UVA Rape Article
By:Pearson Monroe
About the article
Jackie, a student at the University of Virginia, was manipulated into believing that this guy "Drew" was a good guy. After a little time the two started getting closer, at least that is what Jackie thought. Drew asked her to come to his fraternity party, and the naïve Jackie was thrilled. Once in the party, Drew walked Jackie up the stairs and into a bedroom. The door was slammed shut and it was pitch black inside. That is when Jackie was knocked to the floor, shattering through a glass table. Seven guys took turns raping this poor girl. The aftermath of the whole situation kind of put Jackie in shock. She wasn't her self after this event took place. She didn't attend any of her classes in fear of seeing one those boys ever again. She even almost committed suicide. She hid what had happened to her for a long time because she didn't really know how to tell anyone. Finally she talked to the school board about what had happened but didn't feel comfortable filing a report on these guys. The university ended up getting into a lot of trouble and is being investigated for rapes like these.
Broad Issues and Sociological Imagination
I think the main broad issue in this article is patriarchy. Its the idea that men have more power than women. This poor girl was pinned down and raped by 7 different men. This girl was scared to death for the longest time to tell anyone about what had happened to her and it was eating her alive; to a point where she almost committed suicide. Women have little power in society and it was sad to see how scared she was to tell someone what happened because she could have suffered worse than before. It is truly saddening to know this is a common occurrence in colleges all over the world.
Another big issue that was evident in this article is peer pressure. It is hard enough to resist peer pressure but when you have a whole fraternity telling you to do something to be initiated it gets even harder. I’m sure none of these kids would ever want to rape a women but their frat brothers were telling them, “do this if you want to be one of us”. It’s sad that this kind of pledging is going on in college. It sort of makes me not want to join a fraternity. It is hard not to give into peer pressure but I think it’s a skill everyone needs to learn because it happens all the time.
I think another big issue in this article is teen drinking in college. All people make bad choices when they're drinking, but teens are on a whole different level. Our bodies cannot take in as much alcohol as we think. Plus college kids are finally away from their parents and make their own decisions which are usually poor ones. There is no one there to stop you from doing what you want. You are under bad influences constantly and sometimes you do things to impress your peers. Nothing good can come from a huge group of drunk good looking guys and girls that you know nothing about in one house. Bad things are happening at this college, solely because of teen drinking.