Anonymous To Steubenville: You’re Welcome That We Brought Attention To Your Little Rape Problem
Anonymous has been supporting and raising awareness for the Steubenville victim, the 16-year-old Jane Doe (And yes, I know many people in the world, myself included, know her name, yet I refuse to use it, because she is a child, and the victim of a crime) ever since they first heard about the case. The first peaceful protest in Steubenville against rape and rape culture took place a few days after Christmas, and Anonymous has been in town almost every weekend since. People have braved the cold and slippery conditions to drive from all over. When someone didn’t have transportation, I have seen people offer rides and make sure that anyone who wanted to attend the vigils against rape had a way to get there. I have seen people share hotels rooms, pay for each other’s meals, jump each other’s cars when batteries were dead. And a lot of hugging.
But not everyone is thrilled with the roll Anonymous played in the investigation, especially not the people at Breitbart.com who had their own spin on things in an article entitled : GUILTY VERDICT IN STEUBENVILLE RAPE CASE THAT SAW ANONYMOUS TERRORIZE AN ENTIRE TOWN !!!1111!!!!!111!!!ELEVENTY!!!! (Ok, I may had added that extra punctuation):
Anonymous promoted a pack of rumors that spread like wildfire on the internet, involving complex conspiracies involving what they termed ”˜a brutal gang rape’ in Steubenville. Bruzzese says ”For months now, I’ve watched the internet lynch mob spin a tale from nothing. They sold the media a story where an girl was drugged, carried from party to party in the trunk of a car, photographed by dozens of party goers as she was raped at series of parties, urinated on and finally dumped on the front lawn of her parent’s house. The trial showed that none of that was true.”
OK. “The victim wasn’t drugged.” According to text messages the victim sent (But by all means, let’s not believe the victim, because that would be insane, believing a rape victim) she said medical reports claimed she was drugged. No one knows for sure if this girl was drugged. She said she was drugged, she said that due to previous experiences with alcohol she felt “different” after consuming a drink at a party, and a lot of the evidence presented was that of the victim being unconscious. But whatever, drugged or just drugged with booze (and yes, alcohol is a drug!) the victim didn’t remember a whole lot of the night of the 11th and the morning of the 12th. I don’t recall anyone, including the 16-year-old rape victim, claim she was transported in the trunk of a car. She was driven in the backseat of a car, where her carpool buddies decided to videotape her being “digitally penetrated” by one of the rapists in this case, Trent Mays. “Photographed by dozens of party goers.” Well, we do know the 16-year-old rape victim was indeed photographed by a few different people, and I’m sure when the grand jury investigation gets underway we may discover that she was indeed photographed by a few more people. Time will tell. “Urinated on.” That wasn’t proven in court, but what was proven was that some of the boys in attended thought it would be HILARIOUS if she was urinated on, and one of them even offered money for people to do it. And finally, “dumped on her parent’s lawn.” Another rumor I have never seen reported in the “Left wing media.”
We have argued this whole “brutal rape” semantic argument before, so I don’t feel the need to rehash it again. You feel there is such an animal called a “gentle” rape, I disagree with you.
Anonymous did the right thing in this case, for the victim. And even the rape victim in this case has said so as well. From a twitter user who is friends with the victim, her brother, and her family, and who has been in frequent contact with her since her rape in August :
She said she was very thankful we Anonymous along…she was happy we remained here..we were her voice..she didn’t need to speak..she was aware of that. She has been reading all the tweets and messages of love and support from members of Anonymous and the world and she is very grateful.
So stick that in your “Anonymous terrorized a town” rhetoric-hole because not only did they bring nationwide attention to a terrible crime, even the victim was thankful they did so. And by doing so, they brought attention to rape and rape culture, and hopefully have done their part and will continue to do their part standing up for victims and seeking justice for all of those who have been raped.
(Photos: twitter/Twitter Cassandra Rules)
