Honey Badger Radio: Anonymity for thee but not for me

Show Blurb (written by Alison Tieman, narrated by Karen Straughan)

Currently we afford rape accusers anonymity. We only afford anonymity to the accuser for rape or other sexual crimes; we don’t do this for any other crime.

The rationale is that rape accusers face unique stigma for being seen as rape victims. Or rather they face the unique stigma of being accused of really having engaged in consensual sex.

As for the presumptively innocent men that they accuse…

Well, who gives a fuck about them and the stigma they face.

Join us tonight on this episode of Honey badger radio, Anonimity for me but not for thee. As we discuss anonymity in rape trials.

Also, last week we were trolled by 4chan. Specifically 4chan’s my little pony board. After weathering the fury and find it less than furious, we have to ask… did 4chan white knight… us?

Show Business (written by Alison Tieman, presented by Alison Tieman)

Hello and welcome to Honey Badger Radio. I’m your host, Alison Tieman, otherwise known as Typhonblue and with me today are my cohosts Della Burton and Diana Davidson. Today’s show is Anonymity for me and not for thee and will be covering the arguments for and against anonymity in rape trials.

Before we get into the show topic we have some business to take care of!

As you may know, Honey Badger Radio has a new store. We have various honey badger themed items and also designs using our rape culture mascot, mr. Tentacles.

In fact Mr. Tentacles has gotten into the holiday spirit as Mr. Santacles.

Mr. Santacles wants to be your secret santa! Check him out at cafe press dot com slash honey badger brigade

Thanks to Europa Phoenix for the design.

We also have a show archive for those of you who want to hear past shows. You can find it on youtube dot com slash user slash honey badger radio.

Go and subscribe. Right now.

A note on the show sound. All of the hosts have good microphones. Aside from my craptastic internet connection, the reason why the sound is degraded is the blogtalk system. The only way we can improve our sound is a studio set up.

If you want to see our sound improve, or if you just enjoy the show, please consider donating to our show. You can find a donation button on our youtube page or on our website at honey badger brigade dot com.

Next week we’ll be doing a show in which we present a top ten naughty list and a top ten nice list for the year. Please send what you think is the most positive change you’ve seen for Men’s rights in 2013 for nice list. And also, for the naughty list, send those personages you believe represent the worst of feminist and gynocentric nastiness of 2013. Please send your selections to honey badgers radio @ gmail dot com. Note the s… It’s honey badgerS plural radio @ gmail dot com.

Finally we were trolled last week by 4chan’s my little pony board. Although it was quite an honour to get 4chan’s attention, considering how much their trolling is hyped we found it… a little more of a cool spring breeze than a typhoon.

If you guys want to troll us in the future, here is a brief list of tips. 1. Don’t use obvious troll names. Once one of you uses one, we usually can pick up on the fact that we’re facing a troll brigade. 2. If you’re going to use men’s first names, use relatively uncommon ones. Seriously we had four Jakes and three Johns. 3. In a show where we end up discussing the things we do—like how to properly use a plush toy as a marital aid—set the troll bar higher than shouting “I want to have sex with rainbow dashs’ pussy!” Four—

Della Interjects: Where’s that damn my little pony porn of us you promised!? I’ve been looking forward to it all week. Don’t forget the extra tentacles—“

Okay, okay Della… Seriously 4chan, did you pull your punches? Did you make it easy for us? Did you, in fact, white knight us?

Anyway, Here’s Della, hopefully composed, with community news.

Community news (written by Della Burton, Conference announcement written by Dean Esmay, presented by Della Burton)

Please be sure to check out the announcement on the front page of A Voice for Men today, ‘AVFM is hosting International Conference on Men’s Issues’. This conference will be in Detroit in late June 2014 and will feature Dr. Warren Farrell, Erin Pizzey, Robert Franklin, Dr. Miles Groth, Barbara Kay, Carnell Smith, and Paul Elam. Looks like it’ll be the big event of 2014 in men’s advocacy.

In February of this year, after watching months of debate on the meaning of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control’s National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence survey, I filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the raw numbers from the data for the year 2010. After 8 months, they’ve finally responded to my requst with a PDF file. They also discussed with me how they think that data should be evaluated.

As promised, I’ve published the file, along with a description of that discussion and a few conclusions of my own regarding it, on my blog, breaking the glasses. The title of the post, given the long wait for this information, is “FOIA update – sorry for the cliffhanger.” I encourage anyone interested to take a look, read over the entry, my original request, and the data I was given.

Show Intro (by Alison Tieman, presented by Alison Tieman)

In early 2013, Emma Hall, leading a vigilante gang of four, beat Luke Harwood to death.

