Gang Rape in Texas = Boys Will Be Boys

As angry as I am about what's going on in this country to destroy the middle-class with Faux Newz faithful sheep blindly following, I have to comment on this story from yesterday. An 11 year old girl was gang raped in Cleveland, Texas by 18 guys, and a NY Times article basically blamed the victim while heaping sympathy onto her attackers. A local resident commented how, “These boys have to live with this the rest of their lives.” The boys? Seriously? The boys have to live with this for the rest of their lives, but an 11 year old girl doesn't? 18 boys and men, ranging in age "from middle schoolers to a 27-year-old," are sympathetic victims? Oh, but hey a couple of them were on the basketball team so, you know... Here's the best part --- it was recorded and another student blew the whistle. And get this; Residents said she dressed older than her age, wearing makeup and fashions more appropriate to a woman in her 20s. She would hang out with teenage boys at a playground." See, it was HER fault!  So I ask; At what age is rape appropriate?

Maybe these things sometimes happen because there are boys and men who learn from a culture of male superiority. They thrive in a culture that enables assaults against women and girls without responsibility because of a perception that the woman or girl actually "wanted it" or "it ain't no big deal." An assault of a girl is not an aberration­, not an exception. Sexual assault is all too common. Rape of women and girls are a blight on this country, not to just other countries. We act as though we're above it all. The privilege and entitlemen­t that some men (not most) feel is that they have permission to act upon their own desires when it comes to women's bodies, and they are woven thoroughly into America's social and cultural fabric. Look at our advertisin­g, our television shows, our music, our magazines, our movies, etc... Everywhere we look, women and girls are sexualized­, objectifie­d and available. No means no, unless you're a woman (evidently) in a precarious position with a man who has the mindset of "men have needs." This story is thoroughly nauseating. Do you think this young lady will ever have a normal relationship with a man as she grows up? Yet her local community and the NYT view the attacker's as the victim's. What has happened to our empathy for victims?