In case you\u2019ve been living under a rock, a 20-year old man was sentenced to 6 months in jail and a lifetime on a sexual offender registry for the sexual assault of a 23-year-old woman, generating considerable outrage at the leniency of the sentence. \u00a0Here\u2019s a report from CNN<\/a>, and here\u2019s the\u00a0letter<\/a> that the victim read in the courtroom, which provides further details.<\/p>\n The attack in question occured in the back alley of a fraternity at Stanford University after both individuals had been drinking heavily, generating another round of debates about whether she should have, in fact, not be drinking, and whether he was given the light sentence because he was white, or an athlete.<\/p>\n Do I have an opinion on this? \u00a0Sure, of course, but I\u2019m not going to join the outrage either way. \u00a0(Not because it isn\u2019t outrage-worthy, but because I\u2019m just not keen on shouting in outrage.) \u00a0So let\u2019s just call these observations instead.<\/p>\n Number One:<\/strong><\/p>\n If this case were a simple matter of two drunk individuals hooking up, then the \u201cdrunk\u201d narrative would have made sense.<\/p>\n There have been reports of instances in which a man and a woman, both drinking, both equally initiating a sexual encounter, both consenting in the ordinary definition of the term, neither capable of consent in the legal definition, have sex \u2014 and the man is found guilty, at law or in a college tribunal, of rape. \u00a0See this incident out of Occidental College<\/a>\u00a0reported\u00a0last year.<\/p>\n There are also at least some college administrators, who hold these hearings and administer the penalties, who have said they genuinely believe that, in such cases, men are indeed at fault, no matter what the context was. \u00a0See this article from Slate<\/a>, also from 2015, for background on this discussion: \u00a0men are deemed \u201cat fault\u201d for the presumption that, if a man is physically capable of having sex, he can\u2019t be \u201ctoo drunk to consent\u201d; or, in other tellings, men are \u201cat fault\u201d because they\u2019re not (as) troubled by it as the women in those pairings are.<\/p>\n This is the context. \u00a0The reason why Brock Turner has defenders is that the story seems to them to fit into this narrative, so\u00a0people have assumed it was a similar he said\/she said case.<\/p>\n Number two:<\/strong><\/p>\n It should go without saying that this case doesn\u2019t actually fit the \u201cthey were both drunk\u201d narrative. \u00a0She had passed out, for crying out loud! \u00a0That\u2019s where the narrative changes. \u00a0Now, Turner\u2019s claim is that he didn\u2019t realize she had passed out, and it was mere coincidence that the two other men happened upon the scene when they did, because otherwise, he would have certainly realized that was the case and ceased. \u00a0This is, to say the least, unlikely.<\/p>\n Now, I\u2019ve never been passed-out drunk. \u00a0I\u2019ve never blacked out. \u00a0I don\u2019t know if a person who is on the verge of passing out is unmistakably physically incapacitated, nearly-immobile, or if, to anyone near them, they just appear, well, ordinary-level drunk. \u00a0I suspect that movies and TV aren\u2019t a good guide here. \u00a0Is the fact that she passed out, but not he, an objective measure that she was the drunker one, or that he was sufficiently non-drunk to know what he was doing? \u00a0Or is passed-out-ness not an adequate marker? \u00a0(And, yes, I tried unsuccessfully to find answers online.)<\/p>\n But once she passed out? \u00a0This can\u2019t seriously be a question.<\/p>\n And for him to blame \u201cthe culture\u201d for his misdeed? \u00a0No.<\/p>\n Number three:<\/strong><\/p>\n What is rape? \u00a0Did Brock Turner rape his victim?<\/p>\n It\u2019s a strange thing, this.<\/p>\n A fellow blogger is quite explicit<\/a>: \u00a0\u201cif you penatrate a person\u2019s anus or vagina, however slightly, with any body part or instrument, against their will, that is rape,\u201d which matches the official FBI definition<\/a>. \u00a0But the actual crimes for which he was convicted were (courtesy a National Review piece by Mona Charen<\/a>)<\/p>\n intent to commit rape, sexual penetration with a foreign object of an intoxicated person, and sexual penetration with a foreign object of an unconscious person.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Now, I don\u2019t know how they determined that he \u201cintend[ed] to commit rape.\u201d \u00a0It almost seems that he intentionally didn\u2019t rape her \u2014 or else he would have before he was interrupted. \u00a0In his telling, that of two drunk people hooking up, he did what would have called, back in the day, \u201cgetting to third base,\u201d depending on your numbering system. \u00a0And my, say, 20-year-old self would have said there\u2019s a big difference between third base and \u201csexual intercourse.\u201d<\/p>\n And to read the victim\u2019s account, while knowing I could be wrongly interpreting her words, it seems as if what was horrifying to her was not this \u201cpenetrative\u201d\u00a0aspect of the incident, but the larger violation of being essentially naked with this stranger, and, perhaps even more, having been found naked by other strangers. \u00a0Would there have been criminal charges that could have been brought if his finger hadn\u2019t been where it doesn\u2019t belong?