Not Rape, Stop Calling it That

Social media was so ablaze the past few days!

"Brock Turner only gets 6 months in jail for rape!" say so many.
"A black athlete (Corey Batey) got a much harsher sentence for rape than a white athlete!" says the Black Pride crowd.
Another meme compared a multi year sentence a man get for growing Marijuana to Turner's 6-month sentence for "rape."


But there's a problem with these statements...


Brock Turner did not get convicted of rape.


Let that sink in. Make sure you rage at me. Make sure you stop reading right here because you're mad. Make sure you link this to some unpopular opinion social media outlet. All done? Good. Let's look at the facts. And facts are what courtrooms are supposed to focus on.

Facts
1. Turner was not convicted of rape.

2. Turner was convicted of  three charges -
- Assault with intent to commit rape of an intoxicated or unconscious person,
- Penetrating an intoxicated person with a foreign object, and
- Penetrating an unconscious person with a foreign object.

3. The rape charges were dropped early on.

4. The victim was drunk.
Several hours after Turner was found with her, the victim's blood-alcohol content was three times the legal limit for driving.

5. Turner was drunk, too.
Several hours after they were found, Turner's BAC was twice the legal limit for driving.

6. The victim claims she remembers none of it.
While this is consistent with blacking out, it's also consistent with not wanting to say anything else that might incriminate one's self.

7. The victim  admits it was not rape, but penetration with a foreign object.
From her letter at the trial:
"Note; if a girl falls down help her get back up. If she is too drunk to even walk and falls down, do not mount her, hump her, take off her underwear, and insert your hand inside her vagina."
And even that is suspect. The only objects inside her were dirt and pine needles. That's messed up, to be sure. But it is not rape. Had there been a shred of evidence of rape, this boy would be locked away for 6 decades, not six months.


Commentary
Turner's actions were reprehensible. But there's no way he could have perpetrated them had the victim not chosen to drink to the point of admittedly blacking out. Had she exercised a wee bit of restraint, she would have been able to push him away like so many other girls at that party did.

Everybody is getting what they deserve. Turner gets jail time. Victim gets to hide out in shame, and rightfully so. She doesn't want anybody to know who she is lest they rightfully shame her for making equally poor decisions as Turner. Both parties played stupid games and won stupid prizes.

Roosh V was right -
By attempting to teach men not to rape, what we have actually done is teach women not to care about being raped, not to protect themselves from easily preventable acts, and not to take responsibility for their actions.
And
I saw women who voluntarily numbed themselves with alcohol and other drugs in social settings before letting the direction of the night’s wind determine who they would follow into a private room. I saw women who, once feeling awkward, sad, or guilty for a sexual encounter they didn’t fully remember, call upon an authority figure to resolve the problem by locking up her previous night’s lover in prison or ejecting him from school.

Turner's victim did not call the authorities as so many women do out of buyer's remorse. No, two passers-by saw the scene and thankfully intervened. The court found Turner guilty of assault with intent to commit rape. This means he likely would have raped the victim if allowed to continue. But just as much as Turner is veritably guilty of a crime, the victim is equally guilty of not taking easy steps to prevent just such a situation.

In fact, one might argue she might have been at the party to intentionally get plastered and hook up with someone. We will never know.

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