Louis Theroux: The Night in Question

I could see straight through that dirty cunt

I could see straight through that dirty cunt

Watching Louis Theroux's The Night in Question leaves no room for doubt; the evidence against Saif Khan is overwhelming. He is bold in his innocence, knowing a special force will protect him—one that is adamant about protecting people like him because they operate best within the system that controls the world—a system that urges heartless and callous behavior.

The system will always protect men. We live in a patriarchal society that will consume the minds and bodies of women because they are nothing more than a commodity, a being deemed lowly enough for exploitation, seen as less than, as vessels to carry their legacies - this is not a society worthy of redemption, it must be smashed. Its tenets are untenable and will continue to harm all of society through its vulgarization of the human condition.

Watching documentaries like this reminds me how much our society cannot comprehend the needs of women, simple or complex; it all falls upon deaf ears. Even if a woman outs her assaulter, this does not guarantee that it will be taken seriously socially or legally; it is the woman who has everything to lose. The U.S. Justice Department estimates that between 4% and 20% of female college students who are raped report the attack to law enforcement, and of the cases that are reported, only a fraction lead to an arrest or trial. How can any woman feel entirely safe in this society? How is this tenable? The answer is that it is not.

Saif Khan is deeply unfeeling, manipulative, and highly harmful to society. He moves through the world with the motive to dominate, control, and supersede others; it is all a sick game of human chess pieces used to make the ultimate checkmate. But Khan is only one of many stories of women subjected to the barbarism this society condones. Khan was found not guilty of the sexual assault in criminal court but was later expelled by Yale over the same allegations against him.

Khan's story is not an anomaly; it is the rule. The case of Brock Turner perfectly illustrates this same system of protection and privilege.

Brock Turner was a nineteen-year-old student at Stanford University who was caught raping a then twenty-two-year-old student named Chanel Miller behind a dumpster. Two Swedish graduate students, cycling at 1 AM, saw him, asked what the fuck he was doing, recognized that she was unconscious, and tackled him. They later testified that he was smiling. Brock Turner posted a bail fund of $150,000 and was indicted with five charges: two for rape, two for felony sexual assault, and one for attempted rape. Turner later clarified in the trial that he was laughing because the situation was ridiculous. Turner was eventually sentenced to six months in Santa Clara County jail, followed by three years of probation. He was also forced to register as a sex offender for life and live with his parents for a period of time. Judge Aaron Persky used the sentence recommendation from the Santa Clara County Probation Department, which is simply put, a slap on the wrist, an insult to the victim, and an indictment of who this system truly serves.

Brock Turner's father, Dan Turner, infamously wrote to Persky that Brock's life will never be the same again, that this was a steep price to pay for twenty minutes of 'action' out of twenty plus years of his life, that it was inappropriate to jail someone who never had a criminal record or been violent, that Brock doesn't even enjoy his ribeye steaks anymore, he hardly eats anything, eating only to exist.

This is a mindset that this capitalist patriarchal society breeds and proliferates. Through this process, the antagonisms that inherently exist in this society are only amplified by bourgeois law that dictates that this be the 'natural' order of things. Something that Louis Theroux is pushing back against with interviews from another possible perpetrator, other victims, or friends of Khan, exposing on a personal and societal level, how our society protects these people, and how their lives are, at worst, mildly inconvenienced, while the victims must rebuild their entire lives and restore their trust in a world that has stolen everything from them. This is the totality of our society; we do not value women, as we do not value people of color, queer people, or disabled people - we all take them for granted, tell them that their only value is the labor they can contribute, both domestic and in the marketplace, but all are discounted and exploited all the same. This does not have to be the way of things. The people can destroy this vile, rotten society and rebuild something in a truly egalitarian fashion.

Louis Theroux: The Night in Question is one of the better documentaries from Louis Theroux because of how adamantly he pushes back against the main subject, always focusing on the human cost of this system. Louis relays the notion that women are not taken seriously, contrasting how the world and its resources ally themselves with these men, who, in all likelihood (and definitely in the case of Saif Khan), did what they were accused of. They pool their resources to "right" the wrongs of these men, using the state apparatus to condemn the women and universities who retaliate legally. This is why the system cannot be reformed; it must be demolished.

