Brock Turner case: When rape convicts play ‘victim’

Brock Turner attributed his sexual assault to alcohol and termed it ‘sexual promiscuity’, ‘20 minutes of action’ that have ruined him for life, so much so that he can’t eat or swim anymore.

FILE – This undated booking file photo provided by Santa Clara County Sheriff shows Brock Turner, a former Stanford University swimmer, who received six months in jail for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman. (Source: Santa Clara County Sheriff via AP, File)

This week’s big shame in the feminist daily is Brock Turner. The Turner case was virtually an open and shut case. Two men caught Turner assaulting an unconscious girl. Turner tried to escape but was caught by the men.

Turner, however, hired a powerful lawyer and used his white male privilege against the victim (as many have noted, black males accused of sexual assault are treated very differently, with the word ‘rape’ often appearing in the headlines in news about them; such was not the case with Turner; how the judgment is racist is another issue that gets highlighted through Turner’s case). A year and a half later, he has been given a six-month term, has had to register as a sexual offender and most importantly, has had to give up on things he likes the most, like eating and swimming.

The response of Turner’s father came after the victim wrote a 12-page letter describing to the accused how she was victimised and then revictimised, the various ways in which her life was turned around and played with and what lies ahead of her – fear and terror, her confidence shaken, her future shaken.

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He attributed his sexual assault to alcohol and termed it ‘sexual promiscuity’, ‘20 minutes of action’ that have ruined him for life, so much so that he can’t eat or swim anymore.

Even as we outrage about Brock Turner and his father and grieve about the victim, closer home, we find many brilliant examples of this.

Mumbai Mirror on Thursday published a small piece ‘Time for a RETHINK’. The piece parades the accused as being the ‘victim’ of the media that was just waiting to harass him. Sample this:

“No doubt [he] had committed a grave error. One that pricked the bubble of his public image and gave his detractors ammunition to demolish him, but was there really need for such a vociferous dragging through the coals?”

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When famous individuals were indicted in India, their powerful position is not only important in the sense that they have contacts but also that they gain ‘compassion’ because previously, their life had been one of worth; they contributed to the society positively.

Thursday’s piece brings it up again and is not very different from how Brock Turner is being treated. A ‘grave error’ that, by the way, constitutes molesting a girl and violating her body, is ‘ammunition to demolish him’ by his ‘detractors’.

Like any other rape accused, yes, there was a need for ‘such a vociferous dragging through coals’. Like Brock Turner’s Stanford swimmer identity, the identity of being powerful in the societal circles, since years that too, is more important.

The idea behind the whole ruckus essentially is that men’s lives are more important than women’s lives. While a crime may wreck a woman’s life in unthinkable ways, a lot of which have been elaborated by the Turner victim, a ‘grave error’ or ‘20 minutes of action’ is all the significance it has in a man’s life, preventing him from contributing to the society anymore because his image has been tarnished. A woman may go on to find shelter in her being a victim but for a man to be the accused, he becomes a ‘victim’ of fate but not his actions. He has to repent, but through goodwill. That’s why their perfect past and swimming timings are important to be mentioned.

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It seems there is still doubt over how molestation and rape affects two lives. After years of feminist struggle, the onus to prevent rape and then to subsequently prove it still lies in the hands of the woman. School girls are still being asked to dress in a way that doesn’t provoke the boys. The streets of the city are still void of women after 8 pm. We still walk stealthily, taking as little space as possible so we can let the men pass us by, so we don’t have to have any interaction with them.

And then come males with the privilege given to them on a silver platter, worrying about the good they might not be able to do to the society with their ‘offender’ tag.

You are not the victim, sir. You have victimised the victim.

There is still a long way to go.