Rape Culture CNN

1. 67

   ptosisposted 11 years ago

   CNN sympathetic to convicted rapists,  saying how their lives were ruined -- while completely ignoring the fact that the rape victim's life is the one whose life was ruined by these rapists' actions -- is disgusting and helps perpetuate a shameful culture.
   
   Sign petition here asking CNN to apologize:
   
   https://www.change.org/petitions/cnn-ap … le-rapists
   
   CNN: incredibly difficult to watch as these two young men  who had such promising futures, star football players, very good students  literally watched as they believed their life fell apart.
   
   There always that moment of just  lives are destroyed Callan remarked. But in terms of what happens now, 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.
   
   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/1 … l?ir=Media
   
   
   
   

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      Brenda Durhamposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I didn't see the CNN segment,  but I saw where those two guys were convicted.   I'm definitely not defending CNN unless I see the segment.
      But
      Honestly, I had been wondering why being drunk was an excuse for the girl's behavior but not an excuse for the boys' behavior..........IF they were also drunk?........NOT that rape is ever okay, but I do wonder why the girl's friends ever left her in that situation, and why the girl let herself get so drunk, AND she was heard to say her intention from the start was to have sex with the boys......
      Maybe that's why the Judge didn't give the boys longer sentences.........
      Anyway, the News said that the girl's parents said that if the boys had 'fessed up before and (I guess) hadn't mocked the girl by making the video etc......that maybe they wouldn't have even involved the authorities in the situation.
      Guess I'll try to find out more on the story................

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         peeplesposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Please find out more. I'm with you on part of this but what they did was a lot more than rape. She was unconscious with they performed other sex acts on her. Even making a mini porn film. They were filmed carrying her. On top of that none of her friends were around when she was sitting in the middle of the street throwing up and passing out while a boy offered anyone who urinated on her $3. They then carried her off into a car where it was just guys. There is a lot to this story. A LOT! Really messed up situation.

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         ptosisposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Wow, that's amazing.
         
         People: What if the person being raped was a male who was drunk and passed out? Would that change your perspective? Blaming the victim for being an unconscious potty mouth? OMG!
         
         What if you intended to have sex with your married spouse but suffered a horrible accident and after you had a cerebral aneurysm became unconscious  for years. Would it be OK for your married spouse to have sex with you while  you're unconscious  in a hospital bed, selling your body out AKA "Kill Bill'????
         

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            Brenda Durhamposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            No it wouldn't be okay.
            And no it wasn't okay for those boys to do what they did.
            I didn't mean to sound insensitive at all.
            I was just asking questions.  I just don't understand, if the girl was so out of it,  why someone during all that time didn't stand up for the girl,  some female friend or male friend, or anyone else at the party(parties).   Were they all so drunk?  There are so many questions.   And your latest post does show that the authorities are asking those questions apparently, since the link info that I found too says that they're considering who else may be prosecuteable in this case.........

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               peeplesposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               The judge granted immunity to almost everyone at those parties in exchange for their testimony. All the testimony that put them away for a whole 1 to two years. No one did anything because it was stated this was not uncommon behavior. They had become adapt and considered it normal behavior. Which leads me to wonder how many more girls had something happen in the past and just said nothing.  Sorry to butt in your conversation. This whole thing just irks me.

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2. 67

   ptosisposted 11 years ago

   
   
   
   What CNN did was mass media raping the humanity out of the victim.
   

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3. 67

   ptosisposted 11 years ago

   bump

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4. 94

   peeplesposted 11 years ago

   Based off the quote you provided (I do not go to links) I see nothing wrong with what they said. These boys did have promising futures. It is sad that they screwed that up and its sad they will now have to register forever. Stating that does not minimize the victim in my opinion.

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      Peelander Gallyposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      You should probably watch it. The piece (presented by two women, no less) exudes a disproportionate amount of sympathy for these boys, perpetuating the concept that young athletes are somehow more valuable not only monetarily but as people than the other students of high schools and colleges. Ma'lik Richmond even said, as he was sobbing, "My life if over, no one will want me now", presumably talking about his university football career prospects. They weren't upset about what they did, they were upset for themselves.

