LAST WEEKEND, more than 1,000 people gathered in Steubenville, Ohio, a small town with a history of high school football glory, to support the victim of an alleged rape. These kinds of rallies happen from time to time, largely on college campuses. What made this one striking was the fact that many protesters were wearing Guy Fawkes masks.
Those masks are a trademark of Anonymous, the shadowy collective of hackers that has taken on Steubenville as a vigilante cause. In terms of criminal justice, this is far from ideal. But for our culture at large, it represents an unlikely glimmer of hope.
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My sense is that so few people feel shame about anything - rape excepted - that they would be willing to concoct any rationale for innocense. They will say she said yes before passing out or some other horrible defense. While shame is not completely passe, it becomes less and less a force as society becomes more and more about celebrity and money - just watch TV for a few hours and see where our true priorities lie.
shame requires a conscience.
Shame also requires basic humanity. "People" who rape an unconscious person are bestial. Where do "people"like this come from? Who led them to believe any of this was remotely OK?
History calls this a public stoning. Nothing new here, just the substance of the stones.
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Fawkes has become a symbol that ordinary people should have power as much as any rich or well connected person. They use the masks because it gets attention and freaks-out powerful people and others in authority. Most people don't know that Fawkes tried to blow up parliament.
One of the other articles I read about this story -- maybe on Jezebel? -- (alleged) the young lady was involuntarily drugged with a roofie before the attack. If true, this certainly absolves her of any responsibility, and I wish Ms. Weiss had mentioned the roofie allegation in her article.......instead of writing 'this story serves as a cautionary tale for young people to limit their drinking at parties' (or something like that, which leads readers to believe this young woman did something stupid to cause her 'attack'.) Otherwise, great article/headline Ms. Weiss/Globe! I love the fact that the Internet is helping to end rape culture as we know it and I'm thrilled to see the Globe chose this as a worthy topic to write about.
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The first athlete that DIDN'T stop and prevent these vile acts is as guilty as the rest of them. Cowardly and guilty.