Last December, Salon did a story on why R. Kelly continues to be a star with legions of fans, in spite of the many allegations of sex abuse against him. The reporter who broke the story on R. Kelly is quoted in Salon:
DeRogatis’ response is blunt and troubling and worth reading in full. Throughout his career, DeRogatis interviewed two dozen women, sifted through “hundreds of pages of lawsuits” with nauseating details of abuse and intimidation tactics used against them, and felt the emotional rawness of women whose lives have been ruined. “The saddest fact I’ve learned is: nobody matters less to our society than young black women,” he said.
I was thinking about DeRegatis as I continue to ponder the lack of news coverage in the USA of 234 missing Nigerian girls. I’ve been asking this for years, but what if the Western world took any notice of gender Apartheid of the Taliban before 9/11? What if those women, their education level, their health, their financial state had been important to American political leaders? What if American citizens cared that women worldwide are denied human rights? What if Americans saw the lack of human rights for women as a political issue and not a cultural one?
I just saw this on Soraya Chemaly’s Facebook page.
Adiche’s quote is basically the whole reason why I started this blog. What stories get told? What stories are important? What stories matter? How do the images and narratives that we are saturated with– that our kids are saturated with– reinforce whose bodies are important and whose bodies are worth $12? What are you doing to change the stories your children hear or to train them to accept and expect a world where girls and women go missing?
I was very moved by your column. I agree! Well said!
I don’t if you got around to seeing it but I really recommend the documentary Girl Rising if you haven’t watched it yet.