Hundreds lined up for GRLCVLT’s Fuck Rape Culture event Wednesday night. (Photo: Karissa Gall)
Yesterday, on the same day that the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s office revealed that Judge Aaron Persky was removed from a new sex assault case at the request of prosecutors, over 700 letters petitioning for him to be permanently unseated were signed at a “Fuck Rape Culture” party in Bushwick. GRLCVLT’s event at Holyrad Studio drew women and men dissatisfied with the lenient, 89-day county jail sentence Persky handed down for the sexual abuse committed by Stanford student Brock Turner. The response was overwhelming not only because hundreds signed their letters while lined up outside of the packed, 150-capacity studio, but also because of the sheer emotion as women shared their personal stories of sexual assault, and called for an end to the abuse and injustice. More →
At this point, everyone and their mother has heard of the Stanford rape case. Your Facebook and Twitter feeds are probably inundated with reprints of the victim’s statements to her assailant, the vile letter Brock Turner’s father wrote defending his son’s “20 minutes of action,” complaints about the presiding judge’s mishandling of the case, and the numerous think pieces on rape culture and white male privilege. It’s an important but depressing subject, and it can make a bystander feel rather helpless.
So what’s a socially conscious individual to do? If you’re self-described “female secret society” GRLCVLT, you invite everyone to an open-bar blowout at Holyrad Studio in East Williamsburg, featuring live performances by local act Edith Pop and comedian Lane Moore’s band It Was Romance. Throw in a letter-writing campaign to unseat Judge Aaron Persky, and it sounds like your typical Wednesday night, right? More →