We have a 'rape culture' in this country because we have an unacceptable tolerance for criminal behavior towards women and girls. While there is a small incidence of same sex violence, female on female rape and male on male rape (the latter is occurring roughly 1/3 of the time in our military, according to recent testimony, a much higher rate than in the general population), most rape are males raping females.
Clearly, the solution is not for more people to carry guns or for everyone to be the physical equivalent of a combat trained and hardened soldier. If that worked, no one in the military would be raped. The problem is tolerance for rape, and a subculture that protects and defends the rapists, and blames the victims. The solution is to penalize the rapists appropriately as criminals, and to take the side of the victims AS victims, and to cease blaming them for the crime while treating the rapists with the disapprobation they deserve.
In that context, the position of the local Steubenville leader has come out with an offensive position which should be strongly repudiated, and he should be required to resign his position.
The ONLY people who ruined the lives of the two convicted rapists in Steubenville, OH were the rapists themselves. While it is tragic for their families and others involved in their lives that they made these choices, it seems inappropriate to give too much sympathy to the rapists for their conduct. They behaved horrifically, without respect, empathy, compassion or the most minimal decency. They deserve the sentences they received, and arguably should have received more severe sentences, and been tried as adults. Sympathy for such vile young men is misplaced and unwarranted. It is time to stop blaming the victim, stop trying to make women responsible for the bad conduct of men.
It was unacceptable when Adam tried to blame Eve for taking a bite out of the proverbial apple (or pomegranate) and it is unacceptable buck passing here. Men are responsible for their own actions, they are accountable for rape when they abuse someone else, male or female, but usually female.
NO ONE ever 'deserves' to be raped; it is NEVER EVER acceptable, and it is time that we got behind that message as a nation and a society, and stopped condoning and making excuses and sympathizing with the damned rapists.
Not surprisingly, the former NAACP leader who made these statements has had his own run ins with the law over beating his girlfriend. An update to the article below, the man who made the offending statements is the FORMER leader of the Steubenville NAACP, and the national organization has repudiated his comments. From Raw Story:
Update (1:30 p.m. ET): In a statement provided to Raw Story, the NAACP said that it “abhors the remarks attributed to Royal Mayo regarding the rape victim in the Steubenville [case].”
“The remarks are Mayo’s own, and do not reflect the position of the NAACP and its membership,” the statement said. “Mr. Mayo is not the president of the Steubenville NAACP and is not a spokesman for the NAACP. The article attributing him as such has been corrected by the International Business Times.”
“Rape is a despicable crime of violence. The NAACP understands that comments that blame victims for the actions of their attackers contribute to and perpetuate a culture of acquiescence to rape.” (bold added for my emphasis - DG)
From Salon:
Thursday, Mar 28, 2013 10:12 AM CDT
NAACP leader blames Steubenville victim
UPDATE: The NAACP condemns a member's comments about the case
By Mary Elizabeth Williams
Trent Mays, Ma'lik Richmond (Credit: AP/Keith Srakocic)
It’s been almost two weeks since the guilty verdict was handed down
in the Steubenville, Ohio, rape case, but victim blaming just goes on
and on.
Though Trent Mays and Ma’lik Richmond were convicted on March 17 of raping their 16 year-old classmate, Steubenville’s NAACP leader Royal Mayo has offered his own very different version of events in a Thursday interview for the International Business Times.
Speaking with writer Charles Poladian, Mayo ignores the verdict and
refers to the girl as the “alleged victim,” saying, “They’re alleging
she got raped; she’s acknowledging that she wanted to leave with Trent.”
Apparently
in Mayo’s mind, if you leave a party with a boy, you’ve signed off for
whatever he may then do to you, even if you’re unconscious.
Mayo
further questions the girl’s behavior that evening, asking, “She said
her mother brought her to the party, at 3 o’clock, with a bottle of
vodka. Where did you get it, young lady? You brought it from home?” Got
vodka in your house? Asking for it. It’s an interesting perspective,
coming from a man who says he knows Richmond personally and that the
young man told him last summer, “No, Mr. Mayo, we didn’t do anything to
that girl. I don’t know what these rumors are; I don’t understand it.”
At
the sentencing earlier this month, Richmond’s father told the victim’s
family, “I’m sorry for all you had to go through, and I hope somewhere
in your hearts that you can forgive Trent and Ma’lik for the pain that
they caused your daughter and put you through.” Yet Mayo believes there
are too many loose ends to the case that “seem odd” to him.
Meanwhile,
he has sympathy for the Steubenville football coach Reno Saccoccia,
who, like several of the local parents and school officials, is still under investigation for
how the rape was handled. A text from Trent Mays that was uncovered
during the investigation describes the coach’s alleged response. “I got Reno,” Mays wrote.
“He took care of it and sh– ain’t gonna happen, even if they did take
it to court. Like he was joking about it so I’m not worried.” Mayo,
however, describes Saccoccia as a man who’s endeavored “to keep black
kids out of harm’s way and white kids honestly.”
It’s
not a stretch to say that there’s a whole lot more to what happened in
Steubenville than the actions of Trent Mays and Ma’lik Richmond. It’s a
story so wide ranging
in scope as to be mind-boggling — and the number of people who knew
about, documented it and made jokes about it is revolting. None of that,
however, changes what a court of law has already decided. There is no
“alleged” sexual assault here. And it bears repeating, again and again
and again, that the real victim here isn’t a promising football player.
It bears repeating until guys like Mayo understand. “It’s like these two
were sacrificed,” he says, “the poor black kid and the white kid who is
from the next county.”
