Patricia Douglas Case: Rape Scandal Covered up in Classic Hollywood

[Cleopatra7]

I recently found out about the story of Patricia Davis, a non-smoking, non-smoking teenager who was branded a drunken slut after she was raped at an MGM "stag party" in 1937 (which she was hired for under false pretenses) and dared to go public with it:

http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2003/04/mgm200304

The entire story is quite infuriating, not just because of what Douglas endures, but because I'm not sure anything has really changed in terms of powerful men being punished for sexual Crimea or victims being able to seek justice.

[Four is Enough]

Wow. How brave she was to go through with that in the face of that overwhelming machine. Her accomplishment was seemingly small, but I hope it saved some woman somewhere along the line.

[polecat]

Quote

Pretty gutsy, wasn't I?" she says. "Before you found me," she confides during one of our many long conversations, "I was getting ready to die. I'd buy less food; I wasn't planning to be around long. Now I don't want to go. Now I have something to live for. And for the first time I'm proud of myself." The lion raped, but Patricia Douglas was—and still is—the mouse that roared. Her heroic cry was once cruelly silenced; 66 years later, the last word is hers. 

 

Heartbreaking story, but I'm glad she's found vindication.