Why should young women have to scream and yell to get her point across? It’s simply today’s young people still do not know what rape is. Both teen girls and boys are confused with this issue. We can see by the events in Ohio last summer.
“Two high school football players were convicted Sunday of raping a drunken 16-year-old girl at an all-night party,” said The USA Today.
The Associated Press said Steubenville High School students Trent Mays, 17, and Ma’lik Richmond, 16, could have been sentenced to juvenile detention until they reached the age of 21. Judge Thomas Lipps decided to sentence Mays to a minimum of two years in detention. Richmond, 16, was sentenced to a minimum of one year. Mays received the extra year for a charge of illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material.
Both defendants “broke down in tears after the verdict was read.”
The Steubenville case, to a certain extent, attracted more attention because it involved a town that loves its high school football. Social media brought it to the world’s attention, as so often happens these days, insuring what might have been only local news became an international story and got close attention.
The case has young people chatting about the way they party across the country. I wanted to know, so I interviewed a group of High-Schoolers, both girls and boys: What do they think Rape is, have they ever raped or been raped…
Here is what one guy said.
I was frightened at the answer.
Have you ever rape a girl? “No, yes, Well, I don’t know. I don’t think so.
Me and my friends went to this house party, we knew the girls were loose because of the way she twerked on me and my boys. She smelt like alcohol.
We all were getting turned up, She act liked she wanted right in front of everyone. I knew I was getting me some.
I sat down and asked could I take her home. Her friends were blocking, but she said ok. You could tell she was high, and we got turned up together. I started kissing her and touching, she seemed to like it. I told her she was the prettiest girl at there.
She was feeling me. I told her I had to be home early and could we finish our convo in the truck. When we got in the truck she tried me acted like she didn’t know why we really were there. I started kissing her she kept stopping a few times, but no slappin and hittin, no screaming like on TV. Afterwards she started crying but didn’t say nothin.
I guess we were cool, but the way she got out of my truck made me feel some type of way. Was that RAPE?
His answer both made me mad and sorry for him at the same time. Who is to blame here? Was it the girl who was high and did not carry herself like a lady? Is it the fault of parents for not sitting young people down and drawing lines for them? No matter who is to blame, the conversation can now be started across the country.
Today, Tim has no doubt what rape is. If you are unsure, here is the definition from Wikipedia:
Rape may be accomplished by fear, threats of harm, and/or actual physical force. Rape may also include situations in which penetration is accomplished when the victim is unable to give consent, or is prevented from resisting, due to being intoxicated, drugged, unconscious, or asleep.
Sexual assault is a broader term than rape. It includes various types of unwanted sexual touching or penetration without consent, such as forced sodomy (anal intercourse), forced oral copulation (oral-genital contact), rape by a foreign object (including a finger), and sexual battery (the unwanted touching of an intimate part of another person for the purpose of sexual arousal).