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         gmwilliamsposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         + 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000-crying because they were caught and convicted.

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         peeplesposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Peelander, I went back and listened to the video after you posted this and it didn't change my thought much. Are we suppose to pretend that prior to this one night these boys (I think some forget these were boys not men) were horrible children with no future ahead of them that would end up living horrible adult lives? I'm not sure how stating facts like having a "promising future" or that they will forever have to register as offenders  is a big deal. I don't see it as minimizing the victims at all. I'm not saying what they did was a good thing or that they shouldn't go to jail. I actually think they should have got more time. However I didn't see any intentional malice in this video by cnn. In reality how many reports that were about the victim were done by cnn before this ONE about the rapists? If all cnn had done was spots about sympathizing with the boys then I'd look at it different. I just don't see how one video stating facts about the boys lives is so bad. After all it is the media's job to cover all sides of the news, quite a rarity for cnn to pick the side the people didn't want to hear for a change.

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5. 73

   cheaptrickposted 11 years ago

   Statistically nine out of ten people involved in a gang rape think it's OK...seems like there's always one NO vote.
   Don't hesitate...CASTRATE!
   Then print photos and names...uh huh.

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      Brenda Durhamposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Eh.........I'd be more open to joining your (horridly inhumane) suggestion if the victim was a little child or some other unthinkable situation was at hand.
      As it stands, even a teenage girl has some responsibility for the scenario she puts herself in, and the teenage boys should have some recourse for repentance and forgiveness as well.
      So I find your words about castrating to be horribly cruel and radical.
      
      And I dunno where you got your statistics, but I highly doubt that 9 out of 10 people think gang rape is Ok.

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         wildernessposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         You missed a crucial part of the stat: 9 out of 10 people involved in a gang rape think it's ok.  Not out of the general population.
         
         And that's probably true, although I have to wonder why the tenth one stands around and does nothing...

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   EmpressFelicityposted 11 years ago

   When I read that bit saying "the rapists' lives were ruined", then I'm afraid my first reaction was "I should bloody well hope so - they certainly didn't care about their victim's life".
   
   ETA: a Canadian anti-rape campaign gets it right:
   
   http://poweredbygirl.org/blog/hurrah-ca … e-campaign
   
   "Three cheers for the boys up north! Vancouver's Police Department responded to an increase in sexual assault cases seen from 2008-2010 by launching a campaign aimed towards men who believe any intoxicated female body is theirs for the taking.  Since "Don't Be That Guy" took to the walls of bars and streets in Vancouver, there has been a significant decline in the number of reported sexual offenses.  And it wasn't due to women changing their way of dress, either (ironically, this was Canada's doing, as well). The undertone of these ads is, 'Hey, you're not as entitled as you think are, buddy. Hands off,' the likes of which are unprecedented in mainstream American advertising. Usually in any campaign to eliminate sexual harassment, action falls in the woman's lap to prevent her from getting raped. - See more at: http://poweredbygirl.org/blog/hurrah-ca … Sa1TB.dpuf

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      gmwilliamsposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Those boys deserve what they get.   They had no right to rape that girl.   The jock culture with its bravado in a way encourages disrespect towards girls.   This culture is an extension of that boys will be boys.   That attitude is totally egregious to say the least.   I did a hub on this very same subject.

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7. 72

   relacheposted 11 years ago

   Best response to the Steubenville verdict I've read so far.
   
   Here's an excerpt.
   
   "It is obvious that the two offenders saw the victim as some one that could be treated as a thing. This is not about sex, it is about power and control. I guess that is what I am getting at. Sex was probably not the hardest thing for the two to get, so that wasn’t the objective. When you hear the jokes being made during the crime, it is the purest contempt.
   
   So, how do you fix that? I’m just shooting rubber bands at the night sky but here are a few ideas: Put women’s studies in high school the curriculum from war heroes to politicians, writers, speakers, activists, revolutionaries and let young people understand that women have been kicking ass in high threat conditions for ages and they are worthy of respect.
   
   Total sex ed in school. Learn how it all works. Learn what the definition of statutory rape is and that it is rape, that date rape is rape, that rape is rape."

