During today’s class discussion, I found that we hadn’t really discussed much about statutory rape. Statutory rape honestly makes my stomach cringe. However, like it was said in class, statutory rape is considerably heard of more than cases of rape within college campus. Although it is said to be that they are more than likely to face charges and a trial, after googling statutory rape, it was interesting to see that not as many articles popped up versus just googling rape.
It is hard to do a lot of research on statutory rape because it is against the law for media to report names of people under 18 without the consent of a parent, so I then began looking into stories about men being raped by women. The website thoughtcatalog.com has stories from 19 different men that shared their stories about being raped by women. Many of the stories that were reported said that they did not want to call the cops or fight against their assailant (all women) because they were afraid that they would get charged. Most of the women that were raping these men were either ex-girlfriends or babysitters or even family members that would commit these crimes. These crimes go untold for the majority unless the victim was young and told a superior who felt that it was wrong. Comparably to these stories of those who are women getting raped by men, the victims knew the perpetrator.
In an article by CNN’s Sarah LeTrent interviewed James Landrith and when he was raped when he was 19 years old. Now, Landrith is a marine who speaks out against rape, particularly men raped by women. Landrith states, “I want people to understand that it's not about how physically strong you are," he says. "We [men] are conditioned to believe that we cannot be victimized in such a way." And as though it seems like oh yeah right, sort of thing, it is true. We have grown up in a society that practices the habit that men cannot show emotion and they must be strong, regardless of what is happening. It also shows that these men cannot be raped. According to Jennifer Marsh, vice president for Victim Services at RAINN says, “Often, male survivors may be less likely to identify what happened to them as abuse or assault because of the general notion that men always want sex." This notion is more than likely to be true. It is a cultural norm for many that men think about sex all of the time. Elizabeth Donovan, a psychotherapist said, “Males have the added burden of facing a society that doesn't believe rape can happen to them ... at all.” With this new area of fact, this could be considered as another commonplace that is too frequently used. Men, just like woman, can be considered victims and are victims. It said in the article that 1 in 71 men are raped, however, it is believed that those numbers are under reported. There is a cultural norm that is practiced too much that men cannot be victims, yet they too are victimized.
http://thoughtcatalog.com/lorenzo-jensen-iii/2014/08/19-men-share-stories-of-being-raped-by-a-woman-nsfw/
http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/09/living/chris-brown-female-on-male-rape/
Thursday, February 26, 2015
Tuesday, February 24, 2015
Response to Class Discussion, 2/24
During today’s class discussion, I found that discussing cultural norms was a very interesting part of the culture of rape. Unfortunately, I even find myself immune to hyper masculinity and not finding it uncomfortable when I should. Like the example I gave today in class, it just goes to show what norms we are raised with. And it is not our parent’s fault or their parent’s fault, it is just the historical context that is being strung through our lives. Women have always been looked at less superior and do not deserve the same that men do. We made that clear in discussion today by even the example of pay wage and in the work force. However, what we can do? Another point that was brought up by a fellow classmate which is was something that I had not thought about, but that certain jobs are intended for women. Like it was mentioned in class, teaching or nursing were jobs intended for women because these jobs can be built around time off. This was a great insight for me, because I had personally never thought of it at that perspective. However, does this also build around and help protect the cultural norms that we are practicing? I do find this to be somewhat true. There are gender labels that accompany specific jobs. Like nursing for example, when you hear of the word nurse, there is a female connotation that is tagged with it. So when you are at the hospital and are expecting a nurse and you get a male nurse, it may sometimes still shock you. Even this would be an example of gender roles as well.
Gender roles are also another cultural norm that still seem out of tact for the twenty-first century. The example of a male nurse could be considered a gender role and it would be an unfortunate case for the male. Does it make the male less masculine for wanting to be a nurse? Well, of course not. However, in many eyes this could be seen as less than masculine career choice. This does relate back to rape because people could look at a case of rape with the same suspicion and ask, well what was the victim doing to provoke such an act? I enjoyed reading the USA Today article that was posted because the media took a different spin on viewing rape cases. In the article, it decides to look at it from the victims perspective. “As long as we as a community continue to make victim-blaming statements, such as, 'She put herself in this situation,' … 'She didn't fight back, she must have wanted it,' we will continue to see rapes go unreported," Stevenson said. "We have to stop blaming the victim. The conversation needs to shift to the person who chose to rape." (USA Today) I found this statement relieving. You know, out of all of the rape articles that we have read this semester, this if the first time I have read such an opinion so bluntly. It makes me wonder why can’t be more blunt with this crime? It is brutal and life changing and how can it be fair for young women to experience such trauma, yet have it go unseen for years and may never be solved? Our priorities is yet another cultural norm that needs to change.
