<p>Someone was on CNN (?) a couple days ago and said <em>they</em> call the city “Stupidville”. They are going to have a hard time living this down. </p>
<p>I wonder why so many of these “inappropriate activities” are connected with all male bastions? Hmmm…</p>
<p>I find it surreal to read CC threads about high school students “blowing the whistle” on peers for lying on college apps and the ethics of “doing the right thing” in that instance, alongside this. Talk about a parallel universe!</p>
<p>[2</a> Ohio teen football players found guilty of rape](<a href=“HuffPost - Breaking News, U.S. and World News | HuffPost”>HuffPost - Breaking News, U.S. and World News | HuffPost)</p>
<p>Two members of the high school football team that is the pride of Steubenville were found guilty Sunday of raping a drunken 16-year-old girl in a case that bitterly divided the Rust Belt city and led to accusations of a cover-up to protect the community’s athletes.</p>
<p>Steubenville High School students Trent Mays and Ma’Lik Richmond face a possible sentence of detention in juvenile jail until they turn 21, capping a case that came to light via a barrage of morning-after text messages, social media posts and online photos and video.</p>
<p>Both broke down in tears after the verdict was read.</p>
<p>Sometimes the justice system actually works.</p>
<p>The real punishment is having to register as a sex offender. For the rest of their lives, the boys will wear a label of sex offender whenever they apply for a job or move into a new town.</p>
<p>I think this incidents will keep occurring until we alter the image of women we have in the media and alter the image of masculinity we have.</p>
<p>It’s hard work for a culture to change.</p>
<p>There was a very interesting discussion of this case, and the wider issues of rape and objectification of women on the Melissa Harris-Perry show yesterday (with Joy Reid substituting). Two men on the panel, including a former professional football player, had very insightful things to say:</p>
<p>[Video</a> - Latest clips and popular videos](<a href=“http://www.nbcnews.com/id/8004316/ns/video/]Video”>http://www.nbcnews.com/id/8004316/ns/video/)</p>
<p>and other videos from yesterday’s show.</p>
<p>^ a more direct link to the Melissa Harris-Perry panel discussion, referenced by NYMomof2</p>
<p>[Melissa</a> Harris-Perry](<a href=“http://www.nbcnews.com/id/46979745/vp/51206693]Melissa”>http://www.nbcnews.com/id/46979745/vp/51206693)</p>
<p>comment following back along razorsharps … and the girl will have to live the rest of her life wondering when some social media picture/comment/video will pop up and sideswipe her. Even just the attention in the media will go on forever as her case will now be referenced in other cases … </p>
<p>I hope they all get some help in coping.</p>
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<p>Not necessarily in this case. Considering the heinousness of the crime and age, they shouldn’t have been tried as juveniles. By trying them as juveniles, they’ll be free at 21. That’s a travesty IMO. </p>
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<p>They’ll still be free to roam among the greater public…to our possible great peril.</p>
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<p>I think it is excellent that this case has received so much media attention. The attention may result in changing awareness and changing behavior.</p>
<p>Agreed. Would love for this to serve as an awakening for all who defend or turn a blind eye to this kind of alcohol-fueled “boys-will-be-boys” culture. It happens among athlete groups and fraternities at colleges including some well-known “elites,” not just among high schoolers in downtrodden American towns. Young women who read about this should also understand the risks they take by drinking to excess–this could have gone the other way.</p>
<p>If you go up one video to the video above it in which the two rape survivors from UNC-Ch discuss the complaint recently filed with DOJ, as well as the Yale and Amherst and Occidental issues, I see this whole case as occuring within a much wider context of a strong discussion about rape culture on America’s college campuses.</p>
<p>Interestingly, to me, at least, is the fact that the willingness of victims to come forward and be named and to openly discuss their experiences within the media is what is driving the new emphasis and discussion. For a long time, the idea of “keeping the victim” protected by not naming them was also a way for the authorities to keep them from speaking out publicly about their treatment.</p>
<p>There is no denying the fact that the social media naming of the victims, which disallows the victims privacy to begin with is also one of the forces driving the victims out of hiding and “forcing” them, in some ways, to respond publicly, for their own sake. It used to be that these victims were ashamed. Now, instead, we see them as unashamedly agitating for justice, and I think this is what is going to change things. </p>
<p>For the defense attorneys who want to say a drunk girl who doesn’t object is somehow giving consent to rape, would you say that a drunk man who doesn’t object to being shot in the head is somehow giving consent to being murdered? It’s such a strange mindset, in my opinion.</p>
<p>The fact that the texts keep referring to this victim as being “dead” is really strange to me, too. It’s a shocking look into the depersonalization that always accompanies rape.</p>
<p>What stunned me today was one crying that his life was ruined. The cable news folks (CNN?) went over that several times before looking from the girl’s perspective.</p>
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<p>I don’t agree. It should be the rare exception to treat a juvenile like an adult in court. The reason we have a juvenile correctional system is largely because juveniles often do things they would never otherwise do once they are adults. If you look at your own past, you will likely see negative behavior that you did as a juvenile that would never occur to you to do as an adult. I remember a friend of mine who drove drunk when he was 16 (without any accident) and the next day commented regarding how hard it was to drive drunk. He never made that mistake again. If there is a reasonable chance that the boys may learn from their mistakes and never repeat them, then it makes sense to take only enough corrective action to enable them to change but without preventing them from ever returning to society as productive adults. If they spend five years in juvenile detention, maybe they will group up enough to change and never repeat their crimes. 16 year olds are much different from 21 year olds.</p>
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<p>For certain crimes like rape or other felonies which result in severe harm to the victim(s) and possibly jeopardize safety of the greater public, I disagree. </p>
<p>This very mentality among some NYC area judges back in the '70s and 80’s was one reason why serious felons were being sentenced and released so quickly to the point the courts were pejoratively nicknamed “the revolving door”. While I’m not a big fan of high mandatory sentences for misdemeanors, I am also not for a sentence which doesn’t seem far removed from the old “revolving door”.</p>
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<p>That is an excellent analogy, poetgrl. It’s mind-boggling that in this day and age, people are still arguing that lack of objection, especially when impaired (or unconscious), equals consent.</p>
<p>I hope this kind of publicity and outcome changes things, but a generation ago, or thereabouts, we had the Glen Ridge rape case,[Boys</a> town - Salon.com](<a href=“http://www.salon.com/1997/08/13/guys970813/]Boys”>http://www.salon.com/1997/08/13/guys970813/) with similarly light sentences for a few, and none for the rest. And it doesn’t seem as if that example changed anything nationwide.</p>
<p>It’s because we teach women how to “not get raped” rather than teaching men how to not rape. (I use women and men for ease though obviously women can rape and men can be raped.)</p>
<p>It’s the way our culture thinks so it’s not surprising at all that the default is consent until we say no. Won’t change until we start teaching our kids differently.</p>
<p>I have no problem with them being convicted and sentenced as juveniles. I am hopeful that they can learn from this and have productive lives. Going to an adult prison will not lead them in a better direction. However, the attitudes of parents, friends and neighbors are key here. Those who defend them and justify their behavior are doing them no favors.</p>