And by beat, I mean she and her friends punched him, kicked him, stomped on his head until he had foot prints on his skull and then they dragged him off and killed him..

After Emma and her gang had murdered Luke Harwood, they covered his body with a discarded mattress and planned to return to slice off his fingers and cut out his teeth.

Luke Harwood had been falsely accused of rape by Emma Hall’s sister Alice Hall.

In 2012 16 year old Dominic Scullion was walking down a street, listening to music on his headphones, when he felt a tap on his shoulder. When he turned around to see who it was 41 year old Paul Caulfield spat in his face, rendered him unconscious with a single punch and beat his head into the ground, breaking Dominic’s jaw.

Witnesses claimed that they tried to get Paul Caulfield to stop beating the teenager, to no avail. Dominic’s relatives thought he’d been hit by a car when they saw him lying in a pool of blood on the street.

If you search Dominic Scullion’s name, you still can see the pictures.

The fifteen year old girl who accused him of rape remains anonymous.

In 1955 Emmett Till whistled at a white woman named Carolyn Brant. Carolyn Brant proceeded to chase Emmett till with a gun; most likely she later enlisted the aid of her husband and brother to finish what she started.

They beat Emmet Till, gouged out one of his eyes, shot him in the head and dumped him in a river.

All because he whistled at a woman he shouldn’t have.

Each of these teenage boys has two things in common. They were falsely accused of some form of sexual assault, and they were all beaten because of the stigma of having been accused of sexual assault.

Two died; one lived. Likely Dominic only survived because he was beaten in a public street.

If he’d been beaten in seclusion like Emmet and Luke, he wouldn’t be here today either.

We give women who accuse men of rape anonymity.

There is no other crime in which this occurs as a matter of course. We do this because feminists have convinced us that the stigma women face when they’re alleged rape victims is so horrendous, so… impossible to recover from, so life-changing… that women need anonymity to accuse.

I think the stigma that killed Emmet and Luke, and landed Dominic face down in a puddle of his own blood, might be a wee bit life changing too.

So, anonymity in rape trials… I’m going to hand the mic over to Diana so she can tell us a bit more about the various arguments.

Anonymity in Rape Trials Redux (written by Diana Davidson, presented by Diana Davidson)

We’re talking today about the specific treatment of sexual crimes in the criminal court system. Specifically, rape has become a special crime considered to be different from other types of violence and has been granted a different set of rules in court proceedings after long, hard lobbying by feminists.

The implemented rape shield laws that, among other things, grant lifelong anonymity to accusers were introduced into the law under the premise that trials revictimize the victim and make it more difficult for victims to report the crimes commited against them.

The granting of anonymity to accusers is problematic in that it can interfere with the defendant’s ability to formulate a proper defence and, ultimately… unlike any other type of crime, shifts the burden of proof onto the accused.

There are three basic positions in regards to anonymity in rape trials. Anonymity only for the victim (note that the accuser is classified as ‘victim’ in advance), anonymity for both the accuser and the accused, or removal of anonymity for both.

A quick overview of the arguments for each positon runs as follows:

Anonymity only for victims is justified on the grounds that women should automatically be believed when they report a rape, granting anonymity to the accused would somehow extend the suffering of the victim, and that publicizing the name of the accused helps to draw out other women who may have been previously victimized by the defendant.

Arguments to grant anonymity for the accused is best summarized in a single word – equality. What is true about the public shaming of rape victims is even more applicable to the public stigma of being accused of rape. We can’t automatically assume the accuser is telling the truth or we defeat the whole purpose of fair trials. Until convicted, every person accused of rape must be seen as innocent until proven guilty and shielded from the court of public opinion.

The third, less often heard, position is there should be no anonymity for either side. This argument is compelling and summarized by the tenet that justice should not only *be* done but should *be seen* to be done. This position holds that it is not the accuser who charges the defendant with rape but the State. The public has a right to know who is being brought to court in their name and in whose defence.

As rape is a criminal offence and not one of negligence, it is a serious matter wherein we are faced with incarcerating, or removing the civil liberties, of an individual within our society under our names. The need to protect the rights of all accused is inseparable from our need to protect our own civil liberties. Anyone can find themselves accused of a crime and your position should reflect an understanding that you might, yourself, one day be sitting in the defendant’s chair.

When courts stop exercising the basic tenet of presumed innocence, shifting the burden of proof onto the accused, and corrupting equality before the law, we are not facing the mythical feminist rape culture anymore, we are facing the very real loss of civil liberty as a nation.

The discussion about rape laws that privilege the accuser is silenced by the charge that we, as a society hold misogynist rape myths but the discussion can not be silenced. The concern is not one of privilege it is a deep and serious matter that will ultimately determine whether or not we live in a free and just society.

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