night, the girl party-hopped with four football players. However, little did she know, these football players were not her friends. The players took advantage of the intoxicated and allegedly drugged young teen. They deliberately humiliated her by taking pictures and videos of their sexual assault on her as well as urinating on her. This attack was clearly an act of ruthless sexual violence with humiliation of the victim in mind. One would think that an act of this magnitude would elicit a large and angry response from the community, but instead, four adults and other members of the community proceeded to cover up the incident in order to protect the reputation of the high school’s football team. This Steubenville case demonstrates that rape is not taken as seriously as it should be in the overall culture of modern American society; it is treated as an event that should be hidden, and often is given low priority. The trivialization of rape is also seen in institutions such as the military and universities as well as in pop culture.
The Steubenville rape case exemplifies a typical rape scenario according to the descriptions in Susan Brownmiller’s book Against Our Will: Men,Women, and Rape. Brownmiller writes, “One important fact that Amir’s study revealed right off the bat was that in 43 percent of the Philadelphia cases, the rapists operated in pairs or groups…” In the Steubenville case, the rapists operated in a group as well. Although it is unclear how many males were involved in the rape, two were convicted, and many more commented on it via social media. Brownmiller continues, “Numerical odds are proof of brutal intention. They are proof, too, of male bonding…and proof of a desire to humiliate the victim beyond the act of rape…” This fact is reflected in the Steubenville case. The football players clearly possessed brutal intentions and a desire to cause humiliation as demonstrated by urinating on the victim among other horrid acts. It seems like the players shared this event as a bonding experience because multiple football players besides the convicted rapists joked about the event (Reese). This suggests that it was an event that brought them closer together. According to a report on Philadelphia rapes, more than a fourth of the rapists added extra insult beside the act of rape, which the Steubenville rapists certainly did. (Brownmiller). Finally, Brownmiller also explains that in many rapes “the lone rapist or the gang had a particular victim in mind and coolly took the steps to lure her into an advantageous position.” (Brownmiller) This seems to be the case in the Steubenville rape. The victim was certainly put into an advantageous position for the football players. The Steubenville case demonstrates that rape is not simply a statistic or made up scenarios. These scenarios happen in real life. Therefore, society should acknowledge the seriousness of rape and the reality of these scenarios.
 |
| The convicted rapists in the Steubenville Case. |
Many young teenagers and even adults often refer to rape in a joking way. For example, many teens take rape out of context saying phrases such as “I raped you” to express “I dominated you.” This casual use of the term “rape” has infiltrated American culture. One example of this infiltration can be seen in rap songs. In one of rap artist Nicki Minaj’s songs, she raps, “I’m raping these (men).” Here, Minaj demonstrates the slang usage of “rape”. In one of rapper Rick Ross’ songs, he tells, “Put molly all in her champagne, she ain’t even know it. I took her home and I enjoyed that, she ain’t even know it.” Clearly, rape has become, for some people, something that is casual and taken lightly. Ross raps his lyrics as casually and leisurely as the other lyrics as if they were not horrifying. Ross’s song lyrics demonstrate the way in which some people do not take rape seriously.
The lack of seriousness in regard to rape is demonstrated again in another societal institution: the university. In a blog post titled "A Letter to My Students: Stop Rape Now by Doing These Ten Things" a professor at Wesleyan University tells her students, “Never joke about rape or sexual assault, mock people who have been raped, or say in jest that rape would be an appropriate introduction to sexual intercourse…In fact, help to build a student culture where people do not think people’s sexuality is a joke…” The professor having to tell her students not to joke about rape demonstrates that rape culture is pervasive because some students are making jokes about it. Women in universities and in society in general are not having their cases of sexual abuse considered seriously or even acknowledged as dire matters by some people as well as institutions. This exemplifies that in American culture rape is not always treated as if it were a disgusting crime.
Not only is rape taken lightly, many people attempt to cover up rape. In the Steubenville case, four adults were indicted for their attempt to cover up the Steubenville scandal. In an article titled "Steubenville: Four Adults Charged in Ohio Rape Case," The Guardian reports, “An Ohio school superintendent, two coaches and a principal have been charged by a grand jury that investigated whether other laws were broken in the rape of a drunken 16-year-old girl by two football players…” These adult figures in the school were investigated because they attempted to obstruct justice by trying to hide not only the August 2012 case but a rape in April 2012 also. (Palmer) Two of the adults indicted are the superintendent and the principal, which are leading positions of a school. The superintendent and the principal have a responsibility to their students to do what is best for the students. However, they deemed the reputation of the school and the football team to be more important than the sexual assault of a young teenage girl. Therefore, they tried to hide the players’ crime to preserve their sports team and the school. In addition to these four adults, police and prosecutors tried to cover up the scandal as well.(The Guardian) Even the enforcers of justice are attempting to hide the fact that rapes like the Steubenville case happen all too often even in a small city. Of course, the rapists themselves attempted to cover up the incident. Frederick Reese of Mint Press News reports, “…the perpetrators requested a friend to “just say she came to your house and passed out…” Attempting to hide their crime is expected from the rapists. One would not expect them to be assisted by the school administration and the local law enforcers.
