Raw deal documents elements central to a true case where Lisa, a woman whose report of rape, is disbelieved by the UPD (police). The accused rapist is released and instead the victim is arrested for making a false police report.
Lisa G. and her co-worker Lisa H, provided a lap dance and show to a group of Delta Chi fraternity boys in the Spring of 99 at the University of Florida, Gainsville, FL. Lisa H had left her car at Lisa G’s. After doing 3 shows that night and drinking a lot Lisa G cant drive so one of the boys drive them back to drop Lisa H at her car. Lisa G has to go back to the fraternity party as her car has been left there.
The entire fraternity party and a lot of the events surrounding the time Lisa G was back at the fraternity house is documented on 2 home video’s made by the fraternity members. This footage becomes a key feature of the documentary but also the case, resulting in the disbelieving of the woman’s rape allegations.
At 7 or 8am on the following morning students at another part of the university are approached by Lisa who is hysterical and says she has been raped and needs to call her grandmother that lives nearby. Her grandmother finds her at the university cowering in a closet.
This documentary is disturbing at every point and extremely hard to watch but you are drawn into wanting to know how this could have ever happened even though you are taunted by knowing already, from your own experience of discrimination, just how it does happen.
The UPD (police) are called in and are about to lay charges on the accused rapist when one of the tapes are found and it seems the footage of the night and morning become the basis for the UPDs decision that the sex occurring that morning was consensual and so rather than believe the victim they decide to charge her with making a false police report. The UPD official, Alice Hendon wrote a report as about this decision and refers to appearances by Lisa G. on Jerry Springer and Ricky Lake.
Why would it be important to document the appearances in this report unless it supposedly had reference to her believability as a victim of rape. This reference is even more sinister, to me, as it sends a clear message – if you are brave enough to be open and unashamed about your work and experiences (going public) then there is a lot to lose and you WILL BE treated differently. This contrasts so ironically with the number of calls sex worker organisations receive from researchers, media, and students of media asking to speak to a sex worker. Without respect for the risk "out" sex workers take.
Overall, the documentary captures the true impact on individuals within a society which endorses discriminatory laws, policies and attitudes towards sex workers. The opinions of many of those interviewed shows how ugly systemic discrimination is. How the culture of, and acceptance of, discrimination, and the resulting stigmatization, promotes a set of values which deem you less deserving if you work as a sex worker.
This is highlighted in the comments by some of the fraternity boys talking about how they were impacted by the resulting media. Tony, a boy who was there throughout the entire ordeal, speaking about Lisa “Unlike you I had a set plan in life, I didn’t want to have to take my clothes off to make money” and “The way I live my life is if I am going to do something like that [sex] it is with someone special or in the upper echelon, not even upper echelon, but just above her level of society. I still to this day think of her as bottom of the barrel.”
And Tony’s lawyer “She was not embarrassed that she was out sucking on other guys dicks when her husband and kids were at home sleepin’. While she’s doin’ it for Pay at the fraternity house.”
In this case her work clearly plays a part in how people think Lisa should be perceived. Tony talking about what the media reported “they didn’t once bring up how she had been arrested of prostitution already and how she had left her two children at home to dance naked at a fraternity.” Clearly indicating that this has relevance to whether the sex was consensual. The inference being that as a sex worker she would be available to have sex with anyone at any time.
The lawyer of Mike, accused of the rape says “She was offering it around and having a hard time finding any takers. It was a case of ‘Dorothy waking up in the land of oz’.” He goes on to state there were places where tape wasn’t running, times where the tape was turned off and where a rape could have occurred.
Lisa, her mother and her grandmother capture what many sex workers reading this will identify with in relation to the media coverage of the case. “Stripper, Stripper, Stripper, it was like her work was too titillating to the media to leave it out of any sentence.” And “Forget the fact that I am a mother, a wife and a human being to them I was just a stripper”.
If this level of discrimination is not bad enough the UPD made the decision to disbelieve Lisa’s claims and to release the accused, and then arrest Lisa, based on viewing one of the videos without viewing the second or ever attempting to view the video or the case going to a trial.
At one point in the video footage taken on the night the boy in front of the camera notes that you are now watching “The raping of a white trash crack head bitch.”
Some of the boys were charged for misdemeanors but were never tried for rape - they had been offered immunity by the State Attorneys office.
In most cases in Florida a sexual assault victim case could stop having their name and any identifying evidence released, however in this case the evidence, the 3 hour tape, was made public. It is explained that normally you can sign in to the courts and go in to view the evidence. In this case the courts decided to make copies of the tape – so you could take it home with you. The state attorney’s office said they couldn’t keep up with the demand for the tapes. In Lisa’s mothers words “Anyone could get a private copy of my daughters rape for their viewing pleasure.” Or from the perspective of a ‘Radio Shock Jock’ “Everyone in Gainsville got a copy of the videotape. We got a copy and had a party and everyone, 40 or 50 people, came over and watched the tape.”
The comments by Tony about the public release of the tape which the director of the Rape Crisis Centre said showed ‘sexual activity, with force and without consent.’ Tony said “Yeah I was worried that people were going to see me naked …would see me hangin’ out with this white trash woman.”
On the morning the video footage captures the person accused of the rape saying “Mission number three: take the prostitute to bed….Tony is being overprotective of the prostitute…and doesn’t think she’ll be down for this group sex thing we have going down. Signing out special operative Mike”
Lisa says “I was not believed because the tape doesn’t show a Hollywood portrayal of what rape is.” The former victim support, attorney generals department, speaker agrees with this and states “People do not understand what rape is. After seeing what happened to Lisa I would never trust another state attorney or police officer. I would not report rape if it was someone I knew or if it was someone with a better standing in the community.”
A key element of the documentary is the role of Campus NOW (National Organisation for Women) who campaigned heavily against the UPD decision, saying that if the state attorney Rod Smith, did not support women reporting rape than he should be sacked. Their campaign included demonstrating outside of his office every week for several months and much media coverage. Their support for Lisa was never affected by her work and their relentless demand for justice and support for Lisa must have made a difference.
Lisa at one of the demonstrations is shown saying : “I am not ashamed of what I do for work, I know I was raped.”
Lisa said on the morning she was leaving the accused taunted her with “Who are you gonna tell - no ones going to believe you bitch” By the end of this documentary I was left pondering our situation in Australia, where we have States like Queensland where anti-discrimination laws protect legal sex workers and yet women in Queensland family law courts still have their sex work experience brought up against them in custody battles.
I also wondered with recent divides about sex amongst feminists whether the support shown by NOW would be shown by women’s organisations in Australia for a sex worker in the same situation. On reflection it’s worth remembering the Melbourne case where a rapist was given a lesser sentence because the victim was a sex worker! At that time women’s services and sex workers campaigned side by side against that discriminatory decision.
‘Raw Deal – a question of consent’, R rated, Directed by Billy Corben, Produced by Steven Phelps, West Avenue Films 2001 on DVD (weekly)
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