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Richmond High School Gang Rape
A high school girl is gang raped for two and a half hours at her high school homecoming dance. The atrocity takes place in an isolated part of campus, but there are witnesses to the crime. Fifteen young men watch as another human's life is violated. Some use their cell phones to take pictures and make videos, while others join in on the rape. Not one of them uses his phone to call for help.
What can you possibly say to adequately respond to the bone chilling brutality of the event? And how do you make sense of the fact that fifteen boys stood by and did absolutely nothing to help the girl?
I’ve seen a lot of outraged comments calling the men involved "monsters" and "animals," but the truth is even more terrifying than the idea of individuals completely devoid of consciousness. The men involved in the crime aren't so different from anybody else. It is the banality of evil in its purest form. Social psychologists have explained that horrendous acts are committed by regular people who would rather conform to social pressure than be ostracized by their peer group.
Here's another scary part: We have always lived in a society that constantly devalues women and strips them of their personhood. In this context, rape is more than egregious violation of human rights; it is part of a violent and demeaning sexist culture. Modern culture continues to recycle woman-hating attitudes in misogynistic video games, movies and music (how many sexist jokes have you heard in the last 24 hours?), but these attitudes are nothing new. Also isn't new is the assumption that men will continue to rape.
Consider this: 1 in 6 women will be sexually assaulted during her lifetime. The statistic is with us every hour of every day of our lives. It is a statistic that prevents us from wearing what we want, going where we want, and doing what we want, for fear that we'll leave ourselves vulnerable to rape. It is a statistic that severely threatens our freedom of movement, expression and association.
People say that "boys will be boys," and so the responsibility of avoiding rape is placed on a woman. If she is sexually assaulted, many will quickly point out that she is the one to blame because she failed to follow "the rules." Even in a case as horrific as the gang rape at Richmond High School, the police still found it necessary to inform the press that the victim was intoxicated at the time of her assault.
Society normalizes violence against women and women-as-sexual-objects attitudes and then blames the victim for what had happened to her. Society makes it easy for a rapist to claim "she wanted it," thus absolving him from all responsibility. Yet, 98% of rapists are men, and men can stop rape by not raping. The question isn’t why teenage boys at the homecoming dance did nothing to help the girl; the question is when will society start pressuring men to stop rape and the systematic devaluation of women?
What I take issue with is that men in general are being held responsible. Yes, the vast majority of reported rapes are committed by men, but the vast majority of men are not rapists. I have never once raped anyone, and I never would. I refuse to be held responsible for the acts of others.
As far as the fact that police reported that she was drunk. If you actually read the article, they in no way use this as a way to place any blame on her for what happened. The fact is, we live in an imperfect world. Getting yourself into certain situations is dangerous, I wish the world wasn't this way, but it is. I don't always get to go where I want, or do what I want either. Granted, rape is not something that I have much fear of, but it has happened to me, and I put myself in the situation that allowed it to happen.
Again, I'm not trying to place any blame on the victim, I have a lot of sympathy for her and my heart goes out to her and her family.
P.S. Nearly every single sexist joke that I hear in my daily life is making fun of men. (What did God say when he created Adam?
I can do better than this.)
Here is an excellent example of how men who claim never to have raped or had anything to do with rape excuse and trivialize rape while repainting the issue to be a question of what someone has done to 'get themselves raped,' thereby doing a great deal, in fact, to contribute to the cultural climate in which rape is such an easy thing to do, to get away with, for which to be congratulated, cheered, or pardoned.
Furthermore, I in no way excused the alleged rapists. I think rape is one of the worst crimes a person could possibly commit.
I find it deplorable that you would use my confession of being a rape victim as a way of attacking me. You have no idea how hard it is to be a male rape victim. You don't know what it's like to be laughed at and trivialized when you say you were raped, just because your a man. You don't know what it's like to call the cops and to hear them tell you that all they can do is escort your rapist off your property. No charges were filed, no investigation was done, it wasn't even mentioned in the police report. It went down on record as an "Unwanted Person" in my home.
I don't blame myself for what happened, but I do take responsibility for the bad decisions I made that allowed it to happen.
I want to quote from truthwalker.com - I think this might help:
"Two women both go to Applebee’s. They both go with someone they trust and care about. They both dress quite revealingly for the pleasure of being seen. They both get quite tipsy. They both get taken home and carried to their bed by their date. One is raped. One is not. What’s the difference between the two situations? The addition of a fucking rapist.
It’s not the way they dressed. It’s not the way they talked. It’s not the drinks they had. The only thing that got one women raped, the only thing that made the situation something terrifying and twisted was the addition of rapist. The problem is not the victim, the problem is the rapist.
Not every man is a rapist, in fact most aren’t. The problem is not the woman. The problem is not men. The problem is rapists."
Yes, rapists are the problem, but there are things that people can do to reduce their chances of being raped. There is nothing that anyone can do to insure complete safety, ever. But the fact is, you're much more likely to get raped if you're getting drunk in a secluded place around a bunch of strangers than you are if you're sober at home.
They are all depraved and this is evidence of the depravity of our culture that lacks values and morals. It is evidence of the vilification against anyone who would point it out.
My heart breaks for this child and her family.
What would you do to avoid being raped? Never go out? Never go out and have drinks and dance at a club? Do women have to live a life of total sobriety and stay locked within their homes because of the fear of a rapist?
You seriously need to rethink what you're saying because you're stating you're not blaming the victim on one side of your mouth and on the other side you're telling her to stay home and not have a life to avoid being raped.
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