

False Rape Claims - No Publicity is Bad Publicity

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Article by WolfmanMac
On March 29th of this year, Rebecca Traister of Salon.com published an article chronicling the (mis)adventures of Rachel Marsden (Fox's Ann Coulter 2.0 | Salon News). Rachel Marsden is a conservative columnist for the Toronto Sun who seems poised to take FOX news by storm as Canada’s answer to Ann Coulter.
According to Traister – “The 31-year-old columnist is already well known in her native Canada as an oft-accused and once-admitted stalker who made questionable rape charges of her own 10 years ago, in a case that eventually cut short the career of a university president and changed the tenor of harassment cases all over Canada. In 1999, a professor at the same university went to the police with charges Marsden was stalking him, and in 2004 she pleaded guilty to criminally harassing a former Vancouver radio host.”
Ms. Traister details Marsden’s torment of the professor in the rape case, which finally ended with his termination. He was rehired two months later when evidence disproved Marsden’s allegations. Evidence showed that it was Ms. Marsden who was enamored of the professor, and filed the allegations when he rejected her. However, $12,000 awarded to Marsden by the university as compensation was not returned, or so far as anyone knows, even requested.
Ms. Traister asks the pertinent question “what was FOX thinking [when they hired her]?” A good question, but one only a “true believer” would ask. Sexual Harassment/Assault charges are perilously easy to make, almost impossible to defend and present very little downside for the accuser. A false accuser need not fear even well deserved stigma. Ms. Marsden’s enrichment by the university and the trajectory of her career (which has yet to reach its apogee) in the wake of the false allegation (as well as a guilty plea on her part for stalking another man) hardly reads like a cautionary tale. While acknowledging the trauma inflicted upon the innocent accused, Ms. Traister bemoans the effect these allegations had on campus feminists, who “supported Marsden in her purported hour of need, only to get kicked in the gut -- not simply at the time, but by her current professional persona, much of which is accessorized with snappy anti-feminist quips about how Hillary Clinton "fills out a cup better than Peyton Manning."
However, Ms. Traister is far less concerned about those lessons in this case, instead using Marsden’s criminal behavior to take a swipe at - where else – men. “The whole disaster read like an Oleanna-style wet dream of the right’s most misogynist thinkers, who love nothing more than a woman-makes-it-up tale to underscore the often- unprovable nature of harassment and rape claims.”
How about underscore their all-too- often false nature?
Just what exactly is right-wing or misogynistic about acknowledging the possibility that an obsessed girl/woman, finding her affections unrequited and then lashing out (as the obsessed and frustrated always do), might then draw claims of rape and sexual harassment from her already bulging quiver of weapons with which to torment the unfortunate victim of her fancy? These are questions of evidence that any lawmaker with any concern whatsoever for the interests of justice would ask before passing such a law. Indeed, these are questions any layman who actually reads laws and codes proscribing sexual harassment has to feel compelled to ask if they are at all interested in their own liberty, or the liberty of those they love.
What is “right-wing” or misogynistic about acknowledging the fact that if women as a class are provided with the power to accuse a man of an “often unprovable” accusation, is assured that she will be afforded the benefit of every doubt in the investigation of that allegation and, in many forums, can make that accusation from the safety of anonymity that some women will use that power in an unethical manner? Laws and speech codes that criminalize such appalling behavior as “unwanted looks” or asking someone out on a date can only result in injustice. These commonsense objections and spot- on predictions for the future were made and met (and still are met) with hysterical claims of “misogyny,” “blaming the victim,” and those who raised/raise them equated to calling all women liars. In fact, these concerns were nothing of the kind – they were simply acknowledgments of the basic human condition. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, and when someone can file such destructive (and by Ms. Traister’s own admission, often unprovable) accusations with very little downside and assurance that not only will she be believed, but that her cause will be vocally championed by the kind of ideologues that infest any campus “womyns studies” program, they hold in their hands something far too close to absolute power to pass constitutional muster.
The structure of sexual harassment law, both in its federal and “campus speech code” incarnations is such that there is precious little downside to leveling accusations and an excellent possibility that the targets life will be ruined or at least drastically altered as a result. Furthermore, there is often the promise of a pay-off to boot, which Ms. Marsden received even after her story imploded. The pay-off need not be monetary, however – it may come in the form of attention (which Ms. Marsden received from the campus feminists), revenge, being excused for substandard academic performance or performance on the job or even to attract the attention of a mate the accuser senses is “slipping away.”
Any of the various and sundry reasons anyone lies about anything might motivate someone to lie about rape or sexual harassment. When the benefit of the doubt is then given to the accuser, “impossible to prove” accusations then become “impossible to defend.”
So, who are these straw men who “love nothing more” than to hear about false charges of rape and sexual harassment? False claims being actually disproven in the fashion of Ms. Marsden’s are rare as hen’s teeth. Even when such vindication is received, it leaves a trail of mental, emotional and financial destruction in its wake. Does anyone really feel “love” when they hear about cases like this?
More like bone-weary disgust.

Categories: Politics, Men's Issues, Women's Issues, Feminism   English (US)
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