I’ve always been a proponent of human rights, but it wasn’t until I was a student at Tufts University that I really started to take interest in issues like consent, rape, and domestic violence. Over the past 10 years, I’ve read countless pages of opinions, history, and research related to gender-based violence. The overwhelming conclusion I’ve gotten from all of it: most people don’t really know much about rape.
If you don’t believe me, just look in any unmoderated comments section for a post about sexual assault (I really suggest you don’t). Before I learned my Golden Internet Rule—“don’t read the comments!”—I’ve come across one really annoying, tired trope whenever someone has the audacity to pay attention to a sexual assault victim: What about false accusations?? They’re the real problem. This inevitably includes at least one of these completely wrong beliefs: False rape accusations are common (WRONG) and every man’s life is instantly ruined when he’s accused of rape. The latter statement is what I’ll address below.
At first glance it would be easy to think that the mere act of accusing someone of abuse could immediately throw someone’s life into turmoil. However, if we toss this little thing called reality into the mix, we can find enough evidence to throw this belief out the window. Thanks to this pesky thing called rape culture, ideas like “false accusations are common” run rampant despite the lack of credible evidence to support that. This is what is important to remember: we live in a society that still defaults to doubting victims and giving alleged assailants the benefit of the doubt.
That’s a big reason why rape accusations often don’t have as harsh an impact on the accused life as we’d like to think. Still don’t believe me? Well I hope this episode of “Where are they now? Post-rape accusation edition” convinces you otherwise.
Here’s what has happened to five different men accused of sexual assault:
Receive a Heisman Trophy and become an NFL quarterback.
There was a bunch of fuckery and incompetency on various ends after Florida State University student Erica Kinsman reported fellow student and school athlete Jameis Winston of sexual assault. (You can watch a summary of it in the documentary film The Hunting Ground.) In spite of having enough evidence to at least go to trial, the police never bothered to question him and no charges were ultimately filed. Since the case came to light, FSU paid almost a million dollars last year in a settlement over their mishandling of the case and Winston settled in court with two of his victims last month.
In spite of these serious allegations against Winston coming to light, he became the youngest player ever to win a Heismann trophy, which is basically the best honor you can get as a college football player. This award is supposedly reserved for players whose conduct is admirable both on and off the field ”whose performance best exhibits the pursuit of excellence with integrity,” according to Wikipedia. “Winners epitomize great ability combined with diligence, perseverance, and hard work.” Hmm. He’s now an NFL quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I have a feeling he isn’t hurting in the financial compensation department.
Earn a degree from Harvard Law School.
The Hunting Ground offers another great example showing how a rape accusation can impact one’s academic career. In 2011, a Harvard Law School student filed a report that a classmate raped her with the local police and filed a complaint against him through their school. After an investigation, the Administrative Board of Harvard Law School found the accused student in violation of their policies and expelled him.
The decision was later repealed by Harvard Law faculty. With his expulsion rescinded, the accused student returned to class and graduated from Harvard Law School. In 2012, he was indicted on two counts of felony sexual assault and eventually convicted for non-sexual assault.
Influence a United States presidential election from afar.
Hey, did you know Wikileaks Founder Julian Assange lives at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London? He’s been there since 2012 to avoid extradition for a warrant that’s out for his arrest. The warrant isn’t even because some Wikileaks-affiliated activity—it’s for rape. When the warrant was upheld in September 2016, the ruling panel said “After reviewing the existing investigative material and what the parties have stated, the Court of Appeal finds that Julian Assange is still suspected on probable cause of rape.”
He refuses to face the rape charges in Swedish court, but that hasn’t made Assange completely powerless. Last year he really put the information and platform Wikileaks has to use during the presidential campaign. In a series of moves that made him a conservative darling, the Australian journalist flexed his muscles of influence over the U.S. election—from across the pond!—to hurt the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton as much as possible. He’s admitted to making strategic releases to hurt the Democratic National Convention and two political scientists found Wikileaks would release Clinton-related info whenever Clinton’s lead grew in the polls.
While I won’t claim to have the ability to create a specific connection between Assange and the election’s outcome, I think it’s safe to say that this man is definitely influential.
Receive many awards including Grammys, Emmys, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
This section could be never ending so I’ll just keep it brief. I’m talking about Bill Cosby. ‘Nuff said.
Get elected as president of the United States of America
Yeah … I got nothing else. I could make this list a lot longer, but I think you get the point.