Gender roles are also another cultural norm that still seem out of tact for the twenty-first century. The example of a male nurse could be considered a gender role and it would be an unfortunate case for the male. Does it make the male less masculine for wanting to be a nurse? Well, of course not. However, in many eyes this could be seen as less than masculine career choice. This does relate back to rape because people could look at a case of rape with the same suspicion and ask, well what was the victim doing to provoke such an act? I enjoyed reading the USA Today article that was posted because the media took a different spin on viewing rape cases. In the article, it decides to look at it from the victims perspective. “As long as we as a community continue to make victim-blaming statements, such as, 'She put herself in this situation,' … 'She didn't fight back, she must have wanted it,' we will continue to see rapes go unreported," Stevenson said. "We have to stop blaming the victim. The conversation needs to shift to the person who chose to rape." (USA Today) I found this statement relieving. You know, out of all of the rape articles that we have read this semester, this if the first time I have read such an opinion so bluntly. It makes me wonder why can’t be more blunt with this crime? It is brutal and life changing and how can it be fair for young women to experience such trauma, yet have it go unseen for years and may never be solved? Our priorities is yet another cultural norm that needs to change.
Friday, February 20, 2015
Discussion to Class, 2/19
In class, we were able to discuss how different sources and mediums will give different perspectives on stories such as rape. We discussed the article that was posted by the mommyish.com blogger who’s tone conveyed a sense of sarcasm and wit, while if we were reading it from the New York Times, that sarcasm and wit would have been fact and intellect. I honestly, did not really like the mommyish.com article very much and reading the comments below confirmed my disliking even more. Writing a public response or an article to or about rape is a serious topic and I believe that it must be handled with class and maturity. I believe that this woman blogger sort of takes on an aspect of feminine, lady power and it takes away from her point; that the school actually handled the situation with quick actions, just like many other universities should start doing. However, the way that she conducted herself and this article lead to an array of comments, sharing stories and arguing. However, viewing it in a different lens, this could be a beneficial thing because it did get people talking about an issue that is clearly wiped off the table in many situations.
Another issue that was discussed in class was sexual assault in the military. An interesting facet that was brought up was the lack of actions versus the amount of trust that we see with entities all around the nation. It is hard to understand, especially in the military, why so many sexual assault altercations are swept under the rug, yet isn’t the military supposed to be an organization that protects our country and the people who belong to it? These men and women are risking their lives everyday to help citizens like myself and protect this country from war, yet they aren’t even protected themselves because they are at a high risk for sexual assault. And even with that being said, the military and government tend to sweep in under the rug more often than not, yet choose to share stories like the Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg falls asleep during the State of the Union address because she had too much wine. Although that is humorous, it has really no sense of rime or reason as to why that affects the rest of the nation. Rape continuously affects the nation and many young adults within it, yet it is barely reported of unless it involves an athlete.
I believe that one problem (of many) is that rape is a priority, but not a serious priority. I believe that it required a sense of communication that we have learned to not talk about and be okay with. It is like anything else that we have culturally altered over time. For example, the idea that it is not manly of men to show their emotions; that they must hide those emotions because real men don’t cry. Now that our society is striving for equality among genders and race, I believe that these types of cultural norms are becoming less of a norm. I know in my family that my parents have always taught my brother to show his emotion if he is feeling sad and don’t let it sit inside of you. I know my family may be like many others, however, there are probably a lot of other families that don’t do that. Learning and sharing new idea’s of equality and disarming hyper masculinity will help the culture of rape begin to shed a new light and new hope and begin to help rape become more of a priority.
