Third Wave

Our discussion in class today revolved much around the idea that justice is not always served within the legal system surrounding rape victims.  As I have written about in earlier blog posts, rapists are often let off the hook too easily or in some ways looked at as a victim in their own way.  This is not fair to anyone who has gone through the tragic experience of being raped.  The fact that sometimes justice isn’t served in our court system made me want to research into what people (women especially) are doing to point out the flaws within our system and bring justice to everyone.

An article I found on CNN called “Rape Rage Drove Feminisms Third Wave” (http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/09/opinion/burleigh-feminism-rape-speaking-out/ ).  For those that don’t already know, the ‘first wave’ of feminism won the right for women to vote, the ‘second wave’ gave women the right to work, and now the third wave is battling sexual assault.  The article focuses on feminists who became outraged by the amount of men getting away with rape.  The article states that, “Women, their voices amplified by social media and with the support of a small but growing cohort of men, have been exposing and shaming venerable American institutions such as the NFL, Ivy League and non-Ivy League colleges, and the entertainment icon Bill Cosby” (CNN, 2014).  These are great strides that people are making within our country.  Social media has given women and men everywhere the platform to speak out against sexual assault and rape which helped make the rapists who committed these crimes pay for their actions.  I think that this is a wonderful thing, not only because it punishes rapists, but it also deters others from thinking they can get away with violating people. 

The ‘third wave’ has extended far into our political system.  So much so, that the issue of sexual assault on college campuses has gained attention from the white house and president Barrack Obama himself.  The CNN article explains, “Barack Obama became the first President to use the words ‘sexual violence’” (CNN, 2014).  Although it is somewhat shocking that no other president has properly addressed this issue, it is wonderful that our current president is actively trying to make a difference for our society in regards to rape and sexual assault.

One of the biggest issues which is obviously talked about frequently in the book Missoula by Jon Krakauer, is the fact that colleges often sweep rape accusations under the rug or don’t properly report cases to the public.  This is a major flaw within our education system and feminisms ‘third wave’ is very important to handle this in the sense that colleges have been exposed for keeping sexual assault information hidden from the public.  As we talked in class the other day, it was mentioned that in WSU has even been found having hidden information and had to pay a fine of 15,000 dollars.  I also want to add that we discussed a Buzzfeed article that discusses a sexual assault that happened at WSU in 2014 where a woman was found guilty of raping a man.  The article can be found here: https://www.buzzfeed.com/emaoconnor/alleged-assault-at-wsu?utm_term=.mkGjQnJ3B9#.keDpNjEZyq