Fuck rape culture (including small towns and football)

Love of football - Enabling rape culture since 19whenever. Gang rape goes unprosecuted because of total apathy and love of the football team by local shitheel yokels.

A group of Anons say "FUCK THAT SHIT" and do their thing.

I actually got nauseated reading this, major trigger warnings.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/01/...urbing-video-evidence-in-ohio-gang-rape-case/

One of my grad school friends was from a small town in Iowa. Apparently in that town, the little sisters of the football team members were passed around. Despicable doesn't even begin to describe the practice, and similar to the Steubenville case, the football team had close contacts with the city and police.

I'm glad the lid is being blown off this one.

Long Article in NYT about it.

I hope Ohio can find one prosecutor that cares more about a horrible crime than a high school football team.

More in the Atlantic Wire as well.

Words fail. I can't watch that video.

High school football is the plague of Ohio. My hometown team has played Steubenville and those people are violent jackasses.

Many people are brainwashed into believing that somehow having a decent high school football team is the end all be all of a community. If we can just win state championship our city's luck as a whole will turn around. So football players can Do No Wrong. Also I've heard from reliable sources that many police officers in my town are ex-football players and they were hired over more legitimate candidates that weren't ex-football players.

When I lived in Omaha just about all of my friends who went to UNL had heard that a quarterback on the Nebraska Cornhuskers football team had beaten his girlfriend with a chair. The story went that she'd been pressured not to press charges by university officials. Weeks after I'd first heard the story I finally heard a few people on the radio mention it (the only people who ever would, local morning zoo crew Todd and Tyler) but they were quickly and thoroughly booed down by not just locals, but were called out by the Omaha Daily Herald. In the end nothing ever came of it so it's entirely possible that it wasn't true, but it always chilled me that no one even wanted to consider that it MIGHT be true, because it would negatively affect the Huskers.

These are people that spend their lives being afraid of God and the minorities they see on television. When they realized that their towns weren't going to be invaded by "dem niggras and fags" to give them reasons to fire off all that ammo they bought every time a democrat was elected president, they turned on each other to express their latently homosexual frustrations in the most accepted way you can in America... by watching sweaty men in tight pants and jock straps grab and slam each other repeatedly to the ground.

In my hometown they built a multimillion dollar athletic center, practice football field (enclosed :-) ), and have one of the best HS football stadiums in the entire fucking world.

Also, we just consolidated our elementary schools and pass an emergency school tax to keep the consolidated ones open. I would laugh if it wasn't so fucking unbelievable how fucking dumb the people I'm surrounded by are. That emergency school tax is costing me an extra $300 a year. I voted against it. Their priorities are fucked and kids should go to another school district if they want a good education.

edit: I'm wildly unpopular with football fans because of my view that education is more important that having a good (or any) football program.

Really?

When I see things like this about Anon I just think of that Keith David US Navy commercial: "A global force for Good."

Unfortunately nothing will come of this. I mean, you can't use this evidence in court if it was obtained via illegal email access right?

Oh yeah, it's objectively true.

/sarcasm

I was under the impression that this only applies if an agent of law enforcement obtains it illegally. But if a private citizen obtains evidence in the commission of a crime, it's admissable.

I may have gotten this impression from Law & Order, though.

I went to Law and Order school too.

I can't - I can't even produce a coherent response to this. I feel like I'm going to be sick to my stomach. Does anyone know if some kind of a fund has been set up for the victim?

In a just* world, everyone who suppressed evidence or obstructed justice in any way would be prosecuted. Burn it out with the wrathful fires of Justice, and sacrifice their lives upon the altar of not being rape apologists.

*Possibly not actually just; I'm angry.

Actually I started thinking about this strange need for intense competition that humans have and how it has to manifest in a society where violence is outlawed and my statement was starting to make more sense in some fucked up Freudian manner.

By the way, having lived in two rural towns for a number of years in two different states, my first statement is true. These towns have a pervasive fear in them of being taken over by homosexuals and minorities. It bleeds out in their casual speech and in their newspapers.

As horrific as this incident, including the video, is, it's not what should make you lose sleep at night. What should make you lose sleep at night is that it's not a one-off, it's not an isolated incident, it's not a rare occurrence. No, it's commonplace. When we read about Indians marching in the street, we should be asking ourselves where our marches are. But, football (or whatever other excuse for treating women like dirt).

Well hopefully with what happened at Penn State, this type of thing will not go unpunished anymore.

A guy can hope, right?

Whatever anecdotes and personal experience you have is fine. I'm not going to argue with that. What I object to is the same sort of boundary-drawing you're indulging in as the rest of that town. "Oh, no, they're not with us." If you're so different, why are you doing the exact same thing?

Because when it leads you into a rant that's indulging in "homosexual" as a pejorative statement, you're not thinking clearly.

Oh my.

I have just had the professional pleasure (sic) of reading the complaint filed by the governor of PA against the NCAA for the sanctions imposed on Penn State as a result of Sandusky. The recitations of the glories of sport, the community bonding, the economic benefits to mom-and-pop business, and "the focus of campus life, generator of revenue for a proud university and tourist attraction." (I am not making this up). My eyes have been opened! Nothing -- nothing -- is too big to stand in the way of the Gods of the Gridiron.

So what I'm reading here is I'd better fuck small towns and football before they fuck me? Because they will.

This x1000. And it isn't even isolated to midwestern football towns. Note this from a not-remote suburb of enlightened San Francisco: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Richmond_High_School_gang_rape

Granted, Richmond is a shittier place to live than even Oakland and the Bay Area response was different (that wiki entry doesn't go into details, but it took a couple weeks to muster meaningful outrage). But still, this isn't just a bunch of Friday Night Lights douchebags out in the cornfields, peeps.