Another issue that was discussed in class was sexual assault in the military. An interesting facet that was brought up was the lack of actions versus the amount of trust that we see with entities all around the nation. It is hard to understand, especially in the military, why so many sexual assault altercations are swept under the rug, yet isn’t the military supposed to be an organization that protects our country and the people who belong to it? These men and women are risking their lives everyday to help citizens like myself and protect this country from war, yet they aren’t even protected themselves because they are at a high risk for sexual assault. And even with that being said, the military and government tend to sweep in under the rug more often than not, yet choose to share stories like the Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg falls asleep during the State of the Union address because she had too much wine. Although that is humorous, it has really no sense of rime or reason as to why that affects the rest of the nation. Rape continuously affects the nation and many young adults within it, yet it is barely reported of unless it involves an athlete.
I believe that one problem (of many) is that rape is a priority, but not a serious priority. I believe that it required a sense of communication that we have learned to not talk about and be okay with. It is like anything else that we have culturally altered over time. For example, the idea that it is not manly of men to show their emotions; that they must hide those emotions because real men don’t cry. Now that our society is striving for equality among genders and race, I believe that these types of cultural norms are becoming less of a norm. I know in my family that my parents have always taught my brother to show his emotion if he is feeling sad and don’t let it sit inside of you. I know my family may be like many others, however, there are probably a lot of other families that don’t do that. Learning and sharing new idea’s of equality and disarming hyper masculinity will help the culture of rape begin to shed a new light and new hope and begin to help rape become more of a priority.
Tuesday, February 17, 2015
Response to Class Discussion, 2/17
During today’s class discussion I found that the topic of choice was actually very beneficial in relating rhetoric to the culture of rape. Although the topic may have been initially thought of as awkward, it was helpful in almost summing up what we discussed in the first part of the semester. Kairos, meaning the opportune time and place, is actually a crucial thing in a case of rape due to the many occurrences of rape. There are so many different times that offenders take advantage of the victim due to time and place. Like in many cases that we have talked about this semester, the time can include consumption of alcohol, the occasion and the power dynamic. Places can include hypermasculinity, such as frat houses and athletic dorms. With this factors that play into Kairos, there are many, many stories of rape that have all of these contributing factors.
It was interesting to talk about Kairos against rape. Honestly, I found this part a little more difficult because what we were trying to achieve was change the entire culture of rape. I believe that a huge factor that plays into this is the idea of rape is that fear of openly talking about sex, rape and violence. When sexual violence occurs on a college campus, or in general, many attempt to pull the “hush hush” act and convince the general public that this a topic that is not appropriate to talk about. But what if it was talked about more frequently? Would this help decrease rates of sexual assault and violence? Also, our American culture see’s sex as a private thing. Obviously, there is some common rule to this which is true, and no one should be out in public doing the deed, but it is such a common perspective that when young adults go buy condoms it may be looked down upon. But why aren’t why praising that? At least they are being responsible and doing the right thing!
The American culture has many ideals besides sex that need to change. It is understandable that it may be embarrassing for the victim that she/he let this happen to them, however, that is another cultural value, alcohol. It is believed that in college, the consumption of alcohol, getting “blacked out” and not remembering your night is a cool thing. However, when most normal adults look back on these experiences, most will say, “God, I was stupid.” I am not even out of college yet and I am thinking about times two years ago that are making me think of how stupid I was. The culture that universities practice is in desperate need of change. If the continued ideals stay in colleges, we will begin to see many problems in later generations.
The change of culture and language is at a large demand for change and without doing so, rape will be a continuous trend in our society. It is time to change the idea behind cultural values and pinpointing what is wrong and what needs to be changed. There are so many common places within each victim’s story so we need to start identifying the commonplaces before it is too late for another victim.
It was interesting to talk about Kairos against rape. Honestly, I found this part a little more difficult because what we were trying to achieve was change the entire culture of rape. I believe that a huge factor that plays into this is the idea of rape is that fear of openly talking about sex, rape and violence. When sexual violence occurs on a college campus, or in general, many attempt to pull the “hush hush” act and convince the general public that this a topic that is not appropriate to talk about. But what if it was talked about more frequently? Would this help decrease rates of sexual assault and violence? Also, our American culture see’s sex as a private thing. Obviously, there is some common rule to this which is true, and no one should be out in public doing the deed, but it is such a common perspective that when young adults go buy condoms it may be looked down upon. But why aren’t why praising that? At least they are being responsible and doing the right thing!
