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Claire Savage

Professor Campbell

UWrite

5 April 2018

The Game of Pointing Fingers: Victim-Blaming and What Can Be Done

During the summer of 2017, Megan Rondini, a 20-year-old student at the University of

Alabama, was allegedly sexually assaulted by a 34-year-old male. After offering her a ride, he

proceeded to make advances and eventually having sex with her disregarding her repeated pleas

to stop. When she was able to escape, she grabbed the man’s gun and accidentally fired a shot

away from the man before running away. She did what she was taught to do and went to the

police. She did not get the response one would expect. Being from a powerful family, the alleged

assaulter was able to push the blame on her and eventually the sheriff’s department did too. She

fought to get the justice she deserved until February of 2018 when she hung herself, taking her

own life.

Incidents like Megan’s case are much more prevalent than our communities and people

want to recognize. More importantly, the reasons why Megan took her own life are what most

are blind to. Imagine having to out yourself and take a stand against a powerful family. Imagine

having to somehow comprehend that the people who are supposed to protect you, think it is your

fault. Victim blaming silences. Even when Megan voiced her experience and tried to receive the

justice she deserved, she was silenced. Not only did her peers turn on her, but members of her

own community and local sheriff’s department. The Suicide Prevention, Awareness and Support

Organization through research over the years estimated “about 33% of rape victims have suicidal
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thoughts” and “about 13% of victims will attempted suicide” all following the assault.

Remaining silent is what damages victims the most. The time after the assault is what breaks

people down. Knowing how detrimental holding back can be to a person’s mental health, it is

easier to visualize how much of an impact society has on victims voicing their experiences. It

was estimated less than half of rapes were reported to police. Since then, the numbers have not

changed much. One of the main reasons being society’s immediate response to blame the victim.

From the start, people are told how they should behave. Girls in school are reprimanded

for showing shoulders or wearing clothes that show too much skin. The reasoning is that it is

“distracting” to others. Boys are taught to be strong and be a “man”, which that alone had its own

outline of expectations. We build up our generations to these standards, so when a girl is raped,

she is asked what she wore. When a guy is raped, he is supposed to think of it as a good thing,

that he had sex and “scored”. How often do discussions come up about men being sexually

assaulted and raped? It is not a topic that is deemed “manly” because for a man to be raped,

that’s not a man at all in the eyes of everyone else. The concept of people being “victims” has

become a way for society to slut-shame and pick apart those strong enough to come forward.

Environment and home life have impacted the type of rape culture we have today. If young

adults are taught what they wear determines what happens to them and that they have to be okay

with what happens to them, that’s how the culture is shaped.

Social media as well as social status have also been big contributors. Social media users

are quick to pick sides when big stories surface about allegations against celebrities. One of the

most talked about currently is the U.S Olympic Gymnastics Association. A former trainer by the

name of Larry Nassar was convicted in the past few months on over 200 accounts of sexual

assault. The Indy Star, a sub-journal for the USA Today Network, covered this story and
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recorded the encounter of his first reported victim, Rachel Denhollander. Her first complaint

against Nassar was made in 1997 when she was 15 years old. After telling her parents, they

notified the police and the campus where it occurred, but nothing was done. Michigan State

swept it under the rug and Rachel Denhollander was left traumatized at the age of 15 while Larry

Nassar continued to work with young girls, going on to assault many more. Celebrities and

people with power are often also pardoned for their “mistakes”. Singers and actors are always

excused of DUIs and drug charges, and the same goes for rape. Movie directors are accused all

the time by young actresses, but nothing is done because the directors hold the power. Many

victims in acting and other entertainment-based jobs are silenced because their careers are

threatened, and some were forced to remain silent with money or other threats. Our own

President has been accused of many encounters of assault and rape, but no official investigation

has taken place. This common when allegations are made against powerful people.

Our justice department has some options to consider if the percentage of rapes and sexual

assaults are to decrease, and it starts with officially defining assault. The definition of assault is

loosely asserted by the law enforcement and is not consistent from state to state. This makes it

difficult for victims to even make a statement that they have been sexually assaulted if the actual

meaning of assault is not solidified. This leads to victims losing in court because there is no

“proof” they were assaulted. Some states however have defined what assault is and because of

this, have been able to move forward with bills to protect people from sexual harassment. In

Nashville, a new bill is in the process of being made that protects music artists from sexual

harassment (Flanagan). This bill is being used to address the real issue of up-and-coming artists

being targeted and forced into nonconsensual acts in order to have a successful career. It is also
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recognizing that this does happen to artists and it has become a big issue. By taking these first

steps, more people are being protected from predators in their workplaces and careers.

