This is a powerful and disturbing opinion piece that appeared in today’s New York Times. Disturbing because it showed how easy it was for the rapist to corner his victim. Disturbing because of how “normal” he made it seem to concerned for her afterwards. It also deals with the horrible trauma that comes with having someone who betrayed your trust physically and mentally say they 'care for you.' The amount of paranoia that follows and how easily one can fall into distrusting their own instincts as well as the people around
This national best seller can relate to the opinions expressed by Peggy Reeves Sanday in The Socio-Cultural Context of Rape. Sandy investigates the characteristics of a rape-prone, and rape-free society. Jon Krakauer was interviewed by NPR books, where he stated, “The upshot was most rapists walked away without any punishment, any accountability” (NPR 1). The response from Krakauer correlates to Sanday’s research in The Socio-Cultural Context of Rape. Reeves Sanday writings examine, “When men discovered that they could rape, they proceeded to do it” (Reeves Sanday
“Rape is unique. No other violent crime is so fraught with controversy, so enmeshed in dispute and in the politics of gender and sexuality… And within the domain of rape, the most highly charged area of debate concerns the issue of false allegations. For centuries, it has been asserted and assumed that women “cry rape,” that a large proportion of rape allegations are maliciously concocted for purposes of revenge or other motives.”
There are different notions that the society has towards both Brock Turner and the victim, but whether good or bad, this case has sparked many new perspectives and conversations about situations such as this. The article proposes that this is only the first step to developing a culture that does not tolerate sexual violence in any form and a judicial system that deals appropriately with cases that involve sexual assault.
In “ ‘A Steep Price…’” it analyzed the opinions of the public, media, victim, and aggressor in defending their particular take on the case. The article offers mild bias, so it does not completely report the events of the case, because it mostly focuses on the opinionated effects and not so much the facts. In “Feminist Put Judge...”, major bias is introduced by claiming to be in support of the feminist cause; however, the article uses a stronger ethical appeal to attract a broader, more unified audience. In “Here’s the Powerful Letter…”, the author recants the letter the victim wrote to her attacker, Brock Turner. She not only aims for the audience to feel the distress and havoc the case has relinquished on her life, but also a chance to spread a more positive message to thank her supporters while encouraging her audience to stand up for themselves and their self worth. The overall purpose of analyzing all these different media sources is to be able to recognize how the multiple points of view that a story can be told from will alter the objectivity of the event. A society’s culture will emphasis bias or certain point of views to get the public to believe one interpretation of the story based on the
Rape has always been a problem, specifically in colleges across the US. There is also large amounts of misinformation and ideas surrounding rape. Author Jon Krakauer, who did not know much on the topic of rape before his time spent in Missoula; uncovered proof of the true seriousness of this problem. His nonfiction book set in Missoula Montana, tells the hard story of the awful experiences rape victims are forced to go through in this college town in order for justice. He uses investigative narrative to lay out a story that both informative and sensitive towards the victims. Even though he is only focusing on a few victims placed in one college town it is obvious these issues have a much larger
Paglia’s editorial discusses an extremely controversial topic in current society and will undoubtedly will have readers who disagree, because there are opinionated points. Rape is also a very touchy subject, especially if the opinion on the issue is unwarranted. The editorial itself is not a lengthy read, and does not provide much support for various claims. As a result, many of the points can be argued against and are sure to infuriate a handful of readers who have other views. Date rape is difficult to discuss because coming to a conclusion without much explanation is bound to make some readers upset.
“Every 98 seconds an american is sexualy asulted and violated mentally and physicaly.” (“Scope of the Problem: Statistics” RAINN) An even more disgusting statistic is that only 6 in 1000 predators and rapists will end up in prison. In our society these acts have become normalized to society and it is not okay. In our society anyone can be sexulay assulted at any age in their lives whether you are a high schooler, an well known athlete, or even just a normal adult.
