On Monday, August 1 popular music artist Kesha dropped her charges against producer Dr. Luke and reported she had submitted 28 songs to Sony to continue her work. This comes after a legal battle in which she claimed that Dr. Luke had drugged and sexually assaulted her.
She had originally tried to get out of her multi-record contract with Dr. Luke and Sony, citing the assault as making her unable to continue working with Dr. Luke. In February, a court ruled that she couldn't get out of her contract.
The court ruling came as no surprise to people aware of the issues in our court system regarding sexual assault. Out of 1,000 sexual assaults and rapes, 994 will not go to prison. The original court ruling came months before a new rape case also went viral. The Stanford rape case, did result in a sentencing, but one that is ridiculously lenient. Turner, the rapist, received a six month jail sentence. Turner, after preying on a lonely, drunk girl at a party took her behind a dumpster and raped her while she was unconscious. Received six months in prison.
The fact that he was convicted at all, is a miracle in the current climate of our court system. Sexual Assault is something that affects everyone. One in six American women has been a victim of an attempted or completed rape. Every two minutes, an American is sexually assaulted. 23.1 percent of undergraduate girls experience rape through force. Three percent (one in 33) of American men are the victims of attempted or completed rape.
Despite how often it happens, our judges and our society continue to perpetuate rape culture that is not only wrong, but harmful to the victims. Rape culture in America is repeatedly asking the victim "what were you wearing?" and "how much were you drinking?" and if a woman was wearing anything remotely "sexy" than she was asking for it, and deserved to be assaulted and raped.
Women are constantly told to "cover up" and taught the tricks of the trade when it comes to handling one's drink at a party. Catholic Schools spend entire classes on telling women how they should act at bars and events, and of course abstinence training. As a society, we focus so much on woman avoiding rape, but we don't teach our boys not to rape. I went to a co-ed Catholic middle school and we learned very little about consent, but we did learn that we should always have money for dates just in case the boy doesn't pay.
The simplest solution to rape prevention would be teaching boys and girls about consent, and how to respect each other and personal boundaries but instead we teach girls how to dress and behave in public.
At all steps of life, our society perpetuates this rape culture. When we tell girls how to dress when they're in middle school, or when we refuse to teach about consent, and instead talk about abstinence. When in college, we shame girls for what they have chosen to wear at parties or just for a walk. When in court, we ask victims what they were wearing, and how much had they had to drink, and again when judge after judge rules that the rapist is not guilty. And even after, as people continue to shame the victim.
At every turn, girls are bombarded with this rape culture. Whether it's from catcalling, slut-shaming, or dress codes. From the moment girls are born, they're told how to act, how to dress, and how to protect each other but that's not what we need.
Consent Education is on a rise, especially in colleges and amongst college students, however, rape culture is still very much so present in our court system and our society. For people wondering how they can teach children at a variety of ages about consent check out this link.
