Time after time, mistake after mistake, we as a society, as friends, as siblings, as parents have made the mistake not to hold men accountable for their actions. We have let them go on with their actions without harsher, stricter consequences and disciplinary actions as they continue to stride into society with no respect for women and lead to destroy lives. Enough is enough.
If you have read my first article with Affinity Magazine, you have seen I have written about the saying ‘Dress How You Want To Be Addressed‘ highlighting the misogyny in society with the world saying women have to dress more ‘modestly’ to avoid sexual harassment and assault from men. This time, I am highlighting the fact that society allows men to repeat these horrendous actions and think that it’s okay when in fact, it hurts and destroys many women and their families.
Brock Turner is a perfect example of this destruction. Instead of him to sitting in jail and having justice served for the family of the victim, he is currently sitting at home enjoying whatever life he still has because the government believes that he shouldn’t serve a lengthy term. He is now free simply because the jail time will have a ‘severe impact on him’ and officials have chosen to allow a RAPIST to leave jail 3 months into his sentence for ‘good behaviour’ in jail.
Why aren’t we instilling this into men at a early age? Enough is enough. Young women shouldn’t feel afraid to come forward with their emotional stories of sexual harassment and assault because they fear the government won’t give them justice. Continuing with the Brock Turner case, his father is calling him the victim because a rapist is most definitely a victim compared to the actual victim and continuing his insensitive letter by saying, “This is a steep price to pay for 20 minutes of action out of his 20 plus years of life” and “the fact that he know has to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life forever alters where he can live, work, and how he is able to interact with people and organizations.”
His 20 minutes obviously didn’t mean anything to him and his father, but the impact it had on the victim, her family, and society can’t be undone. It is incidents like this that men think they can rape or harass or assault women and get away with it. Men aren’t born harassers and abusers; they are taught to become these monsters from society, from men who have gotten easy consequences like parole and paying fines. Another way we contribute to this is labeling by their former occupations and not their current titles of abusers and harassers on the news and in news articles like “Former Stanford Swimmer. . . ” or “Why Brock Turner Isn’t A Rapist” and not with titles like “Trash Can & Rapist Brock Turner Has Been Released From Jail: How Him & His Family Are Awful”
F*ck that saying ‘boys will be boys.’ NO! Boys will continue to be boys because we don’t reprimand them for their actions; we give them a slap on the wrist and they continue with their previous actions. Stop putting the blame on women like it’s our fault. We as a society need to stop letting men go easy; they did the crime and they need to pay the time.