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      wildernessposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I'd hate to see "womens studies" a required course.  Black History month has always left a sour taste in my mouth - it always seems such a farce that a special course has to be made, with particular effort to find black people worth teaching about.
      
      Rather, simply make sure that there are some women included in great and famous people in our history.  Not movie stars - women that did something for the country.  "Teach", in other words, that women are no different than anyone else - that there are worthy women just as there are black people, men or anything else.  It doesn't need a special point made - that only serves to reinforce the idea that women are different and not worthy of the same respect as others.
      
      If that makes any sense, anyway.

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         Brenda Durhamposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         On this, I agree, wilderness.

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            wildernessposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Be darned!  Maybe we are from the same planet after all!
            
            I just think that treating people all the same gives better results than setting them up as something different, requiring special effort to show they are the same.

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         Uninvited Writerposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         I've never understood why people are offended by Black History Month or Women's History Month, it's just sharing stories that were ignored for a long time. If you don't believe in it, don't go to any events, don't read about it. 
         
         And before you answer... Every month for hundreds of years was white history month...

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            wildernessposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            To me, and it is very much opinion and reaction, it demeans the very people being studied.  They aren't important enough, somehow, to stand among the white men that actually built this country.  We have to provide their own special period and effort to talk about them or they are overshadowed by their superiors.
            
            Hogwash.  Yes, there were historically more white men building our country, but the contributions of women and blacks were enormous and should be taught right alongside those of the white men.  Make no difference  between them and they are equal.  When it's necessary to set aside special times to teach of women or blacks and it becomes obvious they are inferior.  Were they not they would be included as just more wonderful people along with the rest.
            
            Yes, it's an emotional response and at least partially due to reverse discrimination being taught and pushed today, but it also seems to me that it does more harm than good.

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            wildernessposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            To me, and it is very much opinion and reaction, it demeans the very people being studied.  They aren't important enough, somehow, to stand among the white men that actually built this country.  We have to provide their own special period and effort to talk about them or they are overshadowed by their superiors.
            
            Hogwash.  Yes, there were historically more white men building our country, but the contributions of women and blacks were enormous and should be taught right alongside those of the white men.  Make no difference  between them and they are equal.  When it's necessary to set aside special times to teach of women or blacks and it becomes obvious they are inferior.  Were they not they would be included as just more wonderful people along with the rest.
            
            Yes, it's an emotional response and at least partially due to reverse discrimination being taught and pushed today, but it also seems to me that it does more harm than good.

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         Peelander Gallyposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Amen to that idea. "Affirmative action" may have been a good idea at first, but it's really just another type of segregation. Nothing changes if everybody gets used to saying, "Well guys, it looks like we've gotta hire a broad and a darkie, too, even up the numbers".

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   EmpressFelicityposted 11 years ago

   Also, remind me never, ever, ever to drink Belvedere vodka.

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9. 79

   Uninvited Writerposted 11 years ago

   Doesn't effect my life in the least.

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10. 60

    tirelesstravelerposted 11 years ago

    Ours is a culture of sex.  You can't watch a TV show or movie without It.  Some of the best novels I have read put in token sex to make their books more "Appealing".
    Ask a 6th grader anything you want to know about sex and they will tell you. I find the exposure of young children to sex education in school to be a dereliction of parental duty and child abuse.
    The actions of these young men are symptoms of using pornography,

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       peeplesposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       Sadly far too many parents don't do their "duty". Schools wouldn't have to if parents would do their jobs. If parents had their way many wouldn't ever discuss sex ed with their children. My husband grew up in a family that never mentioned it (and he had good parents otherwise). So when tv and radio are telling our children about it and many parents are not explaining then it becomes the duty of our schools. Oh yeah and shame on you for comparing it to child abuse!!!! This behavior was symptom of parents not being parents, not  teaching their children morals, and  not explaining to them how they are suppose to act.

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11. 67

    ptosisposted 11 years ago

    WARNING: PICTURES MAY TRIGGER FLASHBACKS!
    
    
    Public Shaming, warned women to “be responsible for your actions ladies before your actions ruin innocent lives”. Social media attacks have become so severe that in the last 24 hours, two girls have been arrested for threatening the victim online.
    
