Rape and power

By Cheryl Springer

In July 1984, a young American journalist who had gone to a university campus to interview members of a theatre group, was raped at knifepoint in the empty theatre around 5 pm. On May 4 this year, Joanna Connors, who still works for the same newspaper, finally told her story with no holds barred. I spent about an hour on Thursday last wrapped up in the gripping feature in the online edition of the Plain Dealer, a Cleveland, Ohio daily.

“Beyond Rape: A survivor’s story” was also published as a supplement to the actual newspaper, because it was very long and the editor did not want to split it up and run over several days.