The events surrounding last week’s ruling in the Steubenville rape trial served as a disheartening reminder to all that rape culture is alive as ever in both the media and American public.

Multiple news networks, most notably USA Today, Fox News and CNN, have been criticized for their handling of the Steubenville trial. For example, CNN’s coverage has been lambasted for sympathizing with the two male teens that carried out the rape of the 16-year old female victim. CNN personalities made special note of how horrible the whole affair was for the futures of the “promising star football players” found guilty of the crime, disregarding the ramifications for the teenage girl that they raped.  The inherent flaw in such coverage is that it fails to accurately portray the reality of rape. Rape burdens only one party, the victim, and lays blame on only one party: the rapist.

Journalists commiserating over “harsh” prison sentences for rapists while ignoring the stigma, physical harm and mental trauma experiences by rape victims is a clear failure to live up to this responsibility. This is not only an inaccurate portrayal of who rape actually affects, but serves to perpetuate the American rape culture by disseminating these notions to the public.

Perhaps even more disturbing than the obvious lack of common sense or care by major media outlets has been the persistent blaming of the Steubenville rape victim over social media by members of the public. While some have parroted CNN’s sympathies for the perpetrators, many have taken it a step further by arguing for the victim’s culpability. A prevailing attitude across various tweets and Facebook posts is that the victim set herself up to be raped because she was drunk — and underage, no less. Because according to some, liquid courage is also liquid consent.

The continued permissiveness of rape is an unacceptable by-product of such collective attitudes that both minimize the effects of rape while finding ways to blame rape victims. We have no doubt that the media should serve to correct, not further these misconceptions — and that doesn’t start and stop with just this one case. 

Rape is perpetrated by the rapist alone and by a culture that simply cannot fairly represent victims and perpetrators of rape. It is a deliberate choice by an offender to objectify a victim’s body.

Rape is never agreed to. Sexual consent affirms that all people are in the right mind to understand and are on the same power level to agree to a certain course of action. Consent is not defined by wearing provocative clothing, consuming alcohol, flirting or silence; it doesn’t justify sexual violence either.