<\/p>\n Number four:<\/strong><\/p>\n What is the right penalty for non-rape sexual assault, compared to other crimes? \u00a0If, rather than this incident, Turner had been found punching (that is, non-sexually assaulting) a man or a woman, what would have been his jail sentence? \u00a0Yeah, I don\u2019t know either.<\/p>\n Number five:<\/strong><\/p>\n What about drinking?<\/p>\n Do we really have to go through this all over again?<\/p>\n It\u2019s inadvisable to leave your purse sitting on the car seat, then walk away and leave the car unlocked. \u00a0Yes, the individual who sees this opportunity to open the door and take the purse is still a thief. \u00a0But, yes, you also could have prevented this by locking the door and keeping the purse out of view.<\/p>\n Are you somehow morally to blame for allowing the purse to be stolen? \u00a0No. \u00a0But it\u2019s still appropriate advice to keep purses out of sight and doors locked.<\/p>\n Or, heck, some time ago, I left my wallet in the shopping cart at the grocery store. \u00a0Turns out, a customer\u00a0found it, and, recognizing the address, drove over to drop it off.<\/p>\n Was I morally at fault for potentially enabling someone to steal my wallet? \u00a0No, of course not. \u00a0But it was a careless\u00a0thing to have done and I\u2019m just grateful to have gotten it returned.<\/p>\n And in both instances, a person taking the purse\/the wallet would have still been a thief. \u00a0Would the penalties have been the same, as for a mugger, or a pickpocket? \u00a0I don\u2019t know. \u00a0Is the degree of moral fault the same, based on formal moral teaching or our internalized sense of right and wrong? \u00a0I likewise don\u2019t\u00a0know. \u00a0But that doesn\u2019t mean we should all leave our valuables unattended.<\/p>\n But, number six<\/strong>, there\u2019s another issue:<\/p>\n Back in the day, why, yes, I did drink in college. \u00a0And somehow it seemed that the more I drank, the more protective the men around me became. \u00a0Heck, that\u2019s when Dave walked me home, and made it clear that he was interested in dating me, but didn\u2019t make any other move than kissing me on the cheek. \u00a0And another time, Snake (yes, that was his nickname) \u2014 well, he got all gentlemanly and kissed me on the hand after walking me home. \u00a0Now, I wasn\u2019t interested in dating either of these men, but each of them were, according to stereotypes, potential sexual-assaulters, at least in terms of their drinking and partying habits (though Snake professed that he\u2019d sobered up), but none of us had any concern that they would do so, nor do I really recall any more generalized concern of \u201cbe careful, he might rape you.\u201d<\/p>\n To be sure, though, these were just parties hosted by friends, or by someone in a very extended circle of friends. \u00a0I never had any connection to Greek life.<\/p>\n But it is disturbing that, in the year 2016, kids can be shamed, formally by administrators and among their peers, for failing to address a person by their proper pronouns, but men aren\u2019t shamed by other men for taking advantage of women, and aren\u2019t encouraged by their \u201cculture\u201d to be helpful instead. \u00a0Maybe we\u2019re just too much a Scouting family: \u00a0\u201cA Scout is Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean, and Reverent\u201d and promises to \u201chelp other people at all times.\u201d \u00a0 But maybe the attention to \u201csocial justice\u201d (proper pronouns, white privilege awareness, etc.) has crowded out issues around binge drinking and basic decent behavior. \u00a0Or maybe the attention to dictating\u00a0\u201crules\u201d (don\u2019t microaggress, for instance) means that the larger idea of \u201cbe a decent person\u201d is gone.<\/p>\n Because whatever else is true about Brock Turner, he is doubtless missing that moral compass that would have simply said, \u201cshe\u2019s drunk,\u201d and walked away, or gotten her home. \u00a0And there seems to be a whole world of kids missing that moral compass, who probably think of themselves as \u201cgood people\u201d nonetheless.<\/p>\n Oh, and number seven<\/strong>, the dad complaining about the injustice of a punishment for \u201c20 minutes of action\u201d? \u00a0Parents are protective of their kids. \u00a0How many times have you read in the paper of a murder suspect whose parents said, \u201che couldn\u2019t have done it, he\u2019s a good kid\u201d? \u00a0Which means that, regardless of anything else, this is not something to freak out about.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In case you\u2019ve been living under a rock, a 20-year old man was sentenced to 6 months in jail and a lifetime on a sexual offender registry for the sexual assault of a 23-year-old woman, generating considerable outrage at the leniency of the sentence. \u00a0Here\u2019s a report from CNN, and here\u2019s the\u00a0letter that the victim […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[411,117],"class_list":["post-4684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-brock-turner","tag-sexual-assault"],"yoast_head":"\n