Sinister: leaders of the new girl order

[**Megan Lehar**]

hi sinisterines!

i've missed you all, in my own voyeristic way.  i've been watching you play
and wanting to join in while i was away but couldn't write until i returned
here.  the first part of my message doesn't regard belle and sebastian, but
*is* important.  i can't recall having used sinister for my personal ends
before, and won't in the future, i promise.

***enter soapbox***
Thus far, 8 sexual assaults have been reported that occured within the
grounds of Woodstock '99.  Included in these are two gang rapes occuring IN
THE MOSH PIT with dozens of spectators doing nothing to stop them.  Below
is an article from Sonic.net that is pretty damn scary that goes into more
detail about several of the cases.  Because this was a huge festival with
people from all over the country, it is probable that most of the offenders
will never be held accountable.  In protest of the blind eye turned by many
police at the site and the lack of information of this aspect of the
festival by the mainstream media, there will be a protest in front of the
MTV studios at Broadway and 42nd Street tomorrow.  The aim of the
demonstration is to show that we do not condone MTV's support of a festival
that was ill managed or their lack of coverage and interest in showing the
brutality of men toward women at the three day long event.  Hopefully, the
shows viewers will take an interest in the demonstration and attempt to get
more information for themselves about what happened at Woodstock '99.
(Does anyone else think it's pretty horrible that a festival that began by
promoting one's right to be free and sexual on their own terms turning into
this?  For the first time I'm actually ashamed of my generation.  Bring on
Jefferson Airplane!)

The show begins at 3pm and demonstraters are encouraged to come by at 2pm
if possible.  I (Megan) wrote this entire message, despite the abundant use
of capital letters, a rarity from me, because this really upsets me.  If
anyone, male or female, will be in the NYC area, try to come, if only for a
little while.  Take a late lunch break or smoke break if you work in the
area.  If you don't live nearby but know someone who does, forward this
message to them please.  Or go to the Total Request Daily website at:
http://www.mtv.com/mtv/tubescan/trl99_new/ and write your opinion in the
comments section.  What happened at Woodstock just wasn't right, in fact
it's fucking scary.

from Todays news @ Sonic Net:


At least two women were raped in the mosh pit at Woodstock '99 last
weekend, according to a volunteer who witnessed one assault and a rape
counselor involved in assisting the victim in the other.



In each incident, which occurred on different nights of the three-day,
30th-anniversary Woodstock '99 festival, the woman was allegedly raped
and assaulted by multiple men, as concert-goers around the crime cheered
her assailants on.



Meanwhile, the internal-investigations office of the New York State
Police in Albany announced Wednesday that the on-site trooper-supervisor
was suspended without pay following accusations that several troopers in
his area urged female Woodstock attendees to pose nude for photos with
police, Jamie Mills, director of public information, said. The
investigation is continuing.

"It looked like a clear gang-rape to me." ò David Schneider, mosh-pit
witness





While New York State Police have been vague about reports of
sexual-assault cases at Woodstock, officials finally confirmed Thursday
(July 29) that they are investigating four alleged rapes said to have
occurred during the outdoor concert held on the former Griffiss Air
Force base in Rome, N.Y.



One of the alleged rapes being investigated was said to have occurred in
the mosh pit during rap-rockers Limp Bizkit's performance Saturday,
while the other three allegedly happened at the campground, according to
Capt. John Wood of the state police in Oneida, N.Y.



Meanwhile, additional reports have surfaced through local
rape-counseling centers and due to witnesses' coming forward.



David Schneider, a rehabilitation counselor who worked as a volunteer
with the social-service program Family of Woodstock during the event,
said he witnessed a gang rape in the mosh pit during a set by the
hip-hop-influenced rock-act Korn on Friday night.



"At one point I saw this girl, a very petite girl, maybe 100 pounds, who
was body-surfing above the crowd and either fell in or was pulled into a
circle in the mosh pit," Schneider, 28, said Thursday. "These gentlemen,
probably in the 25à32 age range, looked as though they were holding her
down. They were holding her arms; you could see she was struggling."



Schneider said he could not see everything that was happening through
the dense crowd of nearly 200,000 and estimated he was about 15à20 feet
from where the alleged assault occurred.



"You try to judge by the crowd right around them, and no one really
seemed to be too concerned about it," he said, explaining why he did not
immediately report the incident. "I watched a little longer, and you
clearly could see that one of the guys was pulling her pants down ò her
top was left on. You could see he was violating her.



"Then it looked like he passed her off to his friend next to him," he
continued. "It looked like a clear gang-rape to me, where he was just
passing her on to at least one other person.



"At some point, it appeared she gave up struggling."



Estimating the assault lasted a few minutes, Schneider said
concert-goers then came to her rescue and helped her to security. When
security personnel lifted the woman over the barricade, Schneider saw
that she was partially naked, which seemed to confirm to him that she
had been raped.



Woodstock promoter Michael Lang was quoted in a number of reports saying
he could not imagine how a rape could occur in a crowded mosh pit.



