Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!daemon
From: rao@brillig.umd.edu (Subbarao Kambhampati)
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: A note on Central Park Rape incident and NJ incident
Message-ID: <17894@mimsy.UUCP>
Date: 5 Jun 89 22:48:53 GMT
References: <11844@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU>
Sender: ambar@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU
Reply-To: rao@brillig.umd.edu.UUCP (Subbarao Kambhampati)
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science,
Lines: 41
Approved: ambar@bloom-beacon.mit.edu

Hi, 

    This is in reference to the media coverage and mass reactions to the 
central park rape incident. I was surprised and saddened at the quick rate
at which it got snow-balled into a "racial" incident, totally masking the 
essential nature of the incident viz, violence of a group of men against a 
woman, with total disregard to sanctity of the woman's life (in all senses).   
I was very saddened to see that only one article in the main-stream media 
(an article in Time magazine) noted this mis-representation and neglect of
deeper issues concerning the crime.  That the disease knows no boundaries of
black-white/rich-poor demarcations was amply shown by the NJ incident involving
the teeanagers from affluent backgrounds and a mentally retarded girl.  The
real answer to these crimes, I think, can not be found entirely in the motives
of the individuals in those specific cases, and has to be attributed in a
significant measure to the media portrayal of male-female relationships.
[Time magazine article points out how for a  significant number of high-school
teenagers, their first exposure to sex is through its portrayal in "slasher
genre" movies, and how it can possibly distort their sense of values.  The 
standard arguments in defense of this genere, such as "there is a  distinction
between fantasy and reality" may not even hold when the subjects are in their
formative years and may not have been given a fair representation of the
"healthy"  side of male-female relationships.  Couple this with the essentially
male-dominated nature of the present day society and what type of picture do 
you think we are giving those in formative years???.]
It is not surprising that an adolescent has hormonal "urges"--It is however 
surprising that they would go to the extent of violence against fellow humans
to satisfy those needs!  I don't believe that it is just an extreme form of
natural reaction--instead I think it is partly a reflection on the societal
conditioning that these people go through.  

I think, we have to seriously examine what it is in the portrayal
of women and men in the media that gives a teen-ager a "sex-centered"
and "self-gratification oriented" view of  the world and a conviction that 
they can pursue violent means to achieve those ends. 

I know this posting is not very constructive in the sense of offering answers
to the perceived problems--part of the raison d' etre for it is a desire to
grope for just such answers.. Comments?

-rao
[Subbarao Kambhampati]