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Recent
Stories
August
1, 2003
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
July
31, 2003
Ray
McGovern
The Prostitution of Intelligence
Brian
Cloughley
Wolfowitz's Operative Statement
Sheldon
Hull
The RIAA's Jihad:
The Devil's Music (Industry)
Elaine
Cassel
The Next Time You Crack a Lawyer Joke, Think of These Attorneys
Sheldon
Rampton
and John Stauber
True Lies: Propaganda and Bush's
Wars
Hammond
Guthrie
Speculation Blues
Website
of the Day
Army of One?
July
30, 2003
David
Lindorff
Poindexter the Terror Bookie
Marjorie
Cohn
Why Iraq and Afghanistan? It's About
the Oil
Elaine
Cassel
How Ashcroft Coerces Guilty Pleas
in Terror Cases
Zvi
Bar'el
The Hidden Costs of the Iraq War
Lisa Walsh
Thomas
Killing Mustafa Hussein: Death of a Child, Birth of a Legend?
Sean
Carter
Pat Robertson's Prayer Jihad: God, Sodomy and the Supremes
ND Jayaprakash
India and Ariel Sharon
Steve
Perry
Bush's Top 40 Lies
Standard
Schaefer
Correction about Bloomberg and Outscourcing
Website
of the Day
Bring Them Home Now!
Congratulations
to CounterPuncher Gilad Atzmon! BBC Names EXILE Top Jazz CD
July
29, 2003
Jeffrey
St. Clair
"Journalist Spotted! Journalist
Dead!" Guatemala Bleeds; US Press Yawns
Thomas
J. Nagy
The Belligerent Dr. Pipes
Kurt Nimmo
Tom Delay Goes to Jerusalem
Chris
Floyd
Dead Reckoning: Bush Warriors Sign Off on War Crimes
Robert
Fisk
Another Botched Raid; Another Massacre
Jason Leopold
Did Chalabi Help Write Bush's State of the Union Address?
Conn Hallinan
Food Bully: Bush's Biotech Shock and Awe Campaign
Dan
Bacher
Sacramento's War on Free Speech
Ray
McGovern
Cheney Chicanery
Website
of the Day
Julie Hilden Caught on Tape
July 26 / 27, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
NYT's Screws Up Again; Uday and
Qusay Deaths Bad for Bush; Gen. Hitchens at the Front
Gary
Leupp
Faith-Based Intelligence
Saul Landau
A Report from Syria
Stan
Goff
Bring 'Em On Home, Now!
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Book Cooking at Boeing
Andrew
Cockburn
The Sons Are Dead; Now the Blood Feud
Begins
Jason Leopold
CIA Points the Finger at the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans
Robert
Fisk
The Power of Death
Joanne
Mariner
Monsieur Moussaoui
Standard
Schaefer
Joblessness and the Invisible Hand
M. Shahid
Alam
The Global Economy Since 1800: a Short History
Harry
Browne
Northern Ireland: the Other Faltering Peace Process
Fidel Castro
Moncada, 50 Years Later
Lula
Democracy Requires Social Justice
Edward
S. Herman
Refuting Brad DeLong's Smear Job on Noam Chomsky
Ron Jacobs
Guided by a Great Feeling of Love: a Review of Gordon's The Company
You Keep
Julie
Hilden
A Photographer, an Offer and Cameron Diaz's Topless Photos
Adam Engel
Man Talk
Poets'
Basement
Keeney, Witherup, Short, Nimba, Guthrie and Albert
July
25, 2003
Francis
A. Boyle
Impeaching Bush
David
Krieger
15 Questions
Harvey
Wasserman
Pat Robertson's Supreme Fatwah
Steve Dunifer
Seize the Airwaves!
Dan
Bacher
Federal Judge Throws Out Bush Salmon Plan for Klamath River
Kurt Nimmo
Bread, Circuses, Uday and Qusay
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Weblog
Website
of the Day
Stop the Wall!
Hot Stories
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Elaine
Cassel
Civil Liberties
Watch
Michel
Guerrin
Embedded Photographer Says: "I
Saw Marines Kill Civilians"
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
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Stop
Prison Rape Edition
August 1, 2003
Trivializing
Prison Rape
Who Moved My
Soap?
By ALEX COOLMAN
Now that Martha Stewart has been criminally indicted,
we're curious to know when the jokes are going to start about
the possibility that she'll be raped in prison.
Maybe Jay Leno can do a monologue on
the subject, suggesting a few wacky tips to help Stewart avoid
sexual assault behind bars. Maybe the idea of rape in prison
can even be used as a gag in commercials and turned into some
kind of hilarious parody of a business advice book.
Sound implausible?
Sound like something so crude and insensitive
that it could never happen?
