Allison Stokke's dad not happy with internet attention

Allison Stokke

from Deadspin.com

Problem: Nasty bloggers are spreading your 18-year-old pole vaulting daughter's picture across the Internets. (They can send all the letters to Ufford they want, but you can still find the picture here and here and about a million other places.) Solution: Scream your lungs out about it on the front page of The Washington Post.

The wave of attention has steamrolled Stokke and her family in Newport Beach, Calif. She is recognized -- and stared at -- in coffee shops. She locks her doors and tries not to leave the house alone. Her father, Allan Stokke, comes home from his job as a lawyer and searches the Internet. He reads message boards and tries to pick out potential stalkers. "We're keeping a watchful eye," Allan Stokke said. "We have to be smart and deal with it the best we can. It's not something that you can just make go away."

We sympathize, we suppose, though we assure you, Mr. Stokke: Searching the Internet for what people are saying about your daughter is not a good idea. Meanwhile, Mr. Ufford at With Leather gets trotted out as the blogger whack-a-mole:

"I understand there are certain people who are put off immediately by the tone of my blog," Ufford said. "Every week, there's somebody who takes offense to something, but that's part of being a comedy writer. If nobody is complaining, it probably wasn't funny. You are hoping for some kind of feedback."

We agree: Comedy is indeed hard. Without question, though, giving an huge interview to The Washington Post about how you can't stand everyone talking about your daughter -- and including two more attractive pictures -- is really the perfect way to get everyone to stop talking about your daughter.

Interesing, her Mr. Stokke defends
http://www.ocweekly.com/news/news/illegally-park-ed/26661/

from http://feministing.com/archives/007124.html

It's OK when it's someone else's daughter

After we posted a link to the story about Alison Stokke, the high-school track athlete who has been unwillingly turned into an internet sex object, sharp-eyed reader Evan emailed with the observation that Stokke's father is the same guy who earlier this year defended a cop who jerked off on a stripper during a routine traffic stop. “She got what she wanted,” Al Stokke said, of the stripper. “She’s an overtly sexual person.”

The hits they keep on comin'. Stokke also defended a sheriff's son who was convicted of participating in a videotaped gang-rape. From the OC Weekly's account of the sentencing hearing:

The defense niceties vanished immediately. Defense lawyer Al Stokke, who replaced lead trial attorney Joseph G. Cavallo, questioned any link between the rape and the victim's claim of mental anguish. Stokke also mocked the girl's physical injuries, finally conceding she was unconscious but then trying to use that against her. "There's [no pain] that is felt," he said, "because she was unconscious."

Wow. To be perfectly clear, this is NOT to say that Alison Stokke has been in ANY WAY deserving of the harassment that has been heaped upon her for simply participating in a high-school track meet. But it's noteworthy that her father, who is understandably deeply concerned for his daughter's safety, has defended several men who have done things far more reprehensible than link to or post photos on the internet without permission.

Her father, Allan Stokke, comes home from his job as a lawyer and searches the Internet. He reads message boards and tries to pick out potential stalkers.

"We're keeping a watchful eye," Allan Stokke said. "We have to be smart and deal with it the best we can. It's not something that you can just make go away."

In other words, it's his daughter, and of course he's doing all he can to ensure she's safe now that her photo is plastered all over the internet in a sexual context. But he seemed to not only lack concern but to show outright disdain for the woman who was sexually assaulted by a traffic cop and for the girl who was gang-raped. From his previous comments, he seems to desire a world in which reprehensible treatment of women (sexual assault, harassment, rape) is a-OK. But maybe, just maybe, his views will change now that he is forced to consider the fact that his own flesh and blood -- his wife, his sister, his mother, his daughter -- could be a victim of that violence.