by Mia McKenzie
Today, the two 16-year-old football players who were accused of raping a 16-year-old girl in Steubenville, Ohio were found guilty. The boys’ emotional reactions to the verdict, including crying in court, led several different CNN personalities to lament that their young lives have been ruined. That’s right. With no mention of the rape victim and how her life has been affected by being raped (and having the assault photographed and videotaped and tweeted about by the people who watched it all happening and did nothing), CNN went all boo-hoo for the boys who did it.
Now, I’m no fan of CNN, and I wouldn’t have expected much. But this is beyond the pale, even for them. And it’s a continuation of the rape culture that exists in this country and in this world that has been so highlighted by the Steubenville case, a case which “polarized” Steubenville because, while many folks seem to know that rape is bad, many people there, and elsewhere, seem to think that football is more important than 16-year-old girls not getting sexually assaulted. Rape culture has us always blaming women for rape, whether it’s because of how we’re dressed or how much we drink or whatever. Somehow, underneath it all, it’s always kinda the woman’s fault. After all, men and boys have penises and those things are just so hard to control, it can’t possibly be their fault. So, women and girls have to take on the responsibility of not getting raped. Because, you know, boys will be boys and stuff…
