Hannah Willey CNN: In Montana, a Case Study in Rape

In Montana a 14 year old child was raped, by her teacher. After the teacher confessed and went through trial he was sentenced to only 31 day in jail. Why? Because after a 3 year long trial Cherice Moralez killed herself. This young lady was shunned and shamed for 3 long years about her rape, to the point where she felt taking her life would be better than living with the shame of her teacher raping her. The judge who handed down the 31 day sentence received so much criticism he tried to change the length of the punishment but was denied, he handed down the sentence because it wasnt The beat up type of rape. The article then goes on to talk about slut shaming and how today men get off easy with rape/ sexual harassment because its the woman fault for wearing clothes a certain way or drinking etc. This ties into the women's rights part of the Civil Rights chapter. In the early 1900s women banded together to secure woman the right to vote. In the 50s and 60s there was a feminist way to promote gender equality in the home, workplace, and socially. Women then were mainly seen as homemakers whose place was to stay at home with the kids and take care of her husband and house. Thanks to this women gained more ground in the workplace and broke away from the homemaker image some. Now its like we have taken 3 steps back socially, we tell young girls that their sexual availability is their only asset. Then we shame them and blame them for being raped over an outfit or a drink they had earlier. We have given men more power to evade responsibility for their actions and by doing that we have taken a step down in the ladder to gender equality. We let our rights be stripped away and we let other guilt us into thinking its okay for rights deserve to be taken away. Sexual harassment in the workplace has seen a spike, for the same reason, women are beginning to remain silent over issues that just two generations ago were being fought tooth and nail.