On Sunday, March 17 an Ohio judge found two Steubenville High School students guilty of raping a fellow student, 16-year-old Jane Doe. The story should end there, with two rapists being found guilty in a court of law and sentenced to time that they lawfully deserve. However, the story became tainted and twisted with CNN’s news broadcast on the topic. CNN reporter Poppy Harlow explained how “incredibly difficult” it was to watch “these two young men –who had such promising futures, star football players, very good students –literally watched as they believed their life fell apart.” She began to pity the criminals and make them out to be the victims of this whole ordeal. Then, CNN’s legal contributor Paul Callan remarked,“Lives are destroyed…but in terms of what happens now, the most severe thing with these young men is being labeled as registered sex offenders. That label is now placed on them by Ohio law.” And it wasn’t the life of the victim, it was lives of the rapists.
The entire news report revolved solely around the boys, making it seem like their victim is the reason that their “bright futures” were taken away. In reality, it was completely their fault. They took advantage of a defenseless, unconscious girl, as well as filmed and posted a 12 minute video about what they were doing. The video, which was leaked by Internet activist group Anonymous, shows the boys making jokes about the events that were later brought up in court. This evidence was enough to condemn them. Even so, she was made out to be the one that deserved punishment because she was drinking underage. But her actions didn’t invite them to harass or take advantage of her. Something is very wrong with our society when major newscasters are defending rapists.
When it comes to CNN’s news broadcast, they were right about one thing: someone’s life was ruined. But it wasn’t the rapists’. It was the life of 16-year-old Jane Doe. On top of already being traumatized from what has happened to her, she has to be afraid of the newscasters responsible with telling the story of her justice telling the world that she ruined two others’ lives.
The CNN broadcasters were not the only one sympathising with the rapist. The case took to Twitter instantly. The tweets were things like, “Disgusting outcome on #Steubenville trial. [Rember] kids, if you’re drunk/slutty at a party, and embarrassed later, just say you got raped!” “So you got drunk at a party and two people take advantage of you, that’s not rape you’re just a loose drunk slut #BiasedResults #Steubenville,” and “Steubenville: Guilty. I feel bad for the two young guys, Mays and Richmond, they did what most people in their situation would have done.” Getting angry at CNN is easy to do, but their news report was not far from what the a lot of the public was thinking. Why is that? Why is the default for all of these individuals that she was in the wrong? What has society taught us that these people feel bad for the rapists?
Society tells women that it’s their fault they were raped because of what they were wearing, how they were carrying themselves, how they looked at a guy or how much they drank. Jane Doe was told she deserved it because that’s what any boy would do in that situation. She is told that her actions said “yes.”
As a community, people need to start standing up to this. Society has to start realizing that “no” means “no,” and that unless the word “yes” is said, it is a “no.” Most importantly, we have to stop blaming the victim instead of the rapist. Sex is a privilege, not an obligation. The only good kind is when there is consent. If both parties are game, go ahead. If someone says no, then just stop. It’s that simple.
Brittney Cox can be reached at brittney.cox@spartans.ut.edu