    Two 18 years old Torrington High School football team charged with sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl. Victim taunted, blamed for "ruining" the players' lives.
    
    The boys didn't believe that they were raping her....digital penetration and/or oral contact are sex and will be treated as such by the law.  (It isn't legally recognized as such by the FBI since thr 1920's)
    
    One of the most destructive and subtle methods to preventing victims from reporting their assaults is to undermine its very existence. In our culture we accomplish this through redefining, narrowing, and limiting what constitutes rape and consent.
    
    Gender oppression, commodification of women's bodies is part of the reason why people think it's about sex when it's really about power. Violence functions in society as  a means of asserting and securing power.
    
    1 out of every 3 women in the world will be raped or beaten in her lifetime.
    
    1 in 4 women who join the US military will be sexually assaulted during her career. The worst thing is you don't have to worry about the enemy, you have to worry about your own soldiers .. only 14 percent of sexual assaults get reported. Many victims say their rapists outranked them, and sometimes the perpetrator was the same official they'd have to report the crime to.
    
    People rushing to find anyone to blame but the perpetrator, be it the victim or society at large. " In describing how society has let the young men down, the writer omits any discussion of how it has let down the victim of their abuse.
    
    Please don't trivialize the victim's depression, PTSD, suicides, pregnancy, abortions, gynaecological mutilation and STD's.
    
    4
    New Mexico Republican Lawmaker Wants to Jail Rape Victims for Ending Pregnancies, says that the fetus is evidence and terminating it could cost women three years in jail.
    
    Would you feel the same is a man was raped in public? What would your first thought be? That's he's gay and was 'asking for it?. At what point does victim blaming stop? What would it take to make you realize that it is not about sex but about power and it's the rapist's fault?
    
    The day after our noble Soviet allies conquered Neisse, Silesia, 182 Catholic nuns were raped.

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       Peelander Gallyposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       If men were raped even 1/3 as often as women, you'd better believe there wouldn't be any more arguments about how serious the crime is and how stringent the punishment should be. Same with reproductive rights; if men could get pregnant there'd probably be a legal, state or federally-funded abortion clinic on every corner.

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          gmwilliamsposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          + a multillion percent.   The Steubenville rape case is an example of rape being THE ONLY CRIME which the victim is inordinately blamed.    In other crimes, the victim is never blamed, he/she receives sympathy and help.   However in cases of rapes, the victim is oftentimes blamed.   Well, she should not dress "that" way, she should not have been drinking, and she should have "known" where she was going and/or other types of dismissive remarks.     
          
          When women are raped, it is NOT their fault.   They were coerced and forced into the act oftentimes through threats of physical and/or psychological violence.    There is a subconscious current that girls and women who are raped are "asking" for it by "some aspect" of their behavior.    This is total atavistic and misogynic thinking.   Those two punks who raped that poor girl at the football game should be have tried as adults, not juveniles.   What they do was not a harmless prank but an egregious crime.    They should have been incarcerated in a PRISON, not JUVENILE DETENTION.       
          
          What sickened and incensed me more than the rape itself was those two punks crying, saying "they were 'sorry'".   They WERE NOT SORRY for the rape, in fact, they were laughing and bragging all along.  They were "sorry" because they portend that their lives were "ruined" and for what they will definitely face once they are in juvenile detention.  It would have been better if those two were sent to prison, then they will have QUITE A WAKE UP CALL!

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12. 94

    SmartAndFunposted 11 years ago

    I have been following this case on Why We Protest and it is a terrible one. I am pretty much speechless. The entire mess is wrong on so many levels. I don't know whether the girl was simply drunk or was given the date-rape drug, but I suspect it was the date-rape drug (although I am not schooled in that field.) She was out cold for hours and has no recollection of the night other than following a guy she was "interested in" to a party. According to her testimony, she new him and trusted him.
    
    Once unconscious, she was dragged from party to party like a duffle bag, completely unconscious the whole time, and assaulted numerous times either inside the homes where the parties were held, or while in the car traveling from one party to another. The perpetrators thought it was all so very rich and funny, captured much of it in photos and film, and joked about it on FaceBook and Twitter.
    
