Or the hotel bathroom where a young Wake
Forest woman who played in the band claims she was raped by two of the most
prominent players on the basketball team in the wee hours of the night just
hours after losing an embarrassing tournament game to Cleveland State.
Would we have reacted with public outrage to the response by
Wake Forest officials that the young woman was lying and that she had no
business being in a room with these young men when it was after curfew? Really?
It was her bad choices that led to this?
What about the curfew for the basketball players?
It is my hope that the case in Steubenville, Ohio and our
ability to see the context of the alleged rape with our own eyes courtesy of
youtube, twitter, instagram and facebook, will cause us to pause and begin to
have serious conversations about the ways in which we are teaching our young
men to behave. Even if their behaviors
are not criminal they are embarrassing.
If I were to have to watch a video of my son, who is 22, behaving in
this way I hope I would be as mortified as I am watching a Steubenville
mother's son. If I had to watch the
scene play out in a basement in my community--a drunken party where the alcohol
was provided by the football coach-- and watch my own teenagers and their
friends behaving this way I hope I would be mortified enough to ask some tough
question. Of myself first, and then of
my community.
We cannot protect our young daughters as long as we continue
to allow our young sons to behave in these ways and excuse their behavior as
normal.
To read more about this issue see my book The Social Dynamics of Family Violence
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
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