I just checked the NYT site and my comment asking to print Jyoti’s name, quoting her father, and asking why they are following India law in reporting news has not been approved yet. I’m kind of shocked. I wish I had made a copy of it so I knew exactly what I wrote. Maybe it will come up?
I don’t see the comment from Beth either who posted on Reel Girl’s FB page that her comment was not approved. She wrote: “Her name is Jyoti.”
I did see one great comment:
Her name is Jyoti, and her father has said that he wants the whole world to know who she is. Just because India is a sexist, misogynistic culture and therefore refuses to publish Jyoti’s name does not mean that the NY Times should participate in silencing her.
Her name is Jyoti Singh Pandey, and how dare you leave it out.
I take that comment to illustrate that the US is also a sexist and misogynistic culture.
Here’s the comment from Disgusted that I referenced earlier:
I was watching a PBS news program on Asia just before dinner when it showed a news headline with the photo of her father saying something to the effect that he wanted the world to know her name, and he gave it: Jyoti Singh. Her name is all over the internet now; hope it is acceptable here.
This was presumably to protest how shame has always attached to the victim, but he was breaking that assumption by proudly announcing her name. There was a photo of her, a wonderful smiling one.
So please get moving NYTimes with the Jyoti Singh Memorial Fund, NOW. Surely that is not beyond your legal expertise. Of course, of course you don’t want to establish a precedent for every heartbreaking story you run. Or some one or entity might decide in future to sue the NYT for its handling of monies.
The legal and accounting beagles must have those contingencies in hand by establishing a liaison to a reliable non-profit in India with impeccable credentials. Whatever the in’s and out’s, the paper of record can negotiate them, right?
I would be suspicious of corruption, but there must be a way.
Other than those two, I seen none referencing the censoring of Jyoti’s name, though I haven’t read through every single one.
I don’t think the New York Times has ever not approved a comment of mine before. Maybe I shouldn’t be offended, maybe it happens all the time, but it seems odd, and I have to wonder how many people have posted similar comments that aren’t being shown.
Have you asked the NYT to print Jyoti’s name and why an American publication would follow India law in how it reports on a crime?
Thanks everyone for the clarifications. I see India through rose-colored glasses, admittedly, but I feel like most of what India has learned about sexism, it has learned from the West. Britain brought in its male-dominated private clubs and government offices, and the US film industry has taught young Indian men all kinds of dangerous misconceptions. I’ve heard too many people express that they think Western women want to be hit on and by strangers and spoken to in inappropriately sexual ways because they’ve seen it in movies. On the other hand, Indian women are empowered by Western independent thinking, and have much higher expectations about their lives, so it’s a mixed bag.
HI Krishna,
Are you responding to me writing “great” comment and that in that comment, the commenter called India a sexist, misogynistic culture? I take that as the commenter implying that both India and the US are sexist, misogynistic cultures, which I agree with. But perhaps, that is not what the commenter means, so I will clarify my views by adding a sentence.
MM
As the person who wrote the New York Times comment, I did in fact mean that both India and the US have sexist and misogynistic cultures. May I also add how honored I am to be mentioned in a post? Much of what I wrote came from things I’ve learned on ReelGirl, so thank you!
Krishna, I wrote this piece for Salon about the US media’s distorted and warped policies in reporting sexual assault: http://www.salon.com/2002/08/09/stigma/
The reason I bring up India law is because that is the reason the NYT gave for not reporting Jyoti’s name.
India is no more a sexist, mysogynistic culture than the US or anyone. The US also has laws and policies forbidding the release of names of sexual assault victims. This is different because the father wants the name out, but they are following policy. I’m glad you wrote, but lets not put down an entire culture. Thanks.
Hi Krishna,
I am appalled (as I thought I made clear) how the US media calls India sexist as if we are not. India is sexist but so are we. I agree with what Jessica Valenti write in the Nation, “rape is as American as apple pie.” Our government just stalled the Violence Against Women Act. WE had a “Team Rape” running in this last election, and though most lost, many Americans supported them.
Here are some stats about our country from the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence:
One in four women (25%) has experienced domestic violence in her lifetime.
85% of domestic violence victims are women.
Women ages 20-24 are at the greatest risk of nonfatal intimate partner violence.
Nearly three out of four (74%) of Americans personally know someone who is or has been a victim of domestic violence.
On average, more than three women are murdered by their intimate partners in this country every day.
Domestic violence is one of the most chronically under reported crimes.
Only approximately one-quarter of all physical assaults, one-fifth of all rapes, and one-half of all stalkings perpetuated against females by intimate partners are reported to the police.
I could go on.
MM