Brock Turner, the Stanford rapist, has been released early on good behavior. Not that this means much of course; he only served three months out of six, which is little difference in time, especially for a crime as heinous as rape. To be fair, the concept of being released early for good behavior is not a bad concept at all. However, in the case of Brock Turner, it is only the addition of insult to injury.
To be honest, an article about Brock Turner could take one of several directions: the dangers of athlete worship, the unfortunate willingness of alumni to forgive each other grave sins (as the judge assigned to the case was a Stanford alumni), etc. However, in this article I will focus on rape culture and how the Brock Turner case is a very chilling example of such.
In order to begin this conversation, we must first define what rape culture is, exactly. Rape culture is defined as a society that blames assault victims and normalizes sexual violence. Although this phrase is almost always used in the context of male-on-female rape, it can be applied to other types of rape. On paper, the idea sounds absolutely horrible. “What kind of society is okay with rape?” someone might ask. Well, none on purpose. Rape culture is much more insidious than that. When a man feels comfortable cat calling a woman, that’s rape culture. When two frat boys high-five about “scoring” with a drunk girl, that’s rape culture. When a woman sneers and says “it can’t be rape, you’re a man and you liked it”, that’s rape culture. Rape culture feeds off of disempowering those who might not have much empowerment to begin with, dehumanizing and numbing these individuals every day.
Luckily, there has been an uptick in outrage over rape culture, and many individuals and communities have started to fight back against this disease, especially through the dissemination of college. This is one reason so many universities now cover consent and now practice a zero tolerance policy regarding harassment. It’s also probably the only reason I can write this article- the idea of rape culture hasn’t been on the public’s mind for all that long.
So how does Brock Turner fit into rape culture? Well, let’s look at his dad’s letter to the judge, Aaron Persky. In his letter, he constantly focuses on how the verdict affects his son, from how he will “never be his happy go lucky self” to how he has been “absolutely devastated” by the rape. Now, to be fairer than I should be, it’s only natural for any parent to wish to exculpate their child. How many times have you read in the papers about “what a good kid” a murderer was? We have a strong desire to protect our own, even when evidence points entirely to the contrary, as in the case of Brock Turner.
What many of us have not forgotten, however, is how the verdict will affect the young woman that Brock Turner assaulted. How she will not be happy go lucky, how she has been absolutely devastated not only by Brock Turner’s heinous crime, but by the obscenely short sentence he served. More so, a message has been sent to victims everywhere: “We will care more about your assailant than you.” This is unacceptable. It shouldn’t matter who Brock Turner is. Whether a white male or a black female or anyone in between commits rape, their title should still be the same: rapist. Brock Turner has become the face of rape culture. I am not saying that his life is without punishment: he must be registered as a sex offender for the rest of his life, and the world now knows his face. However, he (and other) rapists have been shown in no uncertain terms exactly how lenient the system can be, especially if you bat your eyes and look at the judge with puppy dog eyes. Did Brock Turner benefit from being a white male? Almost certainly. But the message still applies across the board that the rapist will be considered before the victim.
As long as we hear things like “She shouldn’t have been drunk” or “she shouldn’t have worn that” or the now infamous “[six years] is a steep price to pay for 20 minutes of action out of his 20 plus years of life”, there will still be a problem. So what are we to do about rape culture? First, we stop victim blaming and victim shaming. No one has ever asked to be raped. It is not clothing, because there are victims who dress modestly. It is not drunkenness, because there are victims who were completely sober. Rape affects men and women, young and old. The one thing that is in common is a rapist. We must not shift blame to anyone except the person who commits such a vile act. Also key is making sure that as many people as possible understand what exactly consent is: freely given, emphatically given, and for a certain act at a certain time. “Yes” is not “yes” when it has to be coerced, or when the other person is not aware of what they are giving consent to (drunk, etc.). The lack of a “no” is not a “yes”, and “yes” now does not mean “yes” a week from now or even five minutes from now. Clothing is not a “yes”, lack of clothing is not a “yes”, only a “yes, I want to do this” is a “yes”. To paraphrase Amber Rose, “I can be in bed naked and still change my mind”. Bottom line, proper consent is always required.
Perhaps most key to shutting down rape culture is being empathetic, for what is rape culture but an utter lack of empathy? When someone makes the utterly repugnant statement “they were asking for it”, they are failing to think how such would a crime would, God forbid, affect someone in their life or even themselves. When Brock’s father shed a tear for his son’s inability to eat a good steak, you can be sure that there was no thought for the woman that Brock Turner forced himself onto. The judge who gave Brock Turner only 6 months could not have possibly stopped for a second to try to empathize with the victim. He never stopped to think about if this girl on the stand was anyone in his life. This is what it comes down to. “How would my mother react if she saw me treating someone this way?” If the answer isn’t good, then don’t do it!
Brock Turner is free, but a shadow will still follow him. Unfortunately, his early release inspires little confidence in those who have been victims of this heinous crime. We must work constantly towards a society where no man or woman is afraid to stand up and know that they will not be blamed for being the victim. Until we are able to recognize that “nice kids” can be rapists, we will have quite a way to go.
