What a weird trio! Here are the Times headlines, followed by opening paragraphs from each story. At least one story links that pesky god problem to the global war against women. I’ve bolded key phrases in each extract.
Bob Jones University Blamed Victims of Sexual Assaults, Not Abusers, Report Says – NYTimes.com.
For decades, officials at Bob Jones University told sexual assault victims that they were to blame for their abuse, and to not report it to the police because doing so would damage their families, churches and the university, according to a long-awaited independent report released Thursday.
Bob Jones, an evangelical Christian institution in Greenville, S.C., displayed a “blaming and disparaging” attitude toward abuse victims, according to 56 percent of the 381 current and former students and employees who replied to a confidential survey and said they had knowledge of how the university handled abuse cases. About half the 166 people surveyed who identified themselves as abuse victims said the university actively discouraged them from going to the police.
In interviews with investigators and in written comments, some respondents detailed hurtful, often startling treatment.
“I was abused from the ages of 6 to 14 by my grandfather,” one respondent said. “When I went for counseling I was told: ‘Did you repent for your part of the abuse? Did your body respond favorably?’ ” The person reported being told by a university official that going to the police “tore your family apart, and that’s your fault,” and “you love yourself more than you love God.”
‘Virginity Test’ Stokes Indonesia Debate – NYTimes.com.
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Col. Sri Rumiati made her career in the Indonesian National Police, but the day she was tested for it, in 1984, is one she would rather forget.
During a mandatory physical examination, a doctor led her into a private room, asked her to disrobe and administered a so-called virginity test, inserting two fingers to determine whether her hymen was intact.
“I was not comfortable with the test,” said Colonel Rumiati, who is now a police psychologist. “The test can be stressful on women and embarrassing.”
It mattered little that the doctor who tested her was a woman. It felt like a violation, she said, one that does not determine virginity, that has no comparable equivalent for male police recruits, and that does not achieve its ostensible goal: evaluating a recruit’s morality.
“You learn about the morality of a candidate from prosocial behavior testing,” or evaluating a person’s actions, she said. “It’s not about virginity.”
Women who apply to be police officers in Indonesia have been subjected to virginity testing since at least 1965, when the police force was placed under the command of the military.
Buffalo Bills Cheerleaders’ Fight for Wages and Respect – NYTimes.com.
BUFFALO — Alyssa cannot recall the precise moment she realized her dream gig as a Buffalo Bills cheerleader had turned into a nightmare.
Each week held so many indignities.
Supervisors ordered the cheerleaders, known as the Buffalo Jills, to warm up in a frigid, grubby stadium storeroom that smelled of gasoline. They demanded that cheerleaders pay $650 for uniforms. They told the cheerleaders to do jumping jacks to see if flesh jiggled.
The Jills were required to attend a golf tournament for sponsors. The high rollers paid cash — “Flips for Tips” — to watch bikini-clad cheerleaders do back flips. Afterward, the men placed bids on which women would ride around in their golf carts.
A not-incidental detail: The carts had no extra seats. Women clung to the back or, much more to the point, were invited to sit in the men’s laps.
For these and more humiliations, and for hundreds of hours of work and practices, Alyssa and her fellow cheerleaders on the Buffalo Jills received not a penny of wages, not from the subcontractor and certainly not from the Buffalo Bills, a team that each year makes revenue in excess of $200 million.