By the time you read this, Brock Turner will be out of jail.
In case you're not really sure who that is, let me fill you in:
Brock Turner is an ex-Stanford student convicted of the sexual assault of a woman who was both intoxicated and unconscious. He was not convicted a couple of years ago, not even one year ago, but three months ago. His brief six-month sentence was cut in half due to good behavior.
Judge Aaron Persky justified his sentencing with this:
"Number six are the adverse collateral consequences on the defendant’s life resulting from the felony conviction. And those are severe. And they’re severe in a couple of ways: One, with respect to the Penal Code section 290 registration that he’ll be subject to for life; and, secondly, with respect to the media attention that’s been given to the case, it has not only impacted the victim in this case, but also Mr. Turner. Where, in certain cases, there is no publicity, then the collateral consequence on those on the defendant’s life can be minimized."
To sum it up, he was given a lenient sentence partly because he would suffer enough from the attention the media was giving him, and because he would likely face suspicion for the rest of his life as a result of being a registered sex offender. He even goes so far as to say in the same sentence that this case has impacted the both of them, not bothering to say that the psychological impact on the victim was far greater than any repercussions Brock Turner could face.
I am outraged, and you should be too.
His father only made matters worse by writing an open letter to the judge, telling him that "Incarceration [was] not the appropriate punishment for Brock" and that he could instead be useful "[Educating] others on college campuses [about] how society can begin to break the cycle of binge drinking and its unfortunate results" among other whiny attempts at explaining how harmful it would be for Brock to face jail time. Instead of admitting that, yes, his son had done something terrible, he implied that it wasn't really that big of a deal, and it was more of the alcohol's fault anyway.
Do not be fooled, this is the written manifestation of rape culture, which seeks to both remove the blame from the offender and place it on the victim instead, and also to emphasize that overly aggressive tendencies are the norm for males, especially young males. You've probably heard it before:
"Boys will be boys."
"But what was she wearing?"
"She was asking for it."
"But she didn't say no."
In the 21st century where it seems we've made so much progress, we are continually stuck on this. Brock Turner's is not the only sexual assault case in which justice was clearly not served to the extent to which it should've been, and unfortunately it probably won't be the last. It is about time that we as a society and a justice system remember how inherently evil and cruel sexual assault is, and start treating it as such in the hopes of eradicating it as a common occurrence. Then women can feel safer walking alone at night, or going to a party, or trusting the men around them to do the right thing. Misogyny is often taught, so we must teach love, teach acceptance, and most importantly: teach self-control.
