Excellent story about Steubenville and how the criminals became the victims in the media:

By emphasizing the boys’ good grades and bright futures, as well as by describing the victim as “drunk” without clarifying that the defendants were also drinking, many mainstream media outlets became active participants in furthering victim-blaming rape culture.

I’ll add the obvious point the article misses: the media had to create victimized rapists because the true victim was anonymous, and we don’t sell news stories without a sympathetic hook.

I have big problems with the term “rape culture” because it’s so often applied to situations that aren’t rape; I think it helps to perpetuate the myth of virginal women and rapacious men in these cases. But I have no question that it definitely applies to the twisted ways we think about coerced sex.