Vanity Fair Pt.1 : Duke Scandal
There’s so much to say about this new issue of Vanity Fair. Originally, I subscribed to this magazine to save money. In High School, once a week, I would go to my local book store (which had to be Books-A-Million as they allow you to sit and read) and check out layouts and ads as I had to come up with something for the sports section of my yearbook. Buying certain magazines like Vanity Fair can add up as they are about five dollars an issue. A subscription, however, is only $18…
Back to the point though, since I’ve been in college, I’ve really started to actually read the articles, and found that many of them are quite interesting. This most recent issue, I read it pretty much cover to cover (sands the Sandra Bullock article, since nobody cares about her) and found that I couldn’t really put it down.
So here we go with some topics:
The Championship Scandal – The Duke Lacrosse Rape
Whether a young woman was gang-raped or innocent lacrosse players arrested, the tragedy at Duke on March 14 was the inexorable result of many wild nights and many deaf ears. From a key witness, neighbors, defense lawyers, an internal university report, and a southern community in turmoil, the author gets the story of a team spinning out of control…
So these kids, all from somewhat wealthy families, all “star students”, all pretty much guaranteed a job at their father’s/alumni’s firms. They have never really been denied anything and expect to have life handed to them. They’re all very close knit, live together, play together, party together, “study” together, etc. (gay). However, half of them had criminal records with charges related from underage drinking and disturbing the peace to indecent exposure and property damage. The squad had the highest percentage of criminal records of all the Duke sports teams, aside from, incredibly, the men’s golf team.
One night during spring break, they decided to hire a couple of “escorts” for entertainment. They requested a white woman and a Latino woman, but instead got a black/asian woman and a black woman. After some talk, it was decided that the women do the show. The black/asian dancer noticed that the other woman was a bit “loopy.” They began and eventually stopped due to the harsh environment and exited the house. One of the dancers, the black one, was coaxed back inside and allegedly raped. Afterwards since the “victim” was inebriated and passive, the other woman, without knowing the “victim” had been raped drove her to a local grocery where 911 was called and the unconscious woman was taken to a drug clinic then later to Duke University Hospital. Here she woke up and was very upset, claiming that she was raped by about 20 people which she later said was 3.
So already, both sides of the story are pretty uncreditable. For the boys it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary form them to have raped this woman due to their previous behavior. And the woman, how many times do people get drunk and not remember whether something was consentual or not, or even happened at all, especially when she reported that she’d had sex with three other people that night outside of the rape?
I feel like this is the next OJ trial regardless.
I tried to talk about it with my mother. I don’t know if it’s because she’s old school or because Nancy Grace has convinced her, but she believes the girl is telling the truth and that I’m not sympathetic to the black people’s plight because I don’t automatically think so too. It’s not that at all. Months ago, I wrote about alleged rape/sexual assault cases at my own school that were reported together. I didn’t show them sympathy either and they were of the caucasian persuasion. All of the victims were drunk and all of them put themselves in dangerous situations. The boys may be guilty, or the chick may be lying, but I’m going to give them both the benefit of the doubt.
The boys were not totally innocent in that they did harass the women verbally, and maybe even pushed them around or something, but were any of them penis perpetrators? Although I wouldn’t put it pass them, I wouldn’t put it on them either. The DNA didn’t match any of the people at the party, and the magazine seems to suggest that it matched the three other people she had sex with that night, although it was trying to remain neutral.
If you were sexually assaulted, wouldn’t you be running to get away? Why would you stay and chat, and even smile and laugh with your alleged attackers as she supposedly did.
Finally, it was said that a lot of her mannerisms were consistent with rape when she awoke from her drunken stupor at the hospital but to me, crying, shaking, and being very upset is a natural response to being drunk. It would also be a natural reactio to a bunch of good ole boys verbally assaulting you.
On the other side of that though, it was said that physically, the girl did not show signs of rape anally or vaginally. Could it be that, no real offense to the girl, but that she was quite experienced? I mean she did admit to doing three different dudes in a night, she wasn’t innocent.
They say there was no DNA matching the boys at the party. Isn’t it possible that they used a condom? If you’re going to do something like that, I’m sure they would want to protect themselves as much as possible, especially so they wouldn’t be caught. Did they try to get DNA under her fingernails and all that as part of the rape kit at the hospital? How did the results of that check out?
They were also slow to take her case, expecting her to remember who was there out of line ups and pictures, four weeks later. If they knew she was drunk, how did they expect her to be able to do that? Especially after four weeks!
OJ Case indeed.
If the DNA don’t fit, then you must acquit.
And always be careful ladies. Respect yourselves and protect yourselves because no one will do it if you can’t do that for yourself.
Three people in a night? *SMDH
