Antarctic scientists plead for help after ‘sexual assault and threats’ by colleague
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I would think frontier justice would apply nicely in this situation. Just boot the asshole out in the cold and nature will solve the problem for you.
Exactly what I was thinking.
When you're cut off from any help, you ARE your own help. Don't wait for something unthinkable to happen, this person has made it clear they don't respect you or boundaries, and have made threats.
It's 9v1, if you're scared just wait until they're asleep. Kick them out the door, lock it, and they can try walking their happy ass back to civilization. from Antarctica
Don't bother looking for a body.
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I would think frontier justice would apply nicely in this situation. Just boot the asshole out in the cold and nature will solve the problem for you.
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Summary
A South African scientist at the remote Sanae IV Antarctic base has been accused of sexual assault and violent threats, prompting urgent pleas for help.
The 10-person team is stranded for months due to extreme winter conditions. Officials were warned of the escalating situation as early as December but failed to act.
South Africa’s environment department has launched an investigation and is offering counseling.
The incident raises concerns over psychological screening for Antarctic missions, echoing past violent incidents in South Africa’s research programs.
I've seen enough scifi to know that (ant)arctic research stations ought to have a quarantine area so that ill crewmembers can be compassionately kept alive separated from those they might harm while still having access to life support in a hostile environment.
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I've seen enough scifi to know that (ant)arctic research stations ought to have a quarantine area so that ill crewmembers can be compassionately kept alive separated from those they might harm while still having access to life support in a hostile environment.
Antarctic builds are costly, difficult, and filled with challenges you don't see in daily life, so while that might seem like a simple idea, it's about half as hard as as putting it on the space station, with a 10th or less the budget.
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Summary
A South African scientist at the remote Sanae IV Antarctic base has been accused of sexual assault and violent threats, prompting urgent pleas for help.
The 10-person team is stranded for months due to extreme winter conditions. Officials were warned of the escalating situation as early as December but failed to act.
South Africa’s environment department has launched an investigation and is offering counseling.
The incident raises concerns over psychological screening for Antarctic missions, echoing past violent incidents in South Africa’s research programs.
-
Summary
A South African scientist at the remote Sanae IV Antarctic base has been accused of sexual assault and violent threats, prompting urgent pleas for help.
The 10-person team is stranded for months due to extreme winter conditions. Officials were warned of the escalating situation as early as December but failed to act.
South Africa’s environment department has launched an investigation and is offering counseling.
The incident raises concerns over psychological screening for Antarctic missions, echoing past violent incidents in South Africa’s research programs.
I believe it's a remote station/environment issue based on my working in Antarctic and on Research ships.
NSF finally saw the light after it was forced down their throat, and they still haven't resolved it.
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I would think frontier justice would apply nicely in this situation. Just boot the asshole out in the cold and nature will solve the problem for you.
Women and some other minorities are raised to not even consider using acts of violence to protect ourselves, like it never crosses our minds as a possibility that we could physically hurt an assailant if we wanted to. We have internalized a sense of weakness that isn’t actually true. This has been detrimental to our safety as well as the safety of other women. Fuck the patriarchy for doing this to us.
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Women and some other minorities are raised to not even consider using acts of violence to protect ourselves, like it never crosses our minds as a possibility that we could physically hurt an assailant if we wanted to. We have internalized a sense of weakness that isn’t actually true. This has been detrimental to our safety as well as the safety of other women. Fuck the patriarchy for doing this to us.
Plus fear of being believed, self blame and feeling of needing to be polite.
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Plus fear of being believed, self blame and feeling of needing to be polite.
The need to be polite and feeling of blame are both an extension of the lie that we are weak and can’t physically stand up for ourselves. It doesn’t necessarily matter whether we’re believed if we are ultimately safe from the assault in the first place.
But our culture has made us forget that we are strong and capable, has raised us to never develop the muscles to be able to stop someone, to never tear an assailant’s skin off with our teeth, etc.
I could be wildly out of left field, here, and I am extremely privileged that I’ve never been hurt in this way. I just want to see minorities believe that we are strong…because we are.
