Lara St John keeps her story alive

MG says:

Should be mentioned that the concert was organized and produced by Paracademia, with artistic director Milica Paranosic.

Natasha Cherny says:

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer’s second article about the crimes committed against Lara St John, “Diaz and Fretz’s statement reiterated Curtis’ intention to set up a hotline ‘so that individuals from our community will have an additional channel to report inappropriate behavior from the past or present,’ though the school again offered no details on how the hotline would be staffed or how reports would be handled.”

“Inappropriate” and “behavior” are two words that, in and of themselves, completely negate the victim’s experience of these crimes. They deny the reality of rape, of threat of blackmail, and of the sometimes mortal consequences to women and children who suffer these crimes. Curtis Institute of Music and every other institution supporting predators––the Metropolitan Opera, LA Opera, and colleges, universities, corporations, and governments everywhere need to hear this: Rape is not an “inappropriate behavior.” It is one of the most brutal crimes imaginable. It is considered a war crime under the Geneva Conventions when committed by soldiers and the states who employ them. “Committing rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, as defined in article 7, paragraph 2 (f), enforced sterilization, and any other form of sexual violence also constituting a serious violation of article 3 common to the four Geneva Conventions”

https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/war-crimes.shtml

Lara St. John’s speaking out will require unbelievable fortitude and persistence; what should be remembered by those who continue to wish she would shut up is that fortitude and persistence have kept her alive since she was 14, so she is well-practiced. The blowback will be unbelievable.

If you think the efforts to silence women have been oppressive in the past, the more we speak, the worse it will get. Of course, that will fuel the fires of people like Lara St John, and her courage and fortitude will continue to embolden those who have, until now, been too afraid or felt too powerless to speak. There IS strength in numbers and in solidarity.

I am encouraged by the Philadelphia Inquirer’s continuing courage and commitment to cover this story––and I do NOT believe they are ONLY doing it because it will sell newspapers; I saw the reporters who came to this event, and am convinced they are genuinely affronted by the horror that Lara endured as a child.

One last thought.

I am one woman. 66 years and 7 months old.

In my own family, I know of one aunt, three cousins, and one family of origin member who were victims of sexual assault and battery, and/or of rape by family members: by their fathers and brothers. The aunt who realized her husband was raping their little daughter fled immediately with her three children and came to her brother for help, not knowing he was also abusing his own kids. There have been two suicides and multiple suicide attempts. Countless, in fact.

As an adult woman, I can barely count a woman among my friends who has not also suffered these fates.

• One was molested and beaten regularly as a child.
• Another was raped by her father.
• Another was raped by a boyfriend, then told by her psychiatrist that it wasn’t rape (because he sodomized her while she repeatedly screamed NO). “Rape is rape,” he said;
• Another was molested as a toddler by her father and raped three times as a young woman. Two of her rapists were state cops.
• Another was molested by her brother at age 8. Then again by a neighbor at age 10 (for which SHE received a beating by her mother). Then her closest childhood friend, age 12, was raped and beaten to death, and her body left behind the tenement stairs where they lived.
• Another was molested by her brother.
• Another is being pimped out by her “boyfriend” and has been 3 months pregnant (according to her cardboard sign) for 3 years. She camps on the streets of Manhattan panhandling when she isn’t “working.”
• That young woman’s mother was sexually assaulted—passed around the commune where she and her mother lived—as a child, after her parents divorced. She died under a California bridge at the age of 30.
• Another was regularly “used” by her foster father. She became a sex worker as a teen.
• Another was incested by her father from early childhood to the age of 17.
• Another works at a New York hospital with victims of brain and spinal trauma. She sees patients all the time who have been raped, beaten, and left for dead by husbands and boyfriends. One of the most heartbreaking was a young Korean woman, already wheelchair-bound and 7 months pregnant, who had been beaten and her fetus beaten by her husband. She and the baby both died.

Women have been trying, for decades, to make the magnitude of this epidemic known. Some of the worst suppressors of the information are family court judges, often women, who have internalized their oppressors.

What I didn’t list above is all the male friends I have who were also sexually abused. One of my closest friends was incested by his mother from age 8 to 17. He is one of the loveliest people I know, and deeply feminist in spite of his experience. I don’t know how he preserved his values, and I do know he nearly lost his life to suicide because of this trauma.

I am fairly convinced that until MEN “#MeToo,” things will not get much better, if at all. The proportion of male victims as CHILDREN is estimated to be very close to that of women. It is as adults that the statistical disparity becomes pronounced. And MANY perpetrators were victims as kids.

Those who are suggesting that Ms. St. John’s coming forth is a heroic effort to gain publicity because of a languishing career need to look themselves in the mirror and ask themselves one simple question: “If I were a presenter, would I be more inclined now to hire this violinist?” I would like to hear the answer. I don’t know Ms. St. John, and never heard play until this week at the “We Believe You” event described in the article herein, and she didn’t strike me as a musician whose career would be languishing.

Angela B says:

I was deeply honored to attend the beautiful concert in support of Lara St. John – amazing violinist and courageous voice fiercely confronting the misogynist and abusive actions (which are unfortunately) pervasive in our society. The issue of sexual abuse and predation has not been adequately addressed within the classical musical community – and is in fact – mostly hushed up. Lara’s voice paves the way for women in communities of every musical genre to realize their worth and stand up to these entrenched exploitation and cruelties. BRAVA!

Artem Wahrhaftig says:

……well, all those believers’ confessions are great but tiresome 🙁
Are there any news about the Curtis? Did they officially apologize?