While it is true that rape is often covered up as seen in the Steubenville case, it is also true that rape receives low priority in society. In the Steubenville case, some townspeople worried about the effect of the case on other people in the community because of the publicity surrounding the rape (Reese). Instead of being concerned about the rape victim, some members of the community focused on what other people in the town had to deal with in regard to the public exposure of the rape. Clearly, the rape is not a top priority to some townspeople in Steubenville. If it were, then the girl’s wellbeing would come first. Also, the reputation of the football team took precedence over the rape of an innocent female. Reese of Mint Press News reports,
Steubenville is a small community with an exuberant amount of pride in its high school football team. In 2012, the team was having a winning season. It was alleged that the school’s football coach, Reno Saccoccia, and other members of the school and town administration actively worked to bury this story. (Reese)
Putting a football team ahead of the wellbeing of a human being is just as absurd as it sounds. Pride in a sport should never be prioritized above the sexual assault of an innocent female. Also, the rapists only received a maximum sentence of two years in jail. Kim Palmer of Yahoo! Newspoints out in her article "Charge Dropped For Coach in Ohio Teen Party Rape Case", the charges against the football coach were dropped completely, and the other three adults received mandatory community service for their part in the cover up.
The sentences that the involved parties received outraged many. Some people feel that the adults who were responsible for the cover up should have been punished more harshly (Reese). The dropping of charges against the football coach was disappointing as well. Although the people involved in the rape incident did not receive dire consequences, a hacker who revealed evidence against the rapists is facing up to ten years in jail (Reese). This acts as an example of how institutions in society can react to people trying to do something about sexual assault. When someone fights back against sexual assault, all too often the person is punished more than the rapists are punished.
Another example of low prioritization of rape can be seen in the military. One report cited in the New York Times article "Peril in War Zones: Sexual Abuse by Fellow G.I.'s" by Steven Meyers states, “Some military personnel indicated that predators may believe they will not be held accountable for their misconduct during deployment because commanders’ focus on the mission overshadows other concerns…” Some rapists in the military feel as if they are able to rape a woman without consequence because the military does not have the crime at the top of its priorities list. Women in the military not only have to worry about the enemy but the enemies against women within the military as well. Rape should be taken for what it is and not compared to other happenings. Rape will seem less significant if compared to the overall mission, but such comparisons are simply excuses to escape recognizing the importance of rape. Steven Myers reports,
The majority of sexual abuse allegations end with no prosecution at all. Of 2,171 suspects of investigations that were completed during the fiscal year that ended in September 2008, only 317 faced a court-martial…Nearly half of the completed investigations lacked evidence or were “unsubstantiated or unfounded."
If sexual abuse were taken as seriously as it should be, the number of suspects facing a court-martial in the military would be greatly increased. Individuals would not be afraid to come forward for fear of their claims being dismissed. The rape cases would be handled like someone had been severely violated, which is what happens in rape.
As in the military, rape is not the top priority in some police departments and other types of justice systems. Susan Brownmiller writes, “Police departments, as a rule, do not tally group rape statistics for public consumption and the FBI’s Uniform Crime reports do not analyze such information.” (Brownmiller) Seemingly, police departments do not want the public to know the truth about rape, specifically group rape. Consequently, they do not release reports about group rape, nor do they allow the analysis of this very important information. People cannot become aware of the reality of rape if it is constantly being hidden. If rape was a top priority, the police would want people to be aware of how often group rape happens. Also, there are 6,400 rape kits that are unprocessed in Ohio alone. The attorney general is concerned that some have reached the 20 year statute of limitations. (Clark) Therefore, some rape cases may have been cast aside for over 20 years.
As can be seen through the light punishments or no punishment that the participants in the Steubenville case received, rape is not considered to be a crime worth severe legal consequences in American society. The light treatment of rape legally is reflected in pop culture. Popular television shows such as "Game of Thrones” and “Degrassi: The Next Generation” demonstrate this concept. In both television shows, the perpetrator was not punished for rape. The idea that rapists can get away with their crime seems to be wide spread as seen in song lyrics like Ross’s. Perhaps, if the consequences for rape were more frequent and more harsh, then American society would view rape as a more serious crime. That is not to say that all individuals in American society do not acknowledge the importance of rape, but American culture shows that although the majority of people may know that rape is wrong, it is not taken as seriously as it should be.
No comments:
Post a Comment