Unfortunately rape is prison is routinely
exploited in exactly these ways. The latest entry in the prison
rape joke genre is Andy Borowitz' new book Who Moved My Soap?
The CEO's Guide to Surviving in Prison, which is a tongue-in-cheek
primer for business executives facing the possibility of spending
time in prison, and includes the predictable discussion of life
as a "prison bitch" and the hazards of "peter-gazing."
Martha Stewart's name hasn't been dragged
into this newest rape "joke" because she's a woman
and our society now understands that the rape of women isn't
funny.
But in Borowitz' hands, the rape of men
in prison is once again being treated as fodder for cruel, inane
humor instead of what it really is: one of the most appalling,
institutionally ignored abuses of human rights in this nation.
Borowitz' book has met with lavish praise
from business magazines, which treat his unapologetic use of
prison stereotypes and recycled riffs on rape as if they were
about the most original thing ever set down on the printed page.
Fortune called it a "must-read," while Lou Dobbs told
his CNN audience that Borowitz' material was really "fresh
and funny."
The only problem with all this business
media chuckling is that, for the more than 2 million American
men and women who are actually behind bars, rape isn't a punchline.
It's a reality. And it isn't any funnier when it happens to thousands
of anonymous victims than it would be if it happened to Martha
Stewart.
Among the gags found in Who Moved My
Soap? is the suggestion that a CEO can avoid being attacked by
turning into a "'psycho' inmate who might 'nut out' without
warning" thereby causing other inmates "to stay far
out of his way and look upon him fearfully - beginning their
gradual transformation into punk-ass bitches."
The frightening reality behind the "humor"
here is that the transformation Borowitz is describing is an
actual phenomenon. Non-violent inmates, who are the most common
targets for sexual assault behind bars, are routinely forced
to resort to extreme violence as the only way to fend off rape.
And they're in danger of bringing this learned violence into
society when they are released from custody. Sexual abuse in
prison, a problem that affects as many as one in five male inmates,
according to the best studies on the subject, has been deemed
a form of torture by international legal bodies. Rape behind
bars has a host of damaging effects on individuals and society.
It spreads diseases including HIV, it undermines the legitimacy
of the justice system, and it leaves victims susceptible to post-traumatic
stress disorder, substance abuse, and suicide.
In a publicity interview for his book
on MSNBC, Borowitz said: "I try to write about things that
people care about. Laughing about these subjects is often the
best way for all of us to deal with them."
There are a lot of subjects for which
this is true. Laughter is a great healer. But laughter can also
be a way to trivialize real harm. That's why racist jokes won't
make it into Jay Leno's monologue, why quips about the Holocaust
aren't used for commercials, and why sexual brutality shouldn't
be exploited in a book of business comedy. Laughing about rape
dehumanizes the victims, and in the public discussion of rape
behind bars, this has happened for far too long.
Stop Prisoner Rape is a national human
rights group that works to end sexual violence against men, women,
and youth in all forms of custody. We have no desire to censor
anyone's right to free expression. The one thing we recommend,
however - not only for Borowitz, but also for many others who
routinely make jokes about rape behind bars - is that it might
be worth speaking to an actual survivor of prisoner rape before
writing the next wisecrack about this subject.
Try contacting us first. We can connect
you with men and women throughout the country who have been raped
and sexually brutalized while in custody. Not one of them found
the experience funny.
Alex Coolman
is Communications Coordinator of Stop
Prisoner Rape. He can be reaced at: acoolman@spr.org
See Also:
Prison
Bitch
by Steve J.B.
Stopping
Prison Rape
by Joanne Mariner
Weekend Edition Features for July 26 / 28, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
NYT's Screws Up Again; Uday and
Qusay Deaths Bad for Bush; Gen. Hitchens at the Front
Gary
Leupp
Faith-Based Intelligence
Saul Landau
A Report from Syria
Stan
Goff
Bring 'Em On Home, Now!
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Book Cooking at Boeing
Andrew
Cockburn
The Sons Are Dead; Now the Blood Feud
Begins
Jason Leopold
CIA Points the Finger at the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans
Robert
Fisk
The Power of Death
Joanne
Mariner
Monsieur Moussaoui
M. Shahid
Alam
The Global Economy Since 1800: a Short History
Harry
Browne
Northern Ireland: the Other Faltering Peace Process
Fidel Castro
Moncada, 50 Years Later
Lula
Democracy Requires Social Justice
Edward
S. Herman
Refuting Brad DeLong's Smear Job on Noam Chomsky
Ron Jacobs
Guided by a Great Feeling of Love: a Review of Gordon's The Company
You Keep
Julie
Hilden
A Photographer, an Offer and Cameron Diaz's Topless Photos
Adam Engel
Man Talk
Poets'
Basement
Keeney, Witherup, Short, Nimba, Guthrie and Albert
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