This story made me angry. Really, really angry.
For a little bit of background information, earlier this year Brock Turner, a former Stanford University swimmer, was caught sexually assaulting an unconscious woman behind a dumpster on the university campus. The case was taken to court and the men who witnessed the attack, two Swedish graduate students, testified for the victim. One of the students was 'crying so hard he couldn't speak' according to a letter that the victim wrote as part of her testimony. In response, Turner claimed that he was given full consent to sexually touch the victim, and she didn't object or struggle in any way. His father produced a statement which called for probation rather than time in prison due to the fact that he had already paid “a steep price for 20 minutes of action". Turner was sentenced to six months imprisonment, yet is only expected to serve three months due to 'positive character references' and the fact that imprisonment could ruin his chances in college.
This article, from a small reporting site based in the US, details Turner's new project: touring college campuses of America with his family to educate the public on the dangers of factors such as drinking too much, and behaving 'promiscuously'. The article scorns Turner's family for looking to monetise the crimes Brock committed by blaming his actions on having drunk too much alcohol. It also brings up the issue of 'victim blaming', a common practice in which when a woman is assaulted or raped, the questions she is asked are in the region of 'what were you wearing?' and 'why were you walking alone?', implying that she is to blame for the trauma she has endured due to her own actions.
The article, to me, perfectly sums up my own thoughts on the matter - I was furious when I first heard about the case, and as time progressed and Turner was sentenced my anger only grew. The article encompasses the unfortunate truth on the matter - that Turner's case was the norm, not an exception, and far too many sexual assault cases, even those that are reported, have no action taken against them because there was either too little evidence to make a legitimate case, or because the victim was reported to have been 'asking for it' in their actions. Regardless of what a woman is wearing, how much she has had to drink, or how much time she spends with you, unless she specifically consents to sex any advances towards her are unwanted and downright appalling, and unfortunately are not seen as such by far too many people in the Western world.
This was an unbelievable thing to happen, while that girl isn't getting the justice that she deserves. This was a really good summary of the news story and has a lot of clear opinions and there's a lot of anger shown towards this case. However, I think this could be improved by adding why this story is relevant to our media class and how it can help you in this course.
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