Shame on you, Your Honor

Honestly, I felt outraged, and immediately afterward I felt extremely sad. I was sad because I cannot imagine what kind of state we must be in if a retired judge feels that he can tell a 20-year-old girl who was brutally gang-raped that there are girls who "enjoy rape."

Lately I have gotten the general sense that all the boundaries have been breached and that there is not a single atrocity that does not appear regularly in our headlines. We have turned into the kind of a country where the son of a famous writer feels free to post his pedophilic fantasies on Facebook, explaining that little girls are sexually arousing; where respected rabbis, fathers, army commanders or senior journalists abuse their power and take advantage of their subordinates, or students, or children, to satisfy their own sick desires.

Then there is the infamous judge, who makes such a dangerous comment. It is dangerous because I am convinced that he is not the only man who feels this way. I am sure that there are plenty of men who think that some women enjoy rape, the same way they think that some women are "asking for it" and of course: "Look at how she is dressed, she must want it."

The popular social networks -- rife with exploitation, humiliation, revealing and pornographic photos and a world of abuse that has long transcended the confines of the Internet -- also play a central role in the twisted frame of mind manifested in the judge's remarks. To that judge I want to say: Imagine that it was your own daughter, God forbid, or your granddaughter, who was gang-raped, humiliated and violated by four men who think just like you.

Shame on you.

טעינו? נתקן! אם מצאתם טעות בכתבה, נשמח שתשתפו אותנו