Watching Louis Theroux's The Night in Question leaves no room for doubt; the evidence against Saif Khan is overwhelming. He is bold in his innocence, knowing a special force will protect him—one that is adamant about protecting people like him because they operate best within the system that controls the world—a system that urges heartless and callous behavior.

The system will always protect men. We live in a patriarchal society that will consume the minds and bodies of women because they are nothing more than a commodity, a being deemed lowly enough for exploitation, seen as less than, as vessels to carry their legacies - this is not a society worthy of redemption, it must be smashed. Its tenets are untenable and will continue to harm all of society through its vulgarization of the human condition.

Watching documentaries like this reminds me how much our society cannot comprehend the needs of women, simple or complex; it all falls upon deaf ears. Even if a woman outs her assaulter, this does not guarantee that it will be taken seriously socially or legally; it is the woman who has everything to lose. The U.S. Justice Department estimates that between 4% and 20% of female college students who are raped report the attack to law enforcement, and of the cases that are reported, only a fraction lead to an arrest or trial. How can any woman feel entirely safe in this society? How is this tenable? The answer is that it is not.

Saif Khan is deeply unfeeling, manipulative, and highly harmful to society. He moves through the world with the motive to dominate, control, and supersede others; it is all a sick game of human chess pieces used to make the ultimate checkmate. But Khan is only one of many stories of women subjected to the barbarism this society condones. Khan was found not guilty of the sexual assault in criminal court but was later expelled by Yale over the same allegations against him.

Khan's story is not an anomaly; it is the rule. The case of Brock Turner perfectly illustrates this same system of protection and privilege.

Brock Turner was a nineteen-year-old student at Stanford University who was caught raping a then twenty-two-year-old student named Chanel Miller behind a dumpster. Two Swedish graduate students, cycling at 1 AM, saw him, asked what the fuck he was doing, recognized that she was unconscious, and tackled him. They later testified that he was smiling. Brock Turner posted a bail fund of $150,000 and was indicted with five charges: two for rape, two for felony sexual assault, and one for attempted rape. Turner later clarified in the trial that he was laughing because the situation was ridiculous. Turner was eventually sentenced to six months in Santa Clara County jail, followed by three years of probation. He was also forced to register as a sex offender for life and live with his parents for a period of time. Judge Aaron Persky used the sentence recommendation from the Santa Clara County Probation Department, which is simply put, a slap on the wrist, an insult to the victim, and an indictment of who this system truly serves.

Brock Turner's father, Dan Turner, infamously wrote to Persky that Brock's life will never be the same again, that this was a steep price to pay for twenty minutes of 'action' out of twenty plus years of his life, that it was inappropriate to jail someone who never had a criminal record or been violent, that Brock doesn't even enjoy his ribeye steaks anymore, he hardly eats anything, eating only to exist.

This is a mindset that this capitalist patriarchal society breeds and proliferates. Through this process, the antagonisms that inherently exist in this society are only amplified by bourgeois law that dictates that this be the 'natural' order of things. Something that Louis Theroux is pushing back against with interviews from another possible perpetrator, other victims, or friends of Khan, exposing on a personal and societal level, how our society protects these people, and how their lives are, at worst, mildly inconvenienced, while the victims must rebuild their entire lives and restore their trust in a world that has stolen everything from them. This is the totality of our society; we do not value women, as we do not value people of color, queer people, or disabled people - we all take them for granted, tell them that their only value is the labor they can contribute, both domestic and in the marketplace, but all are discounted and exploited all the same. This does not have to be the way of things. The people can destroy this vile, rotten society and rebuild something in a truly egalitarian fashion.

Louis Theroux: The Night in Question is one of the better documentaries from Louis Theroux because of how adamantly he pushes back against the main subject, always focusing on the human cost of this system. Louis relays the notion that women are not taken seriously, contrasting how the world and its resources ally themselves with these men, who, in all likelihood (and definitely in the case of Saif Khan), did what they were accused of. They pool their resources to "right" the wrongs of these men, using the state apparatus to condemn the women and universities who retaliate legally. This is why the system cannot be reformed; it must be demolished.

fine but not particularly compelling as narrative

fine but not particularly compelling as narrative

maybe just people shouldn’t rape?

maybe just people shouldn’t rape?

i fucking knew it

i fucking knew it