Brock Turner is a rapist, there is no doubt in my mind about that. And I will never deny that he is a rapist. However, I sincerely believe this man does not know he is a rapist.
What Brock Turner knows is he went to a party, he found a drunk girl, had sex with her and went to jail. I truly believe if you were to ask him, that’s what he would call it sex. From his father’s comments about the rape, it is safe to assume nobody at home taught him about consent. We are not teaching consent in our abstinence-only sex education. So chances are, the only type of rape Brock Turner knows about is the kind that jumps out of the bushes in the middle of the night with a knife.
What nobody taught Mr. Turner is that sex without freely given- which means free of any inhibitive substances- consent is rape. When a woman is too intoxicated to say yes, then she is saying no. So when you find an unconscious woman behind a dumpster, no matter how drunk you are, you have no right to stick your body parts in her. But Brock does not know that.
From what his father has taught him, Brock is entitled to any woman he wants. If she is drunk she is simply asking for his penis, if she is wearing a short skirt or flirts with him, or he even thinks she flirts with him, well then that woman is Brock’s property. In a study done by Violence and Gender found that one in three men admit they would have “intentions to force a woman to sexual intercourse” if ‘‘nobody would ever know and there wouldn’t be any consequences.’’ However, only 13 percent of those same men say they would not have “intentions to rape a woman” under those same circumstances. [1] This just reinforces that these men do not understand the meaning of sexual assault. Rape does not happen because of what the victims wear, rape does not hinge on how intoxicated the victim is, rape is never the victim’s fault. Rape is not about sex, rape is about power. Rape is about entitlement. I am sorry Brock Turner is now forced to bear the brunt of this movement, but he is the person who chose to violate that woman.
Brock Turner is the face of male entitlement, Brock Turner had a minimal sentence because his dad could afford a lawyer who could convince a judge about his “potential.” While people spend years in prison for petty marijuana possession, Brock Turner spends three months for destroying the life of a woman. Who will now need therapy, will likely suffer from PTSD and will have to be the target of other men who believe they are entitled to women’s bodies. My heart goes out to the victim of this crime, my anger goes to the judge who decided that the trauma endured by her was not enough to put this entitled man away, and my sympathies go to Brock Turner as society has inflated his ego to the point that he believes he is entitled to anybody and anything and has never taught him what what consent and rape are.
Source:
[1] O'toole, Mary Ellen. "Correction of “Denying Rape but Endorsing Forceful Intercourse: Exploring Differences Among Responders,” Edwards Et Al." Violence and Gender 2.1 (2015): 98. Web.