Schneider, who said he could offer police basic descriptions of two of
the men, further explained that he didn't report what he saw at the time
because he assumed that security was handling it, adding that there
likely were hundreds of other witnesses. He said he also saw three or
four other women being assaulted in the mosh pit.



Becky Fike, acting director of the crisis center at Family of Woodstock,
said she had dealt with many Woodstock '99 sexual-assault cases but few
victims wanted to file official reports. "It's the same reasons as in
the society beyond Woodstock," she said, explaining why so few sex-crime
cases are reported. "Peer pressure, family pressure, some of the women
... had been involved in drugs and alcohol."



On Thursday, Woodstock co-promoter John Scher ducked questions about
whether he felt widespread nudity shown on the concert's video screens
fostered an anything-goes atmosphere at the site.



"This was just an observation of what was going on," he said.



Late the following night or early Sunday morning, another rape allegedly
occurred in the mosh pit, according to Utica, N.Y., YWCA Rape Crisis
director Rosemary Vennero.



Vennero said a woman in her early 20s was raped and assaulted by "more
than one" man. "She was in the crowd and she was assaulted," said
Vennero, whose organization later counseled the victim. "People came to
her rescue, and my understanding is that she was then body-surfed to
security." The victim was treated at a local hospital and released.



Vennero said her staff counseled a total of four rape and sexual-assault
victims who were Woodstock concert-goers. The staff has fielded multiple
other calls regarding sexual assault at Woodstock.



It could not be confirmed at press time whether the alleged mosh-pit
rape being investigated by police is the same case that was described by
Vennero.



A 24-year-old Pittsburgh woman told police she was raped Saturday night
while crowd-surfing during a set by Limp Bizkit, Wood said. The woman
told police she was pulled into the mosh pit, raped and assaulted, he
added.



The three other assaults that allegedly occurred in the camping area
involve a 32-year-old Ohio woman, who told police she was raped at the
campground Saturday night, according to an Associated Press report. A
20-year-old New York woman also reportedly said she was assaulted that
night, while another 20-year-old woman from Virginia told troopers two
or three men raped her in the campgrounds Sunday afternoon.



In a posting on the official Woodstock website, a father said his
daughter got separated from her three girlfriends early Monday morning
and was pulled into a tent by a "a clean cut college looking guy with
dirty blond hair" who raped her. An investigator said Wednesday that the
description of the alleged crime did not sound similar to any of the
reports New York State Police are investigating.



The father wrote that he was offering a $10,000 reward for help leading
to the assailant's arrest and conviction and asked that anyone with
information "do the right thing" and come forward.



Allegations of sex crimes have continued to surface since the three-day
fest came to its fiery end Sunday night.



Some of the New York State Police's own troopers were even accused of
misconduct, when a report surfaced in a Syracuse newspaper that alleged
several troopers encouraged two women to strip and then posed for
pictures with the naked women. The Syracuse Post-Standard quoted an
officer as saying "Show us some [breasts]," and another saying "Show me
some bottom," attributing the allegations to the two women who obliged
their requests.



In all, eight troopers are alleged to have been involved in sexual
misconduct at the show. Schneider said he believed a female trooper
witnessed the apparent rape he saw during the Korn set. Police could not
be reached for comment.



The three-day concert was telecast on pay-per-view via local cable
networks. Investigators will review the footage to see whether any of
the incidents may have been captured on tape, officials said.



While some artists, such as Limp Bizkit singer Fred Durst, encouraged
rowdy behavior during shows, Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea and
Offspring frontman Dexter Holland admonished male concert-goers for
their inappropriate behavior toward women in the mosh pit.



Flea (born Michael Balzary) even added to his onstage comments in a
posting on the band's official website, "I just didn't like when guys
would grab at the girls who had their tops off," the bassist wrote.
"Guys think and look [and] fantasize about girl[s'] t-ts all day and
finally the girl[s] are nice and free enough to let them flow and guys
abuse the beauty of it all by groping without invitation. Some nerve."



Vennero said that in addition to the victims the YWCA dealt with, she
continues to hear horror stories about sexual assaults at the festival.



"You hear people saying things like, 'When we went to sleep at night in
the tent, I just heard people screaming, and they weren't screams of
pleasure, they were screams of terror,' " she said. "I have to say I
have to believe a lot of what I'm hearing."



A 23-year-old man who worked as a food vendor at the festival told
Vennero that female workers always were accompanied by at least two men
for protection, because concert-goers were trying to assault them while
they were serving food. "This was happening right there," Vennero said.
"They were serving you a hamburger and they were being grabbed at."



Vennero urged victims of sexual assault to reach out to their local
rape-counseling centers, adding that only a small percentage of rapes
are ever reported.
 ***off soapbox***

i know this was the wrong forum for my diatribe, but even if only five
people show up or write, that still makes it worth it to me.  i promise
less time i'll be less serious and more charming and beautiful and winning
and fabulous, back to my old self really.  ;p

xox
megan

mkl206 at is8.nyu.edu

are we not men?  we are magnetic fields.
http://www.dissemination.com/megan/magneticfields/
updated 8/5/99


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