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October 15, 2008
Facebook, the psychological profiler (?)
If books aren't to be judged by covers, and people aren't to be judged by their appearances, then mental states should not be judged by Facebook profiles.
Makes sense, right? Evidently one British lawyer didn't think so. Using a rape victim's Facebook profile against her--stating that she doesn't appear to be traumatized, given her happy presence in her photos on the website--hits a new low, in my book.
This is an age in which we construct identities for ourselves that are accepted far and wide, thanks to the Internet. The possibility of the victim trying to "put on a happy face" is very high because, honestly, there aren't many pictures of people looking melancholy or depressed on Facebook... That's not the nature of the social beast. Social networking is, by and large, a positive venture even if sometimes it does end up causing more trouble than it's worth.
Fortunately the judge saw through the disgusting excuse of a defense and the rapist was sentenced. Besides, the lawyer admitted that he had no idea when the photos were taken. Just because it's Facebook doesn't mean it's recent. And just because it's Facebook doesn't mean it's the gospel truth either. Wow, I thought that was pretty transparent, but evidently maybe not.
Posted by KarissaKilgore at October 15, 2008 2:47 PM