    There is a 12-minute video tape of one man laughing and joking about how she must be dead, because only a dead person would have no reaction to the things they were doing to her:
    “She’s dead because there’s a naked picture of her – a wang in the butthole, and she wasn’t movin. There’s usually a reaction to that.”
    
    The same person was also laughing as he made statements such as:
    "They raped her harder than that cop raped Marcellus Wallace in Pulp Fiction."
    "They raped her more than the Duke Lacrosse Team."
    "They raped her quicker than Mike Tyson raped that one girl."
    "She is so raped right now.”
    
    Here is a photo of her as they carried her, unconscious, from party to party.

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13. 93

    Daughter Of Maatposted 11 years ago

    These guys are just sick in the head. I saw part of the video on YouTube, and there is something psychologically wrong with these people.
    
    After reading the article and seeing the clip, I think what happened in Clockwork Orange would be too good for these guys. Who cares if their life is ruined? That poor girl is now scarred for life and may never be able to live a normal life, or have a normal relationship with a man.
    
    But I bet this doesn't qualify as legitimate rape...
    
    Sorry, couldn't help myself...

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14. 94

    SmartAndFunposted 11 years ago

    It's the girl's fault for drinking, right? She ruined those boys' lives by telling her mom that she woke up on a basement floor next to three boys, her underwear and cellphone nowhere to be found.

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    Shil1978posted 11 years ago

    I am horrified by suggestions, oblique or direct, that the girl shared some blame for what happened. In the first place, why talk of the girl or anything about her part in all of this? Does any of that change or improve, or put into better perspective the sick and absolutely inhuman behavior of the people involved who perpetrated this on her? Do they deserve sympathy and understanding for what they did?
    
    So, what does it take to change this "understanding" "sympathetic" behavior towards these perpetrators who are now apparently the "victims?" Would things change if this happened to one of your own daughters? So, then would you go on and say that it was your bad parenting that resulted in her ending up where she did and so what happened was a result of her callousness and, by extension, you as the parent?
    
    If their lives are ruined, then there is nothing unfair about it. There is nothing to feel sympathetic about. They did wrong, way beyond what acceptable human behavior should be, and they got the punishment for doing that. That's it! There is no scope for understanding here, is there? Once again, put yourself as the parent of this girl and then answer honestly what you feel about this? Was the girl to blame?

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    SmartAndFunposted 11 years ago

    This case is so horrific and wrong. People did wrong by this helpless girl over and over again, whether it was by raping her, laughing and joking about it, taking her photo, not reporting the rape, posting it on the internet, threatening her for telling her mom and going to the police, trying to cover it up, making excuses for the boys, and I'm sure there is more, and then to have some neanderthal idiots try to put blame on her. Incredible isn't it?

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17. 67

    ptosisposted 11 years ago

    Just goes to show that USA is no different than India, Saudi Arabia or a banana republic when it come to violence on women.
    
    
    Published on Jan 2, 2013
    
    Michael Nodianos is the speaker in the video.
    Drunk Steubenville High School athletes making jokes about the rape of a 16 year old girl, whose violation was tweeted, pics posted to social networks and more back in august,.
    
    WARNING THIS VIDEO REFERENCES AN ALLEDGED RAPE IN STEUBENVILLE OHIO ON AUGUST 11, 2012, and is NOT SUITABLE FOR THE WORKPLACE
    
    This video was obtained by Anonymous as part of #oprollredroll and #occupysteubenville.
    Only 2 arrests in this ongoing case while those that witnessed the incident and even on camera admit it's rape, have not been charged due to
    lack of evidence"
    
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1oahqC … 1363831230

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    HowardBThinameposted 11 years ago

    Obviously the boys should be held accountable.
    
    That said - this faddish idea that girls need not take responsibility for their own safety is ludicrous.
    
    No one is excusing the boys, but a rape is NOT erased just because the boy is convicted of a crime. Once the rape occurs, the girl and the boy(s) suffer.
    
    Does it not make sense that BOTH parties avoid situations that bring on this type of behavior?
    
    I would rather have MY daughter safe than have her raped and be able to blame the boy. How about we all start using our brains again?

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