Bishop Tells Sex Abuse Victims To Stop “Dwelling Crankily On Old Wounds”

In response to questions about the tragic case of clerical sexual abuse victims Emma and Katherine Foster’s parents wish to seek a meeting with the Pope Word Youth Day organiser and senior Australian bishop Anthony Fisher commented:

“Happily, I think most of Australia was enjoying, delighting in, the beauty and goodness of these young people… rather than dwelling on crankily, as a few people are doing, on old wounds…”

Sexual abuse is never an ‘old wound,’ and the consequence of comments like those of Bishop Fishers can have detrimental effects to not only the victims themselves, but public opinion of sexual abuse. Quoted in the same article, child psychologist Michael Carr-Gregg suggests that the bishop’s comments act to reinforce the idea popular amongst many that the impact of sexual abuse is trivial (remember Summer Heights High ‘joking’ in the first ep that a tree in the school grounds was the site of a rape).

When it comes to comes to the abuse case in question, that of the Foster sisters, it is clear that sexual abuse does not just vanish along with the physical scars, or with the passing of time. Between 1988 and 1993 Katherine and Emma Foster were repeatedly raped by priest Kevin O’Donnell when students at Sacred Heart School, Oakleigh. Both girls suffered extreme trauma as a result, with Emma committing suicide this year at age 26 while Katherine has been left disabled after drinking heavily and hit by a drunk driver in 1999. (Check out Lateline for a more in depth re-telling of this absolutely tragic case.)

 Bishop Anthony Fishers comments show an extreme disrespect to not only the Foster’s but to all sexual abuse victims. As Christine Foster, the mother of the Emma and Katherine put it,

“The … ‘old wounds’ he speaks of, never heal and victims of sexual assault suffer all their life.”

I want to finish with the words of Anthony Foster, the father of the victims,

“The church can’t claim to speak with any authority to society about how it should behave when the church can’t behave properly and morally with its own victims.”

Bishop Fisher, we should be very “cranky”.

A Lesson In Insensitivity From The Age Online Subs

You’ve likely heard the news lately about Bishop Anthony Fisher describing parents of two girls, Emma and Katherine Foster, who were raped by a Catholic priest, as having been “dwelling crankily [...] on old wounds” because they are seeking an apology from Cardinal George Pell (our girl Rhiana writes about it here). Emma committed suicide this year, aged 26; Katherine apparently drank heavily before she was run over by a drunk driver in ‘99, and is now disabled.

The girls’ parents, Anthony and Christine, arrived in Sydney this morning after flying in from England.

Here’s how the front page of The Age Online thought to deal with it (and thanks to Audrey for the tip off):

If you can’t read the caption down the bottom, it says “rape girls’ father”. And then again, when you click through to the story, you get this headline:

Bishop’s comments ‘disgusting’: rape girls’ father

Hey, The Age Online, you know what else is insensitive? Referring to these women – one of whom, tragically, is no longer with us – as “rape girls”.

Get a clue, sub-editors.

Older Women Are Funny Looking!

As though it weren’t already hard enough for women over the age of about, oh, 45 to have any visibility whatsoever these days, it seems the media will permit you a few appearances during your “twilight years”, provided they can make fun of you.

To wit, this exemplary piece of entertainment journalism from Monday’s MX “newspaper”:

Geddit? Because she’s wrinkly and old! Just like Yoda! Pfft.

Lookalike and ‘Separated At Birth’ features used to be a bit of lighthearted fun, featuring actually interesting similarities, like Michelle Williams/Shelley Winters and so forth. But more and more these days – thanks to my favourite gossip blogger Perez Hilton, and that fucking “SJP looks like a horse” site – it’s a chance to stick the boot into stars, largely women, who don’t fit the bill when it comes to what is considered acceptable, appearance-wise.

The Daily Mail’s Giant Leap For Teen Body Image

File this one under “and they wonder why young girls have so many issues with their body image and self-esteem”: The Daily Mail has decided to chastise Rumer Willis (aka daughter of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore) for her apparent “fashion faux pas” on the red carpet. Here’s their spin:

The 19-year-old daughter of actors Bruce Willis and Demi Moore left little to the imagination as she posed in an unflattering gown at the Power Of Paws launch party at the Helen Mills Gallery in New York.

The aspiring actress was clearly missing a bra as her skimpy dress just covered her youthful breasts.

Her overexposed chest wasn’t the only fashion mistake Rumer made last night – she also teamed her dress with garish yellow patent ballet pumps.

Yes, you read that all correctly. Here’s a photo of the brazen young hussy, included in the story:

Am I the only person who thinks a) she looks beautiful, fresh and young and, b) hardly “overexposed”?

Actually, the whole Rumer Willis blogger hate campaign seriously disturbs me. Gossip bloggers like Perez Hilton (no surprise there) have been attacking her for ages now, criticising her hairstyles, her fashion choices, and her apparently “huge” chin – and now, thanks to the curious trickle-up effect that high profile blogs are having on the mainstream media, it seems the newspapers (etc) are joining the party.

Putting aside the fact that there is absolutely nothing wrong with her face/body/life, do they not see how incredibly damaging it is to wage this sort of a reign of critical terror on a young girl (who has only recently turned 19) when you consider what other normal-looking teenage girls must think when they see Rumer attacked for the way she looks?

Fortunately Rumer herself is miles more mature than most of the gossip bloggers and trash magazine editors out there (from the Mail article):

Recently, the teenager hit back at internet gossips who criticised her prominent chin, which she inherited from her famous father.

At a press conference for The House Bunny, Rumer told US TV network E!: ‘Everybody has an opinion, and we live in America so you’re allowed to.

‘As long as you are comfortable with who you really are and your friends, and the people that are around you know that, that’s all that really matters.

‘Hopefully, young girls will watch this and feel confident about themselves and go, “OK, that girl’s not entirely the ideal of what a perfect picture is supposed to be and she feels confident and beautiful, then I can too”. If we can have the ability to do that, I’m very excited about that.’

Sometimes keeping a watchful eye on the celebrity/gossip/”entertainment news” machine leaves me feeling decidedly depressed, but the fact that there are smart young women like Rumer Willis starting to make themselves heard means there’s hope for the future.

Facebook “Subvertising” Tells You To Take Your Weight-Loss Ad And Shove It

This is fantastic! UK feminist site The F Word reports on a project started by blogger Teresa Valdez Klein, taking the odious weight-loss ads that regularly appear on Facebook and turning them into positive body image affirmations; the click-through takes you to a body love website.

Here’s what she said when she started running the ads in April:

If you click it, it takes you to the Love Your Body Day website. I’m going to run the ad through April 7. I’ve set the maximum daily budget to the minimum of $5.00. I targeted it to single women between 18 and 30. I pirated the image of the Reubenesque Barbie doll from the Body Shop’s campaign in the late 90’s. Today, the ad had 12 clicks and 6,590 impressions.

This was the first FB ad she ran:

Since then Klein has run further body-love ads on the social networking site, largely taking existing FB ads, nicking their images, and subverting them to create a positive body image message. Here’s an example with the original and her ‘remake’ side by side:

Inspiring, isn’t it? And as Klein says in conclusion:

If you like this idea, why not try it yourself. It’s relatively easy to set up an ad to run for a few days, you don’t need to spend more than $5.00 a day and you can reach thousands of people. If even a few people do this, we can reach a wider audience with the message that we’re all tired of seeing ads on Facebook that try to make us insecure about our bodies.

Hear, hear! After all, it’s $5 better spent than on Cosmopolitan or Cleo or a weight-loss shake!