TYT: Traci Lords' Steubenville - A Culture of Rape?

[WhoIsNumberNone]

"When a rape case in Steubenville, Ohio, became national news, it affected women (and men) all over the world. The image of a seemingly unconscious girl being dragged from one room to the next, the reports of her being sexually assaulted at not one but three different parties, the vulgar tweets from disrespectful teenagers, the 12 minute-long video from a now repentant and now former Ohio State University student named Michael Nodianos—it turned people's stomachs."*

Why did the people of Steubenville, Ohio seem so uncaring about a teenage girl who was raped and humiliated by the high school football team? Traci Lords, a former resident famous for appearing in porn at age 15 is coming forward with a startling explanation. Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian break it down.

[In_The_Wind]

1. ~ K ~

[caseymoz]

2. Call me cynical

. . . but Traci Lords' legit show biz career has been dead for more than a decade. Here's her chance for a comeback, which would something, because she was hardly there to begin with.

That being said, I owe some people and apology. Steubenville has shown me that there is, in fact, a rape culture. I mean if the network to cover up this rape doesn't constitute a rape culture, what does?

Only it doesn't exist everywhere, nor does it benefit all men. It definitely doesn't benefit all rapists. But it looks to me like, on some level, the adults in power in that town approve of what those boys did.

[Warren DeMontague]

4. I think its a conspiratorial, protect-the-football team, small town culture that is enabling

Among other things, this rape. Sounds like the football "stars" are allowed to get away with all manner of shit.

The fact that a big national spotlight has been and is being shined on this indicates to me that, no, on a national level there is NOT a "rape culture", there is an anti-rape culture, and a good thing, too.

[caseymoz]

5. If it weren't for some vigilantes, this would have been ignored.

It was these vigilantes, Anonymous-Kightsec gaining information illegally who made this case something the national media couldn't ignore. These rapists would have gotten away with it. Outside of the Batman universe, that shouldn't be how justice works.

I just have another name for "a conspiratorial, protect-the-football team, small town culture." I call it a "rape culture" for short. Especially when these guys were known as "The Rape Crew" and the-protect-the-football-team, small town culture saw no need to get concerned about that, even after they bailed some of these guys before, and had a vice-reward system in place for them.

You don't think that networks like this exist in plenty of places, and not just in small towns? In fact, if get up to professional big leagues, there might even be a national network for them.

Please reread what I said. "rape culture" If you reread what I wrote, you'd notice that I said it doesn't effect every man, and it doesn't benefit all rapists. It's called a culture, not a network or conspiracy, which means it's not a united front. It's just people who think alike and who have similar interests when it comes to rape, and who can form into a network when one of their interests is threatened.

In other words, we're talking about the same thing with a different name. I'm never going to look the same way at a case of rape against an athlete where the charges are suddenly dropped or retracted. I'm going to look for the connections behind them.

[Warren DeMontague]

7. I agree with you. There's definitely a fucked up culture in this town, it sure seems.

so whether it's a fucked up football culture, or a fucked up rape culture, or a fucked up football rape culture, the end result is the same.

[Behind the Aegis]

8. Not trying to be THAT guy, but it isn't just football.

Many private schools don't have football or other sports are more important, the same things happen. It is tied more to prestige and those, almighty fundraisers!

[Warren DeMontague]

9. My hunch is it's a combination of factors, tied to $ and veneration of this particular football team

as well as a history of some pretty shady shit in this town.

[Behind the Aegis]

10. I am actually familiar with Stubenville. Been there several times.

My father lived there as a boy. Lots of racism in that town and lots of anti-Semitism, of course, that was 20 years ago when I was there, so who knows.

[Warren DeMontague]

11. Oy.

Only time I was ever in Ohio was to see the Dead at Buckeye Lake. And I grew up in the Midwest.

[Behind the Aegis]

12. I am an Army brat. I have been all over the country.

I have lived in 11 states, 21 different cities, and I am almost 44. I have been to a number of states as well, though still missing quite a few. Now, not so much interested in going to the other states. If it happens, so be it. LOL!

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

15. It doesn't hurt that some of the parents are in positions of power

School board members right up to prosecuting attorneys. Any kid in that social circle is going to get breaks, no matter what their extra curriculars are. Any sociopaths anyway.

[Warren DeMontague]

19. Yeah, I think the *Mother* of one of the members of the "rape crew" or their alleged accomplices is

the Prosecuting Atty.

