The Rhetoric of Rape on a College Campus

Image: New York Times

Tallahassee is the textbook definition of a college town. Despite being Florida’s state capitol, it doesn’t have much going on other than that and FSU. Living in Tallahassee is like living in a strange microcosm, which glorifies nothing above its young, talented athletes. Football players are raised to a level of apotheosis as we refer to our star quarterback as “Jameis Christ” and disregard every crime he may commit in the name of his football stardom. Just as big as the problem of rape itself is the harmful rape culture perpetuated rhetorically by the media, but even more importantly by students on social media.

FSU students and fans are biased by definition when it comes to discussing anything concerning FSU football, but just as in is typical in most it has proved difficult for them to admit to being so. The Lazere piece on biasness discusses how difficult it is to “recognize the biases in ourselves and sources of information that support any group we identify with- in contrast to how easy it is to recognize biases of other individuals and supporters of other groups.” Football fandoms are perhaps one of the most ruthlessly biased groups today, and have found a home within social media.

Florida State University football has a strong Twitter presence, more so than any other aspect on on-campus culture. There are several twitter accounts dedicated solely to tweeting FSU football news and other miscellaneous tweets. The FSU community is united, and informed through the Twitter world, and during Jameis Winston’s year long sexual assault investigation, it was a controversial mess of victim shaming slander.

Any person who thought Jameis Winston may be guilty was a “traitor” to Florida State, a school whose football winnings have recently constructed an “unconquered” prideful atmosphere. In a city so heavily driven by not only the cultural, but economic impact of its college football team, justice often gets lost in the cleat dust.

This controversy has become subject to vast disagreement across different platforms. This is to be expected however, because as the Christian Kock and Lisa S. Villadson piece “Rhetorical Citizenship and Public Deliberation” discusses, “controversies are more complicated than disagreements between two parties,” the issue of rape culture on college campuses is without a doubt a complex one.

Image- Phil Sears/associated press

As is customary in many modern rape cases, the victim was blamed in the Jameis Winston case. The victim of Winston’s sexual assault case’s name was leaked on an anonymous website called FSUacb, a forum ran by members of the Greek community. After her name was released, her sorority received bomb threats, she received death threats and was forced to transfer universities for her own safety. And Winston was given a trophy and a national championship. College football is a powerful motivator, which can drive fans to put somebody in danger for simply reporting a rape case. But this all is perpetuated and strengthened by social media platforms allowing users to share information that can potentially harm another student.

In addition to stealing crab legs, soda cups, and shooting squirrels with a BB gun ironically enough on a trial popularly known across campus as “the rape trail,” days before the FSU game against Clemson, Jameis Winston was reported by several student’s Twitter accounts to have stood up on a table in the student union shouting “fuck her right in the pussy!” This expression, which quotes a popular Internet meme, is obviously inappropriate for a person who has been investigated for rape to shout at all, let alone in such a public area. Due to the indisputable evidence of his action, Winston was, for the first time in his entire history of offenses, suspended from a football game. To say the reaction to Winston’s actions across social media outlets was negative would be an understatement. The students who tweeted about Jameis’ actions were chastised by other angry students via various social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, and the newly popular anonymous app Yik Yak. Winston’s actions yet again contributed to the harmful construction of rape culture across the FSU campus. Students were outraged at Winston’s suspension, claiming that he’s “just a normal college student” and that “anybody would have done that.” Students even popularized the phrase “fuck Clemson right in the pussy” across social media and made signs referencing it on national television for ESPN’s College Game Day.

Image: Bjorn Morton/ Tallahassee Democrat

These actions construct Florida State’s student body as nothing more than an immature mass of bumbling football fans, who prioritize football over nearly everything. As discussed in the Lazere piece on avoiding oversimplification, it is easy to fall into the habit of overlooking an issue of which one has a strong emotional investment. “Wishful thinking and authoritarianism block us from developing the mindset needed to question the validity of our culturally conditioned assumptions.” In this, football fans are less of a villainous mass and more of a culturally conditioned body too set in societally implemented prejudices to see any error in their thinking.

