Kara DioGuardi has become the latest link in the chain of famous sexual assault victims more concerned with their own book sales than rape prevention.  The celebrity songwriter of American Idol fame has recently released a book detailing her history of molestation and rape.  In it she details being raped by a “fairly known producer” early in her music career.  And like clockwork, news outlets immediately pounced on the confession.  However no one sought to identify her attacker to prevent this kind of rape from happening to others.  After all, she’s surely neither the first nor the last music industry neophyte to be assaulted by this creep.  Yet the obvious questions – who is this guy?  And how can we get others to come forward? – have gone cruelly unanswered.

That’s when I realized; twice in two days, I’ve read disturbing first-hand accounts written in mainstream media outlets by celebrity women who have been sexually assaulted by powerful men in their respective industries and failed to report the violence.  What’s worse is that each instance is alleged to have occurred years ago, yet both women continue to protect their abusers by refusing to name their attackers, presumably out of a selfish interest in protecting their own careers from any potential fallout.  From a feminist point of view, I cant help but wonder if this is a good first step?  Or a disturbing trend in the age of the celebrity-tell-all?

On April 16, 2011 Jacque Reid, former lead anchor on BET’s Nightly News wrote an article on The Root.com (a news site/blog published by the Slate Group, a division of the Washington Post) detailing her violent encounter with “a public figure” with whom she was on a date.  According to Reid, after the date she was engaged in some passionate kissing with her attacker but decided not to have sex with him.  As she was leaving his building, he became increasingly angry about her refusal and decided to physically throw her out by physically lifting her up, dragging her body 20 feet across the lobby, and violently throwing her to the ground outside.

Reid goes on to note that because her attacker is a “public figure” and they belong to the same gym, she would see him occasionally and act as if nothing had ever happened.  As her story progresses to one of coping and redemption, there, again, was that glaring omission.  Who was the assailant?  And how can we stop him from attacking others?  And sadly, again, a woman who had grown to a place of power where others would hear her story and react, opted to protect the man who assaulted her.

Now, I understand the reasons many female victims of assault choose to remain silent – and I’m sympathetic.  But I don’t understand this game of chicken between financially exploiting one’s own sexual assault while protecting the assailant.  I can only say I’m leaning towards disgust on this one.  There are other women who don’t have the power of DioGuardi or Reid who have likely been served a dose of abuse by these men; and there are many more who have yet to receive their helping.  But thanks to DioGuardi and her ilk, they will never know to stay away – you see, Kara’s story was only meant to generate profits, not to actually help anyone.  She’s merely the latest celebrity to follow this disturbing trend – women using their stories of sexual violence to boost page views and book sales, but refusing to take the most basic steps in prevention: speaking out; naming names; encouraging other victims to come forward; criminal prosecution.

I’m tempted to entertain the notion that these types of reverse-anonymous accounts are a step forward in getting past the social taboo, shame and humiliation of sexual assault and abuse – that these women are setting the foundation for the next victim to speak out completely, to press charges.  But that seems highly unlikely because the next victim will not be a Paula Abdul, or a Katie Couric – she’ll be a young woman just starting out with no power, and almost no voice relative to her attacker. This kind of approach seems backwards in that it relies on the powerless to pave the way for the empowered. But as long as women in a position to effectuate a real change choose to protect the abusers, we’ll never right this ship. Young women will continue to feel pressured to choose between their physical and sexual integrity and professional advancement.

 This post was originally posted at www.thealternativefeminist.com