And according to some reports, she intimidated the victim and her family & attempted to dissuade them from pressing charges.

If that's true, I hope she is the one who faces them.

[radicalliberal]

6. Pity any rape victim who "gets in the way" of a football program.

By the way, for decades what has been the record of that diligent institution of investigative reporting known as the sports media? How often do they deal with this issue?

* crickets *

Oh, I forgot. Since sports build character, athletes don't rape.

[noamnety]

14. I don't consider it limited to small town culture so much.

Are you old enough to remember Tailhook?

[Warren DeMontague]

16. Yes, I'm old enough to remember Watergate, thanks.

and there was a tremendous amount of fallout from the Tailhook scandal. And rightly so.

[lumberjack_jeff]

13. Criminal conspiracy does not require cultural encouragement.

The conspiracy that enabled the soldiers at abu ghraib to abuse prisoners did not imply the existence of a nationwide "torture culture" in which we all participate.

[caseymoz]

22. I'd say the US under Bush was a torture culture.

The vast majority of the nation was all for either torture, or for torture under another name. And as evidence, Abu Ghairb was hardly the only place torture was practiced.

This is not the only place where I've heard of well-connected athletes, or others, having rape or sexual assault charges dropped with the air of conspiracy about it. The localleaks article is just the first one where so many details of the rape were available and so much of the network that protected these boys was exposed. Since there are other small towns with similar economies and corruption where sports, especially football, are king. They have to motivate their athletes somehow, with say, a form of rationed vice. And if the team is an important part of the towns revenue, why wouldn't this happen in more places? Especially if the parents have the same attitude about sluts that the adults and teenagers in this town do?

This is all in the localleaks article.

Mark my word, now that this has been exposed once, this will not be the last one of its kind. Nor is it going to prove atypical of them. That's what I'm betting.

That being said, it's not like Traci Lords had any place in any of it.

[Bonobo]

24. Not all Americans torture, but all Americans profit from torture? nt

[caseymoz]

25. If you notice from my other posts

but it's possible to miss it, when I said "The Rape Culture" I'm acknowledging doesn't benefit all men, and in fact, doesn't benefit all rapists. It doesn't really function the way the feminists say it does. And it's not predominate. However, there's still no better name for it.

It's based on a cultural belief that women's sexual choices have to be restrained beyond simply being consensual. In other words, slut shaming. It was certainly the way the boys in Steubenville justified their actions, as crime was in progress. They thought they were right enough about it to be smug and boast.

Apparently, the people getting them off the hook don't think drugging, abducting, gang raping and sodomizing this girl over a period of hours is heinous enough to ruin these boys futures over, or to soil their football program about. The times they have spoken, these adults have shown total callousness to the girl. It's also true that all of them graduated that high school and were involved in the football program. They seem to have absorbed the belief that molesting a slut is no major crime, and at worst, a bit of mischief for a good cause. I hate to say, my perception is that this belief is widespread and ingrained enough that people aiding and abetting and obstructing justice over a rape can occur anywhere in the nation.

So, it might not exactly match feminists have in mind, but if that's not a rape culture, what the hell is?

[Bonobo]

26. I cannot argue with you. I think you have it summed up correctly. nt

[lumberjack_jeff]

28. I appreciate what you're saying, and the thought you've put into it.

But I'm still not convinced. I don't think every criminal conspiracy is a cultural phenomeon.

If nothing else, the fact that the country is outraged and talking about it, and the fact that the prime figure in the crime has dropped out of school to go incognito suggests that there's little-to-no cultural support behind what they did.

[Bonobo]

17. They would behave the same way if the team members had shoplifted.

Would that prove there is a "culture of shoplifting"?

[caseymoz]

20. I think you would find that difficult.

And I don't think a faction of the football team would have called itself "The Shoplifting Crew."

And it's apparent from their tweets and videos that these guys were out to punish a slut, in a mischievous way. And it's rather apparent that some of the adults agree with this value system. I doubt that you could find any sense of enforcement or justice with shoplifting.

I guess an incomplete, uneven, and rather ragged rape culture that doesn't benefit every man (as the legends say) or even more than a few is still too much of a concession for you.

[Bonobo]

21. I will concede that there are sub-cultures that feel entitled to rape.

There are also sub-cultures of people who feel entitled to shoplift.

