"A Rape On Campus" an article written by Sabrina Rubin Erdely was recently retracted by Rolling Stone magazine. Everyone is issuing an apology and of course that's all fine and dandy but the damage is done. A victim crying rape and then later discovering the allegation is false is not something the accused can bounce back from immediately.
Did you read this article? I did awhile ago.
I will try and summarize for you the crucial parts of the story:
Jackie was a freshmen; she met a frat boy named Drew while she was working as a lifeguard and he invited her to some social at his frat house. She was taken into a room upstairs so they could talk and the room is pitch black, the door shuts behind her. Someone pushes her into the room and onto a glass table of some sort and they both fall. The table had broken and she was lying on top of glass, which had begun to dig into her back. She was held down and violently assaulted for what she claims to be a total of 3 hours.
Though this room was pitch black, she made note that she knew at least two of her attackers (Drew and someone she had a class with); there were at least 9 in total but 2 of them were egging on the others. The impression given is that this planned attack by young men at the frat house is part of the initiation process.
A glass table breaks and she screams yet nobody from below hears any of this going on?
She remembers every moment of the next three hours of agony, during which, she says, seven men took turns raping her, while two more – her date, Drew, and another man – gave instruction and encouragement. She remembers how the spectators swigged beers, and how they called each other nicknames like Armpit and Blanket. She remembers the men’s heft and their sour reek of alcohol mixed with the pungency of marijuana. Most of all, Jackie remembers the pain and the pounding that went on and on.Okay so this is where the story falls apart for me. Let me preface this by saying:
The Greek culture is not one I've been exposed to much. I did not join any sorority when I went to college. That kind of experience really never interested me. I certainly do not have anything against fraternities or sororities; I just never had much of a personal interest in that sort of activity. I managed to get into a few fraternity parties while I was in high school, through an older friend. We always had fun. I always felt comfortable and everyone was quite welcoming. Of course I also was accompanied by a few female friends and we all watched out for each other.
There is no denying that fraternities have a reputation for lots of drinking and many guys indeed try and lure girls into the bedrooms upstairs. Yet, this type of ritual happens all the time among young people- Fraternity House not necessary. Yes, rape can and does occur. I have no doubt about that but, most of the rapes you hear about are those where there is ambiguity. The girl willingly goes into the room of some guy she just met a week ago and somehow thinks he's not interested in sex but surprise!... he is. He goes too far because he's a pig, like many men are at a young age (yes I'm being a bit facetious). It's what people call date rape. In other cases, the guy just gets angry and throws the girl out because he's upset he wasted his time trying to ultimately bed a girl he really wasn't interested in beyond a casual night of sex.
What Jackie describes is more comparable to a scene from a violent movie. Planned attacks of this nature are more commonly associated with stories of ancient times, or in third world-countries, or dare I say the current Islamic world.
Jackie describes something that would be highly risky for young men of a fraternity to engage in. Let's face it we live in a modern world where we have rape kits and access to hospitals. Police use forensics and advanced investigation skills. If we are to accept this story at face-value we must accept that fairly intelligent young men did something violent and extremely stupid. Maybe this story would be believable with 2 or 3 young men but 9? Not a one of them defended her? Not a one of them made an attempt to stop this attack? There are indeed plenty of jerks out there, I've met a few in my time on this planet but, for the most part, men impress me all the time. I have had wonderful experiences with men in general. I guess that's why I have so many great friends who happen to be men. I just can't picture 9 young men attacking some helpless girl in this manner and for what? Admission to a fraternity?
In these times of where many sexually liberated women can be found, why not just find a girl who's willing to be a part of this scene ensuring you and your pals will not be reported? Post an ad to Craigslist.
Then we have the matter of her being in a pitch black room but somehow able to identify the beverage they were swigging on? "Names like Armpit and Blanket"? Okay. No. Maybe if these guys were high school dropouts with an IQ of about 90.
3 hours?!?! Come on. Do I really have to explain this? They are young college kids. I think you get my point.
They are upstairs in a frat house where glass is apparently all over the floor and Jackie is still lying on this bed of broken glass the entire time. Nobody else attacking her is injured? How did the reporter NOT question this? What kind of a frat house has a glass table upstairs no-less? They use this room to plan their attack? The glass breaks and they don't automatically move to turn on the lights to check and see if everyone is okay? There's no way they would be all that concerned about being identified because: a) Drew is already known to her. b) IF these are pledges, then they would be easily identified later by police; they would ask for a list of their pledges.
I'm not finished. The story becomes even more incredible.
