According to the research of Kimberly Lonsway and police sergeant Joanne Archambault, when an individual is raped in the United States, 96% of the time the rapist dodges the crime. The majority of these rapes do not go through the prosecution process and when they do, less than 0.2% of these perpetrators spend time in a prison cell (Krakauer 121). The main cause of this ongoing problem is the ineffective and unfair representation of rape victims by the justice system. Jon Krakauer argues this point in his novel, Missoula: Rape in a College Town and the Justice System, using narratives as his main focus of support. Through this use of narratives, Krakauer appeals to logos, encapturing the various actions and perspectives of those who played
Furthermore, Griffin commonly sites credible studies and explores historical moments to provide context and support for her claims. One article in particular written by Griffin (1971) demonstrates her masterful use of ethos, “Rape: The All-American Crime.” This article was the first of its kind as it discusses rape from a feminist perspective and challenges common beliefs about rape. Up until this point rape and sexual violence was rarely discussed and when it was it was by a man. Griffin begins the article by explaining her credentials, describing her personal experiences with rape culture in America, and illustrating the urgency with which women and victims need to be heard.
In this New York Times article, Rubenfeld sets off his argument by establishing the gruesome and generalized information about rape culture at university. Rubenfeld states, “Female
Rape myths are at the center of the problem of how rape and sexual assault cases are looked at, and treated as in society. Rape myths vary, some excuse the rape, others try to minimize the severity of the situation, while others doubt the act even happened in the first place (Levit and Verchick, 196). Some examples of rape myths include: a victim was “asking for it,” a victim’s previous sexual history, regretful sex is not rape, a woman’s “no” means “yes,” and women lie about rape all the time. Rape myths are targeted towards women, not the rapist. Despite, rape myths being proved false by empirical evidence, they are still prevalent in society.
She also starts to explain to the reader some of her own struggles with gender roles. This is a quote from the article, “After pushing over obstacles in my own life and devoting many hours to thinking about gender and football, the issue walks in and grabs and after school snack in my house.” This excerpt shows the writer referencing personal experience in her life. Furthermore, the article displayed a tone of irritation and sarcasm. This is seen in the following quote, “You know the whole thing where we tell our girls they can be anything they want to be, and then we watch the way woman in the public sphere are treated?”
In general, people labeled as victims often feel guilty for being a victim and do not report the offense. In cases of sexual harassment between students, both classmates and administrators often victim blame the female in the situation. Victim blaming claims that women caused the harassment by dressing and acting inappropriately. “[These] judgements create an environment in which it becomes unlikely that the target of harassment will feel justified and supported in claiming her rights” (Chamberlain). However, sexual harassment “is a part of the larger framework of oppression that subordinates females to male in a complex, deeply enculturated patriarchal system of compulsory heterosexuality” (Chamberlain).
Her arguments are based more on her opinion, than absolute facts. Some of her claims are unfair to say about the men that do care just as much as the women in a
In their opinion piece published in the New York Times, Miriam Gleckman-Krut and Nicole Bedera, two students from University of Michigan, claim that students being accused of sexual assault on-campus should not be the ones providing the definition of sexual assault because more victims will stay silent. Their article tackles the research question “how does allowing the accused to define sexual assault affect the victim?”. The piece was written in response to Betsy DeVos, Secretary of Education, who claimed that former President Obama’s policies on on-campus rape stripped the accused of their liberties because less evidence was required from the victims, who often struggle to create concreate evidence due to trauma or difficulty remembering.
Therefore, candidates have to take this issue seriously when campaigning in hoping of winning an election. Despite feminism rightfully on the rise, this event at Columbia University has stemmed a fiery crusade against sexual violence and domestic violence on college campuses around the world, especially in the United
More children are exposed to sexual assault and rape than you probably think. According to d2l.org (Darkness to Light), “About 1 in 10 children will be sexually abused before their 18th birthday.” Melinda Sordino is the one out of ten. In Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, Melinda Sordino shows us the thoughts and feelings experienced by many of these young victims. Melinda was raped by Andy Evans while attending an end-of-summer party before her freshman year of high school.
Well, I am a proud lifelong fighter for women’s issues; because I firmly believe what’s good for women is good for America. … As far as I’m concerned, any issue that affects women’s lives and futures is a women’s issue.” Stated by Hillary Clinton. (Clinton, 2015)
I hope that during my undergraduate years at George Mason University I will be able to investigate the problem affecting many colleges that is date rape drugs. Rape on college campuses is a horrifying epidemic that our country is facing. According to healthresearchfunding.org “Up to 90% of college campus rapes occur through date rape incidents.” Almost every day on the news there is a new story about a woman who was a victim of rape or sexual assault, and most of the time the perpetrator gets away hands free. A major reason why date rape drugs are commonly used is because they are easily slipped in to drinks at college parties and are undetectable by the victim.
In Speak, Melinda was a normal teenage girl with decent grades and lots of friends. Then, she went let that all get ruined when she went to a party without telling her parents and got raped, she called the police to the party and ended up losing all her friends. After the rape she took a terrible course of actions that only extended her suffering by adopting depressed moping behaviors and worst of all, not telling anyone about the rape. Personally, I feel there was a much better solution to her problem that she didn’t take. Before the rape, Melinda was a popular girl with decent grades and a good relationship with her parents.
Slaves faced extreme brutality and Morrison focuses on rape and sexual assault as the most terrifying form of abuse. It is because of this abuse that Morrison’s characters are trapped in their pasts, unable to move on from the psychological damages that they have endured. “Morrison revises the conventional slave narrative by insisting on the primacy of sexual assault over other experiences of brutality” (Barnett 420). For telling Mrs. Garner what they had done, she was badly beaten by them, leaving a “chokecherry tree” (16) on her back. But that was not the overriding issue.
Genre Piece 3- Newspaper A rape case resulting in a cold hit is described in the newspaper. In it a woman named Jenny Jones was sexually assaulted 20 years ago and has never received justice until now. Her rape was a cold hit along with several other victims. Jones’s rape case had gone cold because her rape kit had been left to gather dust and was deemed no longer recent enough to bother with.
