An entire set of unspoken assumptions has been dragged out into the light.
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Trent Mays and Ma’lik Richmond have been found guilty of raping a 16-year-old girl, bringing an end to a case that has drawn controversy and media attention for months. From the start, though, it has been clear that this case is about much more than two high school athletes and their drunken assault.
The culture of football worship that prevails in Steubenville, a culture shared by many other towns across America, has been criticized as directly contributing to not only this attack, but many others that have gone unprosecuted. The complicity of the other teenagers in every phase of the incident has also been roundly condemned, with good cause.
The fact is, what has fundamentally been put on trial here is a whole set of social norms and assumptions surrounding adolescent behavior and rape.
We encourage teenagers to be a little wild, to take chances, to do dumb things in an atmosphere of diminished consequences. In some forms, this is healthy, an outlet for hormonal energy and a training-wheels period for learning to deal with the world. The danger comes when these antics begin harming people.
Driving drunk used to be laughed off as a bad habit, but something people do from time to time. Within the past two generations, we have seen that social sanction rescinded, and now people talk of drunk driving as a mortal sin. Similarly, adolescent rape, when it occurs in combination with underage drinking, has long been vaguely classed alongside drunken fistfights and ill-conceived pranks as just another regrettable, but understandable, form of teen hijinks. A million repetitions of “What did they expect would happen?” or “You know what boys that age are like”, a million awkward changes of subject rather than saying outright what happened, a million ways to make rape okay without ever saying that’s what you’re doing. And now we have seen that, too, rescinded, at least in this one verdict.
It’s just one verdict, if a loud and public one, and it’s too late for a lot of people whose stories will never be told, but that is how society advances. One awkward, belated step at a time. Little by little, we are making it clear that it is not okay to hurt people. Today, I’m willing to call this a win.
Photo—AP/Steubenville Herald-Star, Michael D. McElwain
If there is any silver lining it might be that this Steubenville thing was sort of a crowd sourced investigation & indictment.
Thank you Alexandria Goddard.
http://prinniefied.com/wp/steubenville-high-school-gang-rape-case-firs/?COLLCC=681039865
I don’t see what football has to do with anything. You need to explain yourself better.
Football? It is the fact that two young men performed a brutal act against another teen, without any regard as to the ramifications of these acts. Our children today are continually bombarded with sex in the media, (tv, music, movies) and we expect them to understand without our guidance how serious it really is. We need to teach our children how to have compassion and feelings for others, this is learned by seeing it at home. When we are actually parents it is the toughest most rewarding thing in a persons life. I am a victim of incest and rape,… Read more »
It’s not “football worship” behind this. It’s athlete worship and the continued perpetration of the school social structure by parents, coaches, teachers, and administrators. The only reason there are popular kids, jocks, geeks, and nerds is because the adults allow it (and some probably even want it) to exist.
“Similarly, adolescent rape, when it occurs in combination with underage drinking, has long been vaguely classed alongside drunken fistfights and ill-conceived pranks as just another regrettable, but understandable, form of teen hijinks.”
Do we need a highly publicized death before “frunken fistfights” get’s taken out of the wacky hijinks category?
OK Noah- getting out front and pointing out that alcohol is at the center of this story.
Drunk boys raped a drunk girl & most of the witnesses who didn’t interfere we’re drunk as well.
I’d like to see the DA figure out where they got the booze and where it was consumed.