Wednesday, May 3, 2006

The On-the-Record Facts: On Strippers and Thugs

In discussing the Duke lacrosse scandal last week, Bill O’Reilly restricted the dialogue on his program to the “on-the-record facts.” In referencing this “record,” I believe O’Reilly acknowledged the public media trial that often precedes the actual legal trial. These trials differ, however, not only in the facts asserted and proven but also often in the perspective taken. Specifically, the public media trial of the Duke lacrosse incident has often seemed to invert the notion of criminal culpability. The story is often one of two “strippers” who have accused three men and not the story of three “thugs” who have assaulted and raped a woman.

I think it clear that these women have been portrayed as “strippers,” sometimes “exotic dancers” and less frequently "hos." Shawn Cunningham, a colleague of the victim's, ably acknowledged this portrayal. But what is the point of it? Sentasionalism is all well and good, but why is this so sensational? Susan Estrich has suggested that entertainers like this were once thought incapable of being raped. If it is a milder form of the argument that persists today, it is no less vile. Their profession has nothing to do with validating any consent.

Similarly, I would note that neither the Duke athletes nor their behavior has been connected to any sense of “thuggishness.” I can forego the allegation of rape entirely and still present an “on-the-record” caricature of the men at the party. One faces charges for an apparently homophobic assault. Another has apparently violated the terms of an agreement with the D.A. from a previous incident. Several more have faced minor charges, including drinking under age, and Duke itself has chronicled a party of 5 and arrive to find 40. When they begin, they apparently encounter racist remarks and a threat that they will be sodomized with a broomstick. As they flee, one is allegedly asked to thank her grandfather for the white Duke players’ “nice cotton shirt.” But, presumably because the lacrosse players have never written any rap albums, these athletes are not rendered “thugs.”

Regardless of actual guilt, the accused players and at least some of their teammates are no hapless, innocent victims. If being employed as an exotic dancer is supposed to be some kind of mitigating circumstance, the boorish behavior of these athletes is as well. Yet we are told of one and not the other and very likely in some sense because the media believes that is what we want to hear.

There is a record being developed in the media presentation of the Duke lacrosse scandal—and it is indicting.

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