The 16-year old girl who is named Jada had attended a party with some friends when she says that the boy hosting the party gave her a drink which was likely spiked with a date rape drug because she reported passing out for the whole night, not having any idea what had happened until she found the pictures of her unconscious body circulating through social media. Unfortunately, these scenarios are becoming disturbingly familiar. As mentioned above, this situation is similar to that of the Steubenville rape case because of the role of social media. Rape victims are being robbed of their autonomy and integrity because their violations are made into public laughingstocks on the internet before they even know what has happened to them. I would even call it the second violation. The online trolls who have been harassing Jada have taken their ridicule one step further by posting pictures of themselves replicating the pose she was left in. They have even created a hashtag called #Jadapose and these pictures have gone viral on the internet.
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| How is rape culture not real again? |
The fact that this even became a meme and that so many people believe that there's something hilarious about having your consent and bodily integrity violated completely astounds me. Are people becoming desensitized to the issue of rape or has social media simply brought this hideous aspect of the human condition to our attention? Considering that question, I'm pretty convinced that it's the latter. But let's consider that implications of this story.
There are two main perspectives from which one could view the role of social media in rape cases. These two perspectives seem to oppose each other but are not mutually exclusive as they represent the multifaceted nature of the internet. I call the first perspective the "dehumanization perspective". This perspective holds that with the rise of social media, people are encouraged to not view others on the internet as complex, real human beings but rather as images to be judged and mass-reproduced online. This perspective holds very true with the #Jadapose hashtag. When the photographs of her unconscious body appeared, many people who saw them didn't consider what happened to Jada the person, they only thought about what the Jada the object/image looked like. The morons who copied Jada's position didn't bother to learn about how her right to her own body was robbed away from her; all they cared about was how many retweets and favorites they would receive from their tasteless imitations of her. I believe the dehumanization perspective can easily account for the role of patriarchy and rape culture in society as people are socialized from childhood to view women's bodies as public property to be scrutinized. It stands to reason that social media has the potential to further objectify women's bodies as objects of ridicule as seen in the #Jadapose hashtag.
The second, more optimistic perspective is the "social awareness perspective". Yes, social media can bring out the worse in humanity but it is also bringing out the best of humanity. The backlash against the Jada pose pictures is growing stronger, far stronger than those mocking Jada. Social media can have the great potential to spark an encompassing discussion of rape culture and how society often mistreats women and rape victims. I only wish that all rape cases would receive the same amount of attention and that all rape victims would see justice served. The Steubenville rape case brought rape culture to our attention. It can be discouraging to see that society doesn't appear to have learned much since then but with tweets like these spreading on Twitter, it's hard to deny that we are moving, though shakily, to a safer and more compassionate society.
Jada has also reclaimed her agency and is fighting back against her harassers by speaking out on this interview video. Check it out.
