Last August 2012 in Steubenville, Ohio, a 16-year-old West Virginia girl was kidnapped and raped by two high school football players. The girl was inebriated and unconscious; the boys – Trent Mays and Ma’lik Richmond – took the girl from party to party, Instagram’d, Tweeted, and texted pictures of them assaulting her. There was even a YouTube video of a former Steubenville football player joking about what had happened to her.
This is unthinkable and I can’t imagine the trauma the victim has lived through since August. What’s even worse is the overwhelming support that Mays and Richmond have received from the community. Their parents, their football coaches, even the police have aided them and contributed to America’s increasingly prevalent rape culture and slut-shaming.
As the case has received national attention, hacker group Anonymous released private information on many of the football players and community members involved in the case, alleging that even more people should be prosecuted for enabling and protecting the rapists.
While many from the Steubenville community seem to support the rapists based on the old saying “boys will be boys” and their high-profile status of being star high school athletes, many advocates on the internet have spoke out against this injustice.
Michael Kimmel of Ms. Magazine blames all 18,437 Steubenville residents for the crime saying that this incident is not surprise given the “athletic privilege” that star athletes receive in their communities. Kimmel, a sociologist, is the author of Guyland, which is based on 400 interviews of men ages 16-26 regarding “Guy Code” (i.e. “locker room behaviors, sexual conquests, bullying, violence, etc.). Kimmel suggests that allowing the “boys will be boys” stereotype to prevail in our society assumes that boys can be nothing more than “wild rapacious animals.” We must expect more than this from men, we must acknowledge that men are more than just rapists and must be raised to respect people – especially women – by honoring their right to say “no” to sex. And certainly, a girl who is unconscious and unable to speak for herself is not consenting to being drug around from party to party, sexually assaulted, and video recorded for the entire Internet to see.
Thankfully, on March 17, 2013, the juvenile court ruled for Mays and Richmond to spend at least a year in juvenile detention and to register as sex offenders. Attorney General Mike DeWine hopes that in mid-April more charges will be made possibly against other teens, parents, school officials, and football coaches. While the sentences for Mays and Richmond seem minimal to me and other advocates in the social media, CNN caused a stir yesterday during their report of the trial. Corespondent Poppy Harlow, news anchor Candy Crowley, and legal expert Paul Callan all described how “emotional” it was to see the two rapists convicted focusing on their “youth” and “vulnerability.”
Here are some excerpts:
Poppy Harlow to Candy Crowley
“Incredibly difficult, even for an outsider like me, to watch what happened as these two young men that had such promising futures, star football players, very good students, literally watched as they believed their lives fell apart…when that sentence came down, [Ma’lik] collapsed in the arms of his attorney…He said to him, ‘My life is over. No one is going to want me now.’ Very serious crime here, both found guilty of raping the sixteen-year-old girl at a series of parties back in August.”
Paul Callan
“Sixteen-year-olds just sobbing in court, regardless of what big football players they are, they still sound like sixteen-year-olds…what’s the lasting effect, though, on two young men being found guilty in juvenile court of rape, essentially?”
“The most severe thing with these young men is being labeled as registered sex offenders. That label is now placed on them by Ohio law…That will haunt them for the rest of their lives. Employers, when looking up their background, will see that they’re registered sex offenders. When they move into a new neighborhood and somebody goes on the Internet, where these things are posted, neighbors will know that they are registered sex offenders.”
Social media advocates were quick to point out that Mays and Richmond made a CHOICE to kidnap and rape the victim, and they are simply being punished for their actions. However, the victim’s life was destroyed back in August and she is continually being re-victimized and shamed for what happened.
Mallory Ortberg of Gawker commented:
For readers interested in learning more about how not to be labeled as registered sex offenders, a good first step is not to rape unconscious women, no matter how good your grades are.
For those that are infuriated as I am by how CNN and other rapist-sympathizers are treating this case, I would suggest visiting UniteWomen’s Facebook as they are doing a wonderful job at tracking the progress of the Steubenville case and advocating on behalf of survivors of rape. Check out this letter to Jane Doe of Steubenville.
A petition was recently filed with Change.org demanding that CNN apologize for their coverage of the trial. Please sign and share the petition, here.
So readers, what do you think about this case? Were Mays and Richmond’s sentences long and harsh enough? How could CNN have covered the trial better? What can we, as a society, do to reduce the prevalence of rape? How does “athletic privilege” play a role in this case? Are young male athletes too entitled in our country?
Feel free to share your thoughts!
PS: I plan on reading Guyland by Dr. Michael Kimmel soon, and will be discussing it soon!
UPDATE: Since I posted this entry, Fox News has topped CNN by neglecting to redact the victim’s name from their latest coverage of the Steubenville case. ThinkProgress also notes at the bottom of the article that MSNBC also ran a clip of the girl’s name on Sunday. Great. This is turning into one giant media fail at the victim’s expense. Sounds like our top news stations need a lesson on respect.
End Violence Against Women 