This is not going to be a nice food post or anything like that. I don't know if you have heard of this case yet, because the crime has taken place back in August of 2012 and I just found out about the verdict on Twitter. What happened is that at a high school party the kids got drunk and one girl even passed out. Two football players then raped her, humiliated her in other ways I really don't even want to write about and took pictures of it. Their friends, having seen all that without trying to make them stop the least bit, decided to post those pictures, write tweets about it and record and post a video of them joking about the incident. I was really surprised to actually find this video online by just typing "Steubenville rape" into the search bar on YouTube and also some other websites, because I thought it had been taken down right after the authorities learned of its existence. In case anyone would like to watch it, I'll link it way down below. It's a 12:30 minutes long video of these drunk teenage boys joking about how the girls was raped. It is SO hard to watch it, because it seems so unbelievable to me that people can be like that.
Well, it's obvious that the influence of alcohol played a major role in them recording the video and probably also committing the crime in the first place. Many teens in America are like any other teens in other countries. They try to "be grownups" and in our western cultures being a grown up equals being able to get drunk. So, naturally that is what many teens want to do. Here in Europe most countries have laws that allow teens around the ages of 16-18 to buy and consume alcohol at home or in bars/clubs. Teens here are generally raised more aware of the misuse of alcohol for one because many parents teach them about it from a younger age and also they learn about it in school. This all takes place in a much more relaxed way than in the US. It doesn't present alcohol as this demon-like thing, but more like a part of life that is natural. Now, I'm NOT AT ALL saying that drinking is good or anything like that. In fact, I choose to (/try to) not drink alcohol (not saying I ALWAYS succeed), and I also think that it should not be legal to consume alcohol. Yes, I know it's not possible to illegalize it, but that doesn't mean I can't think it would be the right thing. Anyways, in America (or at least from what I've seen and experienced) it's more like they (parents, teachers, ...) try to scare their teens with punishments and all that. I'm sure everyone knows that the consumption of alcohol is illegal until one is 21 in the USA. So, what happens there is that the teens go off to house parties at someone's house where the parents aren't home and some older person buys the alcohol. There they are not supervised whatsoever and since they never got any useful information about alcohol other than it being really bad and not something a teenager is supposed to do, they get bat shit drunk and out of control. In Europe, I feel like it's somewhat more controlled, because the teens don't have to hide that they are going out to party and they can have their parents pick them up. It's not a big deal here at all. Alcohol of course can't be the only trigger for tragedies like this. The question that needs to be asked is "What is it that makes people choose to rape someone?". I have no idea how to answer the question at all. Which is very scary to me. All that can be done is that parents raise their boys and girls the right way. They have to teach them to respect other people. They have to teach them about sex. No matter how uncomfortable it is, it can go long ways. They have to teach them about how to detect someone else's boundaries and how and why not to ignore those boundaries. What else can be done? Just like in other rape cases, of course there are some people who are actually blaming the victim. Of course she was irresponsible by drinking so much to the point where she passed out, but she is ONLY 16 years old. She is a child still. She didn't grasp yet how cruel the people even in your nearest surroundings can be. It probably didn't occur to her ONCE that these boys she went to school with on a daily basis could do something like this to her. How can anyone blame her for thinking she was in a "safe" environment? I know I would not have wasted a single thought about my classmates doing that to me or anyone else if I had ever passed out because I drank too much. You just don't think about that kind of stuff in the context with people that you know. The problem is, however, that the people you know you might not actually know as well as you think and they can also be a lot different when they are drunk, especially if they don't know how to drink without losing control. This guy pretty much sums up EVERYTHING else I'm thinking. And he has some more videos on the topic actually, so if you're interested look them up!
It's no secret to anyone who knows me that I spend quite a bit of my free time (= about 85%) on YouTube. Maybe that's weird, but I don't think so. It's not like I pass my days watching funny cat videos (not that there's anything wrong with that), but I watch all kinds of videos. From music videos over cooking shows to documentaries, there are so many different facets of channels on YT. In case you ever get bored or just want to check out what's out there, I'll introduce you guys to my Top 5 favorite YT channels out of the 123 I'm subscribed to so far. Admittedly, I'll probably end up mentioning a few more channel names as I'm having a hard time deciding which ones to include and which ones not to include. But let's get going! (These are in no special order) 1. JennaMarbles (& MaxNoSleeves)
Jenna Marbles is a comedian who talks about literally everything. If you have little kids around and would not like them to learn several cuss words in a period of about 3 minutes, you might want to make sure they are out of hearing reach. I have always enjoyed her videos, but lately she seems to be running out of ideas which I guess is just natural. My all time favorite video of hers is probably this one (a song about being a grown up) to your right. MaxNoSleeves is Jenna Marbles ex boyfriend as after starring in her videos quite frequently he eventually started his own channel and the style of the videos is pretty much the same as hers. As you might have already figured out by his channel name, he barely ever wears a shirt that still has its sleeves. He does not have too many videos yet, but I really enjoyed this one called "Cell Phone Problems":
2. JacksGap This channel was originally created to show what this certain Jack is going to be up to during his gap year. Things went viral after he introduced his twin Finn and since then the two English boys have become quite popular (most likely also due to the fact that they are not the ugliest people on the planet). I was introduced to this channel by a girl who was in my English class
last semester and in case you're reading this: Thank you :D! They do all sorts of funny videos and my favorite so far was their "British Slang" collab video with Tyler Oakley (you'll be introduced to him later on):
3. Tyler Oakley He is just so adorable and funny, PLUS he's from Michigan so I'm basically besties with him (he just doesn't know about it). I don't know what else I could say about him...he's just awesome and the only kinds of videos I like more than his are the ones with him AND Jack & Finn! My favorite video of Tyler is probably the one in which he (sarcastically) explains why he loves the TLC show "Honey Boo Boo":
4. Zombie Gate This is a vegan cooking channel owned by John the Vegan Zombie. I'm not into all of this Zombie Apocalypse stuff, but he incorporates just the right amount of it in his cooking videos to make them fun and not like any others. He has lots of recipes, but he takes quite a while to make new videos. My favorite video would probably be one of his Blooper Reels, but from the ones about food I really like the Tamales one (although I haven't even tried this recipe out yet):
5. Louis Theroux
Louis Theroux is a journalist from the BBC that makes very interesting documentaries. He doesn't have all of them on his YT channel, but from the ones he does have on there, the one I like best is the one about the Westboro Baptist Church. You can also just type his name into the search bar and you will find more documentaries that he doesn't have on his channel yet.
Alright, these are my favorite 5 channels, but like I said above I'll tell you about a few more that I watch regularly.
