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WORLD & NATION
WWW.GUILFORDIAN.COM
Rape culture iuvades secial aud mainstream media
BY ANNEY BOLGIANO
Staff Writbi
"I have no sympathy for whores," tweeted Twitter user
cody_saltsman.
"So you got drunk at a party and two people take
advantage of you, that's not rape, you're just a loose
drunk slut," tweeted another user under the account name
romano_santino.
User fellerSuter posted, "I would lay my life on it she
(the Steubenville victim) was more than willing, almost
inviting."
This is how Americans talk about rape.
On March .14, two high school football players were found
guilty of raping a 16-year-old girl at a party in Steubenville,
Ohio last August. Trent Mays, 17, and Ma'lik Richmond,
16, were sentenced to serve a minimum of two years and a
minimum of one year respectively. Mays' distribution of a
nude image of the victim accounts for his harsher sentencing.
At the time of her assault, the victim was unconscious
from intoxication and first learned about her rape through
images distributed on social media.
Various public responses have questioned the validity
of the victim's claim, which has been scrutinized in part
because of her presumed relationship with one of the boys.
Her state of intoxication has been another point of criticism.
"Sex without consent is rape, whether the people involved
know each other or not," said Director of Counseling Gaither
Terrell.
Several media outlets have received criticism in their
coverage of the Steubenville, case. In a report that caused
widespread outrage and accusations of rapist sympathizing,
CNN focused on the "promising futures" of the two rapists.
The behavior of the convicted boys has faced little
analysis.
"Where was their (Mays' and Richmond's) compassion?"
asked Mark Justad, director of the Center for Principled
Problem Solving and former president and board member
of the American Men's Studies Association, a pro-feminist
academic organization that promotes the critical study of
men and masculinities.
"Why wouldn't you look at someone who was passed
out like that and think, oh my god, is she OK? Why weren't
they overwhelmed with empathy? Why did they see it as an
opportunity to take advantage of someone?"
The case has sparked discussions of rape culture and
masculinity.
"Our culture is too invested in the eroticism of
domination," said Justad.
Justad cited three steps men can take to help challenge a
culture of sexual violence, "One: re-affirm that it's wrong;
two: believe that it happens; and three: be part of the
conversation of what healthy sexuality looks like."
The Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that between the
years 2005 and 2010, "78 percent of sexual violence involved
an offender who was a family member, intimate partner,
friend or acquaintance."
Unfortunately, negative stigmas attached to rape and
sexual assault can often deter victims from coming forward
with a complaint.
According to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National
Network, 54 percent of rapes and sexual assaults in the
U.S. are not reported to the police. This may be a result of
the scrutiny that women face when they do report a sexual
offense.
In a flurry of tweets posted after the verdict, hundreds of
social networkers expressed sympathy for the rapists and
outrage towards the victim.
"Why don't we have a Dumb F—ing Whore Registry?
Now that would be justice."
"The girl asked for it and wanted it, in my opinion. They
gave it to her. No crime."
"Those poor boys ... All because the pictures and texts
made that lil whore decide to play victim after it was over."
"How could we even have that conversation?" asked
junior Grayson Schmidt, member of Sexual Assault
Awareness, Support and Advocacy. "This woman was
brutally attacked."
"Rape happens all the time but doesn't get media
attention," said Schmidt.
Indeed, RAINN reports that every two minutes, someone
in the U.S. in sexually assaulted.
The public has utilized social media outlets to speak out
against the bias coverage of the Steubenville case, naming
the media's role as a promotion of rape culture and calling
for accountability from those who continue to perpetuate
victim-blaming mentality.
“For me, rape culture refers to the ways we see women and
sexuality in our culture that allow and even encourage the rape
and exploitation of women.” — Gaither Terrell, Director
of Counseling
“The fact that we have a discourse surrounding rape that
immediately blames the victim and asks what they were doing
that put them in that situation, instead of asking who did this to
them.” — Grayson Schmidt, Junior, Women, Gender
and Sexuality major.
