[TRIGGER WARNING for rape and violence] unknowable woman: Dear everyone remotely connected to Jezebel:

Now would be a great time to resign in protest.

What they just did, which was, let me remind you, posting screencaps of a woman’s rape that was uploaded to youtube, that goes so far beyond the pale of human decency….

I cannot believe they thought this was okay simply…

I just sent an email to the author of the piece, as I’m sure many people have already done. I highly doubt she’ll actually read it, but whatever. I’ve removed a part of the email for my own personal privacy reasons:

Regarding the article about the possible rape of a journalist in Benghazi, Libya:

I’ve typed out and deleted this email several times already. I cannot seem to clearly articulate my reaction to this piece without being blinded with deep anger and disappointment in response to your piece’s use of the screen caps and Jezebel’s decision to publish it. I realize that you’re probably already deleting this email, if you haven’t already, but on the slight chance that you’re still reading this, I’ll continue with what I have to say.

I don’t generally object to pieces providing information and pictures that are hard to see, such as death, destruction, violence, ignorance, blood, assault, etc. But to provide a picture of a woman that is in the midst of what we suspect is rape, what has been painted as rape by the actual people who posted the video and boasted about their role in the assault, is highly responsible. What, precisely, do pixelated screen shots of a rape provide for a story? Let alone the accompanying description of what is happening to her? What would have been lost to the story, to the importance of what happened and how this is just one example of the horrors that journalists and women face everywhere, if you had chose instead just to leave the description of what happened as ‘rape’. What was gained, really, by the blow-by-blow account, along with the screen shots?

You must think your readers are stupid. Really, you must. Journalists are beheaded on video, and yet I’ve read plenty of stories about the incidents and the videos without the pieces actually including the video, or screen caps, or even pixelated screen caps. The lack of images don’t unmake the story, they don’t. They don’t. They really, really don’t. And you know what? That’s for beheading videos. Surely there are people out there who could be triggered by them, but there are arguably a HUGE amount more that will be triggered by images from a taped rape.

Can you possibly see how this is, in a way, putting that woman through another sexual assault? The caps are pixelated so that the people in the video are beyond recognition, sure, but doesn’t that also just prove the point that they were worthless to include in the first place?

Also, your warning for ‘graphic images’ and the one sentence of warning placed right before the caps was completely insufficient for people who are prone to being triggered. To that, I would like to personally (and obviously very sarcastically) thank you for triggering me. [redacted]

I hope you choose to remove those caps immediately. I know Jezebel has a reputation for being stubborn in the face of controversy, but goddamn. Loosen the stubborn-reigns just this once, for fuck’s sake.

Really, really, really sincerely,
Katherine

(Source: anedumacationisnomore, via little-sword-deactivated2013040)