Sex, Wealth, and Power : Audience and the Real Orange County. Elizabeth K
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University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014 2006 Sex, wealth, and power : audience and the real Orange County. Elizabeth K. Krieg University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/theses Krieg, Elizabeth K., "Sex, wealth, and power : audience and the real Orange County." (2006). Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014. 2572. Retrieved from https://scholarworks.umass.edu/theses/2572 This thesis is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014 by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. SEX, WEALTH, AND POWER: AUDIENCE AND THE REAL ORANGE COUNTY A Thesis Presented by ELIZABETH K. KRIEG Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS May 2006 Political Science © Copyright by Elizabeth K. Kneg 2006 All Rights Reserved SEX, WEALTH, AND POWER: AUDIENCE AND THE REAL ORANGE COUNTY A Thesis Presented by ELIZABETH K. KRIEG Approved as to style and content by: Izner, Department Chair Political Science ABSTRACT SEX, WEALTH, AND POWER: AUDIENCE AND THE REAL ORANGE COUNTY MAY 2006 ELIZABETH K. KRIEG, B.A. CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, FULLERTON M.A., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor John Brigham This work explores the connections between sex, wealth, and power present in the Haidl gang rape and the two subsequent trials. My focus is the politics of affluence, the female body, notions of public and private space, gender socialization, youth culture and law, and I interpret Orange County and its place in popular culture by means of mass media and personal experience. Due to this location’s prominence, tendencies evident in this crime and the community’s response may ultimately have national effects. IV CONTENTS ABSTRACT CHAPTER INTRODUCTION I: ENTITLEMENT TO RAPE? 3 II: FINDING A METHOD 9 III: CRIME ON TAPE 21 IV: WATCHING AND BEING WATCHED: EXPERIENCING AUDIENCE 29 V: THE TRIAL: COURTROOM PERFORMANCE 37 CONCLUSION 43 BIBLIOGRAPHY 50 V INTRODUCTION On July S*, 2003, three teenagers, Greg Haidl, Kyle Nachreiner, and Keith Spann, drugged and gang raped a 16-year-old girl, penetrating her with their penises, fingers, and a variety of foreign objects. They also videotaped what they did. With the exception of the videotape, none of this is particularly unusual, neither in terms of the rape’s specifics, nor of the occurrence of group sexual assaults among all sexual crimes. It is not unusual that the rape took place in a wealthy suburb, or that the community’s reaction to the crime took the form of condemnation of the victim, and concern for the “good boys” who attacked her. What makes this case especially interesting to me, despite what I have just noted, is that 1 was bom and raised in that same wealthy suburb of Orange County, California, and that millions of people watch two television programs devoted to the area, the fictional The OC and reality series Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County, each week. In the three years both programs have been on the air. Orange County has become of impressive cultural significance for key advertising demographics and arbiters of cool youth ethos. What this work seeks to explore is the link between sex, audience, and power present in this crime and the two subsequent trials, and the way that the politics with law, the that seem to always accompany affluence are so clearly interconnected female body, notions of public and private space, gender socialization, and youth culture. believe Haidl’ s claims that his If huge segments of a population are willing to not only in deviant sexual exposure to Internet pornography sparked his adolescent interest what can’t be excused? behavior but to accept this claim as an excuse for his actions, the root of his divergence Because Haidl was wrong in his explanation, pornography isn’t 1 from normal sexual development; indeed sexuality is just a small part of the situation. This case causes me to think it may be reasonable to indict an entire way of life. 2 CHAPTER I ENTITLEMENT TO RAPE? When media coverage of the Haidl rape trial was at its zenith, commonly heard was the suggestion that the three defendants were unlikely to have engaged in any sexual act against Jane Doe’s will because they are too affluent and well-connected to need to resort to violence or coercion in order to satisfy their sexual desires. Apparently those who embraced this approach to the crime were unfamiliar with the established and remarkably cohesive literature pertaining to gang rape. In her study of 24 documented cases of alleged gang rape that took place between 1981 and 1991 on college campuses, psychologist Chris