Don't Rape Anybody

When I saw the high school kid in Steubenville, Ohio, crying after his conviction for raping that girl and being comforted by someone in the courtroom, I thought, “Eh, let him cry. He’s a convicted rapist.”

Oh, but I guess I stand corrected because several anchors on CNN informed the nation that we are to care about how the two boys will be sex offenders and isn’t it sad that their bright futures are coming to an end and oh God pass me a tissue while I cry buckets full of compassion. Yes, it’s sad in a general sense because these people have ruined their lives, but I also don’t care about them.

You know why I don’t care about what happens to these kids? Because they raped a girl and got convicted. They fucked up their own lives and now they’re paying the price and I can’t muster a shit to give about their futures. They should have thought of that before they raped someone.

They are only teenagers, yes. But you know what I knew at age 16 or 17? That rape is wrong. You don’t need a high school diploma to understand that and I refuse to use youth as an excuse for doing something inexcusable. Rape is bad enough but it is even more wrong to rape an unconscious girl and record it and parade her around at parties.

You know who I do feel bad for? The girl who got raped. Because she got raped. I’ve never been sexually assaulted so I don’t know how one would feel afterwards but I’m sure the answer is “awful” and I’m sure that rape would follow you around for some time. So while everyone is crying for these criminals that this conviction will haunt them for some time, let’s think about the girl whose assault will probably haunt her for some time, particularly since she was raped in such a publically humiliating fashion.

I cannot for the life of me understand the thought process where some knuckle-draggers would blame this girl for what happened to her. Even if you have the misguided belief that she “deserved” it because of how she behaved, what kind of behavior would warrant a punishment like that? Are you so heartless to believe that the penalty for a teenage girl getting drunk is to get raped while people watch? Some people must see women as pieces of meat.

I also have heard that people were angry at this girl for making the high school football program look bad. If that’s what your concern is, you need to take a look in the mirror and re-evaluate some things because you are a deeply fucked-up individual. There is evidence that the football coach knew about the rape and the kids knew he would protect them. If it’s true, it’s unconscionable.

The other thing that kills me is that the judge was giving warnings for young people on the use of social media because people posted the rape on Twitter or whatever. After the guilty verdict, some reporter was asking, “Is social media the problem?” No, moron, when someone gets raped, rape is the problem. That girl would have been just as sexually assaulted if nobody recorded it. Just because you don’t post it on Facebook, that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.

The one rapist who was crying was apologizing but his choice of words to the girl was “I never should have recorded that.” As an editor, I might offer a correction. He should have said, “I never should have raped you.” 

So if you want to give teens advice on staying out of trouble, rather than saying “Don’t record yourself raping anybody,” lesson one should be “Don’t rape anybody.”