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Sociological theory on sexual assault
Rape and the media
Sociological theory on sexual assault
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To hear the story from the TV anchor’s lips, it feels a hell of a lot different. You don’t remember what happened to you involving a football scholarship. You don’t remember how swimming talent caused your rape. That’s because what happened to you rarely sounds like what’s been inside a headline. It never sounded on TV like what happened to you.
That’s because, our general media platform fucking sucks when talking about sexual assault.
Sexual assault is a stranger in an alley. Sexual assault is an epidemic coming to a home near you. Sexual assault is a sensationalized Lifetime movie. Sexual assault is full of deception and men in our society falling from grace. Sexual assault is comprised of isolated incidents. Sexual assault stories are very rarely pitched on the
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He was a Stanford swimmer. This allows people with an already murky and muddled understanding of rape, to argue that there’s somehow a difference between what Turner did and what “rapists do.” Rape is rape. A rapist is a rapist. The Washington Post published a feature on the story, lauding Turner for being an all-American “baby-faced” boy that experienced a “stunning fall from grace,” going into detail about his past swimming career and wholesome beginnings. Lines include sentiments like, “But his extraordinary yet brief swim career is now tarnished, like a rusting trophy”.
The rush to try to humanize a rapist is an example of a rape culture that prioritizes the voices, experiences and gray area that exists for white men, and it dismisses violence against women. Brock Turner benefited from a level of compassion and empathy rarely given to others. People of color and women rarely receive this treatment.
Turner is a rapist, not a swimmer. The story is not about a swimmer, but what Turner did to a woman behind a dumpster.
She's a "rape victim," he's a "former Stanford swimmer." She's defined by the assault, and he's defined by who he
... athletes to do as they please. However he does not do a good job of being non-partisan. He leads his readers to believe the only group of people who would do such things are “jocks”. This bias is not true. The newspapers report that University fraternities, and secret societies are as likely, if not more likely, to commit these very same acts. He also leads the reader to believe that all athletes and athletic teams are similar. The impression he leaves about the majority of teams and their members is prejudicial and unfair. It is very unfortunate and disheartening that members of a community that were so highly reguarded, would commit such acts. It is even more disturbing to hear about the scenario leading up to the rape, and the community which produced these troubled young men. It is more important to look at why the events took place rather than who committed them, because ultimately the only innocent person involved is the victim, a mentally handicapped young girl, named Lesli Faber.
In the article, Rape, Racism, and the Myth of the Black Rapist, the author, Angela Davis, discusses on the creation of the myth of the black rapist. This article brings two main ideas together to in order to make a valid argument to why both claims are false and hold no legitimacy. Davis argues that one was created in order to cover up for the other I order to veil the true offenders of sexual abuse. Davis also elaborates on the issue by adding to the argument and stating that white women are also being affected by these myths in a negative way because of the women’s bodies are being perceived as a right.