Jackie apparently passes out at some point and wakes up at 3 AM in an empty room. She makes her way downstairs and out of the house and according to her the party is still going and nobody says anything to her. NO other girls see this and offer her comfort? Nope. She meets three friends of hers and not one of them offers to kill the men who did this. (That would NOT happen in South Omaha, just sayin'.) In fact, what they do instead is they all eagerly encourage her to just be quite about the whole thing because they want to continue to be invited to parties at this frat house where other women will surely be raped. What awesome friends! Seriously, how does this girl just not go home and kill herself at this point?
Think about this:
You've just been brutally raped and your friends (not just one but THREE), tell you they don't want you to tell the police or go to the hospital (even though you OBVIOUSLY have glass embedded in your back), because they still want to be able to have invites to future parties at this Fraternity House? WTF? Would you just not go into full melt down? I guess that's just me.
F*** them! I would call 911 at that point. There is a ton of proof here. She has glass in her back, she obviously would have seminal fluids on and inside her. There would be glass on their floor as well as her blood all over that carpet. The attackers would not have been able to clean everything up at that point. There would be traces everywhere. It's NOT a he said/she said situation! It's "she said" and she has the damage to prove it and there's more in that room upstairs in that house. She also apparently has nothing to lose because her friends were NOT her friends to begin with.
So if that story by itself didn't raise an alarm ....
It turns out this fraternity never had any event going on this day. The event took place in the fall, not a time when they do their rushes.
Her friends? They met her but she was far away from this area she now claims the event occurred. They say she told them a different story about oral sex being forced on her and she refused to name anyone, including the House where this occurred. They didn't tell her to keep quite. That was her choice.
Names were never given by Jackie. The reporter finally did retrieve the real name of Drew but Jackie couldn't quite come up with the correct spelling of his name and consequently no lifeguard was found where she claimed to have worked who also belonged to this fraternity.
In the end it was all a hoax and the story is the fantasy of a man-hater who lacks any type of morals herself. How dare this girl make these false accusations. If rape is what this girl was really concerned about, then why oh why would she catalyze a situation that will now hurt women, not just on this campus but all over this darn country? I've seen comments supporting Jackie and they all basically read the same, "She may have exaggerated but rape is a concern in our culture and changes are needed and this has helped." We basically learn her supporters are just as disgusting. The ends justify the means for them and yeah, lots of great changes. Now when someone IS truly raped, we can now watch people all over turn a blind eye because nobody will want to believe the girl who cries rape.
I hope this fraternity sues this girl for everything she has and I also hope they go after Rolling Stone like a pit bull because this rag of a publication has done this half-assed reporting stuff before and they need to be held accountable.
We ALL make mistakes from time to time. This does happen. I have made plenty of mistakes myself and I always try to correct them when they become known. Mostly this stuff happens when first reports are issued. Anytime there is a "breaking story" you can rest assure that the story will eventually develop into something else. The reason is because everyone is trying to rush to get the story out and things just don't hold up after time because new leaks and new details always emerge. This was not a breaking story. This was an investigative piece where the reporter had a large amount of time to get the full story, gather all the facts, and write something objective. Instead this writer relied on basically ONE source (Jackie), for her article and somehow managed to never question the ridiculousness of this girl's account of what happened to her. There is nothing in the story that even tells us who pulled the glass out of Jackie's back. Someone would have had to have done that along with treating the cuts with either peroxide or some antibiotic cream. What about looking at the scars? They surly would be there.
I understand it would be rather difficult to have someone telling you a story of them being raped and then having to question them as if you don't really believe them but, this is exactly what investigation is all about. Someone has to ask the hard questions. I could almost excuse this reporter because of the sensitive nature of this crime however I can't get passed how ridiculous this story sounds so it is much more a shock to me that she didn't immediately question this story.
Women need to empower themselves. Stick together. Watch out for each other - even strangers. If you see a girl coming down the stairs at a fraternity house who looks as though she's suffered an attack - help her! I don't care if you know her and think she's a bitch; you get over to that girl and help her. Learn some self defense moves. There are videos all over the internet where you can learn very simple maneuvers that can be easily executed, giving you just enough time to get away. As a women you need to know how to run. It's not likely you will overpower a man. Even tiny, short built men are stronger then many average sized women. This is why you need to learn how to stop the attack and get away.
For those young women that are real victims, do not ask friends, do not ask anyone, pick up the phone and call 911. Report the crime; go to the hospital. Get tested. Even if for whatever reason you decide not to press charges or something else occurs, you have a record. Also follow up with therapy. Go talk to someone. Get help.
Rape is a serious crime and when people like Jackie use it to make themselves victims in order to garner attention, they are hurting women everywhere.
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