Recently, social media has erupted with claims from FSU fans that the media (ESPN, New York Times, USA Today) hates Florida State, Jameis Winston, and is in effect doing everything in its power to destroy FSU’s image. Considering the teams’ success on field, and Jameis Winston’s shenanigans off the field, it would be naïve to believe that the media would leave FSU alone. But this hasn’t stopped fans from rebelling against any news source that does anything but praise the university. As a result of the hyper-focus on FSU the media has been showing, FSU fans launched the “Blame Jameis” hashtag, which was regarded as many on social media as “the funniest thing I’ve ever seen.” The joke in the hashtag essentially claims that Jameis Winston, a person was in fact responsible (or allegedly responsible) for every single incident he’s been criticized for, is unfairly blamed for everything. Thus launched the viral meme which included jokes further trivializing rape such as “got a D on my chemistry final #blamejameis” or “ebola #blamejameis.” What obviously was intended at a joke is more than anything a reflection on the misinterpretation FSU students have about severity of sexual assault.

           

FSU recently discontinued a campaign called “FSU Men Measure Up” which drew its statistics from a voluntary online survey of FSU’s men about sexual consent. The campaign proudly plastered posters showcasing statistics like “91% of FSU men believe that if a woman has her clothes off, she still has the right to say no to sex.” To put this into perspective FSU was essentially bragging that amongst its student body of 40,000+ students, which is about half men, only 9% of those 20,000 or so men might rape somebody. That’s 1800+ students, and that number is terrifying. What’s even more frightening is the appropriation of this as a brag-worthy fact.

                        Image: original FSU Men Measure Up campaign

In October, FSU’s Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity (PIKE) was suspended due to several reports of sexual assault within the frat house. This wasn’t the first time a frat at FSU has been subject to investigation of sexual assault, and when the suspension was announced it seemed that perhaps the climate was changing for the university’s treatment of these cases. This hope was promptly shattered when the fraternity was reinstated after less than a week of suspension and no charges were filed against any brother. There was however, an eruption of discourse concerning the Pike fraternity on social media outlets such as Twitter, Facebook, and the newly popular anonymous app Yik Yak. Unfortunately most of this discourse was more focused around the hatred of the fraternity itself, rather than the allegations towards them.

Victim blaming is by far the biggest issue facing the detrimental culture of rape culture. We live in a society that teaches women how to not be raped, rather than teaching men not to rape. We shrug off the notion of sexual violence, saying “well boys will be boys,” or “she was asking for it,” and even make jokes about rape, tweeting things like “Noles are gonna fuck Clemson right in the pussy.” Rape culture in a college environment is rapidly perpetuated through the misinterpretation of what constitutes assault as well as the harmful rhetoric used not only by the media but also by individuals on social media. When discussing a sexual assault case we ask “Was the victim drunk?” “What was she wearing?” “Did she give off signs?” And more often than not we get into a Twitter argument over it. This is not okay. If somebody’s house was robbed, it wouldn’t matter if the owner was drunk, left the door open, or even had a sign on the front door reading “I’m not home.” It would be a crime, regardless of the circumstance that it was committed. So why isn’t sexual assault looked at with the same objectivity? Rape jokes, as a whole have become a popular and even appropriate way to express one’s football allegiances. Rape is therefore locally trivialized as nothing more than a punch line on the way to Florida State University’s next National Championship. This is a detrimental cultural flaw of not only this university, but also colleges nationwide who continue to prioritize football winnings over justice. This culture is perpetuated to an incredibly worrisome extent on social media platforms, wherein rape is constructed rhetorically as a minor offence, fit for jokes and victim blaming. Until universities can show that rape culture is unacceptable, it will be in turn very difficult for students to rhetorically do the same.

Works Cited:

1. Bogdanich, Walt. "Errors in Inquiry on Rape Allegations Against FSU’s Jameis Winston." The New York Times. The New York Times, 15 Apr. 2014. Web. 24 Oct. 2014.

2. Brennan, Christine. "Florida State Gives Way to 'Jameis State'" USA Today. N.p., 15 Oct. 2014. Web.


3. Kook, Christian, and Lisa S. Villadson, eds. "Rhetorical Citizenship and Public Deliberation." Rhetoric and Democratic Deliberation (n.d.): n. pag. Print.

4. Lazere, Donald. "Avoiding Oversimplification and Recognizing Complexity." Reading and Writing for Civic Literacy (n.d.): n. pag. Print.


5. Lazere, Donald. "Viewpoint, Bias, and Fairness: From Cocksure Ignorance to Thoughtful Uncertainty." (n.d.): n. pag. Web.


6. Mcintire, Mike, and Walt Bogdanich. "At Florida State, Football Clouds Justice." The New York Times. The New York Times, 11 Oct. 2014. Web. 27 Oct. 2014.