‘(Rape culture is) the opposite of a healthy sexual culture. Our
sexual culture is shaped by the pathology of rape.”
— Mark Justad, Director of the Centerfor Principled
. - ~ ^Problem Solving > , : .
State lotteries now managed outside state lines
BY CHLOE LINDEMAN
Staff WwTHt
State governments have been cashing in on the profit
from lotteries for decade, but hopes of higher earnings have
spurred recent changes.
Pennsylvania and Indiana have contracted private
companies from Great Britain and Rhode Island respectively
to manage their state lotteries. The c»mpani^ were chosen
based on their bids to take over management.
Now, New Jersey is considering'hiring the same Rhode
Island-based company to control its lottery.
"They're just privatizing the management," said Betty Kane,
associate professor of business management 'The state is still
ultimately responsible for the revenues and the expenses."
States hope that hiring private companies to manage
the lotteries will generate additional revenue by making
operations more efficient and reaching more customers.
"Some functions of government can effectively be
'privatized' while others make the switch less easily," said
Professor of Economics Bob Williams in an email interview.
"Operating a lottery is the type of operation that private
business cx)uld do well."
The changes have led to mixed feelings among those
affected.
'This may be the easiest and most obvious decision the
state has had to make," Mitch Daniels, Indiana Governor at
the time of the changes, told Bloomberg Businessweek. "With
this contract the only question is how much more money
Indiana will receive than under the current system."
Associate Professor of Mathematics ]^n Marlin also
thinks the changes will likely produce more revenue for the
government.
'They're pretty sure to win because of the fact that they've
got deep pcxicets," said Marlin. However, concerns have
surfaced from the public sphere.
The labor union representing Pennsylvania lottery
employees has criticized the government decision to outsource
jobs to a company based in Great Britain. Specifically, the
union fears for the or more Lottery workers who will lose
their jobs if a private company takes control of management.
The union has filed a lawsuit that could potentially halt the
privatization process in Pennsylvania based on the idea that
Governor Tom Corbett would have to get legislative approval
to privatize the lottery.
What could North Carolina expect if its lottery management
were contracted to a private company?
Kevin Burns, a worker at Randy's Fruits and Produce in
Greensboro, said he did not think such a change would have
much impact on the store.
"Smaller places like this probably aren't going to make
a whole lot of money (from lottery sales)," Burns told The
Guilfordian.
In North Carolina, the lottery funds teachers' salaries,
school construction and other components of public
education. However, more revenue would not necessarily
mean more funding for education. Money originally set aside
for education might be used elsewhere because the lottery
revenues seem like such a benefit.
"They always talk about (the North Carolina lottery) as
the education lottery, but lottery money can replace funding
where it was intended to augment funding," said Marlin. "In
fact, it can do some small bits of damage."
StiU, the country seems to be moving towards privatization
of both lottery management and other services like the U.S.
Postal Service.
"(The government) thinks that by privatizing, it can
generate more revenues," said Kane. "Privatization is a trend
in terms of a lot of state op>erations ... they're trying to find
ways to save money."
As privatization becomes more common in U.S. practice,
consider those affected, and when the next privatization battle
arises in North Carolina, weigh its potential impact with an
educated understanding.
The Puiitzer Center and Guilford College present:
Planet Earth's average temperature has risen about one degree
Fahrenheit in the last fifty years. By the end of this century it
will be several degrees higher, according to the latest climate
research. But climate change is doing more than simply making
things a little warmer.
Join journalist Dan Grossman, who reporting has taken him to
France, South America, Mongolia, southern Africa, Bangladesh
and India, in exploring how climate change is already influencing
the lives of people around the world.
THURSDAY, APRIL 11
7:30 P.M.
JOSEPH M. BRYAN JR. AUDITORIUM
GUILFORD COLLEGE
OPEN TO THE PUBLIC