Perhaps it is too late to continue talking about the case of the Stanford rapist. Perhaps it is old news, ready to be forgotten and replaced with the story of the newest horrific happening in this godforsaken country. But I refuse to believe that this is true—it is too important a story to move on from so quickly, and not just because it is yet another example of the unpleasant trend of victim shaming and victim blaming in the United States. This story simply sheds too much light on the reality of what is viewed as “acceptable” and what is viewed as consent in this culture.

I am going to say something, something many will not agree with: Brock Turner is not a monster. He is many things, an athlete, a student, most definitely a rapist and a criminal, but he is not a monster. Now when I say this, please know that by no means am I claiming that he should not have been aware of what he was doing, its impact, or how disgusting it was. By no means am I claiming that he should not be held fully responsible for his actions—his miniscule sentence is nothing but ridiculous. But Brock Turner is the product of the culture that we live in, so unless we are all monsters, Brock Turner is not a monster.

American culture is corrupted. Its ideas about what is right and wrong are warped and polluted. I think that many people know exactly what that boy was talking about when he discussed his experience with party culture in his personal statement. My school is not even a “party” school, and I know what he was talking about. All you have to do is watch a movie depicting college life and you know what he’s talking about. Hookup culture… It’s “normal”. Lowered inhibitions and alcohol-fueled casual sex is “normal”. Lack of consent and some sort of “natural progression” to sex is “normal”.

This can be OK in some situations, but what happens when you reach that gray area where you don’t really know if sex is wanted or not? In America, women are taught to protect themselves against this, against being forced into sex, by dressing in particular ways, staying in groups at parties, learning self-defense, and more. Men are not taught these things, or anything for that matter. They are also not taught that, when drunk, they should control themselves, listen and pay attention to their possible hook-up’s needs and wants, and that just because their partner doesn’t say “no”, it doesn’t mean “yes”. No, party culture teaches them to go ahead. So no wonder Brock Turner didn’t stop. He wasn’t taught to.

How are we, as a society, going to ever stop terrible actions like his if we cannot acknowledge our own part in the horror? If we cannot recognize that these people are not awful flukes in the system but only people who acted according to ways that they were taught, then how will we ever abolish their existence? And how are these people going to move forward and choose never to act that way again if they are never taught to do so? American society needs to hear this, to see their part in these terrible events, so that they may begin teaching their children to stop this trend.