If you think sexism isn’t evident in daily life, take a few seconds to look at at the social media responses to the Steubenville rape trial verdict.

The case involved two boys, 16 and 17, who raped, took pictures of, and video-recorded a drunk, unconscious 16-year-old girl. The two boys were on a winning football team in their small town, and their coach helped cover up the incident.

In response to the verdict, which will likely jail the boys until they turn 21, people on social media have resorted to blaming the victim and “slut shaming,” and some news media have portrayed the boys sympathetically, since the verdict will ruin the boys’ futures in professional sports.

Here are examples of some of the tweets.

“Be responsible for your actions ladies before your drunken decisions ruin innocent lives.”

“There is no justice in Steubenville today. The girl asked for it and wanted it, in my opinion. They gave it to her. No crime. Appeal!”

“Disgusting outcome on Steubenville trial. Remember kids, if you’re drunk/slutty at a party, and embarrassed later, just say you got raped!”

“So you got drunk at a party and two people take advantage of you. That’s not rape – you’re just a drunk, loose slut.”

And they go on.

In addition, some commenters and tweeters have pointed out that drinking underage is also a crime. However, last time I checked, the punishment for being drunk underage is NOT rape.

The other problem with the argument is that incidents like this one happen to women who CAN legally drink. And people still say the same things – “She should have controlled herself and not drank so much!”

These commenters completely disregard the fact that the rapists could have also exerted control by not raping their victims.

Some of the tweets and comments pointed out how sad the whole situation is, and I’d have to agree: I think people are in the right direction feeling sad about it.

It is sad that ALL of their futures are ruined. It’s sad that those boys did that. It’s sad that they thought they could do something like that and get away with it.

It’s sad that the girl is now going to have trauma and probably sexual insecurities the rest of her life. It’s hard enough to be sexually secure WITHOUT being raped.

It’s sad that this one event can affect the rest of their lives. But that’s how it works. Everything you do has an effect. Some things more than others, but especially rape.

The saddest part about this incident is that it’s not an isolated case. It happens everywhere. We’ve even had cases of rape on USI’s campus!

And it happens more often than you would think because of the way victims are portrayed. Many rape cases go unreported by the victim, and looking at the way the public has responded to the Steubenville victim, can you blame them?

Even if this situation infuriates us, we perpetuate rape-thinking all the time. Many of the most popular songs on the radio talk about sexually dominating women, talk about women as objects, and feature women who talk about wanting to be sexually dominated.

If we want to stop rape, we need to stop fostering environments that allow rape to happen. As the Steubenville case reveals, anyone can become a rapist, even seemingly “good kids with bright futures.” Not everyone who commits a crime is a “monster.”

Stuff happens. Girls get drunk. Girls walk alone at night. Girls wear “revealing” clothing.

Rape-prevention strategies (that all of us women have had drilled in our heads since puberty) can only help so much. Those strategies alone foster the idea that if a woman violates those codes, she “wants” or “deserves” to get raped.

News flash: no one wants to be raped, and no one deserves to be raped.

We need to change our focus – only the men who rape are the ones who can stop rape from happening.

See a girl unconscious and drunk? Don’t rape her.

See a girl walking alone? Don’t rape her.

It sounds stupid to say it so simply, but it truly is the only real solution.

A woman doesn’t get drunk or walk alone at night hoping she will get raped. So we need to stop perpetuating the ideas that make people think that it’s her own fault when she does.