A young Emma Sulkowicz was starting her second year as a Columbia art major, was raped in her dorm room. Emma didn 't report the incident at first, but when hearing about two other classmates who told her the same rapist was abusing them too, she pressed charges with the administration. Students tend to be uneasy reporting rape because the police aren 't always great with rape charges. After six months of Columbia not hearing Emma 's charges, they found the rapist in favor, (Grigoradis Vanessa, The Cut). Among college women, nine in ten victims of rape and sexual assault knew their offender, (Fisher, National institute of Justice). Emma falls under that nine, knowing the rapist, Paul, very well. At the end of their freshman year, they both signed up to help lead the next year’s outdoor-orientation program. During the training trip to the Delaware River they had sex
90 percent of the victims of sexual assault are women and 10 percent are men, and nearly 99 percent of offenders in single-victim assaults are men (Bureau of Justice Statistics 2010). According to https://www.justice.gov/ovw/sexual-assault, Sexual assault is any type of sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient. Falling under the definition of sexual assault are sexual activities as forced sexual intercourse, forcible sodomy, child molestation, incest, fondling, and attempted rape. () Sexual Assault can happen to anyone, not just women it can happen to men and kids as well. Sexual Assault these days are a big trouble and it is not being addressed in good order, and it is
Simpson was an African-American male who rose to prominence during an era of American history of much racial tension. Simpson played college football for the University of Southern California during the 1960s, at a time when a substantial amount of the country was under racial segregation. In 1968, just four years after the passing of the Civil Rights Act and the same year as the passing of the Voting Rights Act, O.J. Simpson won the Heisman Trophy, the highest honor or award for a college football player. Simpson transcended racial barriers by winning the highest award available in his field at a time when African-Americans were not seen as fully equal under the law. Simpson went on to have a successful career playing in the National Football League where he won two Super Bowls and broke records by becoming the first player to rush two thousand yards in a season. Doing so made him well respected in the predominantly white United States. Simpson was so respected that ABC News once referred to him as “an American icon” who was “revered” by the public(Deutsch et al.). Simpson eventually married a young white woman named Nicole Brown. Simpson physically abused Brown throughout their marriage and is believed to have murdered her. Brown was murdered after being stabbed over 20 times on June 12, 1994 and in a highly criminal case, Simpson was acquitted on the charge of murdering her. The murder of Brown and the trial led to Simpson’s fall from grace in
Sexual assault, abuse, and rape by athletes is a devastating crime. These crimes by themselves are horrendous, but when committed by athletes there are many different factors involved. Through extensive research this paper will show contributing factors that may result in assault, abuse, or rape by athletes. Special treatment for athletes throughout their career, belief in sexual male dominance, and the role of alcohol are all important factors. Other crucial factors are the attitudes and responses of: society, juries, victims, coaches, and athletes. This paper will explore all these issues and show that changes need to be made in all the areas to combat the growing percentages of sport assault, abuse, and rape against women.
Nicole Johnson*, a 22-year-old senior at an area university looks back at her college experience as graduation approaches, generally happy with how everything turned out, however, a dark cloud still looms over her freshman year when she was raped.
She referred to Nassar as a “sports medicine ‘guru’” taking away his credibility through the use of quotations meant to diminish. Putterman did not hold back the details of Nassar “special treatment” which “involved him sticking his fingers in his patients’ vaginas, sometimes with his bare hands for extended amounts of time.” The author’s decision to provide a detailed description of Nassar’s “special treatment” helps paint an image for readers. The author’s word choice also helped sustain her argument as she refers to the authority figures involved in this scandal a “network of enablers.” Using this phrase, the author is showing the extent of the web of individuals and institutions enabling this behavior. The author backs up her statement about the institutions being enablers by providing evidence that at Michigan State many gymnasts reported Nassar’s behavior to adults. Although they reported the behavior, doubt played a role and the girls were forced to continue seeing him. Towards the end of the article the author draws parallels to another popular case involving Jerry Sandusky. Sandusky was a Pennsylvania State University assistant football coach who was found guilty on charges related to sexual abuse of young boys. So, the author draws parallels between the two cases not to show how they are similar but to show disparities between how we deal with cases with women experiencing sexual
Every semester, a student attending a college campus will have at some point experience some inappropriate, unwanted attention. There is always someone at school who tends to make someone uncomfortable, be it through eye contact, persistent advances, or just uncalled for innuendos. Of course, we do our best to ignore it, or to just report the bothersome activity, but that can only do so much without someone finding a way around such things. Someone is always going the extra mile to get what he or she wants, even if it’s at the expense of the victim. We can’t turn a blind eye on our friends, our family, or our associates in these dark, sexual assault situation. Campus sexual assault is a problem with plenty of factors regarding it.
