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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 11, 1998)
CONTACTING US NEWSROOM: (541)346-5511 E-MAIL ode@oregon. uoregon.edu ADDRESS: Oregon Daily Emerald P.O. BOX 3159 Eugene, Oregon 97403 ONLINE EDITION: www.uoregon.edu/-ode Perspectives EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Sarah Kickler EDITORIAL EDITOR Mike Schmierbach NIGHT EDITOR Carl Yeh Register-Guard guilty of spreading rape myths Two recent editorials have contained offensive attitudes that miss the meaning of consent Do the editors of The Regis ter-Guard have daughters? How about wives, moth ers or sisters? Anyone who has read their recent editorials about the sexual misconduct case at the University wouldn’t think so. The Guard’s views propagate a dan gerous rape myth — the notion that a woman who has had prior sexual re lations with someone can no longer say “no” to future sexual relations. Autumn DePoe, communications director for the ASUO, called the first piece the Guard did on the subject “the worst editorial [she] had ever read.” Think we’re exaggerating? Read this direct quote: “The acknowledged prior sexual intimacy and the volun tary nature of the overnight visits in both cases would destroy the credi Jeff Shaw bility or any charge of sexual assault.” There are two im portant parts of that sentence: what it tells you and what it doesn’t. It does tell you that, by the Guard’s standards, any woman who has had any sexual contact with a man has no right to say no in the future. 1 he problems this causes are obvious: what if someone changes their mind? And what about breakups? According to the Guard, any sexual contact with someone ob ligates you to accommodate their sex ual desires — even if their desires ex ceed your stated limits. And those limits are exactly what the Guard doesn’t tell you about. In each case, the woman reports having explicitly said beforehand that she did not want to have sex. One woman says she explicitly told the man "no” during the act itself. This allegation is glossed over in the Guard’s editorial. Why the selective emphasis of case details? Most frightening about publishing this kind of stuff, though, is that it discourages reporting of a crime which already has a low rate of dis closure. "I could definitely see [the editorials] as discouraging reporting of sexual assault crimes,” DePoe said. xxo^J^^uL «»> t*AA^^U****" "^' ' “They not only said they didn't be lieve the women, but they actually wished [the accused man) good luck in his endeavors.” Apparently without any recogni tion of irony, the Guard admitted that the women didn’t press criminal charges “because they didn’t want the pain and embarrassment of a courtroom trial.” Imagine that. It’s a good thing they didn’t know with what care and delicacy the Guard would treat their feelings. If I knew my reputation would be dragged through the mud in the local newspa per, I might think twice about report ing a crime too. Remember, also, that the Guard published this opinion twice. As if the above quotation from their first editorial wasn’t enough, they came back on Feb. 2 with this gem (one can imagine the incredulous tone in which they designed this sentence to be read): "Both women are accusing the defendant of having sexual inter course with them without permis sion even though each acknowledges a prior sexual relationship with the man and having agreed to spend the night at his house.” Again, they don’t tell you what the women claim, that the parties in volved agreed not to have sex on the night in question. It’s sad that we live in a world where people can be vic timized by someone they trust. It’s sadder still that newspapers publish opinions like these, designed to shame people who have done noth ing wrong. “I've read the Register-Guard ever since I was able to read,” DePoe said. "Reading that editorial made me dis appointed in a newspaper that I had read daily. I’d never want to give my money to a newspaper that encour ages a rapist society and discourages women from reporting rapes.” I’ve talked to a few people already who have canceled their subscriptions as a response to these opinions. One can only hope more will fol low suit. Victims of sexual miscon duct deserve understanding, compas sion and support, not condemnation. And we all deserve a society in which you can agree not to have sex and have your wishes respected. At the top of its masthead, our lo cal daily claims that “a newspaper is a citizen of its community.” Through its editorials, the Guard has been an irresponsible public citizen to this point. But if the editors are serious about upholding that creed, I have a simple proposal. The Guard could help make up for its misinformation by reaffirming, in print, this simple truth: When a woman says “no” to any kind of sex ual behavior and then someone goes forward with that behavior, it’s rape. That much is plain and simple. To everyone, anyway, except The Regis ter-Guard. Jeff Shaw is a columnist for the Emerald. His columns appear alternate Wednes days. His mews do not necessarily those of the newspaper. rUdimama In the editorial “Work to protect labor lobbyists" (ODE, Feb. 10), the explanation of the fate of a measure to elim inate state con tributions to em ployee pensions should have said the measure was defeated when it was overturned by a state court. The Emerald regrets the error. