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My wife and I have different views of the discourse around the Cornell 7. I'm seeing people sympathizing with Jane Doe and declaring the "obvious" guilt of the men. I have major problems with this, because there's not nearly enough evidence that actually indicates the men are guilty.
My wife told me that she isn't seeing so much of randos casting their judgement on the case, but rather women sharing their own stories of times they felt taken advantage of or were sexually assaulted, etc. And she thinks that's important and valuable in it's own right. Essentially, whether or not the allegations are true, this has had an brought women together to share their stories in a moment of cultural solidarity.
Even if my wife is correct, and the women reacting to the news coverage weren't just declaring these men guilty based on their own feelings, I still have some issues with the notion that this discourse is positive in its own right, and I'm trying to put it in a lens my wife would understand. I don't really think that she and progressives would agree that discourse and people sharing their victimization stories is always a good thing. As one example, there are many stories in the UK and Europe about people being victimized by new waves of immigrants. But for alleged victims to share those stories in solidarity would (in most progressive minds) create hatred and bias people against immigrants as a whole.
Women need a cathartic ritual for the release of negative emotional baggage in a safe and supportive social environment. Think of it as emotional menstruation. In the same way a guy may need a simulatory activity where he kills enemies in a game (or engages in a Fight Club-like activity, and studies show fighting is emotionally beneficial for males), women need this activity but for complaint, lamentation, grief, etc. Modern forms of American religion generally lack catharsis, so what’s left for women are political rites. The Cornell seven becomes a quasi seven sorrows of Mary for the secular woman who has a lot of stress in her life related to men, in particular suitors and exes and unrequited crushes and bad bosses and teachers, and feels insufficiently protected by a patriarchal figure (the evolved social order of Westerners, the absence of which gnaws at the spirit). A woman who is still stressed over her last relationship can experience a heightened form of her own distress within the imagined life of a Jane Doe, the stand-in for all womenfolk —
— and by experiencing these emotions at their peak through pity (similar to the classical articulation of the Sublime requiring a position of safety for the observer) they will feel them subside within themselves. How? & Why? First, because emotion naturally habituates and subsides; you cannot stay in heightened emotion forever; plunging into the depths of grief and distress will lead to an emotional resurrection within some days. Second, for the same reason that a person feels better about their sorry state when they witness the much more sorry state of another person. After watching a video of a paraplegic living their life, you’re unlikely to find your own small complaints as serious. I remember having this experience last month reading about the 9/11 victims, especially going through an online blog of a victim of seeing the guestbook of loved ones, infinitely sad, and when you snap back into your own reality it’s difficult to get worked up about your own problems. Well, Jane Doe accomplishes this fictively — the over-the-top suffering is sort of the point — she is alienated, trapped, alone, anonymous, accused, forgotten, etc, the emphasis on the hours. Lastly, they imbue all the causality of the evil on the fraternity brothers, getting all their anger out on them. So, the range of negative emotions are purged or at least mitigated by the event.
I don’t really think this has anything to do with experiences of sexual assault, though. I think it’s just about general negative experiences, especially wrt men.
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Our culture really does lack catharsis, and I think it similarly lacks opportunities for ritualistic cleansing. Experiences of purity and dirtiness are probably the least explored aspects of secular life. Poor memories of men do not only conjure up anger in many women, but feelings of revulsion, dirtiness, and sin, much of which are introjected onto themselves. I'm reminded of the ancient practice of scapegoating, and can't help but think that something similar is happening here, the factual badness of the actual Cornell event notwithstanding.
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