Good Girls Don’t Send Twitter Threats

Disclaimer

At this point, if you haven’t heard about the Steubenville rape trial, you’ve been living under a pretty big rock.  There’s been a great deal of media attention on the case, and a lot of (very warranted) criticism about the “she didn’t say no” defense employed by the two teenage rapists. There’s been a lot of discussion about “rape culture” (if you haven’t already, check out this very good blog post about it).  I could go on and on about that, but instead, I want to draw attention to two girls who have been arrested.

These two young ladies allegedly sent threatening Twitter and Facebook  messages to the victim, threatening bodily harm and even death. The attorney for one of these girls (a 15-year-old) says her client is a “very good girl,” who was only quoting a rap song.

(Yeah. Sure. And the two rapists were very good boys who were only giving that girl exactly what she was asking for.)

Come on, people. Good girls do not threaten to kill rape victims. And good boys don’t sexually violate and humiliate young women. Period. End of story. 

As this all continues to unfold, all I can wonder is this: What in the name of all that is holy is wrong with our society? What are we (or aren’t we) teaching young people?  How did we get to a point where these young men and women think that the atrocities that they have committed against one of their 16-year-old peers is acceptable? How have we managed to foster such a lack of empathy in young people? It is disturbing. Disgusting. And incredibly frightening.