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Firm should get credit The recent story focusing upon the role that students have played and are currently playing in the renovations of the EMU omit ted several critical points of information. The most glaring omission from the article was any reference to the landscape architectural firm of Cameron/McCarthy/Gilbert, who are the designers of the outdoor space currently nearing completion. The article in Wednes day’s Emerald (Feb. 4, ODE) completely ig nored the fact that while student designs from two studios I taught were shown to the De sign Advisory Group, and to CMG, they were used as idea generators, or as places to start, not as a singular driving force behind the pro ject. While many good ideas came out of the studio work, including many of the ideas you see being incorporated into the new court yard, the integration of those ideas into a buildable and beautiful design is fully the work of CMG, and credit should be given where it is due. Also left out of the article was any reference to the generosity of CMG m giv ing our students an opportunity to play a role in parts of the design and construction of the new courtyard (planting design and installa tion, irrigation design and installation), and specifically Larry Gilbert’s interaction with our students in leading weekly walking tours of the construction site that give our students an opportunity to see how a project like this comes to fruition. While the contributions of the students will in fact save money that can be spent in other areas of the project that were shortchanged or omitted due to an already limited budget, a point of equal or greater im port is the educational role that these oppor tunities offer to our students. While this last point was made in the article, the role that CMG played in making it happen was left out. Stan Jones Professor, landscape architecture Looking for a lawsuit If I were Donna Albro, Bill Miner, Ben Unger, Robert Wasson, a member of the ASUO Women’s Center — or the ODE, for that matter — 1 would think twice (having ob viously failed completely to think the first time) about using the label of “rapist" quite so casually. As 1 understand it, “rapist" is a title that can be bestowed on a criminal at the con clusion of a criminal judicial proceeding fol lowed by a conviction, all in a court of law. Prosecution under the Student Conduct Code evidently is not required to meet the stan dards that would be required by a court — al though it certainly should be. But the use of such language following a SCC investigation and "conviction” in such a case does not ex empt anyone from being sued for slander or libel. President Frohnmayer, in ordering a long-overdue review of this case, is obviously aware of this. Donta Graham-Preston may or may not be guilty; we’ll never really know until there has been some sort of thorough and impartial — and legal — investigation. In the mean time, all the P.C. rhetoric about “rapists” and “sur vivors” won’t alter the fact that this whole business looks a lot more like a Star chamber than a legitimate inquiry' — or that it also looks like a humongous lawsuit just waiting to happen. Michael E. Stamm Graduate secretary, English aepartment Thumbs To Culinary Workers Union local 226: After being on strike since Sept 21,1991, The New York Tenes reports thatthe union ffnal ly won a contract from the Frontier hotel in Las Vegas. In the more than six years 550 workers were on strike, not one crossedthe picket lines. Work ers were protesting a variety of unfair labor practices, charges upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals forthe9th Circuit The victory is part of a larger growth of labor in Vegas, which AFL CIOiYesiderttJQhn Sweeney called “the hottest union city in America.” To the U.S. Marine Corps: After an incident even the Marines admit displayed “recklessness" in which a low-flying jet severed the ca ble on a ski it and killed 20 people in Italy, a steady se ries of damning revelations about the way the military treats the commu nities in which it has bases have emerged. Not only did the Marines ad mit their pilot was in error, but reports have also come out that such haz ardous behavior was not uncom mon in the region. Worse, in the days following the acci dent, the Marines and other officials have shown great disrespect for com munity members investigating the in cident, going so far as to deny the plane had a flight recorder late last week, then deliver ing the recorder from the plane over the weekend after an engineer con firmed the military was dishonest about the presence of such a device on the plane.
