Holy Fuck Reaction part 2

The immediate aftermath of Nicole's supposed recantation has been quite passionate and as expected, quick to villify her. I've seen forums where her real name has been revealed and pictures of her plastered with captions of "hypocrite, slut, prostitute", etc.

As I've mentioned before, what worries me most is this uncritical assumption of the recantation which I don't think can be taken at face value. One knee-jerk reaction I've heard is "sabi ko nga ba, Daniel Smith is so gwapo, he doesn't need to rape anyone." That also worries me. It's disturbing to see the emergence of latent prejudices against rape and women. A good looking guy can't be guilty of rape. A condom equates to consent. A drunk woman is asking for it. While the recantation (whether done voluntarily or under duress) has implications for rape victims and woman in general, so do our responses. and so far our responses are disturbing in what they are revealing about our culture's attitudes towards women.

I don't think we can just take the recantation at face value and paint Nicole as the villain without examining the conditions that have made this situation possible. these include (to my mind) a government which values political considerations over individual rights, a culture with such backward notions about rape and women, and a country where a U.S. visa can be used as a bargaining tool. and i think the immediate villification of Nicole based on a document that i think is dangerous to take at face value is misguided and probably displays our own ignorance of our complicity in letting these conditions persist.

taking things at face value meantime is also precisely what makes us so easily manipulated.