(no subject)
Well, today's started off delightfully.
I just got out of my Survey of Mass Communications class, today we were talking about media ethics and he gave us a hypothetical situation: You're a reporter for a campus paper and a student comes to you saying that his professor had sex with him in exchange for raising his grade. According to the student, this has happened with some of his classmates too. The student wishes to remain anonymous because he is ashamed of what he did. Should you print the story? The professor's name? The student's?
My classmates' opinions disgusted me. They immediately started going against the student, saying that he's clearly an adult who should have known what he was getting into. Or how do we know he wasn't the one propositioning the teacher? Or maybe the story's not even true and he just wanted to get his professor in trouble.
Alright, that first statement is horrifying and pathetic. No one knows what they're getting into when they agree to have sex for manipulative reasons, you just can't fully understand until it's happened. As for the next two, they just disgust me. Yes, the story could be a lie or the student might have been the one to make the suggestion (which wouldn't, by the way, make the professor the victim unless the professor was threatened or forced upon)but YOU CAN'T TAKE THIS STORY AND START WITH THE ASSUMPTION THAT THE VICTIM HAD IT COMING OR IS THE ONE WHO DESERVES PUNISHMENT! That's practically the equivalent of saying a girl who dresses provocatively is asking to be raped.
My professor even changed the scenario to the student needed that good grade because otherwise he would lose his scholarship. My classmates scoffed at that too. "If his scholarship depends on it, then why is telling anyone? That's just going to ruin his grade! He wouldn't be in this position if he'd just done his work better in the first place." I wanted to punch the girl that said that, but instead I said "Maybe he decided it wasn't worth it." To which my professor just had to add, "Yeah, maybe he only got a B!"
He then went on to talk about how rape and sexual assault cases are covered in the media, specifically how the victim's name is usually not reported. He wondered why that's the case with sexual crimes rather than all crimes, he wondered why the accused should have their names published, then he wondered if we should just report the victims' names and just stop making such a big deal out of it.
FUCK. YOU.
Yes, there are cases where there wasn't really a rape and the accused is innocent but then has their life ruined because of all the media coverage around it. I may be willing to hear reason there, but after all the other crap I had to listen to in that class I can't even consider reasonable arguments.
I WAS sexually assaulted. It was by someone I thought was a friend and it's something that I have to live with forever. I couldn't even bring myself to report it, because I couldn't make myself think that she was a bad person. We'd had so many good times together. I haven't really talked about it to a lot of people and I'm not entirely sure why, but that repulsively ignorant professor had no idea what he was talking about. My memories are hard enough to deal with. I can't imagine the nightmare my life would be if I'd pressed charges and the media had decided to publish my name and face. As for the "accused" in my case, I didn't press charges because I didn't want to ruin her life, but she would have deserved it.
The worst part is, listening to my classmates, I think if I'd stood up and told them my story they would have said it was my fault.
I just got out of my Survey of Mass Communications class, today we were talking about media ethics and he gave us a hypothetical situation: You're a reporter for a campus paper and a student comes to you saying that his professor had sex with him in exchange for raising his grade. According to the student, this has happened with some of his classmates too. The student wishes to remain anonymous because he is ashamed of what he did. Should you print the story? The professor's name? The student's?
My classmates' opinions disgusted me. They immediately started going against the student, saying that he's clearly an adult who should have known what he was getting into. Or how do we know he wasn't the one propositioning the teacher? Or maybe the story's not even true and he just wanted to get his professor in trouble.
Alright, that first statement is horrifying and pathetic. No one knows what they're getting into when they agree to have sex for manipulative reasons, you just can't fully understand until it's happened. As for the next two, they just disgust me. Yes, the story could be a lie or the student might have been the one to make the suggestion (which wouldn't, by the way, make the professor the victim unless the professor was threatened or forced upon)but YOU CAN'T TAKE THIS STORY AND START WITH THE ASSUMPTION THAT THE VICTIM HAD IT COMING OR IS THE ONE WHO DESERVES PUNISHMENT! That's practically the equivalent of saying a girl who dresses provocatively is asking to be raped.
My professor even changed the scenario to the student needed that good grade because otherwise he would lose his scholarship. My classmates scoffed at that too. "If his scholarship depends on it, then why is telling anyone? That's just going to ruin his grade! He wouldn't be in this position if he'd just done his work better in the first place." I wanted to punch the girl that said that, but instead I said "Maybe he decided it wasn't worth it." To which my professor just had to add, "Yeah, maybe he only got a B!"
He then went on to talk about how rape and sexual assault cases are covered in the media, specifically how the victim's name is usually not reported. He wondered why that's the case with sexual crimes rather than all crimes, he wondered why the accused should have their names published, then he wondered if we should just report the victims' names and just stop making such a big deal out of it.
FUCK. YOU.
Yes, there are cases where there wasn't really a rape and the accused is innocent but then has their life ruined because of all the media coverage around it. I may be willing to hear reason there, but after all the other crap I had to listen to in that class I can't even consider reasonable arguments.
I WAS sexually assaulted. It was by someone I thought was a friend and it's something that I have to live with forever. I couldn't even bring myself to report it, because I couldn't make myself think that she was a bad person. We'd had so many good times together. I haven't really talked about it to a lot of people and I'm not entirely sure why, but that repulsively ignorant professor had no idea what he was talking about. My memories are hard enough to deal with. I can't imagine the nightmare my life would be if I'd pressed charges and the media had decided to publish my name and face. As for the "accused" in my case, I didn't press charges because I didn't want to ruin her life, but she would have deserved it.
The worst part is, listening to my classmates, I think if I'd stood up and told them my story they would have said it was my fault.