Picture This

I remember reading about this pole vaulter, whose picture was posted on the internet and made the subject of various frat boy lewd comments, see Teen Tests Internet's Lewd Track Record, despite the fact that the photo was innocent. As the Washington Post noted:

In her high school track and field career, Stokke had won a 2004 California state pole vaulting title, broken five national records and earned a scholarship to the University of California, yet only track devotees had noticed. Then, in early May, she received e-mails from friends who warned that a year-old picture of Stokke idly adjusting her hair at a track meet in New York had been plastered across the Internet. She had more than 1,000 new messages on her MySpace page. A three-minute video of Stokke standing against a wall and analyzing her performance at another meet had been posted on YouTube and viewed 150,000 times.

* * * *

A fan on a Cal football message board posted a picture of the attractive, athletic pole vaulter. A popular sports blogger in New York found the picture and posted it on his site. Dozens of other bloggers picked up the same image and spread it. Within days, hundreds of thousands of Internet users had searched for Stokke's picture and leered.

The wave of attention has steamrolled Stokke and her family in Newport Beach, Calif. She is recognized -- and stared at -- in coffee shops. She locks her doors and tries not to leave the house alone. Her father, Allan Stokke, comes home from his job as a lawyer and searches the Internet. He reads message boards and tries to pick out potential stalkers.

I could certainly sympathize with the situation faced by this family. As the mother of a teenager, I worry about this sort of thing all the time. First there was Live Journal, then Xanga, MySpace and now Facebook. I cautioned my daughter to never provide personal information and limit pictures, but I'm her mother -- so what do I know? At least she now keeps her profile set to private (to avoid my prying eyes), so that helps keep outsiders from accessing her info.

Then I read, via Feministing, It's OK when it's someone else's daughter:

After we posted a link to the story about Alison Stokke, the high-school track athlete who has been unwillingly turned into an internet sex object, sharp-eyed reader Evan emailed with the observation that Stokke's father is the same guy who earlier this year defended a cop who jerked off on a stripper during a routine traffic stop. “She got what she wanted,” Al Stokke said, of the stripper. “She’s an overtly sexual person.”

See also, Everyone knows you can’t rape a whore, for more details on the case.

Now this one is a tough one for me. I don't believe in the sins of the father . . . .

Yet. This father doesn't make it easy. As a lawyer (who was a litigator early on in my career), I certainly understand the need for the zealous representation of your client, but that doesn't justify doing anything to put down or attack your opponent to ensure a victory for your side. That is not part of the lawyer's code. After reading about some of the other cases he was involved in, I just get the sense that Stokke is a "winning is everything" kinda guy.

I've often wondered how men who act like he did and are fathers of daughters don't realize what it says about their view of the female members of their family. Of course, even if he deserves some form of poetic justice for his reprehensible conduct -- this is not it. I wish this had happened to him, not his daughter. As Feminsting said:

To be perfectly clear, this is NOT to say that Alison Stokke has been in ANY WAY deserving of the harassment that has been heaped upon her for simply participating in a high-school track meet. But it's noteworthy that her father, who is understandably deeply concerned for his daughter's safety, has defended several men who have done things far more reprehensible than link to or post photos on the internet without permission.

It would be interesting to see how this turns out. Does the family do more interviews (and extend their 15 minutes of fame) or just try to live their lives outside the limelight? Even more importantly, does dad learn from this experience?

As an interesting side note, Jessica, one of the bloggers from Feministing, was on the Colbert Report tonight discussing her book, Full Frontal Feminism: A Young Woman’s Guide to Why Feminism Matters. She did a great job sparring with Stephen.

UPDATE (6/6/07): You can watch it here: Full Frontal Colbert.

Tags: Sexism, News