The Steubenville, Ohio Rape Case has now taken America’s center stage and has left us with the questions, “When did our young people become so morally bankrupt?” and more disturbingly, from the younger population, “That counted as rape?” And from that we can derive the most crucial point: In our country, there is a deeply unsettling ignorance regarding matters of sexual abuse and the consequences of that ignorance– the perpuation of rape culture that goes as far as female reporters for big television news stations.
I’ve followed the Steubenville case quite closely over the past few weeks, researching the accused teenagers, Trent Mays (17) and Mal’ik Richmond (16). They are teenagers who were given the freedoms of adulthood without responsible judgment that should have been taught by the adults around them.
Steubenville’s High School football team, the “Big Reds” have gone on to win the Ohio State Championship several times in the 2000’s and are the symbol on which the depressed town hangs its hat. When town with a population of 18,000 erects a stadium that seats 10,000, it’s not difficult to assess where its priorities are. Eerily, I find myself recalling the Sandusky case at Penn State and the Freeh Report that followed (which I read in its entirety). Here is another case where the well-being and long-term emotional scarring that is sure to follow, were ignored in favor of preserving the reputation of a sports program. In both cases, authoritative figures who had the power to speak out and take action, chose to remain silent. And why was that? If the young people who were involved are so ignorant as not to speak out, what does that say about the adults? It’s even more alarming that none of them bothered to confront the youths who were so arrogant as to believe that their actions were not punishable offenses.
We should face the facts: rape is rape; there is no sliding scale on which to weigh blame on the part of the perpetrator(s) or victim(s). Only one party can be the victim, the other is committing a crime. Rape is sexual assault– a sexual act performed without the other person’s consent. This particular 16-year old girl was too intoxicated to give any sort of valid consent. The best way to assess this crime is to know it is attributed to ignorance and arrogance. Arrogance on the part of the rapists and their friends, thinking that she would have consented had she been sober? Yahoo News Writer, Dan Wetzel expressed it perfectly: “Arrogance is looking at a girl in desperate need of help, looking at a friend who was committing an obvious felony and deciding what the moment called for was an impromptu porn shoot.”
But it’s more than that.
Many have criticzed CNN’s coverage on the case and their choice to sympathize with Mays and Richmond. Yes, their fate is sad. But their lives are far from over. Will they be “haunted” by having to register as sex offenders? Probably. But it’s an acurate label. They took a young girl who placed her trust in them, treated her like a sex object and humiliated her. She will be a rape survivor forever, long after they’ve done their mandatory time. Her journey to recovery will be arduous as she grapples with the shame rape survivors struggle with– but that was entirely ignored during the newscast. And instances like this are part of the problem. The verdict and its impact on Mays and Richmond seems to be more important than the victim’s ordeal. I’m not against empathizing with either of the boys; anyone who is not a sociopath would feel guilty and I believe that their remorse could be sincere, but the question is: Did they cry for themselves or did they cry because they understood what they had done to her?
Are there certain amounts of wasted potential here? Yes, and it’s sad to see it. However, imagine this: say that either one of the two sentenced teenagers had been found innocent. Continued playing on the varsity football team until graduation. Perhaps he would have caught the attention of a scout. Suppose he would have been offered a scholarship at any given important university (Penn State, anyone?). Done well during his entire college career. Gotten drafted by the NFL. Be a starting player. AND THEN after years of being accustomed to the ingrained pattern of objectifying women as toys for sexual pleasure, raped a woman? People with even more pull would have been making excuses for him, somehow the actual rape would be skewed and instead labeled as a minor assault, he’d get great lawyers, issue a sincere-sounding apology drafted for him by a publicist, and the public might eventually forgive him because he is a sports hero. THEN he would be legally an adult. But he would be the same ignorant, arrogant teenager who was never taught to respect women, because nobody laid down the law and told him it was wrong.
