After hearing about recent rapes on her campus, American University student ChloeRubenstein (a sexual assault survivor herself) posted the following message to Facebook:
"ATTENTION WOMEN," she wrote, before identifying twoAmerican university students by name and calling them rapists. She wenton: "we should all be aware! Stay away at all costs. They are predatorsand will show no remorse for anyone. If you have been effected byeither one of these sickos please feel free to talk to me. With enoughhelp we can take them down!"
I'll say up front that Rubenstein's story, which Amanda Hess describes in more detail, is kind of confusing. I don't get whether she saw an assault in progress, or she just heard about it. I also definitely don't condone the last line of Rubenstein's posting -- "[t]ake them down!!" -- because it seems to advocate violence against these men.
Setting aside her specific case, though, I do think the hypothetical is interesting: Let's say you know (for sure) the identity of a person who raped your friend. You know your school's sexual assault policy is terrible, and you know your friend is unwilling to go through the additional trauma of filing charges with police. You also know that this rapist is hanging out and going to parties on campus, and will have many opportunities to do to other women what he did to your friend. What would you do?
There some are compelling reasons for doing what Rubenstein did:
1. The system fails women. Again and again. Campus and law-enforcement response to sexual assault is often inadequate at best, traumatic at worst. And schools are reluctant to treat acquaintance rapes (aka the majority of rapes) as crimes worthy of alerting all students about. These system failures essentially give offenders license to rape again.
2. Women already share this type of information informally -- and have since long before Facebook. Women in a particular industry warn each other about which bosses are sexist and which coworkers are harassers. We discuss previous relationship violence we have experienced and caution friends against dating those men. We are often each other's best support and resource.
3. Rapists are likely to be repeat offenders. This was Rubenstein's primary motivation for making the Facebook posting: "I felt like I needed to warn everyone else about these guys," she said. The comments at Jezebel (where Amanda's post was reposted) are full of women's stories of being raped by an acquaintance who went on to rape other women.
Ibelieve these arguments make a strong case for alerting your friendsand spreading the word in private settings, but not for making publicstatements accusing rapists. Facebook, though it may feel like a spacefor you and your closest friends, is very much a public venue,especially given its recent privacy changes and glitches. There are obviously legal considerations. In posting the accused rapists' names to her nearly 1,000 Facebook friends, Rubenstein is jeopardizing any potential criminal investigation and reducing the chance that these men could be brought to justice.
Rubenstein eventually took the posting down:
"I don't clear my status because I'm scared," she wrote onFacebook. "I clear it for legal reasons and because my message reached968 people. If you or someone you know has been raped or sexuallyassaulted and needs a safe place to talk about how they feel or whatcan be done, please contact me. No Fear. No Secrets. 2010."
Indeed, women sharing information in safe places is a key way werespond to the failure of campus policies and the justice system. ButFacebook is definitely not one of those safe places.
--Ann Friedman