Sexual assault is defined as a type of behaviour that occurs without explicit consent from the recipient and under sexual assault come various categories such as sexual activities as forces sexual intercourse, incest, fondling, attempted rape and more (Justice.gov. 2017). People often become victims of sexual assault by someone they know and trust (Mason & Lodrick, 2013) which is conflicting to the public’s perception and beliefs that offenders are strangers. Women are the main victims for sexual assault and are 5 times more likely to have been a victim of sexual assault from a male (Wright, 2017, p. 93). Men are victims of sexual assault however only 0.7% of men, compared to 3.2% of women, experience some form of sexual assault which highlights how vulnerable women are compared to men. Sexual assault is publicised and exposed in the media, however is often
In the male typologies there are separate categories for child molesters and rapists, which is largely due to fact that they offend in very different ways. However, for the female typologies there is no such distinction, because all except one of the typologies have victims who are on average less than 15 years old (Vandiver & Kercher, 2004).The Aggressive Homosexual Offender is the only typology with an adult offender, however the victims are female (Vandiver & Kercher, 2004).The lack of a typology for female offenders with male adult victims could be due to certain factors playing a part in society. In particular, in today’s rape culture there is the belief that women cannot physically rape men. One reason why this belief is held is because society views women as physically weaker than men and are unable to overpower men. The male sex drive discourse also adds to this belief if men can never refuse sex than they essentially can never be raped. This belief has various problems for both men and women. The lack of a typology that includes adult male victims minimizes and ignores real men that were victimized by women. Not including men in the victim analysis sends the message that they are not ‘real’ victims. In contrast to that, since these victims are not seen as ‘real’ victims, the female offenders are not seen as ‘real’ offenders. By
According to an online news blog called the “Washington City Paper”, a journalist surveyed 1,882 college students. Out of those, 120 students openly admitted to forcing sexual acts upon other people. However, 46 of those students didn’t just admit to one act, but multiple. The paper went on to say that “just 4% of the men surveyed committed over 400 attempted or completed rapes” (Hess). Thomas Millar, the journalist who interviewed said college students, included this snippet: “If a survey asks men, for example, if they ever “had sexual intercourse with someone, even though they did not want to, because they were too intoxicated (on alcohol or drugs) to resist your sexual advances,” some of them will say yes, as long as the questions don’t use the “R” word” (Hess). As long as the students didn’t hear the word “rape”, they were fine with admitting to have forced themselves on other people, interesting. The information gathered here explains that rapists really don’t think that they’re rapists. They don’t see the bigger picture and realize what they have done, or will do, for that
Sexual assault is a term that is used interchangeably with the word rape. The decision on whether or not to use the term rape or sexual assault is made by a state’s jurisdiction. Sexual assault is more readily used in an attempt to be more gender neutral (National Victim Center). Sexual assault can be most easily described as forced or unconsentual sexual intercourse. The individual that is performing these acts on the victim may either be a stranger or an acquaintance. In 1994, 64.2 percent of all rapes were committed by someone the offender had previously known (Ringel, 1997). Regardless, this type of crime can have extreme effects on the victim.
Sexual assault is an offense that plagues many U.S. citizens. Although some studies show that rape is on the decline, other studies report that the phenomena actually occuring is that less rape victims are reporting the crime. In fact, approximately 68% of sexual assaults go unreported to the police according to the U.S. Department of Justice in a National Crime Victimization Survey from 2008-2012. It is common knowledge that rape victims are usually severely traumatized after the event, which leaves them susceptible to various emotions such as shame, anxiety, numbness, fear, denial, and guilt. Because of this, many rape victims decide to repress their experience and let it go unheard. However, not only does this prevent them from healing emotionally,
Victim blaming refers to the victim being held responsible for the acts committed against them. Much of victim blaming stems from the traditional ideologies of gender, where women are perceived as inferior to men. These underlying views contribute to sexual assault cases involving female victims and male perpetrators, where the fault lies with the victim. The recent case involving a Stanford student, Brock Turner, who sexually assaulted an unconscious woman, Emily Doe, brought about much public controversy. Though Brock had clear motives for his actions and there was physical proof that he was at fault, allegations against the victim were constantly made. In the trial statement the victim writes, “I was told he hired a powerful attorney, expert witnesses, private investigators who were going to try and find details about my personal