April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and in light of recent news, it has been difficult to not be aware of sexual assault.
Schools and colleges are plagued by rape culture — i.e., a culture with widespread sexual violence and rape — in which prevalent attitudes, norms, practices and media normalize, excuse, tolerate or even condone rape.
Two high school football players in Steubenville, Ohio, were found guilty in March of raping an unconscious teenage girl. One of the young men, Trent Mays, 17, was also found guilty of sending pictures of the assault to friends.
It is a sad state of affairs when young men are so proud of sexually assaulting unconscious girls that they pass around pictures. Often, the female victims are labeled as “sluts,” and with such degradation comes tremendous pain. Some find suicide is the only way to escape the scorn.
Last September, 15-year-old Audrie Pott of California, who was raped unconsciously at a party, was further humiliated when the rapists shared pictures of the incident. She killed herself just eight days after the rape. Three 16-year-old boys were arrested on charges of sexual assault.
Even when the rapists face criminal charges, their fellow men will defend them, as they did in the case of Steubenville, saying that the girl was “asking for it” and that boys were being unfairly targeted.
Women and girls are the ones expected to carry the shame of the sexual crimes perpetrated against them. It is an enormous burden to bear because once a girl is labeled a slut, sympathy and compassion fade away and more suspicious gossiping occurs.
In cases where pictures are shared, the perpetrators are likely to be brought to justice. But what about when the victims aren’t willing to speak out or the cases aren’t covered by the media? There are criminal consequences for rape, but even then, not often and not many.
According to Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, only 3 percent of rapists go to prison. The other 97 percent escape legal punishment and tend to feel that it’s not rape if the woman is unable to refuse.
For example, a rapist may target an intoxicated woman not only because she’s easy to attack, but also because he knows she would be less likely to be believed in a legal battle. We blame the victims for showing too much skin, for drinking too much or staying out too late. In a rape culture, the world is a safe haven for rapists.
Closer to home, a female UNC-Chapel Hill student claimed she was raped by another UNC-CH student last year. She has suffered undue humiliation and emotional trauma for months because of the university’s inappropriate handling of the situation. Though the case has yet to reach a legal conclusion, the defect of the campus system seems to have allowed it to become a shelter for rape culture.
At N.C. State, similar cases may go by unnoticed. Jennifer Scott, assistant director for interpersonal violence prevention at the Women’s Center, said the key to keeping rape culture from campus and society is teaching the public that everyone has a responsibility to step up whenever they see a possible sexual assault.
Even though we all know that rape is wrong and illegal, the definition of rape is still not widely understood. Many don’t realize that all nonconsensual sex is rape. The ambiguity of the definition made a witness in the Steubenville case think that what he saw was not rape because “it wasn’t violent at all.” There is no wonder that many victims end up blaming themselves.
We at Technician believe that it is shameful that in our society, it is sometimes more shameful to be raped than to be a rapist. Unless we actively speak out against such a prevalent culture, we are ignoring and consenting to it. The shame, then, may all be reserved for the rapist, but the blame must be shared by all of us.
But rather than sharing blame, we should all share responsibility to speak out when necessary and actively work toward an inclusive, safe society — a society which tells men not to rape, rather than telling women not to be raped.
