Sexual Assault

Sexual Assault is a crime that does not simply apply to one group of people, that is what makes it so interesting and complex in discussion. We spent all of class yesterday talking about one specific case in which a girl was raped by two boys, but the vise versa of that could happen just as well. While sexual assault on women is the usual, there are plenty of other cases where this is not what is happening. For example, "Decades of Catholic Church sexual abuse tragedies, the Boy Scouts, Penn State, rape in correctional facilities, sexual assault in the military, recurring episodes at high schools around the country are all examples of entitlement to rape in the face of institutional tolerance," writes  Soraya Chemaly, author of "5 ways sexual assault is really about entitlement." I find this interesting because people would never dare joke about date rape, or any man raping a woman, that would be ridiculous and unheard of. However, I can barely go a day without hearing somebody make a joke a rape in the boy scouts, or in prison (Don't drop the soap), and especially in the Catholic church. Why? I have to ask. How can this possibly be acceptable? Cheamly puts it perfectly, she uses the phrase, "institutional tolerance." That is exactly why we joke about it, because it is tolerated. Rape should never, under any circumstances be tolerated.

In the blog, "Yale Fails To Expel Students Guilty Of Sexual Assault" by Tyler Kingkade, I read about how Yale allowed for six students who had been found guilty of nonconsensual sex to keep living on the Yale campus after the findings. "Yale spokeswoman Karen N. Peart said the university does not tolerate sexual misconduct, but said the school won't discuss the specific cases," but how is that not tolerating what is happening? I think that a large part of this is protecting the legacy that an Ivy league school like Yale beholds, not to mention the money that they need to keep the school up and running. Here is where prioritization comes into play, people need to really slow down and think about which priorities matter and which don't. A blatant assault of any person, man or woman, should rank high above anything else, period. But it doesn't always, and that is the tragedy. To be honest, I do not know what we are really debating here. The issue is sexual assault, and it is an incredibly large issue, everywhere. It is wrong, it is awfully wrong, but the truth is that there are people out in the huge world that are really messed up, for lack of a better word, crazy, and they will sexually assault women or young boys. Instead of ignoring that, lets acknowledge it and fight it. The only way that I can figure is to open our eyes. We all know the truth but we just need to act on it. The people making the decisions for Yale are not helping the cause, they are making it much, much worse. Their priorities are all wrong. The right thing for them to do, in my mind, would be to force those students who committed the sexual crimes out. There can be no toleration if we want any true progress.