The American culture has many ideals besides sex that need to change. It is understandable that it may be embarrassing for the victim that she/he let this happen to them, however, that is another cultural value, alcohol. It is believed that in college, the consumption of alcohol, getting “blacked out” and not remembering your night is a cool thing. However, when most normal adults look back on these experiences, most will say, “God, I was stupid.” I am not even out of college yet and I am thinking about times two years ago that are making me think of how stupid I was. The culture that universities practice is in desperate need of change. If the continued ideals stay in colleges, we will begin to see many problems in later generations.
The change of culture and language is at a large demand for change and without doing so, rape will be a continuous trend in our society. It is time to change the idea behind cultural values and pinpointing what is wrong and what needs to be changed. There are so many common places within each victim’s story so we need to start identifying the commonplaces before it is too late for another victim.
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
Essay #1
Katie Covey
Eng. 460
2/10/2015
Essay One
Applying Rhetoric to Rape
In today’s society, the media brings attention to various forms of crime; murder, burglary, racist acts of violence. Unfortunately, there are crimes that lack attention that is truly deserved. One crime that is extremely overlooked is rape on college campuses. In today’s world, the inadequate amount of knowledge that takes place when it comes to such a brutal crime is frustrating and hard to understand. Didn’t the older generations that took control over this society teach the young the gravity of this situation? The lack of resource, among the meager amount of knowledge can lead to a lifetime of healing for many young women who face the threats of rape everyday. The questions that need to addressed are where are the weak spots in these cases? What common occurrences are underlying issues? By applying stasis theory and finding the commonplaces among the culture of rape, society can begin finding the answers that are vital in helping make rape preventable.
Throughout the duration of this essay, stasis theory and commonplaces will be applied to two different articles that tell two unfortunate stories of rape. By using two different stories, commonplaces will be more identifiable as well as allowing to apply stasis theory more effectively. In the first article, stasis theory will be the story of the recent reports of the Vanderbilt case. In this story, four Vanderbilt football players are facing charges of rape and aggravated sexual battery after raping an unconscious female student in a dorm room. Apparently, one of the boys brought her back from the bar and raped her in his dorm room. Brandon Vandenburg’s and three other football players were found guilty of these charges. In this particular case, the boys had been drinking and claimed that they don’t remember the act or crime. However, when waking up the next morning, Vandenburg found photo and video evidence on his phone that the crime had occurred. (New York Post) The boys then attempted to cover up the crime. When applying stasis theory to this specific sexual assault, four questions need to be applied.
Conjecture: Does it exist? Did it happen?
Definition: What kind of things or event is it?
Quality: Was it right or wrong?
Policy: What should we do?
The conjecture to this scenario is the act of rape. It was clear through photo and video evidence that yes, this act of sexual violence did occur. When it comes to definition, it needs to be sure that this particular crime falls under the act of rape. According to the State of Tennessee, where Vanderbilt is located, rape is defined as follows:
“unlawful sexual penetration of a victim by the defendant accompanied by any of the following circumstances: (1) Force or coercion is used to accomplish the act; (2) The sexual penetration is accomplished without the consent of the victim and the defendant knows or has reason to know at the time of the penetration that the victim did not consent; (3) The defendant knows or has reason to know that the victim is mentally defective, mentally incapacitated or physically helpless; or (4) The sexual penetration is accomplished by fraud.” (Scheb II)
According to the above definition from the state of Tennessee, rape is exactly what occured. The third question, “Was it right or wrong?” is obviously an easy question to answer. This was an act of sexual violence, which means that it was wrong. This means that, as a society, has agreed that the act of rape is wrong therefore, quality is agreed upon. The fourth stasis, policy, may face controversy depending on evidence and under what circumstances rape took place. “What should we do?” in Policy is an unfortunate way to end copious amounts of sexual assault cases. In reality, rape is a crime that will go unreported for a long duration. When victims do not report this immediately, the physical evidence can be hard to come by and in the meantime, the offender can repeat the same act. In this case, two of the men were convicted of five counts of aggravated rape and two counts of sexual battery. The other two men involved have yet to stand trial. Within each of these stasis, more questions can develop and follow. For example, other questions of conjecture can be, “Is it true? How did it begin? What is its cause? Can it be changed?” Questions like these vary from case to case in different acts of sexual assault, however, some of these questions can share the same commonplaces.