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The need to be polite and feeling of blame are both an extension of the lie that we are weak and can’t physically stand up for ourselves. It doesn’t necessarily matter whether we’re believed if we are ultimately safe from the assault in the first place.
But our culture has made us forget that we are strong and capable, has raised us to never develop the muscles to be able to stop someone, to never tear an assailant’s skin off with our teeth, etc.
I could be wildly out of left field, here, and I am extremely privileged that I’ve never been hurt in this way. I just want to see minorities believe that we are strong…because we are.
I agree with a lot of what you say. Just bear in mind if they kill/harm someone to prevent themselves being raped, they have to explain this to various authorities. And may feel they won't be believed
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Women and some other minorities are raised to not even consider using acts of violence to protect ourselves, like it never crosses our minds as a possibility that we could physically hurt an assailant if we wanted to. We have internalized a sense of weakness that isn’t actually true. This has been detrimental to our safety as well as the safety of other women. Fuck the patriarchy for doing this to us.
Have you watched the handmaids tale series? Spoiler alert, but
the main character starts out seemingly powerless, being repeatedly assaulted etc. By the 3rd series she's murdered one of the state sponsored rapists by stabbing him with a pen I think, then the other women hide the evidence and secretly cremate the guy in a furnace.
The lesson I took is that people are always more powerful than they think and solidarity is very important.
Also that the attitude #TraumatiseThemBack is valid when dealing with evil.
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I agree with a lot of what you say. Just bear in mind if they kill/harm someone to prevent themselves being raped, they have to explain this to various authorities. And may feel they won't be believed
Yeah, that’s a good point.
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Women and some other minorities are raised to not even consider using acts of violence to protect ourselves, like it never crosses our minds as a possibility that we could physically hurt an assailant if we wanted to. We have internalized a sense of weakness that isn’t actually true. This has been detrimental to our safety as well as the safety of other women. Fuck the patriarchy for doing this to us.
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Have you watched the handmaids tale series? Spoiler alert, but
the main character starts out seemingly powerless, being repeatedly assaulted etc. By the 3rd series she's murdered one of the state sponsored rapists by stabbing him with a pen I think, then the other women hide the evidence and secretly cremate the guy in a furnace.
The lesson I took is that people are always more powerful than they think and solidarity is very important.
Also that the attitude #TraumatiseThemBack is valid when dealing with evil.
I have! That show absolutely terrifies me, since yeah, a small minority of people convinces a ton of other people to do violence against women in a way that feels very USA 2025. But that’s a great point! When the main character realizes her power, she goes far in protecting herself and others.
It’s difficult because our culture trains us from birth to never realize we can fight back. Like, I have a strong suspicion that if I was suddenly attacked, my brain would dump all ideas of fighting back and just freeze, which of course allows the violence to happen. I don’t think this is a “natural state” of being for women or any person. I think we were just trained this way, which makes it a very difficult mindset to overcome; I believe that this is by design.
So…how do we retrain women and girls to respond with a #traumatizethemback mindset? Seems impossible to do this at the cultural level, at least for several generations.
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I am sad for the way you were raised, in my entire extended family there is not one woman who would have put up with it or had any thought other than self-defense at whatever cost.
I’d love to spread your family’s mindset through the larger white American culture (the one in which I was raised)!
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Yeah, that’s a good point.
Because for a long time we weren't believed. It's why #metoo was so important.
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Because for a long time we weren't believed. It's why #metoo was so important.
Agreed. The fact that we have to depend on structurally patriarchal/domineering justice system is the problem… It’s a whole mess.
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Antarctic builds are costly, difficult, and filled with challenges you don't see in daily life, so while that might seem like a simple idea, it's about half as hard as as putting it on the space station, with a 10th or less the budget.
I'm not saying anything has to be built or installed, just rigged/signposted in physical reality and negotiated as social reality
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I would think frontier justice would apply nicely in this situation. Just boot the asshole out in the cold and nature will solve the problem for you.
That is close to my thought, "Hey asshole, you gotta sleep sometime..."
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I am sad for the way you were raised, in my entire extended family there is not one woman who would have put up with it or had any thought other than self-defense at whatever cost.
