Steubenville

So. The Steubenville case. There has been a lot in the news about what happened, the perpetrators, the verdict, and the recent Facebook and Twitter threats made to the victim after the trial’s conclusion. Honestly, I was not sure which article to write about—the overly sympathetic coverage of the football players by CNN, the threats or perhaps this new article about the blogger who brought light to the criminalizing tweets and Facebook posts made back in August? I also read in another blogger article linked to me by a friend, which one of the takeaway messages put out by the media is “to watch what one posts on social media websites.”

WHAT. THE. HELL. Seriously, what has happened in our society that two boys with reputably “promising futures” have NO IDEA, NO CONCEPT, NO INKLING that what they were doing was wrong? What has happened to our world in which suddenly KIDS, no, not young adults, KIDS are the ones running the show and not the adults? On the CNN coverage, I would like to agree on one concept: that yes, it is an absolute shame that two KIDS are going to pay the rest of their lives for a message that our society and social media puts out every hour on the hour. It is a crying shame that these two kids were not given the right parenting and educational instruction to let them know that this kind of behavior IS NOT OKAY. It is a shame that the adult figures in this so-called community were not mature enough, not intelligent enough, not ADULT ENOUGH to rein in these KIDS and what they were doing. IT IS A SHAME THAT EVERYONE IN THIS WHOLE SITUATION DID NOT HAVE ENOUGH RESPECT FOR HUMAN BEINGS AND LACKED THE ABILITY TO TELL RIGHT FROM WRONG.

Honestly, I think that is what scares me the most about this case. It takes the monsters out from under our beds, out of the dark alleys and from behind the bushes and puts all around us. And then, the knowledge that they have surrounded us for a long time and we never even thought to look away from our brightly lit computer screens giving us repetitive images and messages which tell us that women are not really people and the ones that try to say they are need to be shut up. The most recent article I read about this case has been on the blogger who took screen shots of what the football players posted on social media sites. Instead of receiving honors and respect for catching criminals and helping a survivor of rape; her town has sued her, harassed her and her family, insulted her and turned her into a pariah. Because how DARE she show the dirty secrets behind the Big Red football team. How DARE she challenge the societal structure of Steubenville and do the right thing in the face of a community whose last tooth in the mouth was their precious football team. I cannot help but wonder if some of the members of Steubenville who have verbally abused Alexandria Goddard, the blogger and Jane Doe, have ever complained about corrupt politicians more invested in what is good for Congress as opposed to the country.

This kind of thinking, this message that women are just ‘objects of desire’ and especially the concept that those out there who are trying to break those norms are ‘crazy’ or ‘fanatical’, this needs to stop. Go out there and talk to people about this and start a ripple effect. Change the norm. Change the world.

Because people are individuals and individuals have minds. And if enough individuals decide that they don’t like something, they will use their minds, unite and change things.  

Source: http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/blogger-who-first-exposed-steubenville-rape-tweets-speaks-out-182936719.html