Dear Anyone Who Is Surprised About The Brock Turner Case: You’re F**King Kidding, Right?

Time to be 100% blunt: rape is a common occurrence in almost every single American college.

Brock Turner raped an unconscious girl behind a dumpster and instead of receiving the 14 years he should, he will only be serving 3 months in jail with 3 years of probation. He is a Caucasian male who is a collegiate level swimmer. Turner’s friends and family have jumped at every single possible opportunity to defend him. Speaking out about how his dreams of being a professional swimmer have now been crushed. How this case has closed off many job opportunities and tainted his reputation permanently.

What about the girl he raped? What about her future? Turner may not be able to ever swim again, but his victim will be scarred by his actions for the rest of her life. No amount of therapy could ever remove the memories of his mistake.

But wait…she was intoxicated. Isn’t it her fault for blacking out? Wasn’t she “asking for it”? Isn’t it her fault that Brock Turner could not even find an ounce of common sense and stop himself from acting like a primitive animal?

Yes, Brock Turner was intoxicated too. Yes, he was not able to make the right judgement. But fact is that Brock Turner took advantage of the girl. Sexual violence is never the victims fault.

Everyone seems to be “shocked”, “disgusted” and “infuriated”. Which is great. Really, it is. That’s the type of reaction a situation like this calls for. And every single similar situation in the past has garnered the same reaction.

Therefore my problem is quite simple: When are we going to start moving beyond displaying our disdain and actually start seeing change? How many individuals need to experience sexual violence before society starts doing something about it? And how many times does someone need to become a victim to rape before we actually start appropriating our mindset?

Brock Turner will soon become just another name we add to a long list sexual offenders who will be forgotten after a while.

Every single time we see a case of sexual violence headlining newpapers, magazines and news channels we are shocked. And then we get over it until the next case appears and we angrily shake our fists again.

I am currently a 19 year old in college. I am barely an adult myself and truthfully I was not shocked when I heard about the Brock Turner case. The sad truth is I have grown up in a society where sexual violence has become so common that news like this does not surprise me. I hear of countless stories of individuals being forced into sexual acts that they did not consent to. And it angers me. Upsets me. Disgusts me. I am tired of hearing these stories. But none of these stories surprise me.

You want to surprise me? Stop defending rapists and find justice for the victims. Start taking some f**king action.