Politics of the Pit

Where Do We Go Now? The Aftermath of Rapestock

A A A Comments By Robin Rothman Tuesday, Nov 2 1999

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Woodstock trailer-and-ground abuse gauntlet: "If you'd seen it, your blood would have gone cold."

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Ultimately, the rapist is to blame. Men can be educated that sexual assault in any form isn't acceptable, but these sick fucks are still going to show up at shows. So both genders need to be educated to intervene when they see something. According to Spin, Dave Schneider, a Crisis Intervention Unit volunteer, "watched in horror" the rape of one woman and violation of five others by the same group of men during Korn's set: "Since all of the women had made it to the arms of security, he assumed the crimes had been reported." Miles from the site and months after the fact, it's easy to be appalled. How could he do nothing to stop it? One woman who witnessed what she thought might have been a sexual assault asked that the Voice not use her name, because if her story did pertain to an open case she didn't want to testify.

Diffusion of responsibility is a psychological fact: The greater the number of people witnessing a crime, the less likely an individual is to act. There's something in all of us that finds it easier to turn away than risk endangering ourselves. Thousands of Woodstock attendees insist they experienced nothing like the sexual abuse they've read about, and in light of all the negative press, it's easy to forget that a majority had a fine time-a weekend of reckless abandon and open sexuality, no holds barred. But there are rules even in war, where we measure success by low body counts. "Remember that scene in Platoonwhere Charlie Sheen's yelling at the guys because they're trying to rape the girl?" Dexter Holland asks. "I love that scene because he doesn't care that they're fucked-up; he stands up to them and says, 'Look, she's a fucking human being.' " Is concertgoing a gender war now? Whose job is it to be Sheen? The whole thing's confusing, it's overwhelming, and it's sad.

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