Fame, football and rape apologism: the dark side of Twitter rears its head

Calling a rape victim a ‘money-grabbing little tramp’ isn’t a phrase I’d like to see coming out of anyone’s mouth, especially not from Sheffield United football player Connor Brown’s. The foul-mouthed 19-year old’s attack came after Sheffield United and Wales striker Ched Evans was sentenced to a five-year jail stint after being found guilty of raping a woman who was ‘too drunk to consent’.

He later added ‘If ur a slag ur a slag don’t try get money from being a slag [sic]… Stupid girls… I feel sick.’

Brown should be punished by his club for his comments. For all their money, supposed allure and bravado the two chose to take home an inebriated girl they found in a kebab shop. Footballers are not above the law. For all those who argue that Evans should be exonerated because of his football skills, shame on you.

Nita Dowell, senior prosecutor in the case, told how Evans “knowingly and with a total disregard for her physical or emotional wellbeing’ took advantage of his victim. The man is clearly not a victim.

The scale of rape apology on Twitter has been disgusting. It has also shown that there is a worrying amount of people who don’t seem to realise that sex without someone offering their consent is actually rape.

The hashtag justiceforched was trending last night, and whilst the number of people expressing their revulsion at the cretins endorsing the player restored some of my lost faith in humanity, there were too many idiots tweeting repugnant generalisations about rape victims for my smile to last very long.

This culture of rape apologism is both brutal and ugly, deflecting blame onto the victim for their looks, clothing or lack of sobriety. Unfortunately in this case, victim blaming has meshed with the support that comes with being a ‘celebrity’ and all of its associated perks – like immunity from being called a rapist, even when found guilty of rape by a jury. The idea that it was not ‘real’ rape because the victim had drunk too much was also floating around. The Daily Mail gave a blow-by-blow account of what the girl had allegedly drunk on the night of the attack; “The girl, who they had earlier seen falling over in a kebab shop after drinking wine, double vodkas with lemonade and a sambuca shot, approached McDonald, and the pair took a taxi to his hotel.” Yet more people are suggesting there was a financial motive, or that the pain of the rape can simply be ameliorated because of this. It’s heartbreaking that women who do come forward to report such attacks are then further subjected to misogynistic and sexist comments, and in the case of celebrities such as footballers, are stereotyped as gold-diggers and attention-seekers.

Incoming reports indicate that the police are investigating the possibility that the victim was publicly named and abused online, particularly on Twitter. The abuse is clear to see, but the allegations of victim-naming are more important. Rape and sexual assault victims are guaranteed the right to lifetime anonymity by the law. Clearly the law needs a re-haul in order to better protect victims in an age when any twisted and misinformed individual with a keyboard can spew bile online and further blight a young woman’s life. Hopefully those who named and ‘shamed’ the girl in question will be prosecuted for what is clearly a heinous and criminal offence. Interestingly, many of those tweeting their support for the player were women. When women internalise the blame for their own rape, and publicly castigate other women for reporting a crime, it becomes horribly clear quite how widely accepted rape culture is in society.

Finally, on to dealing with the ‘anomaly’ of Port Vale defender Clayton McDonald being found not-guilty, and I wish this didn’t need explaining, but just because a woman has consented to sex with one man, does NOT mean that she’s suddenly extended an invitation to every other penis in the room.

The sad truth of the matter is that Ched Evans will more than likely be out of prison in less than five years, signed to a prominent club, and have women throwing themselves at him.

We must hope that the whole sorry incident will encourage those in positions of power to take a strong stance against the kind of sexist and misogynistic attitudes of grandeur and entitlement which seem to be so ingrained in some footballers, and teach Twitter loudmouths that they are not invincible. People would not so willingly announce their support for terrorism or murder online, so why rape?