The horrific crimes perpetrated by Canadian Forces‘ Colonel, Russell Williams, have forced those of us who’d rather not, to look at disturbing images which were presented as evidence in the courtroom. You won’t find a link to those images here. Why the media insists these images are publishable news, that this is a story of fetishism, is beyond me! It’s sensationalist journalism, at best. At worst, it’s abuse of the privilege and power afforded to the corporate media in this culture. The media grabbed onto the wrong narrative.
As feminist blogger and activist, Elizabeth Pickett, points out, this story is about power and control, about the predatory behaviour of a decorated Colonel. And the media has failed — royally — to tell that story. Instead, they give several column inches to the Prime Minister’s defense of the Canadian Forces, where he named the Forces as victim. Oh, yes, he did mention the direct victims, but only as an afterthought. See what Dave, at the Galloping Beaver has to say about that! Harper’s spin simply shows him for the misogynist he truly is.
As despicable as the PM is the police force that did not believe the crimes several female victims reported, that did not warn women that a perp was on the loose, and that took far too long to solve the case. Antonia Zerbisias has been on the story from the get-go. And she has been in recent conversation with one of the assault survivors who said:
I feel liked chopped liver & I can’t even comprehend how the little one is feeling. Now if I could get a message out to the masses it would be-if you survive a violent act of sex don’t report it, just run for cover & find your own protection minus the police & the system they represent.
Says a lot in a couple of sentences, doesn’t she? The police force should be apologizing, rather than patting themselves on the back! Their job was not well done. Far from it! One mainstream journalist at the Toronto Star finally got that part figured out:
Col. Russell Williams is a burglar, predator, rapist, torturer and killer. There’s nothing titillating about that and his crimes shouldn’t be viewed through the distorting prism of Tweety Bird underwear, lacy lingerie and puerile voyeurism. (Emphasis mine)
In a Facebook discussion, a friend posed another question. Colonel Williams served our country in different parts of the world. Predators do not become predators overnight. Predatory behavior escalates. So, are there women in other parts of the world who were violated by him? Will we ever know? Will anyone ever look? Or, is that information already there, labeled classified, and hidden from the citizenry in the name of national security? Could the Forces be a co-conspirator to these crimes?
So, there you go, MSM, we’ve done your thinking for you. Now, will you dare to seek out the answers?
the regina mom 
Darlene Gray
/ October 23, 2010Well said…..Bernadette, Mirtha and Elizabeth. Thanks for talking about the story that matters, that will affect people’s lives.
Oemissions
/ October 23, 2010“There are more women serving in the military than ever before, and they’re in danger—but not just from combat. Last year, nearly 1,400 women reported being assaulted and raped by their fellow soldiers, in some cases by their commanding officers. The shocking phenomenon is called military sexual trauma, or MST.
Since NOW first aired its investigation into rape and sexual assault in the military last year, the Pentagon has released new reports in which one-third of military women say they’ve been sexually harassed. And the number of women reporting assault and rape has essentially remained the same—even though the military says it has invested serious resources to combat the problem.”
Support our troops?
anita
/ October 23, 2010October 23, 2010
Please stop mind rape in the media. The recent reporting’s on Russell Williams confessions to murder, his record keeping of these acts and eventual life imprisonment sentence to Kingston have been enormously painful to listen to as a woman. The suffering Russell Williams choose to perpetuate, in these, “war on women” times, through violent acts of torture and murder, by misusing his power over human life was comprehendible. What was not comprehendible to me was the incredulous omission or philosophical error in the media that inadvertently perpetuated a horrific slice of the patriarchal paradigm that insists on associating sexuality with violence.
Russell Williams’ behaviours, thoughts and actions were most certainly the furthest away from the sacredness of sexuality that one can get. Yet the interviewers on CBC and those interviewed in connection to covering his court proceedings referred to his crimes, and I quote, as “sexual stalking”, “sexual assault”, “and “sexual fantasies”.
If we were able to talk to either woman he brutally murdered about his this I am absolutely certain they would not for a moment mistaken any of his intentions as anything at all to do with sexuality and everything to do with the subjugation, control, stalking, violence , and murder of woman. What a disservice the media does to interview people who have such a voided feminist consciousness, as to use sex and violence in the same sentence. Are we so in the dark ages that we cannot differentiate between a penis being used as a weapon and one being used to contribute to love? I surely hope not. Or worse yet is the males experience the only one being considered, perpetuating the invisibility of women as sexual beings. I am more horrified by this thought.
To refer to anything Russell Williams did as even remotely linked to sex or sexuality is absurd. I can accept mention of the fact he murdered two people, and both of them were of the female gender, I would venture to conclude that the remaining, over eighty charges, he was convicted of included 100% female victims, the opposite sex. Blind ignorance cannot be an excuse to avoid some helpful action to acknowledge the barbaric pairing of violence and sexuality that is happening all over the planet, on almost daily news reports.
Radio is public power that I don’t want to see used to perpetuate misuse of power or power imbalances that are killing woman in Canada and on the planet every day. Russell Williams’, stalking of a woman to murder her, is not “sexually stalking”, he is stalking to hunt and to kill. Russell Williams’, fantasizing about murdering a woman, is not “sexual fantasy”, he is fantasizing about torturing and killing a woman. What this man did when he attacked and killed these women was not sexual assault; it was Russell Williams using his penis as a weapon to kill.
Perhaps, CBC could bring some balance to this outrageous reporting trend that has been occurring when reporting on the war injuries being incurred by Canadian woman every day. This could be done by having a live radio tribunal that spoke with woman victims in Canada on how they have been impacted by the way in which the crimes against them are linked to sex. Or perhaps a panel of some woman profilers, woman psychologists, therapists, doctors, and women who work in the trenches in Canada everyday and are responding to the impact of attempted murdering, raping, maiming and other assaults on woman.
To me, the extreme misperception that continues to make perpetrators into something that they are not, “engaging in sexual activity”, is beyond buffoon. It smacks of institutionalized violence that once confused in the mind is difficult to separate. Let’s stop the insanity and free woman and men to create new possibilities to end violence against woman by taking the organ out of the mind that put it there.
Mind fucking is pitiful, a man getting an erection during murder or stalking does not make for sexual anything. Zilch, Zero, De nada.
Anita Melin, MA
Registered Clinical Counsellor
Private Practice Nelson BC
CanNurse
/ October 24, 2010Good one, Bernadette. And Bravo, Anita! Well said! And Oemmissions too! Great comments!
Lilian Nattel
/ October 26, 2010Well said everyone. I also found the excerpts of his confession too painful to watch. I am relieved that someone “respectable” (outwardly) has been caught at last. It helps to change the image that people have of perps who wear a sign on their foreheads.
Nadine Lumley
/ October 26, 2010I will unseatHarper.ca
http://www.cafepress.ca/Looney_Left
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