Of course it's worth it. Because every post that is written about the blatant rape culture that took place with this case, is another opportunity for it to fall on a new set of eyes. Whether it's on Buzz Feed or Huff Post, or on CNN or a local news station, or if it's on my unknown blog on Blogspot - if one additional person sees it, then it was worth writing.
The back story is not needed; you've all seen it. Brock Turner, the model student athlete who was recently charged, convicted, and sort of punished for sexual assault. The jury, who found him guilty on three counts, without question. His dad, who basically agreed that he did it, but argued that there was no need to punish him and, you know, ruin his life as a swimmer. The judge, who apparently agreed that he shouldn't be punished for it. And the young woman, who's voice was not heard in court, and for whom there was no justice. Another young woman blamed for her own sexual assault. Another young woman asked why she was so drunk, why she was out so late, why she was wearing that sexy little top without her sweater.
What happened here is not surprising in the slightest. Brock Turner is white and wealthy, and he has a douchey rich white-guy name. He's a good student, and he goes to an accomplished university (insert sarcastic hand job motion here, because, who fucking cares). He gets good grades. He has a douchey white-guy hair-cut. He apparently knows how to swim. And he can do whatever he wants.
Because if you're white enough, rich enough, and athletic enough, you can do whatever you want in this country. And if someone should tell you that you cannot, your white enough, rich enough daddy will come along and say, oh yes you can, son, you can do anything you want.
And apparently, "whatever you want," does in fact include, ramming your dirty fingers into an unconscious woman's vagina and then dry humping her limp, noodly, passed-out body until someone comes by and makes you stop.
If you have not already read the victim's letter to her attacker, you absolutely need to, by the way. She shares terrifying details about what it is actually like to be fingered and dry-humped while unconscious, and she discusses in grave detail what it is like to need a rape kit in an emergency room. For those of you without a vagina, I can assure you there is nothing pleasant about anything inside you that you don't want, or are unprepared for.
This case has so many moving parts that I have struggled to even keep myself grounded as to which part I am so pissed about. Am I mad that he did it? Am I mad that he tried to argue that she consented? Am I mad about the comments under countless articles that blame the victim for being hammered? It's hard to keep tabs on my own anger, because really, I am just so mad about the entire thing, from start to finish! This woman went to a party with her sister, where she got drunk and may or may not have been dancing with a guy she didn't know.
Something every woman I know, has done, by the way.
She then finds herself in the emergency room getting her lady parts swabbed and photographed, after at some point she leaves the party, passes out, and winds up naked in the dark behind a dumpster being assaulted by a guy she doesn't know.
She is then, of course, blamed by these internet troll creeps for being drunk and slutty. Like every chick who gets hammered at a party deserves to wake up in the emergency room without the panties we had on just a few hours prior. And then, to make matters even worse, a fucking super-expensive, over-paid, creepy defense attorney sits in court, and under oath, blames her too! And then to top it all off, this fucking judge, who's sworn duty is to protect her, lets this little douche bag off with 6 months in county jail!! WHAT?!! How does this make any sense? How is this rational? How is this happening?!
Brock Turner is not a Stanford student.
Brock Turner is not a champion swimmer.
Brock Turner is not an all-American athlete or an exceptional academic.
Brock Turner is a sexual predator.
Brock Turner is a rapist (note, yes I do know he didn't actually rape her - however I do believe with all my being that had he not been stopped by two guys on a bike ride, he would have).
Brock Turner is a privileged, spoiled, catered little bitch, who has never been told no and who truly does believe he can take what he wants from anyone.
Brock Turner is what is wrong with America. He is why women don't go out alone. He is why we walk to our cars with our keys out, ready to stab one into someone's eye. Brock Turner is the reason we are worried about being drugged, why we worry about what we wear when we go out. He's the reason we take friends with us to the bathroom. He's the reason we have mace, the reason some of us have guns. Brock Turner is the reason women are defensive, the reason we are mean and unapproachable.
Brock Turner is the reason that women are scared of men.
Brock Turner's dad is the reason for Brock Turner. Dads who raise sons to take what they want, when they want, how they want. Dads who let their sons believe that if a woman passes out drunk, you can still move forward with banging her. Dads who don't teach their sons that no means no, and that the only permission you have to put your dick in someone is the word YES, from her conscious mouth.
Brock Turner and his father are the reason women in America will continue to be blamed for their own rapes, the reason we will continue to wonder what we should have done differently to have avoided being assaulted.
And Judge Aaron Persky, who's job it is to protect women in America from men like Brock Turner, is the reason Brock Turner will be the spoiled, entitled white kid who gets a slap on the wrist for rape.
Slap on the wrist. 6 months. For sexual assault. For sexual assault with the intent to rape.
Let that sink in while you're reviewing his swimming statistics and wondering if he'll be okay now that his dreams of swimming in the Olympics are dead. And then stop giving one single fuck about him, and shift your attention to the actual victim, who got no justice, and who will live the rest of her life a little bit more afraid of men than the rest of us.
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