There’s no one to help you
Rhode Island residents tell woman why she deserved to be assaulted.
You’re an outspoken woman. You’re too young to have formed an opinion and you hold a bachelor’s degree in the wrong field. You don’t make as much as a man does doing the same job. You don’t think military personnel deserve a pass on assaulting women. You can’t prove you were assaulted because you didn't get it on video. Your first and last name are uncommon maybe even a soubriquet therefore you must be trying to hide something or are a prostitute. You don’t trust that the police will protect you because after all you probably deserved it anyway.
No woman deserves to be assaulted but that’s how some local men and women of Newport, Rhode Island responded to Charity Dash’s piece attacking rape culture in the area.
John Florez, a Newport local and owner of Drupal Connect and The Florez Group wrote a rebuttal to Dash where he states:
… not only has crime been dropping in Newport but it’s consistently lower than the national average in just about every category. #
Except for the number of rapes and assaults that are consistently higher than the national average.
In fact the only categories that Newport, RI scores a lower frequency when compared to the national average are in murders, robberies and auto thefts. Contrary to Florez’s statement; thefts, burglaries, rapes, and assaults occur at a greater frequency in Newport, RI than they do nationally—the latter two of which are directly related to Dash’s article.
Florez, a family man, then likens violent attacks on women to a rowdy hens’ night whereby women might assault unsuspecting men with tiny plastic penis charms and glitter.
Then there’s Tristan Pinnock, Chief Writer at TheNewportBuzz and employee at Bridge Liquors off JT Connell Hwy who in an apparent act of revenge over not receiving exclusive distribution of Dash’s article wrote what can only be described as a failed rant to discredit Dash.
Pinnock plays the victim-blame-game, says Dash is responsible for being at the wrong bar at the wrong time when a man threw glass cups at her feet while she was wearing sandals.
Pinnock lists one of his favourite books as A Man’s Point Of View—appropriate reading material for the guy no woman is attracted to. A book so highly regarded on Amazon that it has in total nine reviews; four of them 1-star.
It’s a “really stupid book and very poorly written,” says one reviewer.
The association of this book with Tristan Pinnock is unfair so I’ll stop but it’s exactly the style of journalism Mr. Pinnock has put forth in response to Miss Dash.
I’m sat here wondering what to write next, not ask questions why this problem still exists. We know why. We know this sickness of the mind exists across party lines, it’s the disease of men and self-defeating women. John Florez who listed himself as a Democrat during the last presidential election said that he “[doesn't] believe that the government has a right to legislate women’s bodies” but doesn’t extend the same right to women against the men who choose to violate them—or he does but isn’t saying it today.
I ask you Mr. Florez, what of your daughter? What if she had written the same article Miss Dash did? Would you have taken her seriously or dismissed her as a ruse?
I am reminded of an article I read by A.V. Flox, a person who I’ve had the pleasure of speaking to once or twice through video conference—but moreover, conversing through written word on Google+.
Her piece titled, I Just Want to Go on a Walk details what I believe Charity Dash was bravely attempting to voice before being smothered by the losers of Newport and their androcentric ideology, victim-blaming, slut-shaming, and the works.
I hope you’ll take a moment to read it.
