The Steubenville guilty verdict spawned nearly as much rape apology as the original news of the case did, highlighting the point — made by feminists like Zerlina Maxwell and Jaclyn Friedman — that America has a long way to go before it gets past blaming victims and sympathizing with rapists.
Below are the top 5 rape apologist reactions to the verdict.
1. CNN: “Those poor boys’ lives are ruined”
CNN correspondent Candy Crowley responded to the verdict by bemoaning the sad future of two rapists who traumatized one young girl for life but would never get to live out their football dreams.
2. The judge: “This is the problem with social media”
Feministe’s Jill Filipovic tweeted that the judge in the case noted that the verdict is a lesson in “how you record things on social media that are so prevalent today. As she said, “Problem =/ the recording.”
3. Author/blogger Michael Crooke: “It’s just buyer’s remorse”
Author/blogger Michael Crook, who additionally claims that “rape doesn’t exist,” won the race for most-likely-to-be-poorly-executed satire, at least until he took to his Twitter feed to demand that the survivor be “held accountable”, tell women that “skimpy clothing is pretty much implied consent” and encourage every woman to not “dress like a whore if you don’t want to be treated like one.”
4. Way too many people on Twitter: “Die, Jane Doe!”
Clearly, death threats are not the way to go.
5. Lee Stranahan on Breitbart: “The town’s the real victim here”
Stranahan says that the media and Anonymous are the real villains in the case, though they really should’ve been paying more attention to rapes reported in Occupy camps anyway.
I am incredibly grateful that this girl’s bravery paid off and brought these rapists to justice. But even as that victory is earned, rape culture prevails. So, so disgusting.
Ugh, just, I don’t even know where to start at where this irritates me. I think it begins with the, “poor boys, futures are gone,” thing. Just… yeah no. How damaging is that to that poor girl? "Yeah sorry honey you were raped and that’s terrible… but THINK OF YOUR ATTACKERS THEIR LIVES ARE DESTROYED NOW!“
And can we PLEASE STOP BLAMING THE VICTIM?! Just… please? Unless I can start going around assuming that every guy I walk past is a douchebag waiting to rape a girl because they wear the color red, because RED MEANS ANGER AND RAGE RIGHT, then just… stop stop stop stop STOP!