As many recall, we experienced repugnancy over Brock Turner’s court verdict a few months ago — and just when we thought it couldn’t get any worse, it did. As if the six month, joke of a ruling wasn’t bad enough, Turner somehow ended up splitting his sentence in half. It inevitably brings up a variety of subjects that human nature innately tends to disregard.

The primary issue is slut shaming. Our culture blames the victim rather than blaming the rapist. We instill in grammar school girls to wear shorts passed their finger tips and no tank tops so they don’t distract boys. We tell young women that when they dress provocatively or have a drink or two that they are “asking for it.” As a civilized society we somehow teach girls to not get raped instead of teaching boys not to rape. Such a nauseating lesson allows for Turner’s dad to, in a letter to the judge, describe the lawlessness as “20 minutes of action.” And how time and time again the victim gets pinned for the anguish inflicted upon them.

Furthermore, this outrageous theme is motivated by authoritative position holders, much like that of Judge Aaron Persky. The Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge deemed that because of his age, affluence, lack of criminal background, and notable Stanford athleticism, Turner would be exempt from the punishment that fit his crime. Appalled by the unjust verdict, in less than 24 hours of the decision, 191,000 people signed a change.org petition to recall Pesky. Followers wrote that, “Judge Persky failed to see that the fact that Brock Turner is a white male star athlete at a prestigious university does not entitle him to leniency. He also failed to send the message that sexual assault is against the law regardless of social class, race, gender or other factors. Please help rectify this travesty to justice.” As this eloquent, vexed reviewer shared, an impressive résumé does not omit you from a revolting crime and if our legal system cannot follow such values, what example are we sending to the populace?

However, this dreadful rape and atrocity of a case must not be in vain. Rather than hush away subjects that are challenging and controversial to talk about we must embrace that this is the society that we live in and instead of being indifferent about that reality we must make a change. We must vocalize the wrongdoings in our society so the Brock Turners of the world are punished and accountable for their heinous, unlawful crimes.