Besides conjecture, rape cases can carry many consistencies. These would be called commonplaces. Commonplaces are any statement or bit of knowledge that is commonly shared among a given audience or a community. In relation of rape, there could be many repeated commonplaces that we can find through a various cases. In the Vanderbilt case, it was public knowledge that these players had been drinking, as well as the victim when the attack occurred. With this bit of knowledge, alcohol could be identified as a commonplace. During this particular crime, the defendant blamed that he drank too much, and stated that he was “too drunk to know what they were doing and that a college culture of binge drinking and promiscuous sex should be blamed for the attack.” Alcohol is present in most of these cases. However, it may not just be the attacked who has been drinking, it can also be the victim who is raped. Unfortunately, in some cases, the victim will be unconscious and have no recollection of what had happened. That was true for the Vanderbilt case, as well as a recent case that just occurred in the middle of January. Stanford freshman swimmer, Brock Allen Turner, was caught mid act and tried to flee when two men on bikes saw what was happening. The victim was unconscious and being violated outside of a fraternity. Although, it is unstated if the freshman swimmer was drinking, the victim was clearly too intoxicated to give consent, which means that Turner committed rape. (Murphy)
Another commonplace that lies within these two stories is the location. According to Crisisconnection.org, more than 60% rapes occur on campus. (College Campus Rape) Meaning that the lack of supervision among campus entities, including dorms and fraternity houses is flawed and absent. In the Vanderbilt case, the woman was brought back to Vandenburg’s dorm room and sexual violated. In this Stanford case, this woman was being sexual assaulted outside of a fraternity house. This, however, is not the first fraternity house incident to hit headlines in the last year. Multiple cases including University of Virginia and Hobart and William Smiths College in New York were addressed to the public when two young girls were gang raped in fraternity houses. The commonplace of unsupervised frat houses or dorm rooms, should be an eyeopener for many to start comprehending the dangers behind college campus rape.
Today, society has been trying to come up with alternatives to college campus rape, however, the numbers that are reported tell a different story. Recently, an article was published by the New York Times asking why don’t sorority houses have the parties? During the article, many women were up for the idea, stating that they would feel more protected and that they have “home-court advantage.” However, many believe that it would be hard to change the tradition now. National sorority organizations have banned alcohol in their houses for decades. Officer Julie Johnson from the National Panhellenic Conference prefers to keep the calm of sorority houses and let the frat houses assume the cost, risk and clean up of house parties. (Schwarz) Although this article is still fresh, many don’t take it seriously. On the bright side though, at least the discussion of rape is finally becoming more of a public issue.
People say that college can be the best time of a person’s life, but what if it’s not? The seriousness and perturbed truth behind rape is that it can happen to anyone. College campus rape is becoming much more of a serious issue and there are for sure signs that begin to materialize when dangers are present. When applying stasis theory and commonplaces to these incidents after the fact, it is easy to see where things went wrong, but the real question is, what does it take for young college students to start seeing the dangers themselves, before things can make a turn for the worst? As a society, the need for resource and support is at an ultimate high and things to need to change when it comes to the increasing numbers of college campus rapes.
Works Cited
"2 Ex-Vanderbilt Football Players Convicted of Raping Student." New York Post 27 Jan. 2015. Web. 4 Feb. 2015. <http://nypost.com/2015/01/27/2-ex-vanderbilt-football- players-convicted-of-raping-student/>.
"College Campuses and Rape." Crisis Connection. PSC. Web. 4 Feb. 2015. <http:// www.crisisconnectioninc.org/sexualassault/college_campuses_and_rape.htm>.
Murphy, Kate, and Tracy Kaplan. "Stanford Swimmer Arrested, Charged with Felony Sex Assault." San Jose Mercury News 27 Jan. 2015. Web. 4 Feb. 2015. <http:// www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/ci_27404357/stanford-swimmer-arrested- suspicion-attempted-rape>.
Scheb II, John. "An Overview of Criminal Offenses under Tennessee Law." University of Tennesssee, Knoxville. Web. 4 Feb. 2015. <http://web.utk.edu/~scheb/overview.html>.
Schwarz, Alan. "Sorority Anti-Rape Idea: Drinking on Own Turf." The New York Times 19 Jan. 2015. The New York Times. Web. 10 Feb. 2015. <http://www.nytimes.com/ 2015/01/20/us/sorority-anti-rape-idea-drinking-on-own-turf.html?_r=0>.
