Sexual Assault Argumentative Essay

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Recommended: Sociological theory on sexual assault

To hear the story from the TV anchor’s lips, it feels a hell of a lot different. You don’t remember what happened to you involving a football scholarship. You don’t remember how swimming talent caused your rape. That’s because what happened to you rarely sounds like what’s been inside a headline. It never sounded on TV like what happened to you.

That’s because, our general media platform fucking sucks when talking about sexual assault.

Sexual assault is a stranger in an alley. Sexual assault is an epidemic coming to a home near you. Sexual assault is a sensationalized Lifetime movie. Sexual assault is full of deception and men in our society falling from grace. Sexual assault is comprised of isolated incidents. Sexual assault stories are very rarely pitched on the …show more content…

He was a Stanford swimmer. This allows people with an already murky and muddled understanding of rape, to argue that there’s somehow a difference between what Turner did and what “rapists do.” Rape is rape. A rapist is a rapist. The Washington Post published a feature on the story, lauding Turner for being an all-American “baby-faced” boy that experienced a “stunning fall from grace,” going into detail about his past swimming career and wholesome beginnings. Lines include sentiments like, “But his extraordinary yet brief swim career is now tarnished, like a rusting trophy”.

The rush to try to humanize a rapist is an example of a rape culture that prioritizes the voices, experiences and gray area that exists for white men, and it dismisses violence against women. Brock Turner benefited from a level of compassion and empathy rarely given to others. People of color and women rarely receive this treatment.

Turner is a rapist, not a swimmer. The story is not about a swimmer, but what Turner did to a woman behind a dumpster.

She's a "rape victim," he's a "former Stanford swimmer." She's defined by the assault, and he's defined by who he

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