As a southern white female, you may find it surprising that in my 18 years of life I have never felt at a disadvantage because of my gender. That's not to say, of course, that no southern white women ever feel targeted by sexism, misogyny, and double standards. Sure I wasn't allowed to show my shoulder's in school and if I was in a sorority I wouldn't be allowed to live in a house with my sisters, you know because five women living together obviously can't make enough income independently to support themselves so now it's a brothel. But I never really liked my shoulders anyway.
I came from a house of four women and one man. My mother makes more money than my father, and both of our dogs are girls. To quote her majesty Beyonce, "who run the world? GIRLS!" Literally the women of my family run my family. I believe its probably that way in most families, whether the men know it or not. Now if you're thinking that because my father and grandfather have "allowed" women to walk all over them and that makes them less of a man you couldn't be farther from the truth. My father knows he makes less income than my mother and he's not afraid or ashamed of it. I admire him for that. He knows that he's bringing home a paycheck every month and it doesn't make him less of a man if my mother's has larger numbers than his. I suppose I've never felt oppressed for being a woman because of the wonderful men in my life. I know that not all young women are so fortunate. Brock Turner's victim was one of the young women who was unfortunate enough to encounter not only one sexist, ignorant, misogynists, but three.
You see usually in rape cases it's easier to pinpoint the one responsible and bring them to justice. However, in this instance, to use the same metaphor John Oliver used to describe Donald Trump's destructive outbursts, "It's like stepping on a bed of nails. You know it hurts, but you don't know which nail is inflicting the most pain." Or in this case, you know your sense of justice is being shat on but you don't know who's taking the biggest dump.
We'll start with the man himself, if you want to call him that, Mr. Brock Turner. You may recognize his name from the media headlines with words like "Stanford Swimmer". When I first heard about this case I was disgusted by the despicable nature of the crime. Rape in itself should be considered a hate crime. To take advantage of a person because you're an animal who can't control yourself demonstrates that you have no respect for other human beings. But to take advantage of a woman who is unconscious may make you the most disgusting human on the planet.
If Mr. Turner's background is as acclaimed as he, the judge, and his father lead us to believe you would think that somewhere in his 21 years of life someone, somewhere should have taught him how to treat women. Not only general treatment of women, but maybe how to treat a woman in distress. I have a hard time believing that a good, Christian athlete doesn't know that when you see an unconscious woman on the ground beside a trash can you call 911. To take advantage of an unconscious woman is cowardly and disgusting. No ifs, ands, buts, or exceptions. Brock Turner is a disgusting coward who benefited from white privilege.
Which brings us to our next offender, Judge Aaron Persky. I would like to personally thank Mr. Persky for making me a feminist. You see before this case I was sort of neutral on the whole feminism thing. Of course I supported women's rights, equal pay, and equality for women, but I had never experienced sexism in such a blatant manner before so there was never a fire in my belly about the whole thing. I would also like to thank Mr. Persky for installing in me an actual fear of our legal system. How can I feel safe as a woman in a country where our legal system would allow something like this to happen? How can any women in the United States feel safe here? I used to believe that if I was robbed or assaulted or even raped that the one thing that would keep me sane was knowing that justice would be fought for.
Not only do I fear for myself, I fear for my female friends, my mother, my sisters, and every other woman in my life. I fear that one day I'll have a little girl who will fall to the same fate as Brock Turner's victim. Mr. Persky has made me, for the first time in my life, feel like the target of sexism. Not to mention the privilege given by Mr. Persky to Mr. Turner simply for being white. However, I'm not going to pretend as though I even mildly understand what it feels like to be the target of racism. As a man of the legal system, Mr. Persky's desire in this case should have been justice for the victim. Justice is one of the things our nation prides itself. It's the one thing that turn a victim back into a human being. Mr. Persky has not only denied justice, he's taken away this woman's humanity.
Lastly, we come to a man equally responsible for standing in the way of justice. I believe that a child is a direct result of how they were raised. That's not to say that all parent's of rapists taught their children to rape. But after reading what Brock Turner's father had to say in his letter to Judge Persky I fully understand why Brock Turner felt that it was ok to violate the rights of a woman.
In his letter to the judge, Dan Turner mentioned his son's name 40 times. At least four times in each paragraph. The letter is filled with Brock's accomplishments, hopes, dreams, goals, and even his favorite food. There is not one mention of the girl he attacked. He simply refers to it in the first paragraph as "the events of January 17th and 18th" and then goes on to brag about his son. I understand fatherly love. I believe my father would do whatever he could to help me if I found myself in a bad situation. However, my father also taught me not only to accept the punishments I get as consequences of my actions but to understand that punishment exists to help you realize that what you did was wrong. Legal punishment teaches others that certain actions are called crimes because they are morally wrong. What is Dan Turner teaching his son by asking the judge to reduce punishment? What is he teaching today's young men by referring to rape as "20 minutes of action?" I think we have found the one who took the biggest dump on our sense of justice.
The case of The People of California vs Brock Turner is a case where justice was not served. Perhaps we should arrest Dan Turner and Aaron Persky for obstruction of justice. This was just one case where a person got away with a crime for being white and for being a male. Imagine all of the cases where a victim has been left a victim for the remainder of their life because of there gender, their race, their sexual orientation, or their status. The majority is not defined by the group of people with the largest numbers. The majority is defined as those that hold the power. In our society, the majority has allowed something as horrendous as the rape of a woman to go unjustified. Perhaps it's time we change the majority.