Eng. 460
2/10/2015
Essay One
Applying Rhetoric to Rape
In today’s society, the media brings attention to various forms of crime; murder, burglary, racist acts of violence. Unfortunately, there are crimes that lack attention that is truly deserved. One crime that is extremely overlooked is rape on college campuses. In today’s world, the inadequate amount of knowledge that takes place when it comes to such a brutal crime is frustrating and hard to understand. Didn’t the older generations that took control over this society teach the young the gravity of this situation? The lack of resource, among the meager amount of knowledge can lead to a lifetime of healing for many young women who face the threats of rape everyday. The questions that need to addressed are where are the weak spots in these cases? What common occurrences are underlying issues? By applying stasis theory and finding the commonplaces among the culture of rape, society can begin finding the answers that are vital in helping make rape preventable.
Throughout the duration of this essay, stasis theory and commonplaces will be applied to two different articles that tell two unfortunate stories of rape. By using two different stories, commonplaces will be more identifiable as well as allowing to apply stasis theory more effectively. In the first article, stasis theory will be the story of the recent reports of the Vanderbilt case. In this story, four Vanderbilt football players are facing charges of rape and aggravated sexual battery after raping an unconscious female student in a dorm room. Apparently, one of the boys brought her back from the bar and raped her in his dorm room. Brandon Vandenburg’s and three other football players were found guilty of these charges. In this particular case, the boys had been drinking and claimed that they don’t remember the act or crime. However, when waking up the next morning, Vandenburg found photo and video evidence on his phone that the crime had occurred. (New York Post) The boys then attempted to cover up the crime. When applying stasis theory to this specific sexual assault, four questions need to be applied.
Conjecture: Does it exist? Did it happen?
Definition: What kind of things or event is it?
Quality: Was it right or wrong?
Policy: What should we do?
The conjecture to this scenario is the act of rape. It was clear through photo and video evidence that yes, this act of sexual violence did occur. When it comes to definition, it needs to be sure that this particular crime falls under the act of rape. According to the State of Tennessee, where Vanderbilt is located, rape is defined as follows:
“unlawful sexual penetration of a victim by the defendant accompanied by any of the following circumstances: (1) Force or coercion is used to accomplish the act; (2) The sexual penetration is accomplished without the consent of the victim and the defendant knows or has reason to know at the time of the penetration that the victim did not consent; (3) The defendant knows or has reason to know that the victim is mentally defective, mentally incapacitated or physically helpless; or (4) The sexual penetration is accomplished by fraud.” (Scheb II)
According to the above definition from the state of Tennessee, rape is exactly what occured. The third question, “Was it right or wrong?” is obviously an easy question to answer. This was an act of sexual violence, which means that it was wrong. This means that, as a society, has agreed that the act of rape is wrong therefore, quality is agreed upon. The fourth stasis, policy, may face controversy depending on evidence and under what circumstances rape took place. “What should we do?” in Policy is an unfortunate way to end copious amounts of sexual assault cases. In reality, rape is a crime that will go unreported for a long duration. When victims do not report this immediately, the physical evidence can be hard to come by and in the meantime, the offender can repeat the same act. In this case, two of the men were convicted of five counts of aggravated rape and two counts of sexual battery. The other two men involved have yet to stand trial. Within each of these stasis, more questions can develop and follow. For example, other questions of conjecture can be, “Is it true? How did it begin? What is its cause? Can it be changed?” Questions like these vary from case to case in different acts of sexual assault, however, some of these questions can share the same commonplaces.
