The severe injustice of rape culture

Last week, Brock Allen Turner, 20, was sentenced to six months in jail following his conviction for raping an unconscious woman at Stanford University. Judge Aaron Perskey justified the sentence by noting Turner’s lack of a previous record. Prison would have a “severe impact” on him, Persky said.

The judge wasn’t alone in his outlook. Even as outrage followed, it became clear there’s still mass ignorance about sexual assault.

Take Dan Turner. Brock Turner’s father complained in a letter that the verdict had “shattered” his family, calling it a “steep price to pay for 20 minutes of action.”

Or the letter from Leslie Rasmussen, a friend who described the rape as a “big misunderstanding,” noting the victim’s intoxicated state: “Where do we draw the line and stop worrying about being politically correct every second of the day and see that rape on campuses isn’t always because people are rapists.”

And Scott Herhold, the San Jose Mercury News columnist who called the sentence appropriate, in part because “for the rest of his life, Turner will have to register as a convicted sex offender. That effectively closes many career avenues.”

Such viewpoints are a disheartening reminder that rape culture is very real.

That said, the most important voice in this belongs to the victim. In a letter to the court, she explained what Turner’s supporters get horribly wrong.

“We cannot forgive everyone’s first sexual assault. … The seriousness of rape has to be communicated clearly,” she wrote. “We should not create a culture that suggests we learn that rape is wrong through trial and error.”