To the girl Brock Turner raped at Stanford,
Let's just say that actions have consequences; some may be good, while some may be bad. We are raised to believe that when you do something wrong, you are punished, and when you do something right, you're rewarded. If you decided to sass your mom off at dinnertime, you may be sent to your room, while good behavior allows you a few extra minutes to watch TV before bedtime. At least...it's supposed to go like that, right? Good behavior produces good consequences and bad behavior produces bad consequences.
But for that man who hurt you so maliciously, in a way no woman should have to experience, tearing apart your inner self-confidence and violating you in one of the worst possible physical ways, he didn't get what he deserved, and I am so sorry.
For those of us who were upset that he only received six months in jail as a result of his actions against you, we are even more upset that he was released three months ahead of time. Because somehow in our awful world today, showing "good behavior" in jail should allow a man who raped an unconscious woman to be released, regardless of the fact that he is a rapist. To why the government is more focused on giving him grace, than giving you the justice that you deserve as the victim is beyond my comprehension. We live in a world today where we criticize the victim before the perpetrator, and this is so wrong.
You probably feel so tiny and so insignificant. There's this weird belief in our world today, that the criminal is only a criminal under certain circumstances, because since you're drunk, it must have been your fault, right? Or maybe what happened to you did because you were wearing something tight fitting, or maybe you were outside late at night. According to them, you should have known that you had it coming, right? What an awful cultural belief. What about the fact that rapists, are rapists. It doesn't matter why they rape, because I could come up with thousands of "reasons" to do things that I knew was wrong, it just matters that they did. Period. He raped you. End of story. Nothing makes rape acceptable.
I'm so sorry. I'm sorry that you had to experience something so brutally horrific, and I'm sorry that he got away with it. I'm so sorry that you will have to spend many years of your life in remembrance of this awful experience. I'm sorry for the physical and emotional trauma that you are probably experiencing. I wish I could take it all away. I wish I could prove to you how beautiful, special, and deserving you are. I wish I could prove to you that you deserve nothing less than justice. Because while you're probably crying in bed, Brock is out living his life again, probably like this didn't even occur. You're not the one to be blamed. It's him. Don't get yourself believing his action is somehow your fault--it's not.
Just know that you have so many of us on your side, fighting with you, hoping that the justice systems will change. I pray that in the future, other girls just like you won't have to see their rapists get away scott-free.