Besides conjecture, rape cases can carry many consistencies. These would be called commonplaces. Commonplaces are any statement or bit of knowledge that is commonly shared among a given audience or a community. In relation of rape, there could be many repeated commonplaces that we can find through a various cases. In the Vanderbilt case, it was public knowledge that these players had been drinking, as well as the victim when the attack occurred. With this bit of knowledge, alcohol could be identified as a commonplace. During this particular crime, the defendant blamed that he drank too much, and stated that he was “too drunk to know what they were doing and that a college culture of binge drinking and promiscuous sex should be blamed for the attack.” Alcohol is present in most of these cases. However, it may not just be the attacked who has been drinking, it can also be the victim who is raped. Unfortunately, in some cases, the victim will be unconscious and have no recollection of what had happened. That was true for the Vanderbilt case, as well as a recent case that just occurred in the middle of January. Stanford freshman swimmer, Brock Allen Turner, was caught mid act and tried to flee when two men on bikes saw what was happening. The victim was unconscious and being violated outside of a fraternity. Although, it is unstated if the freshman swimmer was drinking, the victim was clearly too intoxicated to give consent, which means that Turner committed rape. (Murphy)
Another commonplace that lies within these two stories is the location. According to Crisisconnection.org, more than 60% rapes occur on campus. (College Campus Rape) Meaning that the lack of supervision among campus entities, including dorms and fraternity houses is flawed and absent. In the Vanderbilt case, the woman was brought back to Vandenburg’s dorm room and sexual violated. In this Stanford case, this woman was being sexual assaulted outside of a fraternity house. This, however, is not the first fraternity house incident to hit headlines in the last year. Multiple cases including University of Virginia and Hobart and William Smiths College in New York were addressed to the public when two young girls were gang raped in fraternity houses. The commonplace of unsupervised frat houses or dorm rooms, should be an eyeopener for many to start comprehending the dangers behind college campus rape.
Today, society has been trying to come up with alternatives to college campus rape, however, the numbers that are reported tell a different story. Recently, an article was published by the New York Times asking why don’t sorority houses have the parties? During the article, many women were up for the idea, stating that they would feel more protected and that they have “home-court advantage.” However, many believe that it would be hard to change the tradition now. National sorority organizations have banned alcohol in their houses for decades. Officer Julie Johnson from the National Panhellenic Conference prefers to keep the calm of sorority houses and let the frat houses assume the cost, risk and clean up of house parties. (Schwarz) Although this article is still fresh, many don’t take it seriously. On the bright side though, at least the discussion of rape is finally becoming more of a public issue.
People say that college can be the best time of a person’s life, but what if it’s not? The seriousness and perturbed truth behind rape is that it can happen to anyone. College campus rape is becoming much more of a serious issue and there are for sure signs that begin to materialize when dangers are present. When applying stasis theory and commonplaces to these incidents after the fact, it is easy to see where things went wrong, but the real question is, what does it take for young college students to start seeing the dangers themselves, before things can make a turn for the worst? As a society, the need for resource and support is at an ultimate high and things to need to change when it comes to the increasing numbers of college campus rapes.
Works Cited
"2 Ex-Vanderbilt Football Players Convicted of Raping Student." New York Post 27 Jan. 2015. Web. 4 Feb. 2015. <http://nypost.com/2015/01/27/2-ex-vanderbilt-football- players-convicted-of-raping-student/>.
"College Campuses and Rape." Crisis Connection. PSC. Web. 4 Feb. 2015. <http:// www.crisisconnectioninc.org/sexualassault/college_campuses_and_rape.htm>.
Murphy, Kate, and Tracy Kaplan. "Stanford Swimmer Arrested, Charged with Felony Sex Assault." San Jose Mercury News 27 Jan. 2015. Web. 4 Feb. 2015. <http:// www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/ci_27404357/stanford-swimmer-arrested- suspicion-attempted-rape>.
Scheb II, John. "An Overview of Criminal Offenses under Tennessee Law." University of Tennesssee, Knoxville. Web. 4 Feb. 2015. <http://web.utk.edu/~scheb/overview.html>.
Schwarz, Alan. "Sorority Anti-Rape Idea: Drinking on Own Turf." The New York Times 19 Jan. 2015. The New York Times. Web. 10 Feb. 2015. <http://www.nytimes.com/ 2015/01/20/us/sorority-anti-rape-idea-drinking-on-own-turf.html?_r=0>.
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
Response to Class Discussion, 2/3
Today, in class we were able to talk about feminism and how it relates to rape. I feel as though feminism is a misunderstood topic of discussion for many. Many have a negative opinion about feminism and what it represents due to past events. For example, the first thing I did was google the word feminism and see what would pop up. The definition of feminism was the first to appear which stated, “the advocacy of women’s rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men.” I believe that this definition offers a correct and valid statement of what feminism represents. Another interesting piece of data that I found interesting was that at the bottom of this box, it showed a graph of data about the use of the word feminism.