After being raped by senior Owen Labrie at St. Paul’s School in 2014, Chessy Prout reported the crime against him. When Labrie was only convicted of misdemeanor charge, Prout revealed her identity and “hoped to support other victims by discussing the difficulties she has faced” (Hauser A13). Prout unapologetically spoke of her assault in an interview on the “Today Show” and spoke about her testifying experience. While speaking against her rapist was scary, Prout attributes her current strength to speaking for herself against Labrie. The jury of nine men and three women “said they didn’t believe that he did it knowingly,” although Proust affirms that he certainly did (Hauser A13). The case revealed the culture of sexual assault at St. Paul’s,
The topic I chose to address within my creative media project was over the issue titled “little rapes” presented to me through Heather R. Hlavka’s article “Normalizing Sexual Violence: Young Women Account for Harassment and Abuse”. I chose to address this topic because despite the severity and the reoccurrence of this type of violence only a few victims reported their experience to authorities or to people who can help. Andrea Nelson and Pamela Oliver state (under certain rules), “…any girl who permits herself to be persuaded into sexual activity is weak and to blame, as is a girl who voluntarily enters a situation where she can be raped.” The justifications of these acts need to be stopped and solutions for these sexual acts are long overdue.
Performing rape accidentally, or knowingly I do agree with Yoffe’s statement “Let’s be totally clear: Perpetrators are the ones responsible for committing their crimes.” In Yoffe’s article she covers both the perpetrator as well as the victim, though spending more time on the latter. I feel that perhaps an understanding of whether it really is a majority rule, where rapists are surveying the streets preying on unsuspecting women. According to Amanda Hess’s
Victims, through news reports and social media, often become celebrities overnight. Victims of crime are instantly thrown into the public eye and are fair game when reporters are rushing the scene for a top news story. The media frenzy creates a chaos that magnifies the victims pain and suffering to acquire viewer’s attention, and the reports are usually more gruesome, violent and more sexually charged than the truth. Sexually violent crimes are often a top news focus, re-victimizing the survivor of the sex crime. Research shows that “84% of prime-time television shows contain at least one episode of sexual harassment, which perhaps accurately reflects the commonplace nature of this violent crime”(Beirne, 2011, pg. 11). When a crime has been committed, victims are at a vulnerable time in their lives, which is when the media takes the opportunity to move in and overwhelm them even further while distorting the facts, asking questions, and snapping pictures looking for a news story. Victims are often even re-victimized as the media picks through their past, nothing is private, all information received, whether through a dependable source or just another citizen, is displayed for all of society to make their judgment. This can lead to society thinking the victim deserved it, it was their fault, or they weren’t a good person. This type of treatment has a greater devastating emotional
Along with television shows, news stations are accused of trivializing rape aswell. How many times have you heard, “She asked for it.” or any other type of victim blaming, or a derivative of,“Boys will be boys.” to make rape seem like not such a big deal (1a)? News channels will even go as far as scrutinizing a victim’s dress, mental state, motives and history to make the victim seem in the wrong about their rape (1a). Some channels will inflate the fake rape statistics to make rape seem like a less
One in six American women, and one in thirty-three men are murdered by serial killers. The government has announced an even more horrifying fact: One in nine underage girls were killed as well. Society has rushed to arms to imprison the killers and attempt to recover from this horrible tragedy -- wait. I apologize; this is the wrong crime. These are the statistics for rape according to RAINN (Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network). The public immediately takes on a different outlook. Rape is much less damaging than murder, right? After all, surely the victims deserved it. They were drinking or dressed wrong. If they didn’t want to be raped they shouldn’t have been walking alone at night. It must have been the victim’s fault. There are countless websites and classes which teach women how not to be raped; they shouldn’t drink, shouldn’t take public transportation, and should return to their homes and lock their doors by nightfall. If the victims had only followed these rules, they would have been safe.
It is somewhat relief that even the Vice President of the United States is recognizing the problem we have in the nation and is trying to do everything possible in his hands to help the whole nation fight against the sexual assaults. We need to take the fight on every possible front, as it is something that is affecting everyone, if not directly, then definitely indirectly. With this report I am trying to show that rape is something that happens to everyone, everywhere in the world. With my first article, which was based on stats from England and Wales, now with this one I can show that it is a big deal in the United States as well. It does makes me happy that someone on higher level in the Government as the Vice President, took time away from his normal duties, to collect and create this report, to provide us with resources and ways to fight these crimes. This shows that someone does care, even though we don’t see dramatic changes, it is still light in the darkness. It is horrific to read these statistics: some 12% of high school girls report having been forced to have sexual intercourse. And up to 38% of runaway teens say that sexual
A very real, and very common, problem in America is rape—more so the lack of knowledge about rape. This causes many problems for victims of sexual assault. In Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, the story of Melinda directly reflects the world today because most kids are not properly educated about rape and many teens in Melinda’s position can’t find a voice to tell their story.