Discussion
  • Read More
    WhiskeyprayerAnna Merlan
    3/31/16 2:13pm

    On a brighter note, anyone know how to set up a “free beers for life” fund for Peter Jonsson? He obviously read that Onion article from the nations 10-year-old boys and took it to heart.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      AgreeToAgreeWhiskeyprayer
      3/31/16 2:22pm

      Seriously. I know we like to think we would all do something, but actually doing something is completely different. Cheers to Peter Jonsson!

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      scowly brow spinsterWhiskeyprayer
      3/31/16 2:26pm

      Yes! There are heroes in this case. Hooray for the guy on the bike and the other guy who chased down this rapist.

      Tough shit, swimmer manboy, you don’t get to poke rape people with objects and say they agreed to it. Seriously, what the ever loving fuck? So many cases now are “foreign object” rapes and that to me just indicate a certain level of awareness that these perpetrators have about what they are doing. There’s no confusing the motives of someone who takes advantage of another person being incapacitated to do whatever the horrible fuck the perpetrator can think up while he has that person at his mercy.

      Why are there not just big rapist prisons where rapists can go and spend the rest of their lives together? Forever.

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    ad infinitumAnna Merlan
    3/31/16 2:24pm

    Stanford female activists

    Ah, those pesky female activists, with all their insane, over-the-top demands, like “don’t rape people” and “treat women like human beings instead of walking orifices.” It’s political correctness gone mad!

    I guess I should just be thankful he didn’t say, “Feminism is a hate group,” which was used approximately 900,000 times in the Kotaku article yesterday about the Nintendo employee who lost her job due to relentless Gamergate harassment.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      BlessedAreTheHedas. Our fight is not over.ad infinitum
      3/31/16 3:23pm

      Yeah, I finally had to stop reading the comments. There were a few valiantly trying to bring reason and truth to the discussion, but otherwise it was awful. My last straw was one guy going on about his girlfriend who's a gamergater, hates feminists, is hot(of course), and all the other women hating attributes that make her the right kind of woman.

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      ad infinitumBlessedAreTheHedas. Our fight is not over.
      3/31/16 3:28pm

      I saw that. That asshole trolls Jezebel a lot, too.

      I had an incredibly shitty day yesterday, and I had to bail on the comments pretty quickly because they were so simultaneously depressing and infuriating and I couldn’t take it.

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    purpleprose78Anna Merlan
    3/31/16 2:09pm

    I don’t get why people are talking about it not being a clear cut case? There were flipping witnesses. Witnesses who chased him down when he ran away. This is about as clear as it gets in a rape case. I swear, people are awful.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      TheVageniuspurpleprose78
      3/31/16 2:23pm

      There was also an “incoherent” message she left for her boyfriend earlier that night.

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      tkrvpurpleprose78
      3/31/16 2:24pm

      Maybe because they were both drunk? My understanding is that an intoxicated person can consent to sex, regardless of gender.

      But even then, the case seems pretty clear cut to me. If a drunk person robbed someone, or drove and skilled someone, they would get in serious trouble. The fact that they were intoxicated doesn’t matter. Same with rape.

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    The Noble RenardAnna Merlan
    3/31/16 2:05pm

    Remember, sports is the apotheosis of a young man’s life, the pinnacle of his achievements after which all remainder of his sad, sad life will be but an utter disappointment, as man is no longer permitted to use his youthful and supple physique to plunge repeatedly into the water and, floating effortlessly, surprise the world with his strength and power, the power that drives us all mad and brings the joy to our dour lives and proves once again that the awe-inspiring power of the male athlete is what makes life worth living.

    And if broads get in the way of that, fuck ‘em, the floozies.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      16BitGorditasThe Noble Renard
      3/31/16 2:14pm

      *

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      Andrew DaisukeThe Noble Renard
      3/31/16 2:21pm

      That's why they all end up becoming cops. Which is one reason why we have (and have always had) so many issues with cops.

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    BrightEyesAnna Merlan
    3/31/16 2:42pm

    They never mention the once promising future of the victim who is now saddled with the trauma of rape.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      babblemouthBrightEyes
      3/31/16 3:07pm

      Naaa, she’ll be fine, she’s probably just about to cash in all the sweet rape money that all women are entitled to after accusing someone of rape.

      /s

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      Mayotonillababblemouth
      3/31/16 3:38pm

      Rape money and romantic attention I hear.

