Weekly Media Update

Local News

STAR is on the RISE

225 Magazine features STAR in their December issue. We are grateful for the coverage, but more so for the thoughtful and informative focus on the issue of sexual trauma. Check out the article here.

We at STAR are pleased to announce that the Irene W. and C.B. Pennington Foundation has generously funded STAR’s prevention education and community outreach program. Learn more about our educational services by clicking here!

Local Reports

A former student identifies himself as the victim of the former Catholic High-New Iberia teacher arrested last week and accused of molesting one of her male students 10 years ago.

He says, “I wanted to come forward and reveal my identity today to let other individuals who have or who are being victimized know that it is OK to come forward and contact authorities.”

See more here.

Five charged in rape of a 12 year old girl in Port Allen. See more here and here. In another article here, family members of the girl react to the rape.

National News

Speak Out!

More women are coming forward about their rapes and sexual assaults, standing up against stigma and shame. See here for some of these women’s inspiring stories!

International

United Kingdom

As the holidays approach, anti-rape ads are put out by police forces to attempt to combat alcohol-related sexual assault. These ads, however, use victim-blaming tactics, placing the responsibility on women to protect themselves against binge drinking instead of focusing on the perpetrator’s behavior. Check out the photo below or click here for more.

Educational

Racism and sexual assault: one black man’s perspective

Byron Hurt, an award-winning documentary filmmaker, writer, lecturer, and anti-sexist activist, talks about the issue of black men being stereotyped as rapists yet the need to hold men accountable for rape.

Hurt says:

“It is true that Black men continue to be cruelly stereotyped as rapists. As a Black man, I carry that label – and all of the other stereotypes associated with Black men – wherever  I go in our country.  However, it is also a stereotype that women lie about being victims of rape more often than not. According to FBI statistics, less than 3% of all rapes are falsely reported.”

See more here.

Author: Catherine Thurmond

I am a Master of Liberal Arts student minoring in Women's and Gender Studies at LSU. During the Fall 2014 semester, I will begin to write her thesis on queer oppression through a philosophical Marxist feminist lens. My academic interests include second wave feminism, queer theory, queer Marxist feminism, feminist philosophy, Simone de Beauvoir, and Monique Wittig. I have been politically active since 2010, fighting for an end to oppression under capitalism. I was involved in Occupy NOLA, bringing in members of The Kasama Project, a national communist project in the United States. I was also active in student organizations at Southeastern Louisiana University where I organized many speaker events for activists such as Jordan Flaherty, Richard Becker, The Beehive Design Collective, Jed Brandt and Eric Ribellarsi, and Malik Rahim. More recently, I began volunteering for STAR, Sexual Trauma Awareness & Response, in 2013 as a hospital advocate where I supported sexual assault survivors. I later joined the Louisiana Delta Service Corps, often described as the Domestic Peace Corps, where I interviewed to be placed at STAR as their Outreach Coordinator. I am also the founder of a Feminist Consciousness Raising Group in Baton Rouge which uses feminist theory to discuss personal experiences under patriarchal oppression. Check it out here for more info about the group: http://brfeminist.wix.com/consciousnessraising View all posts by Catherine Thurmond