Update: The Guardian linked to this story from 2013, so expect lots of salty, bitter, angry feminists shrieking like the harpies they are in the comments. Just ignore them. Like toddlers having tantrums, they settle down when they realize no one cares how hard they pitch their hissy.

Trigger warning: holy shit, this pisses me off.

So two of the boys involved in the Steubenville “rape” case were found guilty and will now face imprisonment and a lifetime membership on the Registered List of Sex Offenders. That is a tragedy for the boys, for justice and for the victims of actual rape. As we go through this case, ask yourself who benefits from this verdict, and why.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/17/justice/ohio-steubenville-case/index.html?hpt=hp_inthenews

Most of the facts in this case seem relatively incontrovertible: a young woman, who was not part of the regular social group, went to a football party, in a town mad for football, got trashed out of her mind, voluntarily accompanied two of the biggest football stars to another party, passed out and then got treated like a whore.

http://judgybitch.com/2012/12/18/a-shit-faced-drunk-girl-a-football-star-and-a-vigilante-feminist-the-makings-of-a-fairy-tale/

In a moment of mind-numbing stupidity, the boys opted to film their “assault” on the girl, which involved fingering her while she was passed out. Rather than leave her in a ditch somewhere, they carried her around to different locations, none of which had any adult supervision.

What the fuck, Steubenville? Where are all the goddamn grown-ups?

The law in Ohio states that ANY penetration, however slight, constitutes rape. Let’s start there. Comparing a stupid, drunk, helmet-chasing whore who gets fingered while passed out to an actual rape victim is completely and utterly absurd.

This is rape:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/28/indian-gang-rape-victim-dies-hospital_n_2377717.html

So is this:

http://haysfreepress.com/2012/05/07/florida-man-extradited-in-hays-county-brutal-rape-case/#axzz2NtuPnHlh

And this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Park_Jogger_case

Comparing those cases, or any of the other truly brutal rapes to what happened in Steubenville is comparing this:

To this

Anyone who stood around moaning that the slight fender bender they got into at the mall is comparable to a fiery, multiple car crash on the interstate would immediately be dismissed as the most self-absorbed narcissist lacking any kind of empathy or perspective. We have a word to describe people like that: we call them assholes.

Now, the girl in Steubenville is claiming she didn’t actually drink all that much, and someone must have drugged her! Toxicology tests? NEGATIVE.

Oh my! You mean she’s a lying little tramp desperately trying to avoid ANY culpability for what happened to her? Well color me shocked.

Defense attorneys say a toxicology report performed a day later showed no signs of drugs.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/steubenville-rape-trial-witness-testifies-recording-alleged-assault/story?id=18738378

The most telling thing about this whole case is that multiple people saw the little tramp passed out and carried about by a couple of douchey guys, and make no mistake, those boys behaved shamefully. Part of having the adulation and admiration that comes along with being a small town football star is not to abuse that power when the little gold-digging status whores come a-calling, and those boys failed.

Punishment > Crime

That girl had no friends at the party, not one person had enough respect for her to step in, she was not part of the social tribe and there is no way in hell she did not know that. She went to that party to nab herself a football player, and lo and behold, the football players didn’t really like such an obvious grasp at their glory.

Find yourself another wagon to hitch to, little star.

The saddest thing is that the boys sobbingly admit that they ruined her life! They are accused of having “no moral code”! Oh, and the girl had an impeccable one, did she?

RUINED HER LIFE?!?!

Are you fucking kidding me? They are going to jail! They will be registered sex offenders! They are convicted criminals! One night of behaving like assholes will follow them the rest of their lives, and HER LIFE IS RUINED?

Her life is not ruined in the slightest. LittleTramp is free to go about her life, getting as drunk as she likes, chasing after any high-status males she likes, and securing criminal convictions against men who treat her like the whore she is.

God help the varsity athletes at whatever college campus she ends up on, and no doubt LittleTramp will get back on her feet after suffering a little humiliation and continue on with her life because SHE’S RUINED.

The young men in this case will never escape the disgustingly unfair consequences of a night of acting like dicks, while the young woman will carry on, unless she feels she isn’t getting quite enough sympathy, of course. Cue the Prozac and therapy!

You know what we need? We need a Drunk Whore Registry. If sex offenders are registered for the protection of all women, then why not register drunk whores for the protection of all men? It’s true that men could protect themselves by not acting like dicks, but combine small-town celebrity with lots of alcohol and no adult supervision, and you WILL get men acting like assholes and women acting like sluts.

When we only punish one side on that equation, we have a serious cultural problem. Men are held to account for their irresponsible decisions made while young and stupid and drunk, but women are not? Most crimes acknowledge explicitly that mitigating circumstances create different categories of crime with correspondingly progressive punishments. Why is rape different?

The punishment these boys face, which will be in effect for THE REST OF THEIR LIVES is way out of proportion to the “crime”. The definition of rape in Ohio is so broadly defined that the act of being a dickhead is now as serious as the act of fucking a woman forcibly and against her will. And if you don’t think there is a material difference between getting fingered and getting fucked, you are probably a feminist.

Getting drunk and chasing after football stars demonstrates level of stupidity and disrespect for the humanity of the men in question (who are valued only for their status), and that disrespect was returned. But only the boys are held responsible for that.

I say bullshit. No one got raped in Steubenville. Someone got humiliated, and she participated willingly and readily in her own humiliation. Turning stupid decisions made by high-school students into criminal acts with consequences that will follow only ONE party for their rest of their lives is deeply unfair, and when fingering a slut at an alcohol fuelled party is put in the same category as violent sexual assault, the real victims are drowned in a chorus of pathetic mewlings of women who didn’t get to bag the star.

Who thinks that if the young woman had woken up the next morning next to the football player, his arms wrapped around her in a loving embrace, she would have considered that the price she had to pay to land the big fish?

Steubenville: sour fucking grapes.

Not just sour, bitter, too. But only for the men.

How is that justice? Who is served when those boys are locked up? Who is protected? Who wins? How ironic is it that the adults who were NOT present to lend some sanity to what their own children were up to are now fully involved to make certain only the boys are punished?

People make stupid decisions. Especially when they are young. They act like idiots. They treat other people with a lack of respect. They behave shamefully. It happens. Holding boys, and only boys responsible, moves justice from being blind to being blatantly sexist. When justice can only see one sex as guilty, it’s time to put out her eyes again.

Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind.

Lots of love,

JB