Daisy Coleman's mother said she tried to commit suicide on Sunday after being 'terrorized' by bullies on social media following a party.
January 8, 2014

The now 16-year-old victim of an alleged rape in Maryville, Missouri that made national headlines last year, tried to commit suicide on Sunday night after being bullied on social media, her mother says. In 2012, Daisy Coleman accused an older football player of raping her when she was 14, but the prosecutor declined to press charges. Coleman apparently tried to overdose on drugs and was rushed to the hospital. "She may never be ok," her mother posted on Facebook, saying her daughter "had been terrorized to the point she tried to kill herself last night."

According to Melinda, she had let Daisy attend a party with a friend, she was there for an hour and a half. Then she came home and saw Facebook. "(One girl) decided to write something saying "you're a fake and a phoney," "you wanted it" and "you're a slut" because she went to the party," Dr. Coleman told MailOnline.

"She has been through so much and she has done so little. All the other kids are out partying and doing all this stuff and she isn't, she's at home with me all the time. The second they see her at a party for five minutes drinking a Redbull it's all over Facebook and they're tearing her to smithereens..."

Amanda Marcotte writes for Slate:

Melinda Coleman, who is understandably quite stressed out right now, has taken to arguing online with people who are disparaging her daughter. One woman in particular who seems to have quite a gripe with Daisy exploded all over Melinda's Facebook page, writing that she's "tired of hearing" about the rape and complaining, "No one has ever got this much attention for being raped." This woman also wants everyone to understand that she's "smart enough not to put myself in those situations" (meaning, the situation to be raped). When other people called her out for blaming the victim, the woman got even angrier, saying, "I didn't put the blame on her! I said I, MYSELF don't put MYSELF in those situations!"

Why other women are eager to demonize a rape victim can often be hard to understand. Logically, it seems women especially should want to eradicate this kind of negativity toward victims that makes it easier for rapists to get away with their crimes. But, as these posts show, a lot of women have something to gain with this kind of cruelty. Impugning the intelligence and morality of rape victims allows the bully to characterize herself as the embodiment of all sorts of feminine virtues, from chastity to humility. You know, unlike rape victims, who just want "attention."

Of course, when women treat rape victims like pariahs, it only adds to the victim's already considerable woes. It's not hard to see why a young woman like Daisy would, despite all the hostility she's been experiencing in her small town, want to go to a party and act like a normal teenager for a few hours. She should be able to do that. That something so simple as going to a party has become so fraught for this young woman shows that our culture has a long way to go when it comes to treating rape victims with anything approaching basic decency.

This was apparently Daisy's third suicide attempt. Her condition is unclear at this time, as media reports give varying, and vague information.

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