Maybe it’s the cheer that makes this one rape among hundreds of thousands that occur in the U.S. each year so resonant. As Rakheem Bolton came to the free throw line during a February 2009 basketball game, the Silsbee High cheerleading squad had a rhyme at the ready: two, four, six, eight, ten, come on Rakheem, put it in. Four months earlier, cheerleader Hillaire S. had alleged that Bolton had raped her at a house party. And now she was being asked to gleefully urge him to “put it in.”
Author: Caroline Heldman
Dr. Caroline Heldman is the Executive Director of The Representation Project, Professor of Politics at Occidental College in Los Angeles and a Senior Research Advisor for the Geena Davis Institute for Gender in Media. She also co-founded the New Orleans Women’s Shelter, the Lower Ninth Ward Living Museum, End Rape on Campus, Faculty Against Rape and End Rape Statute of Limitations. Her books include Rethinking Madame President: Are We Ready for a Woman in the White House?, Protest Politics in the Marketplace: Consumer Activism in the Corporate Age), Women, Power, and Politics: The Fight for Gender Equality in the United States, The New Campus Anti-Rape Movement and Sex and Gender in the 2016 Presidential Election. Her research has been featured in top academic journals like the American Political Science Review, the Journal of Politics, Political Psychology and Political Communications; and her work has also been featured in the New York Times, U.S. News and World Report, The Huffington Post and The Daily Beast.
Newsflash: Cheerleader Denied Justice (Again)
In a Texas case I wrote about on the Ms. Blog in October, Hillaire S. was 16-years-old in October 2008 when she was taken into a dark room at a house party by four high school athletes, one of whom raped her while another held her down. When three students in the hall heard Hillaire’s […]
When the Missing are Prostitutes, Police Let Trails Go Cold
“In my experience working with trafficking victims for the past eight years, the fact that these women are prostitutes has everything to do with the delayed response and their ability to even get help.”
Long Island Murders: Sex Trafficking Ring Involved?
The discovery of ten dead bodies in a marsh in Long Island, at least four of them women who had some involvement with the sex trade, has been making national headlines. Police and reporters are calling it the work of a serial killer, publishing a detailed profile of him in The New York Times today: […]
The Real Story on Human Trafficking
What exactly is human trafficking and how can we help stop it? One of the best people in the U.S. to answer such questions is Department of Justice-certified human-trafficking consultant Dottie Laster, who has trained more than 5,000 police officers on recognizing and combating trafficking. She hosts a weekly internet radio show, “Trafficked,” on Here Women […]
Fighting Hate with Hate: Anti-Asian Rant Inspires Misogyny
On March 13, 2011, a UCLA student posted an ignorant rant titled “Asians in the Library” that quickly became a viral video. Comments about the video used nasty gender slurs, replicating the same type of hatred expoused in the video but towards women.
No Jail Time for Lawrence Taylor
Hall of Fame linebacker Lawrence Taylor will not spend a single day in jail for paying to have sex with a 16-year-old runaway on May 6, 2010, who was allegedly forced into prostitution. She was escorted by her trafficker to Taylor’s hotel room in suburban Ramapo, New York, with a black eye and other facial injuries, where he paid $300 to have sex with her.
Was the Shooting of Giffords a Hate Crime?
Although Jared Lee Loughner’s attempted assassination of Gabrielle Giffords raised many questions about how the polarized political environment may have motivated this mentally disturbed young man, one aspect of the Tucson massacre that has received little attention is misogyny. Loughner left behind several notes, including one that read “die bitch”–a gender slur that implies Giffords […]
Club 907 Dancers Freed!
All of the eighty plus women who were arrested during the November LAPD raid of Club 907 have been released. Club 907 is a “hostess club” where patrons pay for women’s companionship (e.g., “dancing,” delivering drinks). Police raided the club on suspicion of prostitution on November 5th, but ended up arresting 79 (of 81) “dancers” on documentation charges.
No Comment: Tilly’s Teaches Women How to Listen
Listen up, ladies. Tilly’s, the popular surf and skate clothing chain, is “teaching women how to listen,” according to an LRG-brand t-shirt it’s selling. The front features a woman, nude from the shoulders up, with tape over her mouth, captioned “enjoy the silence,” and below in parentheses, “drawing of girl with tape on mouth.” Offered […]