By Sam Berkhead
Managing Editor
I’d like to think that we live in a progressive, modern society in which sex is a healthy, normal and above all consensual part of adult relationships.
Without fail, this optimism is dashed against the rocks on an almost daily basis.
This Sunday, CNN correspondent Poppy Harlow covered the trial of two high school football players accused of raping a 16-year-old girl in Steubenville, Ohio. The judge convicted the two boys, Ma’lik Richmond and Trent Mays, sentencing them both to do time in juvenile detention.
“It was incredibly emotional — incredibly difficult even for an outsider like me to watch what happened as these two young men that had such promising futures, star football players, very good students, literally watched as (their lives) fell apart,” Harlow said after the trial. “One of the young men, Ma’lik Richmond, when that sentence came down, he collapsed. … He said to me, ‘My life is over. No one is going to want me now.’”
That’s right — you just heard a journalist sympathize with convicted sex offenders on national television. A female journalist, at that.
During CNN’s coverage, Harlow made barely any mention of the victim — a girl who had just as much promise in life as two popular jocks; a girl whose life was ruined just as much, if not more, than Richmond and Mays’.
No, she didn’t get convicted of anything. Her name didn’t even appear in the media. But the long-term psychological effects of rape are things she’ll be stuck with her whole life. At least Richmond and Mays can get out of detention before they turn 21, according to CNN’s website. That the rapists only have to serve a combined minimum three years in a juvenile prison is a joke in itself.
The Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN)’s website doles out a laundry list of the lifelong effects a sexual assault victim can have. These range from post-traumatic stress disorder and dissociative identity disorder to self-harm and even suicide.
“Survivors of childhood sexual abuse experience an array of overwhelming and intense feelings,” RAINN’s website continues. “These may include feelings of fear, guilt and shame.”
The girl, at 16, has two more years of high school to get through. After having been the subject of a nationally-broadcast trial, there’s no doubt her peers won’t let her forget what happened. The name-calling, the shaming, the incessant bullying will more than likely become an aspect of her everyday life.
The media tends to paint rape victims as scantily clad, heavily made-up women who walk the streets alone too late at night. Therefore, they reason, the woman had to have been asking for it.
Harlow didn’t hold back from the victim-shaming. She heavily implied that the girl was responsible for ruining the futures of these two boys. She did so on national television, and she knew her words would influence the perspectives of millions.
Frankly, Harlow shouldn’t be allowed to go back on-air until she grasps the fact that rape apologists are just as bad as the rapists themselves. They deserve no sympathy from anyone.
And if Richmond and Mays were really so concerned about their “promising futures,” they should have known better than to rape someone. Good grades and a spot on the football team don’t give anyone the right to do that.
