The Stanford rape case has made waves across the country, casting light on the topic of sexual assault, particularly on college campuses. When Brock Turner's rape victim took legal action against her attacker, dozens of people were asked to pen personal character statements about Turner, including one Leslie Rasmussen from Ohio. The statement quickly went viral for defending Turner, a privileged white man who has been consistently portrayed as a student athlete led astray by alcohol.

First, I would like to express my utter disgust for the mere practice of collecting "character statements" during a sexual assault trial. Even though there's a victim sitting there, reading her statement about waking up in a hospital bed with sexually inflicted injuries, coupled with two eyewitnesses who physically intervened in the attack, let's ask forty other people whether or not the rapist was a nice person. And don't forget to include his swim times for good measure.

But, I digress. This is a response to Leslie Rasmussen's character statement about Turner, and her half-hearted Facebook "apology" amidst the crash and burn of her short-lived music career. Rasmussen is a 20-year-old drummer for the band Good English, made up of Rasmussen and her two sisters. According to the character statement, Leslie knew Brock during their childhood, which is clearly a foolproof method for determining whether or not a person is or isn't a rapist. According to Leslie, Brock (even though he was caught during the violent assault) isn't a rapist, but merely a misguided college athlete who made a mistake.

Rasmussen's statement highlights the many aspects of rape culture that violently distort how healthy sexual relationships can/should look. Rasmussen's nauseating statement also devalues the victim, perpetuating negative and destructive stereotypes that make it so difficult for victims of assault to speak up.

Leslie: I know you will have plenty of time to read articles like mine now that your tour plans have been cancelled. What a shame, considering you're so close to your 21st birthday. Since you claim that you've never been intoxicated a day in your life, I'm sure you were looking forward to your first drink ever, especially while on tour with your band. Maybe you would've gone out with your sisters, looking to have a little fun.

Maybe the night would've been uneventful, with a few drinks and some dancing. Or maybe, you would have found yourself on the evening news, just like Brock's victim did a week after the assault, the gruesome details of the attack made public for the world to see. I wonder then, would you still say that boys will be boys? Would you tell yourself that it was your fault for drinking alcohol that night, and that women knowingly accept the possibility that they will be sexually assaulted should alcohol pass through their lips? Would you continue to think that your attacker is a good person and an outstanding athlete even after they violated your body without your consent? Would you still think that rape isn't caused by rapists, but alcohol and drugs instead?

Sadly, I have a feeling that you wouldn't handle the situation nearly as well as Brock's victim has. After having her body violated by your beloved childhood friend behind a dumpster, she rose up to write one of the most empowering statements regarding sexual assault. By directly addressing her attacker, she spoke out against rape culture and stood up for victims' justice. Unfortunately, Brock is serving just a fraction of the sentence he truly deserves, proving that money and privilege speak louder than the voices of the abused in this corrupt system we're living with.

Unlike the most liked comment under your Facebook apology alleges, Brock's victim did not say that she didn't want him to serve time in jail. While she said that she didn't want Brock to rot in prison and that he should use his talents to make the world a better place, she makes it abundantly clear that Brock's puny sentence is a slap in the face to sexual assault and victims everywhere. Brock's future has been prioritized over the victim's, and yet there are still people in this world that believe that rape culture doesn't exist.

What about your future, Leslie? Is it bright from the flames of your music career? In your Facebook post, you briefly mention your sympathy for Brock's victim, but you mostly take up space with pleas for the harassment to end. People are bullying you, and now you can't seem to book a gig. I absolutely don't condone cyberbullying, but I can't help but laugh at your supposed anguish. Your miniscule problems as a result of your offensive character statement pale in comparison to the physical, mental, and emotional pain that Brock's victim has endured and will continue to carry with her for the rest of her life.

You claim that people have misconstrued your words and taken them out of context, but your statement has been published word for word (written a lot differently than that clean Facebook apology you posted, indicating that you probably had a little help while trying to save face). I disagree--I believe that the public understands exactly what you were trying to say. You can't be a rapist if you're a college student, right? And bonus points if you can swim like a fish.

At the end of your post, you state that you believe Brock's character was "seriously affected" by the alcohol he consumed, but what you fail to understand is that alcohol doesn't transform good people into rapists. Rape happens because of rapists, always.

Furthermore, the two men who physically intervened during the attack have stated that Brock Turner did not appear to be intoxicated on the night of the incident. According to one of the men, Turner was alert and not slurring his words. But you wouldn't know this, of course, because you were not there.

While your statement and your attitude supporting rape culture are extremely problematic, you are a product of your environment. We are taught that if boys like us, they kick rocks at us and push us down. We are told that if a guy can't keep his hands off of us, it's because we are just irresistible. We're taught that drunk girls are sluts, but drunk guys are studs. And if alcohol clouds your judgment, you don't deserve legal protection.

But unlike the handful of people who commented on your apology cheering you on for enduring such adversity over the past couple weeks, I am not a rape apologist. I will not congratulate you for your apology. I will not forgive you for being young and dumb, just like we shouldn't forgive Brock Turner because he's young and has "potential."

You know what potential Brock has? The potential to rape another woman.

And you say he is not a monster. Monsters wear many masks, and even look like the rest of us. Just because he doesn't look like the guys in the pamphlet that you receive in the mail from the county doesn't make him a monster; he just wears a better quality mask than some other guys. Unfortunately for Brock, he'll be featured in those pamphlets for the rest of his life. What a shame.

You may think that you are the victim now, the victim of cyberbullying. You probably don't realize how damaging your statement is for victims of sexual assault everywhere who may or may not have spoken up about their abuse. Your statement reinforces the dangerous belief that a woman's testimony is worth less if she has been drinking alcohol. That a woman's trauma is less because she chose to go to a party. You equate social drinking with the choice to be available for sexual assault.

I truly hope that you never have to experience the horrors that your childhood friend inflicted on the life of a young woman not much different from yourself. I hope that you read the victim's personal statement, and I hope you felt sick inside when you slowly realized the gravity of this situation, the horror that she went through at the hands of an allegedly harmless swimmer. I hope that even your self-centered brain is capable of empathy, and that you have the ability to put yourself in the victim's shoes so that you can imagine a life outside of your own. We've all been young and dumb, but just like Brock, you still should've known better.

I still don't believe in the sincerity of your Facebook apology, but it doesn't really matter. You can apologize until your fingers go numb from typing, but at the end of the day, your empty planner speaks for itself. While your fifty or so newly found Facebook friends condone your statements and lament about how unfair it is that your band can't perform anywhere, I will continue to grin every time I see a venue drop one of your shows. Rape apologists make awful punk-rockers anyways.