O’Sullivan found that the most likely group of male students to take part in such activities are those considered elite by the college community. O’Sullivan argues that it is precisely because of this elite status that the rapists believe that they can commit their crimes without fear of punishment; the result is a combination of being above suspicion by campus and legal authorities, as well as a sense of entitlement. Neither encourages reflection on the nature of personal responsibility or respect for the rights of others.' According to a 1985 report written by Julie Ehrhart and Bernice Sandler for the Association of American Colleges based on their study of 1 10 campus gang rapes, the rapists, who use of drugs or spiked drinks are regularly utilized by would-be gang one of the attackers is generally don’t approach the intended victim as a group. Instead, engaging in preliminary sexual likely to sit near the victim, often talking to her or have taken effect At this point, the activities, such as kissing, until the drugs or alcohol Roth Rape Culture.” In E. Buchwald P. Hetcher, & M. ’ O' Sullivan, C. (1993). “Fraternities and the MN; Milkweed Editions. ^ Transforming a Rape Culture . Minneapolis, 3 rest of the group approaches the victim, who often reacts with confusion if she remains conscious.^ In a 1996 report on campus gang rape, anthropologist Peggy Reeves Sanday cites college counselors who assert that gang rape is a “regular event on every college ^ campus,” and in Bernard Lefkowitz’s book on the very similar high school rape case in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, classmates of the perpetrators and the victim admit to learning about “pulling train” and other related gang rape practices from older friends and siblings in college/ While the majority of the literature on gang rape commonalities deals with the context of college and professional athletics and the aggressive culture that supports both, it certainly isn’t difficult to see the parallels between that research and my own. In Susan Browmiller’s research on wartime rape she notes, “the ramming of a stick, a bottle, or some other object into a woman’s vagina is a not uncommon coup de grace'' and that in one-quarter of rapes studied for a separate research project, “the victim was subject to some form of extra insult beyond the simple rape. Sexual humiliation ran higher in group forced rapes than in individual rapes.” Indeed, gang rapes are more likely to include of the victim fellatio, pulling, biting or burning the breast, and putting semen on the body assault on Jane Doe. than are individual rapes. All of these elements were present in the The Haidl case also comports with accepted ideas about gang rape in the sexually active with Haidl men’s selection of their victim. Jane Doe had already been defendants. Because she and Spann, and was described as an outsider by friends of the InterYCnUons. Newbury ^ Koss, M., & Harvey, M. (1991). The Rane Vicdm: Clinical and Commun i ty Park, CA: Sage Library of Social Research. Rape on Trial [Electronic version]. WqiuchIs ^ Sanday, P. (1996). A Woman Scorned; Acquaintance Rights Law Reporter. 18(379). Vintage. ^ Leflcowitz, B. (1997). OurGuvs - New York: 4 had close ties no to the larger social group, it was unlikely that she would confide in anyone that the three most popular males in the group had abused her. Essentially, she was a safe bet.^ In addition to the use of drugs and alcohol to sedate their victim, the use of foreign object for penetration during the course of the assault, humiliation techniques, and their elite status, Haidl, Nachreiner, and Spann also fall in line with accepted research regarding gang rape in another crucial aspect; the need to show others what they had done. According to Sanday’s research, the gang rape ritual is not complete without further humiliating the victim by means of introducing an audience. This is often achieved by inviting other men to participate in the assault by watching the action from another location, or, far less commonly, by videotaping the events for future public viewing, as in the Haidl case. In their research, Ehrhart and Sandler found that “Voyeurism is often a part of the acquaintance gang rape. At one campus, brothers not involved directly in the rape watched through a peephole; at another campus, pictures other were taken. As still another campus, brothers would raise ladders to the window of brothers’ rooms who were having sex with women”.^ accepted That voyeurism is a typical feature of gang rapes is indicative of what is by many researchers as the defining quality of group sexual assault. Most of the of their aforementioned tendencies are found among all forms of gang rape, regardless share another quality, and situational specifics.