"UNCC QB, Greg Olsen's younger brother, accused of sexual assault"
"Ex-Stanford swimmer: Brock Turner is 'the problem'"
"Former Vanderbilt football player found guilty of raping a student who had blacked out"
"Looking Back at the Duke Lacrosse Case"
These are just a few article headlines that cover stories on accounts of rape against college athletes. It sickens me to read these headlines because each of them refer to the rapist as some type of sports player, i.e. QB, swimmer, football player, lacrosse player, instead of just saying they're name. I do not think that when news outlets are covering stories of sexual assault that they should ever post anything about the victim or their story because they are traumatized from the event that just occurred, but that does not mean the piece should be a story on the college athlete's stats in whatever sport they participate in. They're a rapist, not an athlete.
I do not care how fast they ran, how many laps they can swim, how many touchdowns they have completed, I care about the victim. I care about how they took away a part of them that they won't ever be able to get back. I care about the case and trial and events going on in the courtroom, not how the perpetrator's life has been ruined because they'll never get to play professionally. They should have thought about that before taking advantage of someone else.
This type of news media only reiterates the rape culture we have within our society. It glorifies the rapist's accomplishments before the rape and idolizes their athletic career. How do you think it makes the victim feel to read a piece on their story and only receive statistical information about a sporting event their rapist participated in? As you can probably guess, it does not feel good. I urge the media to step away from this kind of practice and only report information that is pertinent to the case, not an athletic biography on the rapist. This only creates backlash for the victim because so many people who are affected negatively by the stigmas of rape culture blame the victim for ruining the life of the athlete. Rarely people consider how the rape affected the life of the victim. Think about how their learning environment has been compromised, think about how they don't feel safe in their own skin, think about how much they have come to blame themselves.
As a society, I urge everyone to resist the click bait of an article stating the rapist athletic position and hope you read the articles that try their best to stay neutral, or repost the article that glorifies their athletic career and call it out! Be a voice for the ones who have had theirs taken away. This is the victim's story, not the athletes 'after the game' piece.
