A Cheerleader’s Rape in a Small Texas Town

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.”

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 […]

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 […]

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.