Another option to consider is to treat everyone at the same level. This is harder to achieve

because power and money can allow people to get away with a lot of things. Producers

threatening artists’ careers, movie directors claiming they will never be cast, and CEOs using

money to bribe victims have been how predators thrive because too often, someone turns the

other way. Going to court against someone with more money and power is never good odds in

their favor. Their money can buy better lawyers and even falsification. Larry Nassar was able to

escape his actions for so long because Michigan State did not want the bad reputation and the

U.S. Gymnastics Association did not want to be held accountable for employing a predator for so

long. Many coworkers of Nassar were charged with him because they were aware of what was

happening and looked the other way. By allowing the rich and powerful to be cut lose, it is

creating a statement that victims will never win and get the justice they deserve.

A different approach is to hold society accountable. The way children are raised today is

feeding rape culture. The dress codes, watching your drink, being okay with your “no” being

ignored because you wouldn’t be “manly”, they all need to stop being normalized. Sexual

assault, harassment and rape are things that young adults are just prepared for, rather than used to

educated on and taught how to address it. Morgan Reid is a senior at Duke University. She is a

well-known soccer player in the athletic world, but on social media, she is seen as a body. A pre-

med student, all of her academic and athletic achievements are stripped away in the comments of

her Instagram posts that consist of disgusting remarks about her body both in a shaming way and

a worshiping way. She expressed the effects that had on her self-confidence, as well as how she

was seen in a professional level in her article, The Anatomy of a Student Athlete. She addressed
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the things said about her like “Duke soccer player Morgan Reid will make you weak in the knees

when you see her in a bikini” and the “Duke smoke show”. The way society has shaped the

perception of women is harmful to not only their mental health, but also their ability to

understand it is not their fault. Posting pictures in a bathing suit does not encourage rape.

Consuming alcohol does not encourage rape. Wearing something you feel good in does not

encourage rape, and society is to blame for why is has become just that.

The National Sexual Violence Resource Center surveyed 14,155 participants in the U.S.

about their encounters with sexual assault, harassment, and rape. During this survey, they used

the data found to project what the percentages would be nationally. They estimated that in the

U.S., about 20% of women and about 2% of men have been raped in their lifetime. In addition to

that, 23% of men and 44% of women experienced other various types of sexual assault in their

life (NSVRC). It is projected that almost a quarter of all men and almost half of all women in the

United States has experienced things that most people will not recognize. Most of these people

will endure some form of victim shaming and blame and most will accept that blame. How we

address rape and how we address victims are things our community and society need to change.

We can no longer teach our girls to cover their shoulders and our boys to “take it like a man”.

We cannot ask victims what they were wearing, what they were drinking, or how they were

acting. Schools today focus so heavily on bullying and being supportive and that is something

needed here. Victims are bullied into silence by their perpetrators and by fears brought on by the

judgements made by their community and peers. Dealing with this issue begins with the

perception of others.
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Work Cited

News, CBS. “Alleged Rape Victim Who Committed Suicide Felt Betrayed by Investigators,
Parents Say.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 5 July 2017, www.cbsnews.com/news/
university-of-alabama-wrongful-death-lawsuit-megan-rondini-rape-claims-suicide/. 3
April 2018

Caruso, Kevin. “Rape Victims Prone to Suicide.” Suicide.org, www.suicide.org/rape-victims-

prone-to-suicide.html. 3 April 2018

Hackman, Christine L., et al. "Slut-Shaming and Victim-Blaming: A Qualitative Investigation of

Undergraduate Students’ Perceptions of Sexual Violence." Sex Education, vol. 17, no. 6,
Nov. 2017, pp. 697-711. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/14681811.2017.1362332. Accessed 11
Mar. 2018

“Dr. Larry Nasser: A History of Preying on People.” Lansing State Journal, USA Today
Network, interactives.indystar.com/news/standing/OutofBalance/NassarTimeline
/LSJ.html. 16 February 2018

Flanagan, Andrew. “Sexual Harassment in Nashville Spurs A New Bill to Extend Protections
to Artists.” NPR, NPR, 21 Feb. 2018, www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2018/02/21/
587322810/sexual-harassment-in-nashville-spurs-a-new-bill-to-extend-protections-to-
artists. Accessed 11 Mar. 2018

Reid, Morgan. “Anatomy of the Student-Athlete | By Morgan Reid.” The Players' Tribune, The
Players Tribune, 25 Jan. 2018, www.theplayerstribune.com/en-us/articles/morgan-reid-
duke-soccer-nwsl. 4 April 2018

“Prevalence and Characteristics of Sexual Violence, Stalking, and Intimate Partner Violence
Victimization,National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, United States,
2011.” Prevalence and Characteristics of Sexual Violence, Stalking, and Intimate
Partner Violence Victimization,National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey,
United States, 2011 | National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC), Centers For
Disease Control and Prevention, 5 Sept. 2014,
www.nsvrc.org/publications/articles/prevalence-and-characteristics-sexual-violence-
stalking-and-intimate-partner. Accessed 11 Mar. 2018