Sentenced to a mere one and two years respectively in a juvenile correction facility, Trent Mays and Ma'lik Richmond were found guilty of rape after performing sex acts on an intoxicated sixteen year old girl at and between a series of parties last August. Perhaps most disturbing was the ugly influence of social media, with images of the naked victim being circulated, a friend of the defendants tweeting "Song of the night is definitely 'Rape Me' by Nirvana," and Mays even texting "Yeah dude, she was like a dead body. I just needed some sexual attention."
The group mentality of the crime is truly frightening. At least three other teenagers, who provided eyewitness testimony, were present at the time of the assault, with a third party even filming the attack.
This event is just another worrying hint that the "lad" culture is going too far. Just earlier this week when discussing my latest blog, I was asked "Do you really think that people who joke about rape actually think it's OK?" Well apparently some of them do. The shockingly cavalier attitudes of the rapists and the friends who stood by and watched are a horrific indictment of a certain male culture, where drunkenness, promiscuity, or manner of dress make women acceptable targets for assault. Perhaps used to misogynistic attitudes particularly pervading in an internet driven world, the defendants saw no problem tweeting a photo of the passed out naked girl, or even posting a video where the friends joked about the attacks.
Worryingly, recent evidence suggests that even the defendants football coach knew about the rape, hiding information so that his 'star players' football careers weren't threatened. Apparently in this shockingly anti-woman case, the hobbies of two rapists were more important than protecting a minor. In fact, it seems a wide proportion of the Steubenville community were aware of the case via its mocking coverage through social-media, and were involved in a kind of cover-up; the case was not brought to court until blogging group Anonymous independently collected evidence and campaigned for justice for the victim. Before this, an apparent reverence for these local football heroes prevented any real progress getting them prosecuted.
These horrific attitudes have continued into national media, with CNN lamenting the threatened futures of the defendants in a recent broadcast, and pitying them for their inclusion on the Sex Offenders Register, a move which will help protect other women from becoming victims.
The Steubenville Rape case has become a tragic illustration of how dangerous modern sexist attitudes really can be. Just a glance at the YouTube comments section on this video says it all: "if you dress like a slut your chances of getting raped increase," asserts one user, whilst another suggests that the victim should have had better "personal accountability" by "not sexualising one's self by dressing in a mini skirt and inviting unecessary, unwanted, and uninvited attention." This assumption is in spite of all images of the victim, included her clothing, being heavily pixelated.
People may say that modern misogyny is harmless, and even a joke, but the Steubenville rape case has shown otherwise. As long as these attitudes exist, they have the ability to invade reality, and horrifically distort the reactions, and thus access to justice, of bystanders, the legal system and the media.
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