Editorial: Change culture in response to rape

The small Midwestern town of Steubenville, Ohio, has rarely attracted the attention of the national news — but now, the name of the town has become easily identifiable, readily linked with the rape case that took place there. On Sunday, March 17, Trent Mays, 17, and Ma’lik Richmond, 16, were charged as minors and found guilty of raping a 16-year-old girl at a series of parties in August 2012.

The girl, whose name has not been released by most media outlets, says that she was unconscious for the six hours when the attacks occurred. Much of the evidence in this trial has come from social media, including text messages between the teenagers, photographs and YouTube videos, and many suspect that, without the availability of this evidence, the case might not have come to light.

Mays and Richmond’s trial attracted reporters, bloggers and even the cyberactivist hacking group Anonymous, who released a photograph of the girl being carried by her wrists and ankles into a room. Reactions to the teenagers’ sentence have varied from outrage to rape apology. Bloggers and social-media users have been quick to find and expose incidents of rape apology — and, unfortunately, some of these unacceptable excuses have been featured in mainstream, national media.

Many were outraged by a CNN video in which reporter Poppy Harlow emphasizes the personal struggle that the boys face but makes little mention of the victim or her family. In a broadcast, Harlow said, “It was incredibly emotional — 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 believe their life fell apart.”

These inappropriate reactions are not limited to the media: The judge at the trial cautioned the teenagers about the risk of using social media — potentially implying that if they hadn’t used social media, no one would have ever found out about the rape. The boys apologized after being sentenced, and, infuriatingly enough, Mays did not apologize for committing rape, but rather for taking and distributing photographs of the assault.

Clearly, there are major, underlying problems in how this case is being handled. Apologies for rape in mainstream and social media must be considered unacceptable, and showing sympathy and support for perpetrators rather than the survivor of the assault shows that priorities are in the wrong place.

These media and courtroom gaffes are indicative of an ugly problem: a culture in which female victims of sexual assault are held responsible, whether because they consumed alcohol, were in the wrong place at the wrong time or dressed a certain way.

According to a column by sports writer Dave Wetzel, one of the students at the party, Evan Westlake, forcibly took car keys out of another student’s hands to prevent him from driving drunk. However, when Westlake walked into the room where the sexual assault was occurring, he said that he simply walked away because he did not perceive the behavior as dangerous. Also, in his apology, Richmond said that he did not know that his actions — violating an unconscious girl with his fingers — constituted rape, and that he “had no intention of doing anything like that.” Lack of knowledge cannot continue to be an excuse for committing crime.

This generation has grown up with a public consciousness to prevent some crimes — like drunk driving and drug use — but not the consciousness to prevent sexual assault. While some students might go to sex-education classes, there are no states that mandate teaching students about the importance of consent in sexual encounters.

Hopefully, this case will make everyone reflect on the perpetuation of rape culture. It should be totally unacceptable for anyone to use the defense that they didn’t know their actions constituted sexual assault. Hopefully, our public consciousness will change to reject rape apology and establish the importance of sex-positive education.