No snarling criticism or thinly veiled jokes about UNC here. I have a lot of respect for the editorial board of DTH for publishing this editorial.
If it was still 2005 and Harry Potter was relevant, I would be really tempted to print this flier off for our campus.
That, however, is not what the Steubenville story is ultimately about. It’s not about a rust-belt community suffering the woes of an enfeebled steel industry, and it’s not about how important it is for Steubenville to simply “get over” its ignominious moment in the national spotlight. It’s about a 16-year-old girl who was raped by two young men who thought that being good at throwing and catching an inflated ovoid meant that they had cultural carte blanche to behave however they wanted. Being good at a sport doesn’t entitle anyone to automatic public sympathy, and delving into our cultural sympathy reservoirs to bemoan the tragedy of a football player’s young career cut cruelly short does not make news coverage sensitive.
Maybe Richmond and Mays cried at their sentencing, fine. They should have cried. They should feel very fucking sorry for what they did, because it’s awful. We, however, should not feel sorry for them because a university will most likely not give them a scholarship to play a game. The sooner this country comes to terms with that fact, the more civilized and empathetic a place it will be.
I can’t seem to wrap my head around this coverage regarding Richmond and Mays’ guilty verdicts yesterday. I realize that teenagers/people make mistakes and that many people are disheartened when an athlete turns out to be flesh-and-bone mortal. I even understand our modern society’s rejection of black and white views on morality, and the paradoxical need for criminals who are absolute monsters.
All of this aside, Doug Barry makes a great point in his piece from Jezebel: the important fact to take away from this trial is that these men are not somehow better people because they throw a football around for a few months a year. These athletes not only sexually assaulted an unconscious and noncompliant girl, they mocked her. They (and their friends) went out of their way to document her state and ridicule her. If you ever find yourself sympathizing with these boys, please watch this one more time and steel yourself against the bullshit narrative our media has taken to these past several weeks.
I don’t want to live in a world in which a mainstream media outlet reporting on the verdict barely mentions the victim in their rush to lament the fact that the “promising lives” of the defendants have been ruined and that this “will haunt them for the rest of their lives.” I want to live in a world in which negative consequences are considered the logical effect of committing a terrible crime, and a sentence for rape that is shorter than those regularly doled out for drug possession or downloading academic papers is viewed as pretty damn lenient.
I have to admit, it was incredibly disappointing to see so many journalists (Especially Candy Crowley) upset over the effect on the rapists’ lives. Feministing does a great job of discussing how rape culture permeates our society and the reporting of this verdict.
Basically crying right now.
The Invisible War received widespread acclaim from critics. At the end of 2012, it held a 100% Fresh rating from review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, which also listed it as the #1 film of the year.
Things like this make so proud to work at Harvard.
Seen near Quincy House at Harvard on 11/28/2012.
All of the applause.
Your body will find a way to shut out all the water.
Thanks, Marc.
People have wounds, and those wounds are painful. That doesn’t have shit to do with the weak concept of “taking offense.” If someone talks about Texas being a shitty state, I might “take offense” at that. Fine, whatever. All of us who like comedy are generally in agreement with the idea that “taking offense” is lame, and a comedian should be willing to “offend” whenever he or she wants to.
But causing pain is quite a different fucking matter. Your job as a comedian is to take us through pain, transcend pain, transform pain. And if you don’t get that, you are a fucking bully, and I’ve got zero time for bullies.
This is, hands down, the best response I have seen on the internet to Daniel Tosh and his reprehensible behavior the other night. Jezebel also pointed out that people with significant talent CAN do this successfully…unfortunately Tosh is a pretty lackluster comedian. Whatever talent he may have is highly questionable.
But seriously though, I feel like Marc and I should do a tag team post on date rape and rape culture. There are far too many stupid people out there.
Anonymous asked: Do you think white privilege will always exist?
I hate to even say it, because it sounds so self-defeating and almost nihilist, but yes. I think white privilege will always exist and I think sexual assault will always exist, and that kills me. That said, I’m excited to see how the next 20 or 30 years progress, since our country will finally have a true plurality.
Who knows? Maybe we can look forward to a real paradigm shift in racial relations in this country. A boy can dream, right?
I love Take Back the Night. I love that I start off terrified of speaking, of sharing my past as a survivor of domestic violence and sexual assault. I love that, as soon as I do, I instantly feel stronger. I love that my voice can empower other men to share, to join in, to heal.
Both at Harvard and Vanderbilt, I have noticed men in the crowd who seem to not realize they can speak out; they appear to feel relegated to a silent minority at what has been deemed a “women’s event.” So I make a point of sharing my background, of telling them that sexual assault and violence against women is not a marginal issue, does not belong to just one gender or just one community. It’s something we all share, it’s something that affects us all, and men can stand up, speak out, and become a part of the process that addresses these evils.
I’m proud that my voice has affected others, has empowered men to share their stories, has brought forth the healing in friends, strangers, and coworkers alike. It’s difficult to say those words each year. I find it rather trying to speak up in front of the entire group about being a survivor, but when I think about the stories I’ve heard after, I can’t help but feel as if I did some good by opening the door for those other men to share.
In the end, that room of friends and strangers becomes a space of comfort for me, and I’m so thankful for it every year.
We were discussing homosexuality because of an allusion to it in the book we were reading, and several boys made comments such as, “That’s disgusting.” We got into the debate and eventually a boy admitted that he was terrified/disgusted when he was once sharing a taxi and the other male passenger made a pass at him.
The lightbulb went off. “Oh,” I said. “I get it. See, you are afraid, because for the first time in your life you have found yourself a victim of unwanted sexual advances by someone who has the physical ability to use force against you.” The boy nodded and shuddered visibly.
“But,” I continued. “As a woman, you learn to live with that from the time you are fourteen, and it never stops. We live with that fear every day of our lives. Every man walking through the parking garage the same time you are is either just a harmless stranger or a potential rapist. Every time.”
The girls in the room nodded, agreeing. The boys seemed genuinely shocked.
“So think about that the next time you hit on a girl. Maybe, like you in the taxi, she doesn’t actually want you to.”→ a Dish reader
This is so hugely important and SO TRUE, and the sad part is - most people don’t understand it.
I gotta testify, come up in the spot lookin' extra fly...
