Erin Jarnagin
Talk about a war on women, and this time it was headed by someone parading as an activist. But instead of furthering the cause of organizations like Women’s Action Network and STOP Violence, if this accusation is true, Meg Lanker-Simons’ actions further hurt legitimate claims of sexual assault in this community.
Let us first be clear that while she has been issued a citation, she will not go to court until May 13 where she may or may not be convicted. However, the police stated they found evidence that the post came from her computer while it was in her possession.
It is no secret that there is a stigma about rape and sexual violence — including victim blaming and questions about what constitutes legitimate rape. It was fortunate that the rally in Simpson’s Plaza was about more than the post on UW Crushes, but it is unfortunate that the page was the catalyst and protest speakers claimed their protest made a real difference by getting the page shut down — several days after it had gone offline.
I am proud of our university community. If anything this gave us a chance to prove those who say UW has a “rape culture” wrong. The campus came together and students, administrators and faculty were up in arms about the post immediately. Dean Cozzens and other faculty members wrote and widely published letters, as did ASUW President Brett Kahler. Vice President for Student Affairs Sara Axelson spoke at the protest. The talk around campus and the number of letters to the editor sent to the Branding Iron shows that we will not tolerate this kind of behavior.
But this does not excuse her actions. This post was hateful and targeted in more ways than one. Describing herself as a “chick that runs her liberal mouth” and stating “one night with me and shes (sic) gonna be a good Republican bitch” eludes to a disgusting indication that Republican men want to rape women into submission and that Republican women are somehow more subservient than their Democratic counterparts.
And she claims to be against hate speech.
Furthermore, in our interview with her, the Branding Iron News Editor explicitly asked Lanker-Simons if she wrote the post and her response was, “I can’t believe that someone would say something like that and I don’t know why someone would post something like that about themselves. I seriously considered dropping out of school two weeks before graduation because I am terrified.”
This statement itself and the comment that she wrote inspired fear in women on this campus. And whether or not she meant to, she furthered a stigma that women should be afraid for their safety around men.
Women do not need to be afraid; they need to be empowered to watch out for themselves and stay safe while sexual assault remains a problem. Conversely, neither men nor our society needs to be lumped into the generalization “rape culture” but we need continued education and dialogue against sexual assault.
I hope Lanker-Simons is pleased with herself. Her selfish and attention seeking actions made a mockery of a serious issue and made it even more difficult for anyone else looking to make real progress on this campus.
This scandal will now hinder future claims of sexual assault, and her legacy will be the girl who cried wolf.
Now I ask the University to do something about it. The community has proven that it will not accept rape jokes or threats, now the administration needs to prove that it takes sexual assault seriously and punish the person who wrote the comment.
She will:
-Get off with minimal punishment, using the argument that any harsh punishment would intimidate others from reporting rape/harassment, historically this defense works.
-Increase her following among feminists, who will choose to believe she was “framed” by the “patriarchy” / misogynist police, regardless of any evidence that can be shown against her.
You hoped that Lanker-Simons will be pleased with herself, and she will be, she now has a guaranteed place among, at the very least, the radical end of feminism and can look forward to a lucrative career in blogging after she receives her slap on the wrist.
Public confidence in feminism however will take another hit, as it should as long as people in it are encouraging this sort of behavior.
After a preliminary opening with a couple of paragraphs that place the charges against Mrs. Lanker-Simons, this proceeds as an unfair and uncritical indictment of her. She has stated that she is going to plea not guilty and no court has convicted her of anything. This is just irresponsible journalism and you should apologize for it. Why don’t we wait for this process to play out?
I don’t have a dog in this hunt, but in this country we are innocent until proven guilty. Accusations are not convictions.
She won’t be going to court on May 13 because she filed a written ‘not guilty’ plea, that means that the arraignment, set for May 13 will be vacated and her case will be set for a scheduling conference, maybe a month out.
The courts in Laramie don’t hold trials the first day someone comes to court, there’s a whole process. If the case proceeds to a trial it probably wouldn’t be until late Summer/ Fall.
Until then, she’s presumed innocent of the charge of interference and I think we’d all do well to remember that.
“..if the accusations are true…”
The police would not have issued a citation unless they had solid proof. Facebook records everything anyone does who has contact with their website including what they looked at and for how long, what they typed, location info and machine identifiers. It’s trivial to prove what the police are saying.
Yeah, the police only issue citations to guilty people when they have 100% solid proof. No one is ever found innocent after a trial, because the police have never, ever issued a citation to someone who didn’t do it. No one is ever released from prison after months, years, decades after it is proven to be innocent after having been convicted of a crime.
Never, ever, ever. The police are infallible. Honestly, I don’t even know why we have a judicial system, because the police are never wrong. We should just lock people up after the police write them a citation, because gosh darn it if they’re not 100% guilty.
You’re being ridiculous. The presumption of innocence and the judicial process are what separates this great country from the sh*t shows in the rest of the world.
Brought to you by a loud-mouth liberal.