A woman identified only as Jane Doe sued Baylor University on Wednesday bringing the total to 7 women now who have filed a suit claiming to have been raped at Baylor by former football players and ignored by a university when she needed their help the most.
It's a disgusting scandal that's not going away and I'm real tired of hearing from people who say it can't be true because the women would have reported it years ago if it was. No...no they wouldn't...no they don't...and unfortunately I know they don't.
My daughter was raped when she was a student at North Texas...she didn't want to report it then but did and doesn't like to talk about it now, some 25 years later, but she is because she wants people to know how horribly she was treated.
We ask what they were wearing, had they been drinking, why were they there and why did they hang around those guys as if it's their fault. As if rape had anything to do with sex and even less with sex appeal and you wonder why women are reluctant to come forward.
The woman in this latest Baylor case is being identified only as Jane Doe because we don't identify rape victims, but when we tell a woman we won't use their name in a rape case we are telling that woman she is not just the victim of a crime. This is something she needs to hide, something to be embarrassed about because there is a stigma attached to rape.
It's a violent act of domination, it's not the act of a young man whose hormones are out of control, it's the act of a man who wants to show how much control he has...and while we in the media identify every victim of every crime, we don't identify rape victims.
I think we're sending the wrong message, a subtle message maybe...but a message.
This is a crime they need to hide, when in fact there's no shame in being the victim of a crime. It happens every day in our society and happens too often on our college campuses where we send our young women to learn.
There is no shame in being a victim. The real shame should be directed at those of you who don't think it can be true and if the woman doesn't report the crime on your time schedule.
I think it's well past the time we tell every woman who's a victim to stand up...because we stand with them. They don't have to hide any longer, they don't have to be afraid anymore and they have nothing to be ashamed about anymore either.