It is a truth universally acknowledged that a woman’s (or man’s) rape is her own fault. That’s probably what the judge of the People v Brock Allen Turner, or, as it is more commonly recognized, the Stanford Rape Case, thinks anyway.
On Jan.18, 2015, two bikers spotted a white, male student sexually assaulting an unconscious, unnamed woman behind a dumpster. Both were intoxicated — the woman was too drunk to function, and the man was just drunk enough to rape her.
The man, Brock Turner, was a freshman and star swimmer at Stanford University, and was projected to compete in the next Summer Olympic Games.
Not anymore.
He was punished very harshly (not harshly at all), having been found guilty of three counts of sexual assault, and facing an upwards of 14 years of jail time.
On June 2, sentenced Turner to six months confinement in the Santa Clara County jail to be followed by three years of probation.
That is a not okay. If I went to a public place right now and spray-painted a happy face on the wall, I could possibly be locked up longer than that.
Well, probably not, because I’m a minor, but that’s beside the point. Anyhow, according to Buzzfeed, the judge said that he feared that

You know what else has a severe impact on people? Being sexually assaulted. Not knowing what happened to you until the morning after, when you’re being poked and prodded and photographed in the hospital.
Not knowing how it happened until you watch the news a week later.
Having to pretend to be fine so that your sister, parents and boyfriend don’t have to worry.
And the real icing on the cake? Turner was released after 3 months for “good behavior.” Maybe that’s because there were no drunk girls to rape in prison.
But wait, there’s more! He decided that he should blame his raping an unconscious woman on alcohol and the “campus drinking culture.”
Channeling my inner Trump here: WRONG.
The fact that you decided it was okay to strip a drunk woman naked, take off her underwear, remover her bra, invade her unconscious body, and then run away when you were caught?
That’s not alcohol. That’s all you.
There is a difference between drinking too much and sexual assault. As the victim put it, “We were both drunk, the difference is I did not take off your pants and underwear, touch you inappropriately, and run away. That’s the difference.”
Turner has now returned home to Ohio to live with his parents who, reportedly, are afraid for their son’s safety. That’s funny.
I wonder who else is now constantly afraid for her safety?
Maybe his victim, who, according to her boyfriend, now habitually locks herself in the bathroom for hours on end to either hide or cry — sometimes both.
The Standford victim, who decided to remain anonymous, wrote an open letter, which she read in the trial to her attacker.
You know about the ‘shot heard ‘round the world?’ This was the modern day equivalent. She describes the effect of the attack on herself and her family — most notably her sister, who, just before the attack, was approached by Turner, who ignored her numerous attempts to decline his advances.
And then, Turner decided: kissing this one girl against her will isn’t enough; let me also sexually assault her too-drunk-to-form-a-coherent-sentence sister.
“I was terrified of [my body] I didn’t know what had been in it, if it had been contaminated, who had touched it.”

She said this. Not about a monster. Not about a ransacked house. About her own body. This is what sexual assault did to her. This is what Brock Turner did to her. And that’s not ok. That’s not something that gets forgotten. That’s not something that gets forgiven.
But apparently it is.