The Cornell situation, and our social ill writ large

I wasn't going to rant about the breaking news from Cornell U., with the nefarious and disgusting situation --the drugging and gang-raping of a young woman-- settling in my mind like a lead weight. The perps got an essay as punishment. Thank goodness for the doughty student paper and its reporters; someone has to have some backbone, some innate sense of righteous anger, about this horrifying mess. 

What struck me most, though, and I'll probably rant on for a bit, is the term that has been "invented" to describe the situation, that young men --referred to as "boys"-- were given a light punishment, that the frat is still active and associated with the campus, that there are others --many others-- who knew about the situation and who did not one damned thing. The term? "White collar rape." 

It's perfect in its connotations. For time immemorial, men --especially those of privilege and influence, or whose families have that kind of social and economic sway-- have been excused, even applauded, for the assault on women. On girls. On children. Our own government is rife with perpetrators, as are colleges, houses of worship, medical establishments, and so on. Sexual crimes are nefarious in that they are not just physically damaging (though that should be enough), they rob a person of their sense of self-worth. Of safety. Of having a right or reason to exist. Society, for eons, has blamed the women. The children. Those who are victims. They are not Sandburg's "painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys." Then, society tosses them aside or publicly castigates them as too damaged to care about. The tacit permission given to men (and others) in power to use and abuse others has given us many people that we ought to be able to trust. And we can't. And we shouldn't. 

This is not acceptable in any time, any place. When the media refers to girls as "underage women," yet then refers to men over the age of majority as "boys," we know that the bias is deeply rooted and it must be yanked out and burned, like so many other noxious, poisonous weeds. 

We spend so much time teaching girls and women how to protect themselves, and then blame them for what they wear, where they are, what they do. Yet men are given a wink and an "atta boy"-- this must stop. 

I don't have the answer, except to enforce it from birth, that all children should be taught, over and over again, that another person's body is not theirs to touch without permission, without explicit consent, and even then, proceed with respect and caution. What we do about the adults who prey on children, who damage other adults, needs to be addressed as well. Each human being is a sacred, autonomous person. If our bodies are "temples," then we need to stop the desecration. 

Okay, I'm out of time and steam for the moment. 

Be safe. Love to all,

C