With this graph, it shows how the work feminism has skyrocketed right around the 1990’s, which makes sense reflecting back on the way society has taken its course.
Another interesting tidbit that I found was after I scrolled down, the first few links that popped up were “Feminist.com,” “Women Against Feminism,” and “Who Needs Feminists.” Wait, what? The amount of stigma that plays part and takes place against feminists is so wrongly portrayed that it’s embarrassing. Where did this stigma come from? Why is it not okay for women to realize that they have rights and deserve the same respect that men do? On a Tumblr site that I ran across while googling “feminism” that was called “Who Needs Feminists,” it caught my eye because the description underneath the link stated, “Identify yourself as a feminist today and many people will immediately assume you are man-hating, bra-burning, whiny liberal.” This little blurb made me snicker. Because that’s exactly what people associate with feminists. The women that are out on the streets, waving signs and not wearing bra’s when they should be are who people picture when they think of these activists. The link below is the link to the Tumblr. It’s actually quite interesting.
whoneedsfeminism.tumblr.com/
Another interesting bit of information that we did not talk about in class, but I talked about with fellow classmates is the recent article concerning the Stanford Swimmer who was caught “mid-rape.” In multiple articles, it stated that Stanford University did a great job handling the situation... However, the most ironic part about the entire situation is that the only thing that Stanford did was not allow Brock Turner back into Stanford and he cannot re-enroll. The real heroes are the guys who rode by on their bikes and tackled him and didn’t let him back up until the police came to get him. The police and the Samaritans who handled the situation are the real winners, not the university. The link that is attached below is an article from the Daily Beast, who takes on a professional bias and a realistic view about rape and how this situation was handled correctly. This article picks out extremely valid points when it comes to viewing how universities all around the nation, do not properly take care of rape cases that occur on college campuses. The writer of the piece, Emily Shire does a fantastic job validly examining the mistakes universities take and what steps should take place when college campus rapes occur. Clearly, at this point in time, any action that takes place is more than what is happening. We need to start somewhere so why not start with one of the biggest contributors to lack of convictions, the lack of university help.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/01/28/when-police-not-professors-handle-rape-cases-justice-is-swift.html
With this graph, it shows how the work feminism has skyrocketed right around the 1990’s, which makes sense reflecting back on the way society has taken its course.
Another interesting tidbit that I found was after I scrolled down, the first few links that popped up were “Feminist.com,” “Women Against Feminism,” and “Who Needs Feminists.” Wait, what? The amount of stigma that plays part and takes place against feminists is so wrongly portrayed that it’s embarrassing. Where did this stigma come from? Why is it not okay for women to realize that they have rights and deserve the same respect that men do? On a Tumblr site that I ran across while googling “feminism” that was called “Who Needs Feminists,” it caught my eye because the description underneath the link stated, “Identify yourself as a feminist today and many people will immediately assume you are man-hating, bra-burning, whiny liberal.” This little blurb made me snicker. Because that’s exactly what people associate with feminists. The women that are out on the streets, waving signs and not wearing bra’s when they should be are who people picture when they think of these activists. The link below is the link to the Tumblr. It’s actually quite interesting.
whoneedsfeminism.tumblr.com/
Another interesting bit of information that we did not talk about in class, but I talked about with fellow classmates is the recent article concerning the Stanford Swimmer who was caught “mid-rape.” In multiple articles, it stated that Stanford University did a great job handling the situation... However, the most ironic part about the entire situation is that the only thing that Stanford did was not allow Brock Turner back into Stanford and he cannot re-enroll. The real heroes are the guys who rode by on their bikes and tackled him and didn’t let him back up until the police came to get him. The police and the Samaritans who handled the situation are the real winners, not the university. The link that is attached below is an article from the Daily Beast, who takes on a professional bias and a realistic view about rape and how this situation was handled correctly. This article picks out extremely valid points when it comes to viewing how universities all around the nation, do not properly take care of rape cases that occur on college campuses. The writer of the piece, Emily Shire does a fantastic job validly examining the mistakes universities take and what steps should take place when college campus rapes occur. Clearly, at this point in time, any action that takes place is more than what is happening. We need to start somewhere so why not start with one of the biggest contributors to lack of convictions, the lack of university help.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/01/28/when-police-not-professors-handle-rape-cases-justice-is-swift.html
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