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    adultosaur married anna on the astral planeAnna Merlan
    3/31/16 2:05pm

    it was once promising. and then he raped a young woman and now his life is garbage, because he is garbage.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      kamla deviadultosaur married anna on the astral plane
      3/31/16 2:12pm

      Yes.

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      smithkidadultosaur married anna on the astral plane
      3/31/16 2:13pm

      During the whole Stubenville verdict some CNN anchor talked about how hard it was to watch those two young men’s life be ruined when the guilty verdict came down because they were just sad y’all. I don’t have time for that nonsense. If you do an incredibly shitty and harmful thing, you deserve to have your life ruined and I don’t feel bad about the perpetrators and their now diminished future.

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    JujyMonkey: Clever tagline goes hereAnna Merlan
    3/31/16 2:14pm

    Anna, from a journalist’s perspective, what actual purpose do stories like this? Prurience aside, what’s the editorial goal on writing them?

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      congressional lemon partyJujyMonkey: Clever tagline goes here
      3/31/16 2:26pm

      I don’t know, maybe highlighting that various media outlets are writing “poor unfortunate athlete got caught raping, punished, potential sport career ruined” rather than “bad rapist rapes, caught, punished for being bad raping rapist”. These stories seem to empathize with and show the rapist as sympathetic rather than showing they are just rapists. Perhaps showing institutional and societal biases toward athletes as “heroes” we are supposed to look up to (for some reason) and rape victims as the destroyers of their potential sport career.

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      Writer4003JujyMonkey: Clever tagline goes here
      3/31/16 2:31pm

      To point out that the media still does a piss-poor job covering rape cases. Was that not clear?

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    ErsoAnna Merlan
    3/31/16 2:16pm

    You know...there is a part of me that gets the “once promising” thing. Not as a justification or something that was taken away from him. But as something he himself gave up by committing rape. He DID perhaps have a promising career (I don’t know - can you have a swim career unless you are Olympic level? Probably not). But nobody TOOK that from him. He voluntarily surrendered it when he decided to rape an unconscious woman. And I don’t think these stories would bug me so much if they were covered that way. “Here is this guy who could have had everything, but instead he chose to rape someone, and what is wrong with our culture that he felt entitled to do so,” vs. “Here is this guy who had everything and fate took it from him.”

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      atlanticoceanidErso
      3/31/16 2:29pm

      Absolutely great distinction. We use the passive voice all the time in these kinds of crimes which makes it sound like circumstances led to this result, not the individual’s actions.

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      AgreeToAgreeErso
      3/31/16 2:30pm

      Yeah, I’ve always felt a little weird about “once promising” and this is exactly it. Thank you. Like I understand the desire to include “once promising” when someone seems to have their shit together (and/or they are super priviledged) and now their life is going to be very different then people would have expected. But it is always missing the fact that it is no longer promising because of one’s own damn fault.

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    catherinethesecondAnna Merlan
    3/31/16 2:10pm

    This story is not helping my inherent bias against dudes named BROCK.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      GinAndTonic Got Stuck in the Barneycatherinethesecond
      3/31/16 2:12pm

      This was also my thought.

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      KK4Bamacatherinethesecond
      3/31/16 2:14pm

      I grew up with a Brock and never liked him or his brothers. They were all douchey assholes.

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    deerlady83Anna Merlan
    3/31/16 2:19pm

    He was found on top of an unconscious woman who had dried blood on her. He ran after he was confronted by another person. That person thought it was rape. Oh my god, what is it going to take for some people to realize he was raping that woman.

    Agreed. The narrative of a “promising” athlete losing his future because he was accused of rape is getting old. He lost his future because he decided to rape a woman. It was his choice and he has to suffer the consequences of his actions.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      I'm Fart and I'm Smunnydeerlady83
      3/31/16 2:42pm

      This whole thing is seriously causing some rage right now. When there are no witnesses and a bit more ambiguity, I just expect this response from people, because we live in a society that has rape culture. But you really can’t get more clear-cut than this. There were witnesses. She was passed out, which was corroborated by witnesses, and the fact that she didn’t even wake up for three more hours. She had dried blood on her. I just don’t understand how anyone can question that.

      I knew our society has a fucked up view of rape victims, but I had no idea it was this terrible and it is pretty horrifying to see.

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      deerlady83I'm Fart and I'm Smunny
      3/31/16 2:52pm

      I have a cold so everything is already awful. This is horrifying to see how some people will try to minimize what happened or rewrite what happened.

      Reply
      <