Tuesday, January 16, 2007

How to Piss elle Off When She's Already Sleepy and Cold

...fuck with the kids. Seriously, I checked my e-mail today and one AOL headline was "Why Didn't Boy Try to Escape?" a reference to Shawn Hornbeck.

I get a particularly nasty attitude when people ask this of battered women (because just leaving, you know, is so easy to do). But when assholes start asking it of kids?

I get sick to my stomach.

He is a child who had to depend on this man for everything. Everything. And who knows what the bastard may have been telling him? Who knows how terrified he was at what might happen to him, to people he loved, if he tried to escape? So what if he had internet access and a phone? If you've been in a violent or abusive situation, you know escaping is more about what is in your mind than all the routes available to you.

I hate this question, because it has the suspicious smell of victim blaming. There is an implication that "It must not have been too bad," or "He must have liked something," or somehow, an 11-year-old child was in collusion with his abductor.

I hope they focus this much on the damned kidnapper's motives.

4 comments:

Gwyneth Bolton said...

It is blaming the victim and it's really sad. You would think people would know better by now. It's 2007. That education should have happened. But we still have stupid ass people who can't comprehend... It pisses me off too. I have no patience for stupidity in these matters, especially not when dumb asses should know better... I saw some reports on this news story and some of them insinuated that the boy should have left or could have left. And all I could do was shake my head at the stupidity. I know I should pray for the dumb asses... But I just couldn't find it in my heart to do so... dumb asses...

Anonymous said...

Dumb asses is right. No one knows what it was like for that boy (the one who'd been their for 4 years.) He obviously saw that his parents were looking for him (posters of him "aged" were up in the area where he was held), something kept him from trying to escape and the most LOGICAL conclusion would be FEAR. To insinuate that the kids (Elizabeth Smart and the girl from Austria come to mind as well) are content with their situation because they didn't cry for help or try to escape at every opportunity is absurd. Dumb asses is right.

Anonymous said...

OK, I'll de-lurk by saying yes indeed, this is disgusting.

It is freezing over here too.

InfoScholar said...

Apparently the editorial folks at USA Today agree with you (as do I) and today's (1/17) big piece was about lambasting those idiots out there playing the 'blame the victim' game. Sickening.

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