Last night, I was talking with one of my friends about that article written to the girls of the SEC and how sad it made me to see thousands of girls put down for dressing cute on game days. I have friends who posted responses and shared articles about their feelings toward that woman. I was just starting to move on from it until I saw a video on my timeline from CNN. The words that caught my attention were, “Why couldn’t you just keep your knees closed?” I watched the video. Then I watched it again. Then I watched it again. I still couldn’t process what I was hearing. A judge actually asked a 19 year-old who had been RAPED why she couldn’t just close her legs. Outraged and angry were understatements at that point, and they still are right now.
The judge’s name is Robin Camp, he has a daughter, and I just recently learned this: she was raped. I wonder if when she told her father what happened to her if he asked if she had tried to close her knees. If she had tried to plunge herself in the bathroom sink. If she had tried turning around to keep herself safe. I also wonder if her told her that sex and pain go together. If he said that she didn’t know that she wanted it. If he said that her attacker was just a boy and he really needed to figure out a way to protect himself.
All of these questions built up in my mind when I found out about his daughter because how could anybody that has a daughter say those things? How could anybody who has a wife say those things? How could any human, at any time, find it okay to say those things? There is a reason girls don’t come forward after they’ve been assaulted and Judge Robin Camp is a prime example of one of those reasons. Brock Turner is one of those reasons. Rapists being acquitted is one of those reasons.
This added to my emotions of the SEC article because literally two days after that article went live and women across the south were slut-shamed for dressing nice at football games, it comes out that a judge is defending a rapist. To women of the SEC, and to women everywhere, do not let a narcissistic women and a Word-I-shouldn’t-say-on-the-internet judge deter you from coming forward or dressing how you want to dress. Don’t let the ignorance of others stop you from being you and living your life.
Now, to Robin Camp. I hope that you realize the damage that you have caused. It can’t be taken back. It can’t be undone. However, I do hope that you are able to have a change of heart. I hope that one day you wake up and see that it was not that girl’s fault she was attacked. We are raised in a society where our shoulders distract boys and where we have to wear a t-shirt over our swimsuit at camps so boys “don’t get ideas.” I hope one day you are able to make a positive difference rather than a setback. I hope you find it in you to apologize, and I mean really apologize to not only that girl, but her family as well.
Finally, to any female reading this, your worth is not determined by boys who can’t control themselves and women who wear scarves in 90-degree heat. You are more than the ignorance of others. You are loved by many, including me.
