We would rather see a boy at an elite university get his swim cap back on again than for him to understand rape culture, writes Lauren Puckett.
In January 2015, a Stanford University student named Brock Turner sexually assaulted an unconscious woman behind a skip. They were both at a party on campus; they'd both been drinking. The victim was not a student, but rather was visiting to see her sister. Turner was there as a freshman.
A star athlete, Turner was a member of Stanford's varsity swim team. He had aspirations of being in the Olympics. According to an article featured in The Washington Post, he maintained a “squeaky clean” reputation at the university. The article added - because this is so important - that he was “baby-faced”.
But guess what? He still sexually assaulted an unconscious woman, cute as he apparently was.
Turner could have faced up to 14 years in prison for his actions, but the judge was lenient. Instead, he will serve a six-month jail sentence.
Two letters were published during the trial - one from the victim, another from Turner's father. In the victim's powerful letter, she outlines how the assault ravaged her, completely upending her life from the inside out. She didn't want her body anymore, she was “terrified of it”, she wanted to “take it off like a jacket and leave it at the hospital with everything else”. For weeks after the incident, she didn't talk, didn't eat, didn't sleep; she couldn't interact with other people, and would often excuse herself from work to cry in the stairwells.
But she isn't searching for pity, and she says she didn't want Turner to “rot away in prison”. She wanted him to admit his guilt. She wanted him to forget his social class, and realise more than one life was suffering from what he did. More than anything, she wanted him to understand.
The letter from Turner's father, on the other hand, takes a decidedly different stance. Mr Turner touches on his son's “easygoing” nature, his “top GPA” and his son's desperate struggle to “fit in” at Stanford. Mr Turner describes his son as a victim, and said Brock resorted to drinking and partying (and, presumably, raping) as a way to make friends at university.
And then, his most controversial statement in the letter: Mr Turner said his son should not be sent to prison for “20 minutes of action”.
Read more: Dad defends son who raped unconscious woman
“Action”. Because that's what sexual assault is now. Just 20 minutes of something happening. Just a couple of kids having fun for less than half an hour.
Let's be honest here - we wouldn't be having this conversation if it had been “20 minutes of murder”.
We wouldn't be having this conversation if Brock Turner had not been a successful white man attending a prestigious university; an all-American athlete; a kid with a glittering teeth and a (wealthy) future ahead of him.
America loves its golden boys. And it should: there are thousands of successful graduates from prestigious universities like Stanford every year, and many of them go on to do incredible things. I am not here to condemn success, or wealth, or a young person's aspirations.
But never, ever, did America sign a decree that says students who might go on to cure cancer or end world hunger or win gold at the Olympics should be freed from the grip of the justice system.
Never did it sign a decree saying that because these people have athletic or intellectual potential, they have a literal get out of jail free card in cases of rape.
Or did it? It's becoming more and more clear that Turner's social class - his “squeaky clean” image, his topnotch grades at a private university, the promise of that shining, polished, glistening Olympic medal swinging from his neck - is more important than the assault of a young woman. A person's career is more important than justice, than psychological harm, than a human being's bodily autonomy. How these people appear on the surface is more important than what they have done.
Also read: Judge in Stanford rape case ‘fair, respected’
I can try and sympathise with Brock Turner's pain. Mr Turner's comments are absurd, but I can even understand the defensiveness of a parent. No father wants to see his son's future washed down the drain. I'm not blowing the gravity of this situation off -and neither is the victim. The victim herself said she doesn't want Turner wasting away in a cell. It is undeniably sad that a young man with such promise made such a terrible decision.
But he did make that decision.
So let me say that a little louder, for those in the back: Brock. Turner. Made. His. Decision. He committed a crime. Alcohol was a factor, but alcohol did not magically grab Turner by the neck, drag him to the body of that young woman, and force him to sexually assault her. Alcohol did not remove her clothes. Alcohol did not drag her head along the ground. No, Brock Turner did that.
Brock Turner and no one else.
He committed a crime which will torture this woman for the rest of her life. He may lose his enrolment, and his scholarship, and his Olympic medal, but she has lost her feeling of safety. She has lost her voice - because she was unconscious during the incident, her own testimony was used against her. Turner tried to claim she “liked” the sexual assault, that she enjoyed it. Because she was unconscious she could not prove him wrong.
This woman, attacked behind a skip at a party after dark, had no choice.
As the victim said in her letter: “It is enough to be suffering. It is another thing to have someone ruthlessly working to diminish the gravity of validity of this suffering?This is not a story of another drunk college hookup with poor decision making. Assault is not an accident.”
There it is: assault is not an accident. Assault is not “20 minutes of action”. Assault is not something that disappears because a kid is a superstar athlete with his eyes set on gold.
Brock Turner can rebuild his life. He can serve his time, find forgiveness, find redemption. His life is not over - nor should it be. But the fact that Turner is serving such a short sentence, and that he has yet to fully admit to his crimes, that he has yet to even begin to understand the damage he's caused, is a testament to the way the American justice system -and all of society -is failing.
We would rather see an athlete get his swim cap back on again than for him to understand rape culture. We would rather Brock Turner visit college campuses, preaching the dangers of Fireball whisky, than teach men to respect women - as if alcohol was the problem, rather than rape. We would rather see a boy at an elite university get a reduced sentence than learn how to take responsibility for his actions.
Brock Turner, I'm sorry. We have failed you.
And women everywhere, I am far more sorry. We have also failed you.
But if it is any solace, read the victim's letter. She reminds us of something important: “To girls everywhere, I am with you. On nights when you feel alone, I am with you. When people doubt you or dismiss you, I am with you. I fought every day for you. So never stop fighting. I believe you.”
* The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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