Saturday marks the first men's lacrosse home game since three players were indicted for allegedly raping a Durham stripper last spring. The rape charges have since been dropped, but other charges still stand. As the crowd-including students, alumni and probably KC Johnson-arrive to cheer on the team, let us not forget the (alleged) victim, now lampooned for what many believe are faulty allegations.
A disclaimer: I write this column in an attempt to nuance what kinds of women can and cannot report a rape and to question what kinds of truths are privileged. I do not write this column in an attempt to uphold the now-nefarious pots-and-pans activism against the lacrosse team.
While some women at Duke and in Durham (as in society at large) can legitimately claim rape, others cannot; and that difference is based on identity codings like class, race, profession and even clothing. In order to be believed about something like rape, women have to maintain a veneer of virginity; and in this narrative, the white Duke woman, ever superficially prude, is the perfect victim.
A white Duke woman, wearing plaid, pink and pearls, is considered a virgin, even if by the pale Durham moonlight, her actions speak otherwise. As long as she dresses and acts (by day) the part of a virgin, when she cries "rape," as a well-intentioned public, we believe her.
A black Durham stripper, on the other hand, cannot hide under plaid or pink. She is promiscuous, through and through, as far as much of the public is concerned; and so when she cries rape, we question her intentions. She is constructed as a "liar," and the victim becomes her assailant. Never has this been more evident than in the case of Duke lacrosse.
The sex acts of Duke women are carried out under the auspices of a good time, but a stripper's work, which by its nature drips in sex, is conducted as part of her greater effort to survive. How is it, then, that a white college student's sex acts become more legitimate than a stripper's professional sexuality? While a Duke woman has a choice to participate in risqué behavior, a stripper's economic vulnerabilities leave her little choice.
To imply that the Durham stripper hired by lacrosse players March 13 is not a perfect victim is an understatement-it's not enough-because in many media caricatures of her, she also has been portrayed as an illegitimate member of society. She is black. She is a single mother. And she is (gasp!) a stripper. Baggage in tow, she was somehow asking to be raped. or even if she wasn't asking for it, her social vulnerabilities somehow excuse her (alleged) rape.
In addition to economic and social vulnerabilities, when a marginalized member of society reports a rape, she does so under immense personal pressure. The victim, herself, feels a sense of disentitlement. She feels unauthorized to report the crime and (perhaps more importantly) to feel violated.
Thus, initially, what amazed me about the Duke lacrosse case, as a study abroad student peering in last spring, is that, 1) the (alleged) victim actually reported the crime; and 2) the media and Duke community believed the her.
So what happened? Sympathy for the Durham stripper has all but disappeared, as has the stripper's own certainty about whether or not the rape actually occurred. Indeed, the other stripper at the party, Kim Roberts, once so sure that her friend was raped, has in recent months denied the rape claims. Our criticisms of these women and the dreadful effects their allegations have had on the lacrosse team paint them as women with an economic or racist agenda; and it is now assumed, nationwide, that the rape allegations were a lie.
But what if they weren't? What if the reasons why the rape charges were dropped are completely superficial?
As an angry public, we have shown absolutely no acknowledgement of the economic, social or personal pressure to reverse rape allegations; nor have we acknowledged the fact that it is common for rape victims to question themselves after a rape has occurred and what they did to "deserve it." A woman who acts promiscuous in one setting-even for money-doesn't necessarily behave that way in every setting; but society still refuses to recognize this disparity, and so a rape victim internalizes the blame.
On-campus and media conversations about the March 13 party and post-party allegations have oversimplified the (alleged) rape. In our narrative of what constitutes a legitimate rape (one that we can easily understand and denounce), the perfect victim is a virgin, or at least a woman who looks and acts the part of a virgin; and a woman who enjoys sex-or makes sexual behavior part of her livelihood-is not afforded victim-hood.
I ask that we not treat the lacrosse men as heroes Saturday, heralding them back onto the field like upstanding men who have been somehow, irrevocably wronged; especially since we still don't know the details of the lacrosse party or the conditions of what really may have been a rape.
Shadee Malaklou is a Trinity senior. Her column runs every other Wednesday.
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