Two former high school football players from Steubenville, Ohio are accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl at a series of end-of-summer parties (August 11, 2012). Both are charged with rape; one is charged with "illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material."
As the story goes, a young girl traveled out-of-town to attend these parties and drank so much she blacked out -- mumbled speech, vomiting, unconsciousness. Allegedly, the two young men violated her sexually while dragging/carrying her to various parties - it was suggested on social networking sites she was urinated on by a person/people. Onlookers Tweeted and Facebooked about the girl, took videos and snapped photos (11 cell phones and a couple iPads were seized in the investigation) - including the now infamous photograph of two young men holding up the girl's limp body by her limbs like a dead deer. There may even be a video of the alleged sexual attack.
According to reports, the victim learned about the evening through social media - Twitter and Facebook - the next morning.
It's the age old Bystander effect - many people present with no one coming to the rescue. Blame it on the alcohol, blame it on being young and naive, blame it on whatever you want - no one helped this young girl.
Why am I just blogging about this now? I didn't know about the case until Anonymous, the activist hacker group, released information, including a 12-minute video of a young man, who has not been charged, joking about the incident to the amusement of several teenage boys. He was questioned by police - his excuse: he was drunk.
Is it really rape because you don't know if she wanted to or not. She might have wanted to. That might have been her final wish.
Anonymous is upset no one is coming forward with information about the evening in question and also because Steubenville has, as they described, an all-star football team consisting of demi-gods to the small, high school football obsessed, down-on-its-luck town. They plan to release more information unless people come forward with information.
To further complicate matters, another victim came forward with allegations she was raped in April -- possibly by the same group of football all-stars.
I could rant about the small town condoning these actions because the boys in question are demi-gods or about local kids and familial/friend connections. However, I'm more interested in the role of social media.
Have we come to the point where people are so stupid they confess on Twitter and Facebook about such horrifying scenarios as rape? (I.e. Jacob Cox-Brown of Oregon who Facebooked: "Drivin drunk ... classsic ;) but to whoever's vehicle i hit i am sorry. :P" - He was arrested). I don't care how drunk you are, that's illegal, that's criminal, that's immoral. At what point does rape or drunk driving seem funny or cool? Stupid is not the word. Help me understand the mentality - the boy who murdered children and adults in Newtown, Mass. is being described as mentally sick, perhaps a product of his end-of-the-world obsessed mother. What about these boys, who would do such a thing? What about these boys, who laugh about rape? What about the girls and boys who watched as a girl was sexually violated and humiliated and did nothing yet found the time to sarcastically Tweet, text and Facebook about it with a detached, sick mentality? Are we that far removed from reality where rape is funny?
What is it about teenagers/young adults and an obsession with blacking out, being wasted - this has been the status quo for decades. It's like a medal of honor. I'm not a nun, I've partied. However, I've never laughed about a young, unconscious girl being raped or joked about driving drunk. Do people not realize Facebook isn't anonymous or are they too obsessed with everyone knowing everything about them every second of every day?
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