[caseymoz]

23. Your title agrees with just what I'm saying.

Feeling entitled to it, and feeling so secure in your entitlement and "cause" that you boast about it, and practically openly declare it are two different things.

The fact is, this almost worked. These guys almost got away with it. I really think the adults involved would have not been so inclined to get them off the hook if they were stealing massive amounts of items. Why? Because there's no level on which the adults agree with that kind of crime.

Whereas the adults in this, on one level or another, really think that she had it coming and that an attack like this discourages other girls from being "sluts." Like just plain school bullies, they think that there's some social role an attack like this serves.

Unlike say, theft, which they definitely wouldn't have any such sympathies.

There are subcultures that may feel entitled to shoplift, but their only membership would shoplifters or fences, unless they're anti-capitalists, then they might have some other support. But I doubt there are many subcultures in this country like that.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

27. In a very well-to-do town near me....

....there was a string of car accidents involving intoxicated teenagers, one of which led to the deaths of two high schoolers. The police decided to crack down on house parties, which had increased and where all these accidents had stemmed from. Well, they soon found out that many of these house parties were "supervised" and funded by parents. When the police chief and other town leaders attempted to tighten their grip, you should have seen the outrage of these so-called parents that their "children" were being punished for the actions of a few "irresponsible kids" and should be allowed to continue to support an illegal activity under their stead. These people were openly putting their names and faces in the paper and on TV proudly stating they would continue to do what was "best" for them and their family.

The subculture that needs to be stopped is parents who defend their children's right to be assholes above all else. We have no proof one way or another how these parents would have reacted to their kids being busted for stealing, but my guess is they would have fought it tooth and nail and showed zero public shame if my anecdote is any indication.

[caseymoz]

30. That is cultural.

When those parents were teenagers, the drinking age then was probably 18, and parents would have had supervised parties. I hate to say they probably had a few friends who were killed drunk driving, and that didn't stop them from partying. It was the '70s.

So, yes, that's a cultural thing. It came about in that innocent age when, if you killed somebody driving, your excuse was that you were drunk.

They're both a matter of culture, but Steubenville's case, involves a further step. It involves cultural enforcement, and rape like this is actually part of the bullying issue.

As remember being bullied, many times parents, consciously or not, strongly influence who got bullied. Such as in my Catholic school, the worst thing you could be called was fag, or some other homosexual slur. Both the parents and the church endorsed that. Boys in grade school would test out their gaydar and spot guys who were showing homosexual mannerisms (since before puberty, having sex with other guys was a few years off). They sucked at it, and they usually mistook me for being gay, and the bullying would start and would be joined.

The second worse thing you could be called was a n*gg*r-lover. That came from the parents, too. It was a segregated neighborhood, the African-Americans were all on the North Side, but to keep the racism edge, kids would tell racists jokes, and if you didn't laugh enough, you could then be bullied.

Kids are trying to develop their own sense of status and justice, and they learn the system from their parents, and the bullies will support that moral system/status ladder, while trying to put themselves at the top.

These are cultural things that the adults had an interest in having enforced. That's the reason why parents usually didn't stop the bullying, or if they did, they would make sure the bullied kid would know he was just as responsible.

In Steubenville, Jane Doe was called a slut, and label stuck, so she scored negative status. There were girls who were in on this witnessed at least part of the attack, or were accessories in some way.

This was a brutal act of bullying and a terrifying message to the rest of the girls to sexually behave themselves. The message is meant to be carried through the rumor mill and talked about in hushed tones. The Internet age has changed that. Now rapists get to have their own show, and they can't resist.

Moreover, lot of girls and women would endorse what happened to Jane Doe. Many of the women at the school would probably try to have it both ways and say they want the guys must be punished, but they were glad that happened to Jane Doe because she was a slut.

That's cultural through and through, more so than with your drunk driving example, which doesn't involve cultural enforcement.

[Warren DeMontague]

3. The near-obsessive manner in which the "town" has circled the wagons round their football team is

Fucked up IMHO.

[caseymoz]

18. Yes, I'm told the town is split over this.

How could there be a split opinion over a group who called themselves "The Rape Crew?"

I know in real life there might be details and mitigating factors, it's not as simple as "Protecting the Rape Crew," but that doesn't look good on paper.

Or on a discussion board.

[Major Nikon]

29. Amazing how some elevate football people to god-like status

Somehow I don't think the chess team would get as much support (even if you could imagine them doing something so abhorrent).