I've heard this story more recently evoked as "this shows how it's fucked up that we laugh at domestic abuse of men by female partners." That's partially true; violence, especially sexual violence, towards men is a comedic subject far too often, and the jokes made surrounding John were fucked up.
But at the SAME TIME, we love the "woman takes vengeance on their rapist" trope (Kill Bill and the many prior movies that inspired it, for example.) You'll also commonly hear calls for pedophiles to be physically castrated.
Ah, but there's a catch! The woman must be a "Good" Rape Victim: she is pretty-enough-to-rape, dressed modestly enough to not be asking for it, in a helpless position that she couldn't have avoided (the van comes by in broad daylight and she's grabbed, etc.), and she can't have any acquaintance whatsoever with the rapist.
All these ideas cannot be simultaneously true, and they're awful. Your piece does a brilliant job showing ALL these toxic ideas at play in the narrative of the Bobbitts. Thank you, James!
Highly recommend the Amazon series 'Lorena' about this case. This all happened before I was born, I had never even heard of the Bobbits but came across the show during a crime doco binge. I was expecting some sort of crazy, wild crime caper and instead was met with a heartbreaking meditation on domestic violence and vilification in the media. It's one of the better true crime series out there.
Lorena is strong as hell to survive what she endured. I'm not a violent person but I can't say I wouldn't have done the same thing in her place.
Wowwww.
I've heard this story more recently evoked as "this shows how it's fucked up that we laugh at domestic abuse of men by female partners." That's partially true; violence, especially sexual violence, towards men is a comedic subject far too often, and the jokes made surrounding John were fucked up.
But at the SAME TIME, we love the "woman takes vengeance on their rapist" trope (Kill Bill and the many prior movies that inspired it, for example.) You'll also commonly hear calls for pedophiles to be physically castrated.
Ah, but there's a catch! The woman must be a "Good" Rape Victim: she is pretty-enough-to-rape, dressed modestly enough to not be asking for it, in a helpless position that she couldn't have avoided (the van comes by in broad daylight and she's grabbed, etc.), and she can't have any acquaintance whatsoever with the rapist.
All these ideas cannot be simultaneously true, and they're awful. Your piece does a brilliant job showing ALL these toxic ideas at play in the narrative of the Bobbitts. Thank you, James!
Highly recommend the Amazon series 'Lorena' about this case. This all happened before I was born, I had never even heard of the Bobbits but came across the show during a crime doco binge. I was expecting some sort of crazy, wild crime caper and instead was met with a heartbreaking meditation on domestic violence and vilification in the media. It's one of the better true crime series out there.
Lorena is strong as hell to survive what she endured. I'm not a violent person but I can't say I wouldn't have done the same thing in her place.