I don't watch football.

I grew up on Long Island in the 80s and the jocks were villains straight out of a bad 80s movies, wealthy, nice cars, wavy hair, good looking girlfriends, the works. I picked my college based on having the least athletic programs, specifically football (probably not the wisest criteria in hindsight).

20+ years later I'm living in football hell. Everyone I meet in South Florida is a rabid College football fan. My son's HS is recruiting kids to it's awesome football program. We picked the school based on academics, but now all we hear about is the football program. It makes me sick. What's worse is my son plays football now for the program (despite a dad who doesn't even know what his position does) and he's apparently really good.

The only joy I have is when people ask what my college team was and I tell them that we didn't have one.

Dude. It's Richmond. Yeah, I know you already underlined that, but let me repeat: it's fucking Richmond. That place is a festering boil on the ass of the Bay Area.

"I feel like I could have done something but I don't feel like I have any responsibility for anything that happened."

Congratulations. You are human filth.

Good for your son for overcoming his unsupportive father to participate in a massively enjoyable and generally awesome physical and character building activity. I managed to play Jr High, High School and College football without tossing my wavy hair at anyone or running over puppies with my sports car. I somehow kept the gang-raping to a minimum. (Though I did Letter in cat-calls.)

It isn't the football that turns young men in groups dangerous. It starts with a lack of leadership and accountability from their elders. Screwed priorities are screwed priorities, doesn't matter if it is sports, religion or money.

It does, however, turn their brains to mush.

Eventually, sure.

If I had to describe the attitudes and personalities of every football player I met at college, built-up character would be fucking nowhere in the descriptions.

Maybe you just brought out the best in them with your winning personality.

It's easy, at times, to ignore the misdeeds and crimes of those you support, even in the face of overwhelming evidence. I found myself not wanting to believe Kevin Clash's accusers because "it's Elmo!" It's cognitive dissonance, and it can affect all of us.

I'm not trying to defend the defenders of these motherfuckers, just trying to understand why it is happening.

Yeah, treating girls like pieces of shit and acting SEMPER FI MOTHERFUCKER was all my fault. It's not possible that football culture in high schools and colleges breed shitheels because you played football and it was all good.

That's fun to throw anecdotal experiences at each other and pretend they represent the whole. But most football players and marine corp members do not commit rape. When it happens it is an aberration not a common side-effect of being a jock.

There is always a risk that hierarchical organizational structures place loyalty to the structure above morality but that isn't unique to football.

Also, remind me to give you an atomic wedgie.

Growing up in Pittsburgh, football definitely was the biggest religion in effect. My high school was ranked #1 in the state (and top 10 in the country) for many years, thousands flocked in on Friday nights. Going upstate to a state college, it was Div 2. (or maybe 1-AA at the time IIRC), but Div 1 Wresting (and top 10 ranked) and it was astounding even there, the elite status -- separate dining hall for athletes (steak instead of chicken patties!), elaborate athletic facilities only available to rest of student body for 2-3 hours a week, free private tutor access, other amenities, etc.… …remember one good sort who lived in my dorm hall, who had a tutor for a class we shared (ancient history?) and he despite tutor, a copy of test I gave him and prepped him with, and him cheating off my exam sheet, still failed the class. I felt bad for him but gosh, there is no way that someone like him should have attending an institution of "higher learning".

One of my friends (actually closer to my younger brother) got recruited sick, ended up at U. of Miami (then drafted by Buddy Ryan Eagles, though injuries marred his pro career) described how recruiters literally would follow him everywhere, even into the john. Promising him girls, money, cars, whatever…

Later, living in Alabama, football just as much a religion there too, though it shares some luster with the auto racing culture. But as a fellow Yank remarked to me there once, he would be aghast if he was a portrait of Jim Boeheim (Syracuse basketball coach) on the front of a truck like you would see images of Bear Bryant (famous U. Alabama coach) adorned on everything, often right smack next to a confederate flag. Once on a local morning jock talk FM show, a whimsy sportswriter made the mistake of making a joke about Bear Bryant. I think he had to go into "Salman Rushdie" type seclusion for all the death threats and bile that he immediately was pelleted with.

People outraged at Penn State that think it is an outlier are like those that think Hitler is the loan evil for anti-semitism and the Holocaust (did I just Godwin this thread? :D). Totally washing down the memory hole all the pogroms and the anti-semitism that reigned in the church and culture for over 1K years. Not saying that every program has a Sandusky lurking behind the locker room, just that lots of anti-social, morally repugnant, criminal acts are brushed aside because of the negative attention to "the program" such incidents, if made public, would invoke. So, they're settled (at best), or victims intimidated (and not just by the school, but like this story, the entire community) to keep silent, etc.…

This story isn't novel in any respect, there are thousands just like it, and even dozens in the past year exposed by journalists and/or bloggers…

Yes football culture does breed shitheels, for the most part. You can't put young people on a pedestal based solely on them playing highschool football. It's perverse frankly. It's created entire generations, in my town, of people who live, breathe, and die football. Could you imagine if that culture was instead based on Science. Holyshit that would be fucking incredible.

If there wasn't football it'd be some other damn hierarchy enforcement in these towns. I'd be more worried about the brain damage.

oh god so awesome

It might be less rape-y, but nerds who think their shit doesn't stink can be just as obnoxious as jocks.

Just remember, if you're inclined to root for Notre Dame this weekend, that you really shouldn't:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...04/why-i-wont-be-cheering-for-old-notre-dame/