TRIGGER WARNING: This article mentions sexual assault, rape, slut-shaming and victim blaming culture for both men and women.
It’s hard to avoid hearing about this topic in
the media currently – and it’s certainly a story that I’ve been following for
the past little while. It’s the internationally headlining Steubenville rape
case. For those of you who have not heard anything about this case – two young
men were charged and convicted of raping a minor when they posted a video and
live-tweeted the repeated rape and sexual assault of a young girl who was
passed out drunk.
Now, what’s making the majority of the
headlines right now is the way that both the media and the community are
handling this case. I should probably forewarn readers that from this point on
this story will be heavily laden with bias and personal opinion.
The community (for the most part) have chosen
to rally around the attackers throughout this trial. Steubenville is well known
for being a football-centric town with much pride for its all-star team, so
when two of its star players are convicted of rape – it’s not unexpected for a
town to look to blame the victim. Now – what really stood out about this rape
case was that while all these boys (and girls) were incredibly drunk the main
defense was “she didn’t say no.” This girl wasn’t just raped – she was
filmed, penetrated while completely unconscious and urinated on while being
drunk. There were points in the film where these boys were laughing that you “could
tell she was really dead when she doesn’t even move” while they penetrated her.
As someone who worked with incredible intoxicated (sometimes minors) students –
I watched the entire video with this sense of absolute horror. This was a girl
who should have gotten medical attention as she was not able to stay conscious,
she was no way near in a state of mind to provide consent for sex. I've seen some of my students to this point and the thought of anyone treating someone the way these men treated her just leaves a massive pit in my stomach.
I’ll focus on the attackers first – and then
swing around to the victim side of this (bear with me). These boys have been
the focus of much media empathy, with CNN choosing to report on how sad it was
that their promising lives were over. CNN published videos of tearful
apologies to the family in the courtroom for what happened and one of the boys
collapsing and saying his life was over. I do believe that while these men have
the right to be treated like human beings, the focus on them being just as
much a victim of this incident and this being a one-time "youthful" mistake is downright disgusting. They
didn’t joyride through town in a stolen vehicle – they raped an unconscious minor. Bottom line. This wasn’t a petty
felony or a stupid mistake – they physically assaulted a young girl and only
got caught because they were stupid enough to post it on social media and
record the entire thing. There is definitely being young and stupid but there is a difference between getting drunk and urinating in public and then urinating on a drunk girl after you raped her and laughing about it.
There’s this amazing article titled Toxic Masculinity that directly relates to this event. It basically states that a
major issue with female rape by a male is this theory of toxic masculinity. Men
are told that, to be real men, they need to be abject of all weakness at all
times. I think the greatest quote of this article comes from former NFL
quarterback Don McPherson, “We don’t raise boys to be men. We raise them not to
be women, or gay men.”
That quote rings true throughout this case –
two football stars have raped a girl and yet somehow they’ve still managed to
maintain their status as top football players and men. Their attorney, although
paid to defend them, made the case that the woman didn’t say no therefore they
are innocent. Worst of all, in the eyes of some people, she deserved what they
did because she put herself in that position to be dominated by men. My
question in response to that is: then why aren’t we teaching men that it’s
wrong to dominate a woman? That's because to be a man means to be powerful and dominating, without weakness. These "men" wouldn't allow themselves to be like this victim because they are men, they are not weak. In addition to that, weak individuals deserve to be humilated and have their weakness exploited by "strong, dominating" men because they are weak.
Swinging to the victim side of this I’ve been
shocked and appalled and yet not surprised, to hear the comments that have come
out of the woodwork. Many people stating that this girl did it to herself and
therefore she deserved what happened because she was stupid enough to get
drunk. What I would like to know is why these attackers (who were stupid enough
to get drunk and rape a girl) seem above this same argument? The other argument
(and the most popular) is that this girl had a reputation for sleeping with men
therefore it was implied by her previous behavior that she would have said yes
anyway.
That – to me – is the sickest part of this.
Apparently the sexual choices someone makes in their past dictates the autonomy
that they are granted over their bodies in the future. This woman had a
reputation for having sex; therefore she deserved what happened to her. This woman was sexually active with men therefore she is to be accessible to any man who wants to have sex with her when they want - despite her mental status.
This victim blaming culture is disgusting – why
does the choices that this girl made about who she wanted to sleep with have
any bearing on how she is to be treated? What’s being made apparent throughout
this case (despite the guilty conviction) is that star-football playing rapists
have more of a right to be treated humanely, treated with respect and have
ownership over their bodies than a sexually active woman and that is sick.
We wonder why victims, both male and female, of
rape don’t come forward. For male victims they’re taught through this toxic
masculinity theory that they did something wrong, they were too less of a man
to stop it and thus don’t deserve help. For female victims it becomes a Blue’s
Clue’s version of “let’s see if we can find out why she deserved it”. Sexual
abuse leaves lasting scars on the victim and our culture of both rape and
slut-shaming leaves attackers and rapists open to continue to exist without
ever having repercussions. Even when convicted – these men and women are
coddled and often times doted on by their community while taking a magnifying
glass to the victim to find why they were in the wrong.
Throughout this entire research I was left with
one major question: if this hadn’t been posted on social media, would this girl
have come forward? Honestly, from the overwhelming support for these rapists and attacks against
this victim I don’t think she would have.
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