The events of the Stanford Rape case have been heavily publicized and flooding social media for the past week. As most people know, college swimmer Brock Turner raped an unconscious woman outside of a party, and for this crime will only serve three months in jail. Brock Turner changed a woman’s life forever; he shattered her until the pieces left over were no longer human, and the price he has to pay is less than the duration of a school semester or an Amazon Prime free trial.
Turner’s father made the decision to write a letter to the judge presiding over this case, which has turned into one of the most ridiculous and unbelievable aspects of this case. The father listed the reasons that the judge should be lenient on his son, trying to humanize him by doing things like listing his favorite snacks, because we all know real rapists don’t like pretzels or play sports. Sir, your son’s heinous and unspeakable acts were not a product of “20 minutes of action.” It was a lifetime of constantly being told that he should just take what he wants, when bad things happen it is never his fault, and that he never has to deal with repercussions. His twenty minutes of action were a product of centuries of systematic and institutional male and white privilege.
This case represents a turning point for this country and the way in which we discuss rape culture. Brock Turner inadvertently began a conversation that we have needed to have for years. It is in the forefront and hopefully now, as adults, we can have a meaningful conversation about rape culture that is free of victim-blaming and independent of "the dangers of college drinking and promiscuity". This is no longer an issue that we can sweep under the rug, it has become too large and too public for anyone to ignore.
The few “good” things that have come out of this case (not that anything regarding rape is ever “good”) is the public backlash. People eyes are being opened to how corrupt the justice system can be and how it can often favor certain groups- the wealthy, white, and male. The Olympics and USA Swimming have banned Brock Turner for life, finally holding him to some degree of accountability. This is a large step in the sports industry, especially where there a plethora of men who have been committed violence about women and went on to continue their successful career and life in the positive public eye (something also prevalent in the entertainment industry).
This case has begun on era of change in the way that we discuss rape and rape culture. This man is, by every definition of the word, a rapist. He has blonde hair and blue eyes and went to prestigious school and was on track for the Olympics and he is a rapist. We can no longer differentiate this person from what most people consider a “real rapist,” a man in a dark sweatshirt that pops out of alleys at night and whose face you never see. A rapist can be a friend, and acquaintance, a familiar and trustworthy face. And Brock Turner just publicly proved that.
The statistic “one in five” is thrown around as often as free t-shirts in college. One in five women will experience sexual assault in college. A statistic meant to scare you, to caution you to be careful at parties, to never drink as much as the boys and always keep an eye on your cup. What is the statistic for men who rape in college? How may many will be perpetrators of sexual assault in college? This statistic is missing, and allows us to anonymize these criminals, while putting focus on the victims. Brock Turner’s case is certainly not the first of its kinds, and will most definitely not be the last, but his put a face to a scary and unknown statistic. He allowed us to picture who commits the sexual assault -- anyone. And obviously, many will choose to do it because they will not have to face significant or sufficient penalties.
I saw an update on the Brock Turner case on the side of my Facebook homepage where the trending news stories were listed. “Turner to only serve three months out of possible 14 year sentence” was squeezed between the headlines of “Kendall and Kylie to release new swimsuit line” and “The juicy details of Taylor and Calvin’s breakup.” Obviously we have a long way to go in the way that we talk about rape culture, but the public backlash and immense publicity surrounding this case represents a significant and hopefully lasting way to we discuss this issue.
