Steubenville, OH

A quick background on the case out of Steubenville, OH for anyone who has not yet heard: Two teenagers, Ma'lik Richmond and Trent Mays, were convicted of raping and sexually assaulting a classmate of theirs who had passed out when all three were drinking alcohol and traveling to different parties. They actually dragged her around, joking about how "dead" she was. The conviction was not difficult, since they supplied the evidence. They had video taped and photographed themselves and each other raping and sexually assaulting her and then shared them on various forms of social media. There was no "allegedly" here. Many witnesses saw them do this, both in real life and posted online.

I usually don't put direct quotes from articles within the blog post in this volume because I like the more subtle suggestion of a link to an article... but subtlety cannot let messages be lost here. This is too important.

"The pictures from Steubenville don’t just show a girl being raped. They show that rape being condoned, encouraged, celebrated. What type of culture could possibly produce such pictures? Only one in which women's autonomy and right to safety counts for so little that these rapists, and those who held the cameras, felt themselves 'perfectly justified'. Only one in which rape and sexual humiliation of women and girls is so normalized that it does not register as a crime in the minds of the assailants."

This case is particularly appalling because:

1. It happened in public. And no one stopped it. Yes, social norms and fitting in is really important to everyone, and especially in the (oftentimes awkward) adolescent years. But the "wanting to fit in" should maybe stop you from admitting that you watch a certain TV show or enjoy a certain singer... not standing up to people who are injuring and violating someone, regardless of their sex/race/anything else.

2. The media coverage has been sympathetic to Richmond and Mays. Yes, the ones who drunkenly, repeatedly raped and assaulted their classmate. If you want your blood to boil, watch this absurdly awful video of CNN as the court ruling came down. Seriously - who let the reporter go on air saying that, and who decided that it should be broadcast? Both should be fired.

It's so enraging and disheartening that things like this still happen in our world, and that it's not the only case of rape and sexual assault where the person who was raped is being harassed and punished while the rapist is protected, that I get blinded and don't fully address the situation. But since we don't know all of the facts, and probably won't ever, what I have to say is this: 

If you want to talk about personal responsibility, and how she shouldn't have had so much to drink or wore a low cut shirt or short skirt (which our culture popularizes for God's sake!) because then she's just oh so tempting.... 

Where and when does that "personal responsibility" narrative ever shift to the attackers? 

Not just in this case, but everywhere: what about "You should not ever touch someone who does not want to be touched, especially if they are not able to defend themselves" - where did that get lost in this dialogue? Probably in rape culture -

"What makes these men so sure of their inviolable right to stick their fingers and cocks into any part of any female they can hold down that they actually make and distribute images of each other doing so? Rape culture. That’s what rape culture is. The cultural acceptance of rape."

And so I leave you with this: 

"This particular evil has been rotting at the fractious heart of Western culture for so long that it barely registers as abnormal, and the initial emotion when it is challenged is rage. Rage that anyone dare question the notion that men's 'bright futures' matter more than women's right not to be attacked and degraded. It's an evil that believes that men work and play sports and make an impact on the world and women are there to get fucked. America has been raised on that belief, and like any dogma it can turn ugly when challenged."

Bring on the ugliness. We NEED to challenge dogma. Challenge THIS evil dogma.